On This Day 23/03/1987 The Cult

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On this day, 23 March 1987, rock band The Cult played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their Electric tour.

Formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult.

They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk and gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine".

Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two main songwriters.

The band's third studio album, Electric (1987), launched them to new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower".

On that album, the Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career,

On This Day 22/03/1993 Jesus Jones

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On this day, 22 March 1993, alternative rock band Jesus Jones played Cardiff University. The band had recently released their third studio album Perverse.

Jesus Jones, especially band leader Mike Edwards, conceived Perverse as a darker, more contemporary album. Fusing rave and techno music into more traditional rock and pop song structures, the album is heavier than its predecessors with a much greater inclusion of industrial music and features lyrics that concern the future. Edwards wrote the lyrics of the album during the band's 1991 tour, using a Roland W-30 sampler to conceive songs in their earliest stages.

According to Trouser Press, Perverse "enjoys the historical distinction of being the first album recorded entirely (except for Edwards' vocals) on computer." The band recorded the entire album onto floppy disks in Edwards' house, which were then used on his computer to turn the music into "zeroes and ones".

Edwards described it as "the second rock album of the nineties," after The Young Gods' T.V. Sky, due to both albums embracing full-on computer technology. Although the band were ridiculed at the time for the recording process, it later became an influential technique.

Upon its release, Perverse peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart.

Set List

Spiral

Good Thing

International Bright Young Thing

Magazine

The Devil You Know

The Right Decision

Right Here, Right Now

Love To War

Don’t Believe It

Zeroes and Ones

Real, Real, Real

Idiot Stare

Encore: Who? Where? Why?

On This Day 21 March 1975 Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

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On this day, 21 March 1975, one of UK music’s most original writer and performer’s Steve Harley played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by Sailor.

The band had recently scored a massive UK no 1 hit with their single Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) taken from the album The Best Years Of Our Lives, released earlier in the month and peaked at no 4 in the UK album charts.

In November and December 1974, the band recorded The Best Years of Our Lives at Abbey Road Studios and Air Studios in London. Speaking to Record & Popswop Mirror in November 1974, Harley said, "The best work I've done yet is on the new LP. I find that I'm not writing in such a surrealistic way anymore. I'm writing slightly more blatant, less subtle. The whole album is a theme. The whole story is a dialogue, almost between two people – or a group of people and the artist: questions and answers. It's kind of like a guy who goes through a metamorphosis and comes out of it in good shape – alive and kicking." He added to the magazine in 1975, "This album is something I believe in. It means so much to me than anything I have done before."

To promote the album, the band embarked on a UK and European tour from March 1975 onwards. On the tour, the band hired guitarist Snowy White to play rhythm guitar. In a January 1975 issue of Record & Popswop Mirror, it was announced that the upcoming tour would feature "a specially built set and lighting to reflect songs and images featured on the forthcoming album". Later in the year they toured America, as a support act for The Kinks.

On This Day 20/03/2014 Rebecca Ferguson

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On this day, 20 March 2014, soul singer Rebecca Ferguson played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on her Freedom tour.

In 2010, Ferguson finished in second place in the seventh series of The X Factor. She later released her debut album titled Heaven in December 2011. The album peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart. Since then, Ferguson has released 4 more albums: Freedom (2013), Lady Sings the Blues (2015) Superwoman, and Heaven Part 2 (2023).She cites Aretha Franklin, Kings of Leon, Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse among her influences.

On 22 August 2013 she revealed on Facebook that her new album would be called Freedom and would be released on 2 December 2013 along with putting up pre-order links to the album.

The lead single, "I Hope", was uploaded to Ferguson's YouTube channel on 12 October 2013 and was released on 1 December 2013, entering the UK singles chart at number 15; in mainland Europe "Light On" was released as the lead single from the album. Freedom was released the following day and entered the charts at number 6 and has since been certified Gold by the BPI.

Freedom was met with generally positive reviews from critics. The album includes a duet with US soul star John Legend and production/songwriting from Jarrad Rogers, Toby Gad and Eg White.

On This Day 19/03/1969 Fleetwood Mac

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On this day, 19 March 1969, rock giants Fleetwood Mac played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

Formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after their first public appearance.

Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968. Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician starting with the band's second album, married McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac as an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left the band; she became known as Christine McVie.

Primarily a British blues band in their early years, Fleetwood Mac achieved a UK number one single in 1968 with the instrumental "Albatross", and had other UK top ten hits with "Man of the World", "Oh Well" (both 1969), and "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" (1970).

On This Day 18/03/1975 Curved Air

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On this day, 18 March 1975, prog rockers Curved Air played Cardiff’s Top Rank. The band featured The Police drummer Stuart Copeland in its line up.

The band had just released their first live album Curved Air - Live, some of which had been recorded at Cardiff University the previous December.

It was recorded on the band's reunion tour in December 1974 and released in 1975. Though it failed to enter the charts, it made enough profit to pay off the tax bill which had compelled Curved Air to reunite,

Formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements. Curved Air released eight studio albums, the first three of which broke into the Top 20 in the UK Albums Chart, and had a hit single with "Back Street Luv" (1971) which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.

On This Day 17/03/2001 The Company Of Snakes

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On this day, 17 March 2001, rock band The Company Of Snakes played Cardiff’s Coal Exchange.

The Company of Snakes was formed by former Whitesnake guitarists Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody after the demise of its predecessor The Snakes. The band was completed by Black Sabbath and Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray, drummer John Lingwood from Manfred Mann's Earth Band and vocalist Robert Hart from Bad Company and later British singer Gary Barden. After adding keyboardist Don Airey from Rainbow, the band went on tour, playing concerts almost completely consisting of old Whitesnake songs.

Singer Barden left the band soon afterwards and was replaced by Swedish vocalist and Snakes in Paradise frontman Stefan Berggren. They toured throughout their history and released the live album Here They Go Again: the show was still sung by Barden, but his lead vocals were deleted and replaced in the studio by Berggren (2001)..

They were joined in Germany, during their promotional tour for this album by Humble Pie, re-formed by Jerry Shirley and promoting tracks from their album Back on Track. The band recorded one studio album. Burst The Bubble (2002) which was recorded after Don Airey had left the band.

Bergen left soon after Airey's departure and the remaining band members morphed into M3. After that, Micky Moody and Neil Murray went on to form Snakecharmer.

On This Day 16/03/2000 Bobby Blue Bland

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On this day, 16 March 2000, blues legend Bobby Blue Bland played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall supporting Van Morrison.

Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed."

The inspiration behind his unique style was a Detroit Preacher, CL Franklin, because Bland studied his sermons.[3] He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was influenced by Nat King Cole.

Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene". In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Bland at number 163 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.