On The Day 03/06/1989 Inspiral Carpets

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On this day, 3 June 1989, Indie rock band Inspiral Carpets played Cardiff’s Square Club.

The band had just released Dung 4, a demo album on Inspiral Carpets' own Cow Records and only on cassette. The name refers to the catalogue number.

Formed in Oldham in 1983, the band's most successful lineup featured frontman Tom Hingley, drummer Craig Gill, guitarist Graham Lambert, bassist Martyn Walsh and keyboardist Clint Boon.

Formed by Lambert and singer Stephen Holt, who departed the band before they signed with Mute Records,

Inspiral Carpets was known for using organs and distorted guitars with influences from psychedelic rock.

Inspiral Carpets came to prominence along with bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in the Madchester scene of the late 1980s. The band first appeared on a flexi-disc with "Garage Full of Flowers" that was given free with Manchester's Debris magazine in 1987.

Their first proper release, the Cow cassette, soon followed. The 1988 Planecrash EP on the Playtime label received much airplay from Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who asked the band to record a session for his show.

The band reworked their single "Find Out Why" as the theme song for the show 8:15 from Manchester.

As the band's popularity grew, Playtime's distributor Red Rhino Records went bankrupt, leading Inspiral Carpets to form their own label, Cow Records, in March 1989. The label's first release was the Trainsurfing EP.

With half of the first album, Life, written, Holt and Swift departed and formed the Rainkings, so the band recruited Too Much Texas singer Tom Hingley and Martyn "Bungle" Walsh of The Next Step to replace them. Martyn Walsh became the band's 13th bass player.

After a handful of singles on their own label, with "Move" nearly reaching the UK top 40, the band signed a deal with Mute Records and soon experienced their first top-40 chart success in the UK with "This Is How It Feels."

The single reached No. 14 on the singles chart, and the debut album Life reached No. 2 on the albums chart in 1990.

On This Day 02/06/1994 Oasis

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On this day, 2 June 1994, Manchester rockers Oasis played Cardiff University on their Definitely Maybe tour.

The Definitely Maybe Tour was in support of their hugely successful debut album Definitely Maybe. The tour, which spanned the UK, Europe, Japan, the US and Canada, included 143 shows over a period of several months in 1994 and 1995 amidst 10 different tour legs. The tour started on 6 February 1994 with a short concert at Gleneagles, Scotland, and ended on 22 April 1995 at the Sheffield Arena. The latter show featured an acoustic debut of the future hit "Don't Look Back in Anger", and was also the last concert to feature original drummer Tony McCarroll.

Definitely Maybe was released midway through the tour and was widely acclaimed, propelling Oasis to become one of the foremost British acts and put them squarely at the forefront of the emerging Britpop scene. The Gallagher brothers regularly made tabloid headlines for their frequent fallouts and rockstar lifestyles, and the tour had several disruptions and cancellations.

One such occasion occurred when the band used drugs prior to the 29 September 1994 gig at the legendary Whisky a Go Go in California. The gig was a failure with numerous mistakes and afterwards, Noel left the band for several days. He was ultimately tracked down by the band's management and persuaded to continue the tour. Noel wrote the song "Talk Tonight" during this time while away from the band. They then headed to a recording studio and recorded new songs.

The Cliffs Pavilion gig on 17 April 1995 was filmed and later released as the Oasis VHS/DVD Live by the Sea.

Setlist

Shakermaker

Fade Away

Digsy's Dinner

Live Forever

Bring It On Down

Up in the Sky

Cigarettes & Alcohol

Supersonic

I Am the Walrus

(The Beatles cover)

On This Day 01/06/1984 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

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On this day, 1 May 1984, electronic pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall n their Junk Culture tour. Support was provided by Fiction Factory.

Formed in the Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of founding duo and principal songwriters Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), along with Martin Cooper (keyboards, saxophone) and Stuart Kershaw (drums).

Regarded as pioneers of electronic music, OMD combined an experimental, minimalist ethos with pop sensibilities, becoming key figures in the emergence of synth-pop; McCluskey and Humphreys also introduced the "synth duo" format to British popular music. In the United States, the band were an early presence in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion.

The band had just released their fifth studio album Junk Culture. After the commercial disappointment of the experimental album Dazzle Ships (1983), OMD and Virgin intended for the group to shift towards a more accessible sound on its follow-up release.

The band retained much of their early experimental approach but embraced a wider range of influences than previously, drawing inspiration from pop, dance, Latin and black music. Frontman Andy McCluskey characterised Junk Culture as "the catchiest, poppiest album we've ever made".

Despite alienating some listeners, the record met with a generally positive critical and commercial response. It became OMD's fourth consecutive Top 10 album in the UK, and has been named as one of the best releases of 1984. Junk Culture spawned four singles, including the UK Top 20 entries "Locomotion" and "Talking Loud and Clear", and the club hit "Tesla Girls". The album was remastered and re-released in 2015, with a bonus disc of B-sides and extended mixes.

Set list

Junk Culture

Tesla Girls

Messages

Love and Violence

Julia's Song

Motion and Heart

White Trash

Apollo

Never Turn Away

Joan of Arc

Maid of Orleans

Talking Loud and Clear

Hard Day

Souvenir

Telegraph

Bunker Soldiers

Enola Gay

Locomotion

She's Leaving

Electricity

Waiting for the Man

Locomotion

On This Day 31/05/1960 Conway Twitty

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On this day, 31 May 1960, American country music legend Conway Twitty played the Gaumont Theatre in a show that featured other American stars, Freddie Cannon (Way Down Yonder In New Orleans), Johnny Preston (Running Bear) plus Brits, Wee Willie Harris, known as "Britain's wild man of rock 'n' roll", Chris Wayne and the Echoes and Tony Crombie. The compère was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne.

Twitty was best known as a country music performer. From 1971 to 1976, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. He was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.

Twitty was known for his frequent use of romantic and sentimental themes in his songs. Due to his following being compared to a religious revival, comedian Jerry Clower nicknamed Twitty "The High Priest of Country Music", the eventual title of his 33rd studio album. Twitty achieved stardom with hit songs like "Hello Darlin'", "You've Never Been This Far Before" and "Linda on My Mind".

Twitty topped Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart 40 times in his career, a record that stood for two decades until it was surpassed by George Strait, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart once with "It's Only Make Believe". He wrote eleven of his Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topping hits.

On This Day 30/05/1986 The Mission

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On this day, 24 May 1986, gothic rock band The Mission played Cardiff’s New Ocean Club on their Expedition I tour. Support was provided by Pauline Murray and The Storm.

Formed in 1986 and initially known as the Sisterhood, the band was started by frontman Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams (both from the Sisters of Mercy), soon adding drummer Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) and guitarist Simon Hinkler (Artery and Pulp).

Aside from Hussey, the lineup has changed several times during the years and the band has been on hiatus twice.

After an aborted recording session with Andrew Eldritch in the summer of 1985, Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters of Mercy. Based in Leeds, the duo continued to work on various musical ideas and recorded them over the autumn.

Dismissing the use of a drum machine, Adams and Hussey asked Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) to help out with the sessions. By the end of the year, he had joined the band on a permanent basis. With Hussey as both the frontman and principal songwriter, the trio required a second guitarist to facilitate a live setup.

They recruited Simon Hinkler (Artery), who also contributed keyboards and thus completed the four-piece. The name the Sisterhood was chosen with a nod to the past and rehearsals for the first shows started in January 1986.

The new name quickly became a point of discussion in the UK music press, giving the four-piece a significant amount of publicity. As the Sisterhood, the band made their live debut on 20 January 1986 at the Alice in Wonderland, London.

While the band was on tour as support to the Cult around Europe, Eldritch released a single as the Sisterhood. Back in the UK, Hinkler was briefly dismissed and reinstated for three dates where the band revealed their new name, the Mission.

Although Hussey and Adams were still under contract with WEA, manager Tony Perrin prepared their material for a release. In May, the EP I (Serpents Kiss) appeared on the Chapter 22 label as the Expedition I tour took the band around Europe. Two months later, II (Like a Hurricane/Garden of Delight) was released on the same label and supported by a number of festival slots that culminated in an appearance at the Reading Festival.

Setlist

Wasteland

And the Dance Goes On

Garden of Delight

Naked and Savage

Bridges Burning

Stay With Me

Serpent's Kiss

The Crystal Ocean

Wake (RSV)

1969

(The Stooges cover)

Sacrilege

Like a Hurricane

(Neil Young cover)

Wishing Well

(Free cover)

Shelter From the Storm

On This Day 29/05/2004 Jesse Malin

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On this day, 29 May 2004, American rock musician, guitarist, and songwriter Jesse Malin played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

He began his performing career in the New York hardcore band Heart Attack, and rose to prominence as vocalist of D Generation. Since 2015, he is a solo recording artist, having recorded numerous albums including the Lucinda Williams-produced Sunset Kids. Over the course of his career, Malin has collaborated with Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Ryan Adams and numerous other musicians.

Born January 26, 1967, Malin began his music career at the age of 12, as the frontman for the seminal New York City hardcore band Heart Attack. The band auditioned at CBGBs but were denied because they couldn't bring in a drinking crowd to the bar.

Following the demise of Heart Attack in 1984, Malin worked on several other projects, including the band Hope, before joining the band D Generation for which he was the lead singer. As one of New York City's most noted bands of the 1990s [citation needed], D Generation released three albums, including the critically acclaimed [citation needed] No Lunch, before eventually disbanding in April 1999. The band reunited and released its fourth album, Nothing Is Anywhere, in 2016.

Malin didn't stop writing music and went on to form two other projects, PCP Highway (with former D Generation bandmates Howie Pyro and Joe Rizzo) and Bellvue (also named Tsing-Tsing for a brief time); the latter band released one album, To Be Somebody, on Goldenseal Records. The album included versions of songs that would later be reworked for Malin's first two solo albums, including "Solitaire", "Basement Home", "Brooklyn" and "Downliner"

On This Day 28/05/2015 Georgia Ruth

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On this day, 28 May 2015, Welsh singer/songwriter and harpist Georgia Ruth played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Born in Llantwit Major in South Wales. At the age of four she moved with her family to Aberystwyth, where she was educated bilingually in English and Welsh, though her parents were not Welsh speakers.

She began to learn the harp at the age of seven, and began to perform her own music whilst studying English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her early recordings were sent to BBC Radio Wales's Adam Walton, and acclaim led to an early BBC Introducing appearance at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival.

Her first EP, In Luna, was released on limited edition 10" vinyl in 2011. It was engineered and produced by David Wrench at the Bryn Derwen Recording Studio in Snowdonia and featured Pete Richardson from Y Niwl on drums and Pete Walton on double bass.

The EP drew critical acclaim and gained radio airplay from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq, leading to an appearance at the 2012 Green Man Festival. She also performed at the festival in 2014 and 2015.

Her first album, Week of Pines (2013) was once again produced by David Wrench and featured Dafydd Hughes, Iwan Hughes and Aled Hughes from Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog.

Music from the album gained significant radio airplay from Adam Walton and Bethan Elfyn on BBC Radio Wales, Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, Steve Lamacq[4] and Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 Music and Simon Raymonde on Amazing Radio. Additional live sessions were recorded on 6 Music with Lauren Laverne with interviews on BBC Radio Cymru.

The album was further promoted by live appearances at Festival N°6, BBC Introducing on BBC Radio 2 in Hyde Park, Latitude Festival and WOMEX.[8] In 2014 she appeared in session for Bob Harris on BBC Radio 2 and a collaboration with Newport-based Ballet Cymru at the Riverfront Arts Centre, in which a live performance of tracks from the album was interpreted by the company's dancers.

She made a guest appearance on "Divine Youth", from Manic Street Preachers 2014 album Futurology. She was also involved in the Ghazalaw project with Gwyneth Glyn and Tauseef Akhtar. She features on several tracks on English folk artist Jinnwoo's 2016 debut record Strangers Bring Me No Light.

Her second album Fossil Scale was released in October 2016.

On This Day 27/05/1977 The Stranglers

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On this day, 27 May 1977, Punk/New wave legends The Stranglers played Cardiff’s Top Rank on the band’s Rattus tour. The had just released their single Peaches, taken from their debut album Rattus, issued the previous month. Support was provided by punk band London.

The Stranglers' early sound was driven by Jean-Jacques Burnel's melodic bass, but also gave prominence to Dave Greenfield's keyboards. Their early music was also characterised by the growling vocals and sometimes misanthropic lyrics of both Burnel and Hugh Cornwell.

Over time, their output gradually grew more refined and sophisticated. Summing up their contribution to popular music, critic Dave Thompson later wrote: "From bad-mannered yobs to purveyors of supreme pop delicacies, the group was responsible for music that may have been ugly and might have been crude – but it was never, ever boring."

From 1976 the Stranglers became associated with the burgeoning punk rock movement, due in part to their opening for the first British tours of American punks the Ramones and Patti Smith. Notwithstanding this association, some of the movement's champions in the British musical press viewed the band with suspicion on account of their age and musical virtuosity and the intellectual bent of some of their lyrics. However, Burnel was quoted saying, "I thought of myself as part of punk at the time because we were inhabiting the same flora and fauna ... I would like to think the Stranglers were more punk plus and then some.

During their appearance at the University of Surrey on the BBC TV programme Rock Goes to College, on 11 October 1978, and aired on the 19 October, the group walked off stage because an agreement to make tickets available to non-university students had not been honoured.