On This Day 16/03/1989 McCarthy

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On this day, 16 March 1989, indie pop band McCarthy played Cardiff’s The Venue. The support was provided by East Village. The band had just released their second album The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth

Formed in Barking, Greater London in 1984 by schoolmates Malcolm Eden (voice and guitar) and Tim Gane (lead guitar) with John Williamson (bass guitar) and Gary Baker (drums). Lætitia Sadier later joined the band on vocals for their final studio album.

They mixed a melodic style, dominated by Gane's 12-string guitar playing, with Eden's overtly political lyrics, often satirical in tone, which reflected the band's far-left leanings.

McCarthy were a major early influence on Manic Street Preachers, who covered three of their songs: "We Are All Bourgeois Now" appeared as a hidden track on their Know Your Enemy album; "Charles Windsor" appeared as a b-side on their Life Becoming a Landslide EP; and "Red Sleeping Beauty" appeared on their single "Autumnsong".

Nicky Wire has commented on the band and specifically the album I Am a Wallet: "McCarthy - the great lost band of the '80s they redesigned my idea of politics and pop, it could be intelligent, it could be beautiful. They were frail, tragic, romantic idealists. The songs soothed your body but exercised your brain. They were my education, my information and they are partly to blame for the realisation of the Manic Street Preachers. I still fall in love with this album every six months, it makes me feel guilty because it's so good".

On This Day 15/03/1991 Green on Red

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On this day, 15 March 1991 American rock band Green on Red played Cardiff University.

The band began in 1979 as The Serfers, a four-piece made up of Dan Stuart (vocals/guitar), Jack Waterson (bass), Van Christian (drums, later of Naked Prey) (organ), quickly replaced by Chris Cacavas.

In the summer of 1980, the Serfers relocated to Los Angeles, where they changed their name to Green on Red (after the title of one of their songs) to avoid confusion with the local surf punk scene. Christian returned to Tucson and was replaced by Lydia Lunch sideman Alex MacNicol.

The band issued an overtly psychedelic, self-released red vinyl EP, sometimes called Two Bibles, though its first widely available record was an EP issued in 1982 by Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn on his own Down There label. Green on Red followed the Dream Syndicate onto Slash Records, which released the album Gravity Talks in the fall of 1983. San Francisco-based guitarist Chuck Prophet joined for the 1985 Gas Food Lodging (Enigma), after which MacNicol was replaced on drums by Keith Mitchell (later of Mazzy Star). Also in 1985, Stuart collaborated with Steve Wynn as "Danny & Dusty" on the album The Lost Weekend (A&M).

A major-label deal with Phonogram/Mercury followed, with the 7-song EP No Free Lunch released in summer 1986.[3] A strong country music direction was evident, which music critic Ira Robbins remarked "should finally erase the group's original misassociation with the dreaded paisley underground". The album The Killer Inside Me appeared one year later, produced by Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios in Memphis. The band split up afterwards; Cacavas began recording albums under his own name. When Stuart returned to recording he decided to use the Green on Red name. In 1989, the band—now consisting of Stuart and Prophet—released Here Come the Snakes. They hired backing musicians, including Christopher Holland on keyboards. In 1991 they released Scapegoats, but after the 1992 album Too Much Fun Stuart stopped using the name.

Post Green on Red, Stuart recorded the album Retronuevo with Al Perry in 1993, and solo effort Can O'Worms in 1995, and then essentially quit the music business; Prophet maintains a career as a solo artist and semi-celebrity sideman.

On This Day 14/03/1997 Jimmy Nail

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On this day, 14 March 1997, singer-songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer Jimmy Nail played Cardiff International Arena on his Crocodile Shoes tour. Support was provided by Christie Henessey.

Before becoming an actor, Nail had been a musician for many years on the local scene in Newcastle and was most notably the lead singer in the King Crabs, known locally as The Crabs. He was renowned for performing in his girlfriend's dress and a pair of Doc Marten boots.

Following his success in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, record companies became interested in Nail releasing a record. In 1985, he recorded the album, Take It Or Leave It, which included the single, "Love Don't Live Here Anymore", a cover of the Rose Royce hit. It was a hit for Nail, peaking at No. 3 in the charts and leading to his first appearance on Top of the Pops. After that success, his music career took a back seat.

After seven years away, Nail re-emerged in 1992 with the pop hit Ain't No Doubt, co-written by Nail, Danny Schogger, Guy Pratt and Charlie Dore. It peaked at No. 1 and spent three weeks at the top of the charts, leading to multiple appearances on Top of the Pops. The album, Growing Up In Public, was also a success and peaked at No. 2 in the UK Album Charts. The album featured guests such as Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Elliot Randall and George Harrison.

Nail's music career took off, and his third album, Crocodile Shoes, was released in conjunction with the television programme, Crocodile Shoes, which began airing on BBC1 in November 1994. Not only was the title track a hit, peaking at No. 4, further singles, "Cowboy Dreams" and "Calling Out Your Name" also hit the charts, with the album itself peaking at No. 2, selling over a million copies.

In 1997, Nail's back catalogue was deemed good enough to release a compilation, The Nail File: The Best of Jimmy Nail, which also had an accompanying VHS which included all the music videos for the tracks. While it included all the hits from his career, it included a new track, a cover of "Black and White", where he duetted with Ranking Roger. It was released as a single and peaked at No. 76.

On This Day 13/03/2010 Katatonia

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On this day, 13 March 2010, Swedish heavy metal band Katatonia played Cardiff’s Barfly on their NewNight Over Europe Tour.

Formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström, the band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to add more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing, revolving door of musicians throughout the 1990s, notably including Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth for a period.

After two death/doom albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences led the band away from the screamed vocals of death metal to a more traditional, melodic form of heavy metal music.

The band released two more albums, Discouraged Ones (1998) and Tonight's Decision (1999), before settling into a stable quintet lineup for all of the 2000s. The band released four more albums with said lineup: Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001), Viva Emptiness (2003), The Great Cold Distance (2006) and Night Is the New Day (2009), with the band slowly moving away from their metal sound while adding more progressive rock sounds to their work over time.

While lineup changes started up again into the 2010s, Renkse and Nyström persisted, and the band continued on to release their ninth and tenth studio albums, Dead End Kings (2012) and The Fall of Hearts (2016).

Setlist

Forsaker

Consternation

Liberation

Day and Then the Shade

Onward Into Battle

Soil's Song

Wealth

Teargas

Saw You Drown

Idle Blood

My Twin

The Longest Year

Criminals

July

Evidence

Encore:

Dispossession

Ghost of the Sun

On This Day 12/03/2004 The Killers

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On this day, 12 March 2004, American rock band The Killers played Cardiff’s Barfly on their Hot Fuss tour. Support was provided but Stellastar*.

The Killers are an American rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After the band went through a number of short-term bassists and drummers, Mark Stoermer (bass, rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (drums, percussion) joined in 2002.

On August 19, 2003, the song "Mr. Brightside" premiered on DJ Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show in the UK. The Killers traveled to London the following month to spend a week playing at live music venues across the city. On September 29, 2003, the song "Mr. Brightside" was released in the UK on a limited number of CDs and vinyl records.

Critical reviews of both the song and the shows were positive: NME noted the band's retro sound, commenting "The Killers steal so smartly, and with such mind-boggling variety". As a result of the buzz generated in the UK, a number of major labels in the US began showing strong interest in the band and they were invited to play at the ASCAP CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. They eventually signed with the record label Island Def Jam.

The band finished recording Hot Fuss in November 2003 with Jeff Saltzman. They decided to keep many of the previously recorded demos as they felt they had a spontaneity that re-recordings would not have. Shortly afterwards they returned to London, having been invited to support British Sea Power on their UK tour. The band also worked with Alan Moulder at Eden Studios and Townhouse Studios mixing tracks for their upcoming album.

They continued playing support slots during the first half of 2004, including touring both the US & UK with Stellastarr and opening for Morrissey on two occasions. The band filmed their first music video for the Spring 2004 release of "Somebody Told Me" which was to be the band's debut single in the US and second single in the UK. The band's first headline tour started in the UK in May 2004. During the spring and summer of 2004, the group played well-received sets at festivals across Europe and North America.

On This Day 11/03/1991 Birdland

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On this day, 11 March 1991, rock band Birdland played Cardiff University on their Debut Album tour. The band had just released their debut album Birdland.

Birdland were formed in 1988 in Birmingham, England by the brothers Robert (vocals) and Lee Vincent (guitar), who had previously released records and toured in the glam rock band Zodiac Motel (1984–1988). The other band members were Syd Rogers (bass) and Gene Kale (drums).

Review - South Wales Echo

Birdland's debut single, "Hollow Heart", was released on Lazy Records. It reached No. 1 in the UK Indie Chart. The band generated a lot of attention in the British music press. The band released four further singles: "Paradise", "Sleep with Me", "Everybody Needs Somebody", and "Rock n Roll Nigger", all of which were No. 1 UK independent singles. "Sleep With Me" also reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart (with the video being shown on Top of the Pops). They released their eponymously titled debut album in 1991.

After the album's release, problems with management and inner band disagreement forced the band to split up. They briefly reunited in 2011 and streamed a new demo.

On This Day 10/03/1995 Bootfreaks

On this day, 10 March 1995, Blackwood band the Bootfreaks played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach. Support was provided by Dealer and The Joe Does.

The band, later found some fame as Ether signing to the legendary Parlophone label.

The successful incarnation of the band (Ether) was formed in 1996 by Rory Meredith (vocals, guitar), Gareth Driscoll (vocals, bass), and Brett Sawmy (drums), although Meredith had used the name for an earlier band that he formed as a teenager.

After a single on the Regal label in 1996 they moved to Parlophone Records, releasing four further singles and the 1998 album Strange. They recorded a second album in 1999, but it was not released due to the band splitting up.

They drew comparisons to groups such as Squeeze and The Beatles.

Meredith later formed the band Sugar Rush with singer-songwriter Katherine Davies, releasing an album Beautiful But Tragic in 2006 on LA based indie label Beverly Martel Music.

On This Day 09/03/1995 Radiohead

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On this day, 9 March 1995, rock band Radiohead played Cardiff University following the release of their second album The Bends. Support was provided by Marion.

The album was driven by dense riffs and ethereal atmospheres from the three guitarists, with greater use of keyboards than their debut.

It received stronger reviews for its songwriting and performances.

While Radiohead were seen as outsiders to the Britpop scene that dominated music media at the time, they were finally successful in their home country with The Bends, as singles "Fake Plastic Trees", "High and Dry", "Just", and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" made their way to chart success.

Formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals) and Philip Selway (drums, percussion).

Tour Setlist

The Bends
Just
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Bones
Permanent Daylight
High & Dry
Black Star
Prove Yourself
Stop Whispering
Vegetable
Fake Plastic Trees
Blow Out
Creep
My Iron Lung
You
Banana Co.
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Ripcord