On This Day 24/01/1978 Judas Priest

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On this day, 24 January 1978, heavy rock bands Judas Priest played Cardiff’s Top Rank, on their Stained Glass tour.

Stained Class is the fourth studio album by the band released on 10 February 1978 by Columbia Records.

It is the first of three Judas Priest albums to feature drummer Les Binks, as well as the first to feature the band's now well-known logo.

The album features "Exciter", considered an early precursor to speed metal and thrash metal, as well as a cover version of "Better by You, Better than Me" by Spooky Tooth, which garnered the band a great deal of negative attention several years after its release when a pair of fans were allegedly influenced by the song to make a suicide pact.

Nonetheless, Stained Class is regarded by some as one of Judas Priest's best albums.

Formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million copies of their albums, and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time.

Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in the latter half of the 1970s, the band had struggled with indifferent record production and a lack of major commercial success until 1980, when they rose to commercial success with the album British Steel.