On This Day 30/10/2014 Steve Hackett

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On this day, 30 October 2014, former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on his Genesis Extended 2014 World Tour.

Hackett released his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, while still a member of Genesis in 1975. After a series of further solo albums beginning in 1978, Hackett co-founded the supergroup GTR with Steve Howe in 1986. The group released the self-titled album GTR, which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 in the United States and spawned the Top 20 single "When the Heart Rules the Mind".

When Hackett left GTR in 1987, the group disbanded. Hackett then resumed his solo career. He has released albums and toured worldwide on a regular basis since.

Hackett's body of work encompasses many styles; in addition to his work in progressive rock, he has explored pop, blues, world music and classical music on his solo recordings. According to Guitar World: "Hackett's early explorations of two-handed tapping and sweep picking were far ahead of their time, and influenced Eddie Van Halen and Brian May."

Setlist

Dance on a Volcano

(Genesis song)

Squonk

(Genesis song)

Dancing With the Moonlit Knight

(Genesis song)

The Return of the Giant Hogweed

(Genesis song)

Fly on a Windshield

(Genesis song)

Broadway Melody of 1974

(Genesis song)

The Fountain of Salmacis

(Genesis song)

The Musical Box

(Genesis song)

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

(Genesis song)

Horizons

(Genesis song)

Firth of Fifth

(Genesis song)

Lilywhite Lilith

(Genesis song)

The Knife

(Genesis song)

Supper's Ready

(Genesis song)

Encore:

Watcher of the Skies

(Genesis song)

Myopia / Slogans / Los Endos

On This Day 29/09/2010 Oceansize

On this day, 29 September 2010, rock band Oceansize played Cardiff’s Millennium Music Hall on their Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up Tour.

Formed in 1998 the band consisted of Mike Vennart (vocals, guitar), Steve Durose (guitar, backing vocals), Richard "Gambler" Ingram (guitar, keyboards), Mark Heron (drums) and Jon Ellis (bass guitar) for the majority of its career, with Steve Hodson replacing Ellis on bass guitar in 2006.

The band released four studio albums, in addition to a number of minor EPs and singles, displaying a wide array of influences from several genres including post-rock, math rock, psychedelic rock, and space rock. Following a twelve-year career, Oceansize announced their split in February 2011, with the members moving on to different projects.

The band started working on their fourth (and ultimately final) album, Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up in fall 2009. In January 2010, the band embarked upon a UK tour, showcasing new material. According to Mike Vennart's Twitter, the recording of the album was completed on 17 April, with Vennart stating "Recording is complete! Album 4 is go! It's all on Chris Sheldon now". Mastering was completed at Abbey Road Studios on 18 May 2010 by Sean Magee. On 22 July 2010, Oceansize posted one of the album's songs, "SuperImposer", on their Superball website, and made it available for download via Twitter and Facebook.

Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up was released on 6 September 2010. The album showcased a heavier side to the band, who stated that it probably was their heaviest studio album to date. However, Vennart claimed that the album still had the diversity found on other Oceansize albums. The band subsequently toured to promote the release.

Setlist

Part Cardiac

Build Us a Rocket Then...

Unfamiliar

New Pin

Music for a Nurse

It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To

Silent/Transparent

SuperImposer

Pine

Paper Champion

Trail of Fire

Ornament/The Last Wrongs

Encore:

Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs

On This Day 04/09/2011 Public Enemy

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On this day, 4 September 2011, American hip hop legends Public Enemy played Cardiff University.

Formed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav on Long Island, New York, in 1985. The group came to attention for their political messages including subjects such as American racism and the American media.

Their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was released in 1987 to critical acclaim, and their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), was the first hip hop album to top The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Their next three albums, Fear of a Black Planet (1990), Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black (1991) and Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age (1994), were also well received. The group has since released twelve more studio albums, including the soundtrack to the 1998 movie He Got Game and a collaborative album with Paris, Rebirth of a Nation (2006).

Public Enemy @ Cardiff University Solus

Nick Fisk

Back in the late 1980s/early 90s, there were three bands whose albums, without fail, always picked up a 10/10 in the NME – a mark rarely given. The bands in question were: The Pixies, REM and Public Enemy. Tonight, Public Enemy were in town to do a re-run of ‘Fear of a Black Planet’. I’ve seen a couple of these album performances now; whilst some bands just play the album through from track 1 to the end -or maybe jiggle the tracklisting a bit- Public Enemy in true revolutionary style, just played whatever the hell they wanted, cutting in classics from other albums at leisure.

The build up to this gig was filled with excitement from the time it was first announced a few months ago – incredibly, it was to be the group’s first ever show in Cardiff – right up until the moment the band hit the stage. Both warm up DJ and the support act got the crowd going, then a couple of members of the Public Enemy crew came onstage to further get the crowd into the party spirit. The album’s opening jam played before Chuck D, Flavor Flav and the whole band finally appeared to the sound of ‘Brothers Gonna Work It Out’: and the place literally ‘blew up’.

Any questions about whether Public Enemy are still relevant and whether this show would be much more than an entertaining hark back to the past were very quickly forgotten. The band’s stage presence has an impact that is the most captivating I have ever seen. Along with DJ Lord, the drummer, bassist and guitarist, the two main men are flanked on either side by members of the S1W team, who are all dressed in outfits that could be those of prisoners or members of the military. On the one hand, they’re mocking authority, but at the same time, there’s a look of such defiance that you almost think the revolution has just happened and these are the people who have taken over.

One crew member led the crowd in raising fists, and it did not seem to matter that this was by far a majority white crowd. The fact that the NME was one of the band’s biggest champions might well be one of the reasons for this, amongst a crowd of mostly hardened gig goers. The slogan on the back of this particular crew member’s t-shirt (7K, I think Chuck D introduced him as) read “Freedom is a road seldom travelled by the multitude,” and the solidarity expressed within the crowd was reassuring – this being a group of fans who were equally supportive, and free of prejudice.

Politics may well be one facet to the Public Enemy package, but fun is another factor in this, and any hip hop show. Flavor Flav is the fun provider, and gets the place jumping like the floor is on springs. Early on, he leads the crowd in a long cheer of “Woooah” (as if he’s about to do the Ayatollah, heh!). He also invites one audience member to the stage to join in with the words, and later swaps a t-shirt with a girl who’d got him a nice looking pocket watch as a present.

Surprisingly, Flavor also turns out to be a pretty adept musician, twanging away in one section on first the bass, before having a go on the drums. Meanwhile, the guitarist shows off by playing his instrument behind his head. We are also treated to the full force of DJ Lord’s scratching skills, after Flavor gives him an intro like a boxer entering the ring. For a good 5 minutes, he is literally on the “1s and 2s” as the 2 tracks on his decks seem to have just the words “one” and “two” on loops while he cuts and scratches between the two: this sequence is filmed by another crew member, and I would strongly advise checking it out on Youtube –you’ll be in for a treat. This showmanship is an indication that Public Enemy really are the number one hip hop band for a reason –they are all incredibly gifted musicians.

The quality of the songs seals the band’s reputation as being the greatest hip hop act. Along with the best of ‘Fear of a Black Planet’, they play classics like ‘Bring The Noise’ and ‘Don’t Believe The Hype’, as well as more recent song ‘Harder Than You Think’, which was a highlight for me. If there was just one negative aspect on the night, it was the fuss made over a half empty plastic bottle being thrown onto the stage. OK, we had been asked prior to the start not to throw things on stage, but sending security into the crowd to try to deal with the perpetrator was a little excessive I thought, and for a moment I sensed it was a case of using the same heavy handed control which the band purport to oppose. But this was over quickly, and fairly soon after the show drew to a close. Flavor led the crowd into raising our hands once more; this time in a victory salute, then got us all to repeat the word “Peace,” and that was it: a strangely quiet ending.  The band had come onstage with a bang, and left in peace.

There was no encore, but during the unofficial after party at Buffalo, some of the band made an appearance -which is rare. For me, this along with meeting the guy with the cool Public Enemy tattoo, turned a top notch evening into an eleven out of ten performance.

On This Day 03/09/2011 Dolly Parton

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On this day, 3 September 2011, American Country Legend Dolly Parton played the first of two nights at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on her Better Day World Tour.

It was the tenth concert tour by Dolly Parton. Visiting North America, Europe and Australia, the tour supported her 41st studio album, Better Day. With nearly 275,000 tickets sold, and an overall gross of $34 million, it is Parton's most successful tour.

Cardiff Review - Guardian

As women in pink Stetsons and high heels take their seats, Dolly Parton totters on stage in a tight white dress that exaggerates every curve. There is polite pandemonium. Her face and frame may be triumphs of Botox and collagen, but her voice is as pure as mountain air as she launches into a version of Walking on Sunshine. She does a little hoedown, and her enthusiasm is infectious. She would make an excellent primary school teacher. "We need to feel good," she declares, and you think, "Yes, Miss Parton, we do."

The anecdotes are often longer than the songs. And they are all meticulously rehearsed to sound off-the-cuff, such as the one about the red-haired girl who tried to steal her husband that prefaces Jolene.

There is a bluegrass medley, complete with yee-haws and yodelay-heehoos, that includes Dueling Banjos and numerous references to her being a country girl. Parton reminisces about growing up as one of 12 children in poverty in the Tennessee mountains, and it sounds like an episode of The Waltons, so full is it of folksy charm and homespun homilies. She sits on a quilt to tell a story about a coat made for her from scraps by her "Mama" as images appear on the screen of a sepia shack. As her voice cracks, you don't know whether to laugh or cry. When she picks up a shiny saxophone and asks, "How did I get one of these from such humble beginnings?" you think, "Enough of the protestations of poverty!"

Behind the sentiment and shtick, there are dollops of ersatz country – but this is more of a generic US pop-rock sound than it is the real thing. Nevertheless, Parton is a respected songwriter, and pens most of her own material. When she plays tracks from her new album, Better Day, on an acoustic guitar it reminds you that she was a serious musician and ambassador for Americana before she became a figure of cartoon-country fun.

After a 20-minute interval, Parton reappears in a red sequinned jump-suit ("It costs a lot of money to look this cheap," she jokes), and after dispensing with 2001's Little Sparrow, which is as arrestingly solemn and sparse as a traditional folk tune, she cranks out the hits that people have paid to hear. Here You Come Again gets everyone on their feet, and Islands in the Stream keeps them there.

As the singer makes her final assault with I Will Always Love You, infused with country-gospel fervour, and 9 to 5, sung against a glitzy apocalypse of a Las Vegas backdrop, it occurs to you just how strange this self-styled Backwoods Barbie – equal parts Lady Gaga and Loretta Lynn – really is.

Setlist

"Walking on Sunshine" (contains excerpts from "Shine Like the Sun")

"Better Get to Livin'"

"Jolene"

"Rocky Top"

"Mule Skinner Blues"

"Help!"

"Shine"

"Stairway to Heaven"

"My Tennessee Mountain Home"

"Precious Memories"

"Coat of Many Colors"

"Smoky Mountain Memories"

"Son of a Preacher Man"

"Better Day"

"Together You and I"

"Holding Everything"

"Joyful Noise"

"He Will Take You Higher" (contains excerpts from "I Want to Take You Higher")

"He's Everything"

"White Limozeen"

"The Best of Both Worlds"

"The Sacrifice"

"In the Meantime"

"Little Sparrow"

"River Deep – Mountain High"

"Here You Come Again

"Islands in the Stream"

"9 to 5"

Encore

"I Will Always Love You"

"Light of a Clear Blue Morning"

On This Day 28/08/2016 The Tide

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On this day, 28 August 2016, American rock band The Tide played The Globe, Cardiff on their Click My Fingers Tour.

The band was formed when the Vamps announced a secret project in late December 2014 and held auditions for a US guitarist and drummer aged 18–20 to form a band. Drew and Nate were in a previous pop-punk band called "All the Above" until they were given the offer to move on.

The Tide started on February 25, 2015, consisting of 4 members: Austin Corini (born 26 December 1995) - lead vocals, Drew Dirksen (born 30 September 1996) - lead guitar and backing vocals, Levi Jones (born 21 November 1997) - bass guitar and vocals and Nate Parker (born 26 September 1996) - drum and backing vocals. Like the Vamps, the band started uploading covers on YouTube and gained a number of fans since then.

On February 18, 2015, the Vamps announced that they would be taking them on tour. The Tide have so far played shows across Europe in various countries such as Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Ireland for The Vamps UK Arena Tour. The first show of the tour kicked off in Glasgow, Scotland and the last show was in Madrid, Spain on 24 March 2016. The Tide toured the United Kingdom August - September 2016, with support acts of New Hope Club (also signed to the Vamps' record label) and Josh Taylor.

The Tide released their debut single "Young Love" on March 25, 2016. A second single, "Click My Fingers" was released on August 12, 2016. Their first EP, Click My Fingers was released on November 15, 2016. Their third single "Put the Cuffs on Me" was released on March 31, 2017, supporting their headlining tour named 'Put the Cuffs on Me Tour'. Their fourth single "Naked" was released September 8, 2017, alongside digital pre-order for their debut album Young Love. Their album was released on October 15, 2017.

On This Day 28/07/2015 Nordic Giants

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On this day, 28 July 2014, instrumental post-rock duo the Nordic Giants played Cardiff’s The Globe on their Evolve or Perish tour.

The band includes prominent cinematic aspects into the performances and videos. The band released three EPs and a single on their own label before signing to Kscope in 2014. Since then they have released one compilation and two studio albums which featured a number of guest vocalists. The band have toured internationally.

The duo's live performance involves wearing masks and the use of cinematic projections that accompany their instrumental pieces. On occasion the singer Freyja has joined them on stage. Much of their material includes soundtracks for film, like for instance ‘Last Breath’ by David Jackson.

The band have played a number of European festivals and toured with Sólstafir, God Is An Astronaut, 65daysofstatic and Public Service Broadcasting.

On This Day 21/07/2010 Pet Shop Boys

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On this day, 21 July 2010, synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys played Cardiff International Arena on their Pandemonium tour.

The Pandemonium Tour was a worldwide concert tour by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys in support of their tenth studio album Yes. The tour visited Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Yes debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 27,639 copies, the duo's highest-placing album since Bilingual (1996). Early sales figures predicted that the album would enter at number one, but its release was beset by distribution problems and Yes proved unable to hold onto its midweek position.

The download version erroneously went on sale through the iTunes Store three days before its official release date, rendering 2,500 sales ineligible for the chart, while, the following week, a number of suppliers of the physical album reported stock level problems.

The closing track "Legacy" was subject to censorship in China for political sensitivity reasons, as it contains the lyric "governments fall". The song was changed to an instrumental.

Setlist

More Than a Dream

Heart

Did You See Me Coming?

Pandemonium

Can You Forgive Her?

Love etc.

Integral

Building a Wall

Paninaro

Go West

(Village People cover)

Two Divided by Zero

Why Don't We Live Together?

New York City Boy

You Were Always on My Mind

(Gwen McCrae cover)

Closer to Heaven

Left to My Own Devices

Do I Have To?

King's Cross

The Way It Used to Be

Jealousy

Suburbia

What Have I Done to Deserve This?

All Over the World

Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)

Discoteca

Domino Dancing

Viva la Vida

(Coldplay cover)

It's a Sin

Encore:

Being Boring

West End Girls

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.