On This Day 10/06/2008 Goldfrapp

On this day, 10 June 2008, electronic duo Goldfrapp, played The Point, Cardiff.

Formed in 1999, the duo consisted of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser).

Goldfrapp began writing and recording their fourth album, Seventh Tree, at the end of 2006 in Bath, England; released in February 2008, it débuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. The album is a departure from the pop and electronic-dance music featured on Supernature, and features ambient and downtempo music. The band were inspired by an acoustic radio session they had performed, which led the duo to incorporate acoustic guitars into their music to create "warm" and "delicate" sounds.

The album's lead single, "A&E", reached number ten in the UK. The single received positive reviews from critics: musicOMH found it to be "a beautifully paced ballad" and Digital Spy called it "lush, folky and organic". "Happiness", the album's second single, reached number 25 in the UK. The third single, "Caravan Girl", which describes the story of a girl that suffers from amnesia, reached number 54 in the UK.

In 2008, Alison Goldfrapp took inspiration from the character of Pierrot and English Folk. The artwork for Seventh Tree featured her dressed as a clown because it is an "iconic image" with "so many different connotations". Goldfrapp chose to tone down her overtly sexual image because she felt that it was taking over the music. Her new image, inspired by Paganism, featured her dressed in white or natural-coloured flowing gowns with loose, curly blond hair.

On This Day 23/04/2004 Magenta

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On this day, 23 April 2004, Welsh progressive rock band Magenta played The Point, Cardiff.

Formed in 1999 by ex-Cyan member Rob Reed. Reed takes his influences from artists such as Renaissance, Genesis, Mike Oldfield, Yes, Eurythmics and Björk.

Although heavily influenced by progressive rock, Reed is a professional songwriter and has done many other projects for both film and television. The most successful of these projects was called Trippa, featuring Christina Booth on vocals and Rob Reed on guitars and keyboards. Reed asked Christina to be lead vocalist for a progressive rock project he had in mind, and the initial ideas for Magenta were born. Booth previously was guest on a number of Cyan albums providing backing vocals.

In late 1999, Reed started writing for what would become Magenta's debut release, Revolutions. Reed wanted to do something new, bigger and more conceptual. "Current prog bands are always scared and shy about admitting the influences of the great bands of the 70's, and I wanted to come clean and admit and celebrate those influences, and hopefully create something as worthwhile as those classic bands" said Reed. "To do this, all I had to do was to give priority to melody rather than technical showmanship, something I have always tried to do with all my work." Revolutions was named "Best New Album" in 2001 by Musical Discoveries, an online resource for female vocalists in the music industry.

Magenta's second album, Seven was released in March 2004 and sold out of its first pressing within four weeks. The band's first single, "Broken" was released in June 2004 – from the EP Broken. While shorter than any of the epic tracks on Seven, Broken retains the classic prog rock sound of Magenta, with a slightly more modern edge.

In 2004, Magenta received the Classic Rock Society Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Live Band". The Classic Rock Society (CRS) honours groups or artists who are popular with the public, but whose music remains unpublicised by national media and radio station programmers. Other past contributors and recipients have included Pallas, IQ, Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, Mostly Autumn, Karnataka, Pendragon and many others from the progressive rock genre.