Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman- In Remembrance

All of us at Keep Cardiff Live are extremely saddened to hear of Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman’s passing earlier this week. 

In 1971, the Cardiff-born guitarist replaced Gary Moore in Irish blues band Skid Row; his first notable musical breakthrough. The Welsh guitarist had various stints with the iconic UFO (firstly in 1974 and then in 1977), who went on to become one of the more pivotal bands in the transitional period between hard rock and the new wave of British heavy metal. Between each stint, ‘Tonka’ formed the Cardiff-based dynamic heavy rock group Lone Star, who went on to release two studio albums: Their self-titled LP and ‘Firing On All Six’. 

Despite the band’s impressive collection of sounds, the all-Welsh group went under the radar at the time, due to the ever-growing popularity of punk rock during the late 70s. However, Chapman was a hugely talented guitarist, consequently re-joining UFO in 1977. 

Lone Star played Cardiff on several memorable occasions, including at Top Rank and Capitol Theatre in 1977, as well as the University in 1976. What’s more, during his spells with UFO, the Welshman played six concerts in the Welsh capital, with notable venues including Sophia Gardens Pavilion (1978) and St David’s Hall (1983). 

Post UFO, Tonka’s passion for music lived on, with several guest appearances and stints with bands outside of the UK. Known for his indestructible traits, ‘Tonka’ Chapman’s influence across the rock genre underpins his reputation as one of Cardiff’s greats. 

Rest in Peace, Paul. 

Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman- 1954-2020 

FCI Create Sampler Launch

102328597_10158626195369225_1488633220957208576_o.jpg

Music & sound students at the University of South Wales have today released their incredible FCI 3 Create Sampler, containing genres range from urban to indie and folk to electro house. We at Keep Cardiff Live are excited to help share information of this exciting collection of new music from the latest crop of new musicians. We look forward to sharing more information about the students and their sampler over the coming days.

On this Day 4 June 1976, Elton John

On this Day 4 June 1976, Elton John played the second of two dates at Cardiff's Capitol Theatre as part of his The Louder Than Concorde Tour in support of his 10th studio album Rock of the Westies. the tour included two legs and a total of 62 show. This leg of the tour, which included a midnight show in Glasgow, ended in Cardiff.

The tour concluded in mid-August with a record-breaking seven sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. For these shows, Elton and the band shared the stage with the New York Community Choir and performed encores with Kiki Dee, Alice Cooper and the drag queen Divine. As this week was winding down, Elton notified the band that he was taking a break from touring and the group soon disbanded.

Set List

  1. Grow Some Funk of Your Own

  2. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

  3. Island Girl

  4. Rocket Man

  5. Hercules

  6. Bennie and the Jets

  7. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

  8. Love Song (Lesley Duncan cover)

  9. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (The Beatles cover)

  10. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

  11. Empty Sky

  12. Someone Saved My Life Tonight

  13. Don't Go Breaking My Heart

  14. I've Got the Music in Me (Kiki Dee cover)

  15. Philadelphia Freedom

  16. We All Fall in Love Sometimes

  17. Curtains

  18. Tell Me When the Whistle Blows

Encore:

  1. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

  2. Your Song

  3. Pinball Wizard (The Who cover)

On this day Tony Hadley, lead singer with pop group Spandau Ballet was born (60 today)

unnamed (2).jpg

Hadley and band mates played Cardiff on a few occasions but many fans wouldn’t have known that before their career really took off was a visit to Cardiff’s dock lands and an appearance at the area’s Casablanca Club.

They appearance of this band and often flamboyant followers would have caused quite a stir as the visited the local pubs prior to the band’s appearance later that evening.

Hadley, very much a solo artist nowadays played Caerphilly Castle in 2016 with excellent reviews (see below) and still possesses one of pop’s more iconic and instability identifiable voices.

From Buzz Wales Online

Caerphilly Castle, Sun 18 Sept

The castle was the backdrop recently for a weekend of shows and hopefully, this will become a regular occurrence during festival season because it’s such an atmospheric venue. The last night was a rock and soul show with music spanning over six decades. Opening were local legends, the feelgood Big Mac’s Wholly Soul Band. Good golly miss Molly, they had energy to spare – and then some! They got everyone warmed up and moving to In the Midnight Hour, River Deep Mountain High, Land Of 1,000 Dances and (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher. Raspy-voiced frontman Mike McNamara and the crew were perfectly suited to deliver those classics and others.

Now, you get to a point where you still want to go to concerts, but you don’t want dudes stage diving and soaking you with beer. You don’t want to see someone who looks like they haven’t washed for a few months screaming for everybody to kill the capitalists. No, you want someone smooth, suave and sophisticated who appreciates musical tradition but can still throw some surprise punches. Someone who knows their Bee Gees from their Bennett and their Sinatra from their Stewart. You want someone like… Tony Hadley. The vocalist gave an accomplished performance the town won’t soon forget.

Hadley presented well-loved Spandau Ballet songs and others, interspersed with a couple of his own compositions. Feeling Good was the first of covers that included a killer version of the Killers’ Somebody Told Me, the Eagles’ The Boys Of Summer and U2’s With Or Without You. Spandau standouts were I’ll Fly For You (very sensually done), the winning Only When You Leave and a tremendous Through The Barricades, where he really reached heights with his baritone. Lily Gonzales stepped away from her percussion to join him in a short duet that made it even more memorable.

Hadley exuded confidence and professionalism onstage, along with the tight TH Band. While engaging with the crowd, he kept banter to a minimum as to fit in the tunes. He mentioned that he “took pictures earlier [of the castle] to show my kids.” Like the bon vivant he is, jovially sipping Jack Daniels, he toasted everyone. The general consensus among the women, young and old (er) was that he, like Martin Kemp, keeps getting better with age. They showed their appreciation with loads of screams and declarations of love. Hadley endeared himself to fans doing the Stereophonics’ Dakota, while My Imagination and Take Back Everything showed off his talents as a songwriter, and he should write more. And with his powerful voice, he’d be a perfect choice for a 007 theme (after that dire piece of dull from Spectre, please, someone phone him).

He finished up with – what else – True and the Bond-ian Gold. A sea of even more pesky cameras went up, and Hadley glanced at his watch a few times because there was a 10pm curfew for the audience to be out. Must have been why things seemed rushed then and there was no encore presumably. A shame, as otherwise this was a diamond of a show.

words RHONDA LEE REALI

On This Day May 31st 1930 - Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood in Cardiff 1967 (Media Wales Copyright image)

Clint Eastwood in Cardiff 1967 (Media Wales Copyright image)

Clinton Eastwood  born May 31 1930

Eastwood’s love of music is well documented and had a surprising solo hit of sorts with a song, “I Talk To The Trees” from the Western Musical ‘Paint Your Wagon’ which was the B-side to Lee Marvin’s massive hit ‘Wand’rin Star’

Eastwood also played a jazz disc jockey named Dave, who has a casual affair with Evelyn (Jessica Walter), a listener who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night, asking him to play her favourite song – Erroll Garner's "Misty". When Dave ends their relationship, the unhinged Evelyn becomes a murderous stalker.

Eastwood is an audiophile and owns an extensive collection of LPs which he plays on a Rockport turntable. He has had a strong passion for music all his life, particularly jazz and country and western music.[357] He dabbled in music early on by developing as a boogie-woogie pianist and had originally intended to pursue a career in music by studying for a music theory degree after graduating from high school. In late 1959 he produced the album Cowboy Favorites, released on the Cameo label,[357] which included some classics such as Bob Wills's "San Antonio Rose" and Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In". Despite his attempts to plug the album by going on a tour, it never reached the Billboard Hot 100.[357] In 1963, Cameo producer Kal Mann told him that "he would never make it big as a singer".[358]Nevertheless, during the off season of filming Rawhide, Eastwood and Paul Brinegar – sometimes joined by Sheb Wooley – toured rodeos, state fairs, and festivals. In 1962, their act, entitled Amusement Business Cavalcade of Fairs, earned them as much as $15,000 a performance.[358] Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers. This deal was unchanged when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to private investors.[359] Malpaso Records, which has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. Malpaso Records has also released the album of a 1996 jazz concert he hosted, titled Eastwood after Hours – Live at Carnegie Hall.

Eastwood favors jazz (especially bebop), blues, classic rhythm and blues, classical, and country-and-western music; his favorite musicians include saxophonists Charlie Parkerand Lester Young, pianists Thelonious MonkOscar PetersonDave Brubeck, and Fats Waller, and Delta bluesman Robert Johnson.[360] He is also a pianist and composer.[357] Jazz has played an important role in Eastwood's life from a young age and, although he never made it as a professional musician, he passed on the influence to his son Kyle Eastwood, a jazz bassist and composer.

Eastwood composed the film scores of Mystic RiverMillion Dollar BabyFlags of Our FathersGrace Is GoneChangelingHereafterJ. Edgar, and the original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire. He wrote and performed the song heard over the credits of Gran Torino[342] and also co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, a song recorded in 1999 by Diana Krall.[359]

The music in Grace Is Gone received two Golden Globe nominations by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 65th Golden Globe Awards. Eastwood was nominated for Best Original Score, while the song "Grace is Gone" with music by Eastwood and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager was nominated for Best Original Song.[361] It won the Satellite Award for Best Song at the 12th Satellite AwardsChangeling was nominated for Best Score at the 14th Critics' Choice Awards, Best Original Score at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, and Best Music at the 35th Saturn Awards. On September 22, 2007, Eastwood was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on which he serves as an active board member. Upon receiving the award he gave a speech claiming, "It's one of the great honors I'll cherish in this lifetime."[

Search Results

This was taken from the Babylon Wales site.

In 1967 Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood was briefly in Cardiff. He was in the city to promote his first major film, A Fistful of Dollars, directed by Sergio Leone. Although the now famous spaghetti western had been shot in 1964 it took a full three years before it was released in America and Britain.

At the time of his Welsh visit Eastwood had yet to achieve significant success as a screen actor. In fact, back then, he was best known for his role as Rowdy Yates in television programme Rawhide. The popularity of A Fistful of Dollars would soon change all of that.

When Eastwood arrived at the press screening at the Capitol Theatre there really wasn't that much media interest. Local paper, the South Wales Echo, did get a shot of a bequiffed Eastwood, and his then wife Maggie Johnson, in the back of a car but that was about it.

Happy Birthday Paul Weller

Yesterday was the birthday of the one and only Paul Weller.

The singer and guitarist with The Jam was born on May 25 1958.

The very first incarnation of The Jam was formed in 1972, Weller playing bass guitar with his best friends Steve Brookes (lead guitar) and Dave Waller (rhythm guitar).
Joined by Rick Buckler on drums, and Bruce Foxton soon replacing Waller on rhythm guitar, the four-piece band began to forge a local reputation, playing a mixture of Beatles covers and a number of compositions written by Weller and Brookes. Brookes left the band in 1976, and Weller and Foxton decided they would swap guitar roles, with Weller now the guitarist.
Their first visit to Wales was to the Roundabout Club in Newport, Gwent, April 27 1977, whilst their debut in Cardiff was on the Clash White Riot Tour at the Top Rank Suite, June 21 1977. They included the Top Rank on their second national tour that promoted their 'This The Modern World' album then later playing Cardiff University on the 'Apocalypse Tour' in November 1978.
Their final visit as The Jam was in Nov 10 1980 at Sophia Gardens though the band did play Afan Lido, Port Talbot and Deeside Leisure Centre in March 1982, called the 'Trans Global Unity Express Tour', before the band broke up at the end of a farewell tour in Dec 1982.
Weller' been a frequent visitor to Cardiff as a solo artist with a concert at Cardiff Castle being a memorable evening, June 2019.

On This Day - May 23rd 1974 - Richard Jones

On this day, 23rd May 1974, Richard Jones  bass player with the Welsh band Stereophonics was born.

Jones grew up in Cwmaman, an former mining village in South East Wales. Richard originally formed the band with Kelly Jones and Stuart Cable, playing under different band names such as "Silent Runner", "Tragic Love Company" and "Mable Cable". 

Describing his affinity to the bass guitar, Jones said, "Everyone else who was playing an instrument around our village was playing guitar," he explained. "So I thought it would be a lot easier to get into a band if I played a different instrument apart from guitar. I went down to the guitar shop to have a look around and I bought my first bass - a Precision copy, a fretless one. I just taught myself how to tune it and then tried to do a couple of Blues Brothers riffs on it."

On This Day - May 21, 2014 - Nine Inch Nails, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

image0 (2).jpeg

Nine Inch Nails, at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, was a visual and aural assault on the senses. For an hour and forty minutes, they played almost non-stop – the only breaks being the encore and testing a synth pad which had “blown up”.

Nine Inch Nails are officially a one man band, fronted by Trent Reznor. However for this tour he was joined on stage by Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin. The tour was their first in the UK for six years, and follows the release of their critically acclaimed album Hesitation Marks last September. I’ve been a fan since the mid 90’s and have somehow managed to miss them touring before, so was I was looking forward to this. And they didn’t disappoint.

Right from the off the show was run with military precision, the huge lighting rigs constantly moving, changing colour and pulsing in time with the music. The band silhouetted against a bright background later in the show was particularly effective. Nothing about the show seemed too over-the-top or extravagant, it all came together perfectly for a brilliant performance.

There were quieter moments during the loud, brash guitars and synths based tracks, but there was no lull or moments when then crowd were any less captivated. My favourite tracks were Wish, Gave Up and the set closing Closer, which were just outstanding. Nine Inch Nails played as hard as their name suggests. And I’ll be there the next time they tour.

Courtesy of South Wales Argus

Setlist

  1. Pinion / The Eater of Dreams

  2. Copy of A

  3. The Beginning of the End

  4. Letting You

  5. March of the Pigs

  6. Something I Can Never Have

  7. Reptile

  8. The Becoming

  9. Survivalism

  10. Gave Up

  11. Sanctified

  12. Closer

  13. Me, I'm Not

  14. Came Back Haunted

  15. The Great Destroyer

  16. Hand Covers Bruise

  17. Beside You in Time

  18. Wish

  19. The Hand That Feeds

  20. Head Like a Hole

  21. Hurt