{"id":2798,"date":"2018-06-22T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T08:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2022-04-13T16:14:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T16:14:04","slug":"whats-the-best-gig-you-went-to-during-your-time-at-cardiff-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2018\/06\/22\/whats-the-best-gig-you-went-to-during-your-time-at-cardiff-university\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the best gig you went to during your time at Cardiff University?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you come to university, your education doesn\u2019t start and stop at the lecture theatre door. For many of us, coming to Cardiff heralded a musical revolution \u2013 the soundtrack to our student years made up of whichever big name bands happened to be passing through the Students\u2019 Union at the time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As capital of Wales, a country steeped in song, it is no surprise that Cardiff was named the UK\u2019s first \u2018music city\u2019 in 2017. If the breadth and variety of our alumni\u2019s musical memories tell us anything, it\u2019s of the passion for rock, pop and soul which still pervades our city today.<\/p>\n

Big names from all eras<\/h2>\n

We were astonished by the roll call of iconic musicians that had visited the city through the years, often at the peak of their powers.<\/p>\n

Stephen recalled seeing Led Zeppelin in 1972, the year after releasing Led Zeppelin IV. Richard told us about celebrating the end of his 2nd year finals in the company of David Bowie at the Arms Park during the Glass Spider tour of 1987 \u2013 a spectacle featuring \u201cthe largest touring set ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just rock stars; Peter told us of seeing Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald circa 1960 \u2013 and Brecon resident George Melly performing at an end of term ball.<\/p>\n

Sticking with the local theme, David recounted seeing Tom Jones in concert at the New Theatre in 1963\/4, quite rightly noting that \u201cgig\u201d wasn\u2019t in common usage at the time.<\/p>\n

Musical diversity and exploration<\/h2>\n

Discovering new sonic landscapes is an essential part of the student experience, as is listening to the sort of loud music that may have been frowned upon in the family home.<\/p>\n

Lots of people shared experiences of bands and artists who, whilst not in the celebrity stratosphere like Bowie or Jones (trivia break: Bowie\u2019s real surname was also Jones), made us deeply envious.
\nBonnie told us of seeing rapper NAS in the Students\u2019 Union, Graham caught Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Shelley gave us a vivid description of the scene after carnival, when Kirsty McColl and Chumbawumba were amongst those playing outside City Hall.<\/p>\n

Gigs as stories<\/h2>\n

Some stories were poignant: Luke told us about the ticket he had to see Amy Winehouse, only for her tour to be cancelled the night before. Karen and Abigail reminisced about catching Manic Street Preachers in 1993, the line-up featuring the late Richie Edwards.<\/p>\n

Others, though, made us laugh. Peter and Jonathan debated whether Slade or Def Leppard had the loudest show in the Students\u2019 Union (are we the only ones who take ear plugs?), whilst a different Peter was at The Kinks\u2019 infamous three song set list \u2013 with the band then scuffling amongst themselves.<\/p>\n

All that, and we\u2019ve barely scratched the surface. It\u2019s testament to Cardiff\u2019s music scene that so many people have memorable experiences, and where better to share them and reconnect with old friends than on our Facebook<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a> pages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you come to university, your education doesn\u2019t start and stop at the lecture theatre door. For many of us, coming to Cardiff heralded a musical revolution \u2013 the soundtrack to our student years made up of whichever big name bands happened to be passing through the Students\u2019 Union at the time.","protected":false},"author":1504,"featured_media":2799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1504"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions\/2805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}