Bob Dylan has announced he will play a gig in Cardiff this autumn as part of a nine-date UK tour. The 81-year American music legend will appear at the city's Motorpoint Arena on Wednesday, October 26. The show is part of the Nobel Prize-winning singer's ongoing Rough And Rowdy Ways Worldwide Tour which began last December in Milwaukee, USA. Dylan, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman, has a much-storied history with Wales.
The singer reportedly took inspiration for his stage name from Laugharne-based poet Dylan Thomas in the late '50s. He's also played here many times - the last being in 2017.
But perhaps the most notorious moment was his show at Cardiff's Capitol Theatre in 1966 where he shocked his fans by turning his back on the folk music sound which had shot him to stardom. Plugging in his electric guitar he made the made the now infamous announcement that "It used to be like that... but now it goes like this."
He also took the ferry to Wales for that gig and the shot of him waiting to be transported across the Severn Estuary would become one of the most loved rock and roll photographs of all time. He'd also jam backstage with Johnny Cash before his gig at the Capitol - the country icon having also been in town that day for his own show in nearby Pontcanna.
Tickets for Dylan's upcoming Welsh date go on sale at 10am on Friday, July 15 and are available from Ticketmaster. The show starts at 8pm and is a non-phone event - all audience members will have to put their mobiles in a Yondr bag, a device with a magnetic seal which will then be unlocked at the end of the performance.
Read next:
Rammstein in Cardiff: German shock rockers bring the roof down at Principality Stadium
- Elton John in Swansea: The extraordinary way the Rocket Man said farewell to Wales
Rhod Gilbert postpones Swansea show until next year due to neck and throat problems
The most popular baby names of 2022 so far and the names no parent chose for their child
The Welsh actress who went from playing rugby to performing on Broadway
