A Decade Down, The Word's Still Around - Stereophonics

Meat purchasing aside, one place Stereophonics have been seen this year is, well, just about everywhere. Venturing far across the shores to such countries as Latvia, Russia, Istanbul and Bangkok, they have been on the road for 18 months straight. The Easter Festival in Ischgl, Austria, was a notable surreal experience for the band.  A festival which takes place up a mountain to a bunch of ski enthusiasts. Richard explains how they came to play the unique event: “They basically sold it to us that we’d have free ski pass, a free hotel, free everything basically and we went out there for five days and it turned out like the hotel from ‘The Shining’ with absolutely fuck all to do there.” Kelly adds: “It’s just weird to be up on top of a mountain and everyone taking your equipment up in a cable car,” before adding how his hands coped in the conditions: “It was like playing with someone else’s foot.”

During their extended worldwide tour there has been a welcomed addition to Stereophonics’ line-up in the form of SpiderSimpson frontman Adam Zindani. During 2001-2004 guitarist Scott James joined the group onstage but was never handed an official position in the band. A backstage comment working out ‘Roll Up and Shine’ at Donington Park in 2002 perhaps gave an insight into just why that was. On a bus while on location for an acoustic tour for ‘Just Enough Education To Perform’ Kelly commented on how much he wanted Adam in the band at that time. Kelly’s eyes open with a nostalgic surprise as he remembers this revelation. “Ai, I did say that. Took me eight years,” he smiles and reveals. So why has it been so long? Kelly quips: “He’s skint now.” Richard adds: “We’d been heckling him for a long time and he finally jumped in with both feet.”

On the subject of members and former members, Kelly highlights his new-found friendship with former drummer Stuart Cable as one of his proudest moments of his career. “We had a lot of knocks just after we parted ways with Stuart and thankfully all that water’s under the bridge and me and Stuart are mates. I’m proud that’s happened because people were ready to write off the band at that point and we shut our mouth and came back with 'Dakota' and that was a big two fingers to a lot of people that had their opinions about what we were about,” explains the frontman.

Richard looks on in agreement as he jumps in: “I would second that and add that I’m really proud of our background and the way we’ve worked and never take anything for granted. We know you’ve always got to work for what you need.” Kelly then interrupts while pointing to a television: “Which is one of those big flat screen telly’s on your wall.” Then Richard takes a moment before saying: “That’s the same one I’ve got,” resulting in the room erupting into deep raucous laughter.

A quick note that the next Stereophonics studio album is well on it’s way with Kelly explaining the writing is going extremely well: “The songs are very uplifting, quite optimistic, big chorus songs. We’re going to go in the studio in March anyway.” For now this compilation and reflection on a decade, which has brought its ups and its downs, will have to do as we prepare to countdown the next ten years.