STEREOPHONICS

Two years after headlining What’s On Party In The Park, Stereophonics return to Dubai with an album of new songs to perform

The Welsh rockers are back in town and having the time of their lives

Last summer, Stereophonics celebrated the 20th anniversary of Word Gets

Around. Packed with rousing anthems such as A Thousand

Trees, More Life In A Tramp’s Vest and Local Boy In A Photograph, it would go on to cement the Welsh band’s reputation as impassioned, vulnerable, everyman rockers. Except Kelly Jones and fellow founder member Richard Jones didn’t really celebrate the anniversary of their debut at all. They didn’t need to shout too loudly themselves when the man doing their cheerleading was none other than Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan.

Jones – possibly as bemused as everyone else – tweeted: “To get a nod from the Master, makes me wanna write a new song!” So he did – seven months later the tenth Stereophonics album Scream Above

The Sound was released, and it was just as consistently enjoyable, emotional and accessible as their records have always been. And even though the days of hit singles like The Bartender And The Thief,

Have A Nice Day and Dakota are now decades distant, it might surprise some to learn that Scream Above The Sound still reached No.2 in the UK album charts.

To give Jones his due, he was absolutely clear that he wanted to work on a new album in the band’s 20th year rather than release – as he witheringly told the

Daily Record in Scotland – “some sort of compilation album”. He was positive that

“some of the best work hasn’t happened yet”, and there’s something incredibly laudable about a band that continues to push ahead and find new inspirations and motivations 20 years into a career that is now unlikely to reach the past heights of the turn of the century. And there’s another clue on Scream

Above The Sound as to why Stereophonics aren’t the kind of band to wallow in past glories: they’re often too painful to talk about with much alacrity. Before Anyone

Knew Our Name is a rueful ballad about their early days with original drummer Stuart Cable – who was sacked in 2003 and died in dreadful circumstances just as the relationship with the rest of the band had been repaired. Given that state of affairs, the line “we said our sorries, we made our make-ups, but that don’t make up for what’s missing now” is almost unbearable.

None of which is to say the band won’t play a generous, greatest hits set in Dubai. A recent gig in Scotland was not just full of their vintage songs, it was a riotous rampage through their back catalogue with a quick acoustic breather for their cover of Handbags And Gladrags. It’s a song, of course, which will forever have connotations with Ricky Gervais’ toecurlingly embarrassing character David Brent: Rod Stewart’s version was the theme tune for The Office. But it made sense for Stereophonics in 2001 and it continues to make sense now, with Kelly’s rasping voice regularly likened to the Scottish legend.

Handbags and Gladrags is also, for some, the point when the Stereophonics changed from being a rabble-rousing pub band, shouting to make their storyled songs heard, to an arena-filling, festival headlining act. Jones himself is approaching his mid-40s and has refined his musical outlook rather than mellowing it. And it’s not only Bob Dylan who has been impressed – The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, U2 and David Bowie have at some point either praised the band or taken them out on tour as a support act.

Of course, Stereophonics will never be as big as those mega-acts now. But perhaps that no longer matters to them or their devoted fans – many of whom have grown up with the band’s observational songs soundtracking and reassuring their adult lives. Instead, Jones simply concentrates on making every song, every gig, as good as it can be. Have a nice day indeed.