Phonics fan’s way off track with club visit
A TRUCK-DRIVING Stereophonics fan took a late night detour to visit the band’s home village of Cwmaman, only to end up lost in Cwmbran instead.
Tewkesbury-based Kevin Rothery, who works delivering milk for a Gloucester dairy, had been dropping off a consignment in Aberbargoed on Saturday evening when motorway closures forced him to take a different route home.
“Time was getting on when, all of a sudden, I saw this sign for a place which started with a ‘C,’ a ‘W’ and an ‘M’ and made the split-second decision to check it out,” laughs the 38-year-old dad-of-two, not realising he was nearly 40 miles off course.
“I’ve been a ‘Phonics fan since the band’s early days and always wanted to see where they’d grown up, but in my excitement I’d confused Cwmbran for Cwmaman.”
It took him a while to realise his mistake though, he adds.
“I must have driven round for ages looking for the workingmen’s club I’d heard all about, until I eventually found somewhere that looked like it could have been the place.
“So I got out the cab and walked around until I saw some punters having a pint and a cigarette outside, at which point I asked them if this was where the ‘Phonics first started out playing.
“Well, they just laughed at me and told me that I was a long way off course.
“In my defence though, they also told me I was far from being the first person to have made that same mistake.
“They were lovely about it too, with one old bloke even offering to buy me a burger and a pint to cheer me up - they also put Local Boy In The Photograph on the jukebox for me.”
The super fan adds he hasn’t been put off attempting another visit to Glynhafod Top Club to drink at the same bar where Kelly Jones and the boys once stood.