Kendal Calling 2017 Programme

stereophonics
Welsh titans Stereophonics have plenty of
diamonds in their back catalogue, but they’re
still mining their talents to make new music.
As a member of a band which has trod the world’s
festival stages for over 20 years, you’d expect
STEREOPHONICS bassist Richard Jones to have a few
stories and he doesn’t disappoint.
Whether it’s headlining Glastonbury in 2002 or
flying into Japan for the legendary Fuji Rock Festival, Stereophonics have
been there, done it and bought the T-shirt, with Richard the only everpresent
alongside frontman Kelly Jones (no relation) since the band’s
inception in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in South Wales.
“We did Glastonbury in 2002 but neither myself or Kelly can
remember actually being on stage,” he laughs. “It was really, really hectic
back then and I remember it was crammed in between doing some
European shows and going out to America.
“We got down to Glastonbury the night before, did the gig and were
then shipped off on the bus to Heathrow to fly to America. It was a
whirlwind back then…”
Since winning a Brit Award in 1998 for Best New Group,
Stereophonics’ achievements are worth recalling. They are the eighth
group to achieve five consecutive UK number one albums in a list that
includes The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, ABBA, Genesis, Oasis, Blur and U2.
They’ve enjoyed 11 top 10 singles including the number one Dakota, and
their hits collection, Decade In The Sun, sold 1.2 million copies in the UK.
But far from looking back, Richard and Kelly are determined that
Stereophonics keep moving forward and, with the band having finished
work on their tenth album this year, this summer sees them return to the
fray with a renewed relish.
“It’s all done and dusted now so we’re hoping to release the album
around November and, at the moment, we’re in the rehearsal room
getting ready for all the summer shows and festivals,” says Richard, about
the follow up to 2015’s chart topping Keep The Village Alive.
“We’ve really caught the momentum of the last album and run with it.
There were songs there that brought us to a younger audience again and
on this album, we wanted to keep things fresh.
“There are songs which sound unlike things we’ve done before and
there are one or two tracks which will surprise people. Hopefully the
public will like it and we can start throwing a few in the set and see what
fans think of them.”
Newer tracks like C’est La Vie and Graffiti On The Train seemed
to give Stereophonics a new lease of life and, while many of their
contemporaries reform and play their most famous albums in full, Richard
wants the band to be bracketed alongside the newer acts they play
amongst this summer.
“When we first started we knew we wanted to be in it for the long
haul and that getting signed was just the beginning of a lot of hard work,”
he says.
“When we’re in the studio recording, we want every album to be a
new chapter of the band – we don’t want to just rehash old stuff. We try
to push forward and stay as contemporary as possible.
“That’s what drives us – performing at festivals and seeing the up and
coming bands and the hunger that they’ve got is great because we think
we’ve still got a lot of that and we can compete with them. We love it
when we’re thrown up amongst them!”
Of course, there was a time when Stereophonics were a new band
themselves and Richard has fond memories of those early days at the
bottom of the bill rather than as a headline act.
“We were fortunate enough to do one of the first V Festivals in
1997,” he remembers. “We’d gone to V96 in Warrington when Pulp
were headlining thanks to Richard Branson because we’d signed to V2.
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