How Wales shaped Stereophonics and their music

Virgin Radio

1 Mar 2022, 10:16

In celebration of St David's Day, take a deep dive into one of Wales' most prolific bands and how they never forgot the country that shaped them.

Nestled in between a sea of mountains and hills in the South Wales Valleys is the town of Cwmaman.

Like most ex-mining towns, it had a rich sense of community and is one of those places where everyone knows each other. 

So, it is no surprise that in 1986, 13-year-old Kelly Jones befriended a boy, Stuart Cable, who lived a few doors down the street.

They became friends after Kelly heard him play the drums and discovered his dad had a garage where the pair could loudly jam with their instruments to their heart's content.

It was here, in a small Welsh village, that the Stereophonics were formed- but they would go through a number of different names before they settled on that one. 

Becoming the Stereophonics 

After bringing Richard Jones in to fill the position of bassist, the band, who went by the name of 'Tragic Love Company' back then, began to look for gigs in the old working men’s clubs in Cwmaman and similar towns nearby.

From the age of 16, Kelly had worked on a fruit and vegetable stall in the town, where he would observe the (sometimes not so) quiet rhythm of valley’s life, and the people and things he saw went on to become the inspiration for a lot of his songs.

Speaking to Songwriting magazine in 2020, the frontman explained: "I was working in a fruit and veg market stall from the age of 16 on a Saturday in the holidays, and I would start writing lyric ideas on the back of the brown bags I was serving.

"So I remember writing More Life In A Tramps Vest, Last Of The Big Time Drinkers, songs like Raymond’s Shop and Carrot Cake And Wine – a few B-sides around that time – and A Thousand Trees. And I guess when I went to art college, it was like an art school and film school so I was writing scenes from movies and screenplays, and I found that the dialogue I was writing became songs."

He continued: "So they all become very visual and filmic stories, because most of the first album was ‘from the outside looking in’ and observational songwriting – I didn’t really have a lot to say about myself at that point. So it was a lot more storytelling on that first record, most of that was written on the market and in college. We’d rehearse every Thursday and Sunday, and I’d piece the songs together there.”

After gigging at the working men's clubs and getting their name around, the band were eventually scouted and asked to record a demo for A Thousand Trees in 1992.

They sent it off to a man called Wayne Coleman from V2 records, and he loved their sound but hated the band name and insisted the trio would not be performing on stage until they changed it. 

Not long after, Cable noticed the name 'Falcon Stereophonic', on his radiogram and pitched it to frontman Kelly. After some thought, they adopted the name 'Stereophonics' and went on to play a gig at their local theatre in Aberdare with Catatonia and the Pocket Devils. 

This became their big break, as the band was approached by John Brand after the gig, who became their manager and made them send off more demos to different record labels.

Not long after, the band had 35 different record companies wanting to sign them!

They decided in 1996, however, to go with V2 and released their first album Word Gets Around, in 1997. 

Local Boy in the Photograph

When you live in such a tight-knit community, things have a ripple effect.So, when a young boy who lived in the Cwmaman area took his own life after stepping in front of a train, it was quite a blow to the town.

The band, who had grown up in that community, were just as impacted by the incident and decided to write a song about it.

Speaking on the television programme Songbook in 2011, Kelly explained the story behind the lyrics. 

He said: "I used to play kind of county football […] and there was a kid that used to play right back. I got to know him pretty well - he was a really cool kid and he was a good looking kid. He was kind of one of those ones that you looked and thought, ‘He’s got it all.’

“And then few years later we found out he jumped in front of a train and we were all a bit shocked by it and we read about it in the local paper. There was a picture of him smoking a - which I think it was a joint actually. And that's the picture they used and it was the 'local boy' in the photograph."

He added: “I’d never really known anybody our age to do that, to kind of end their life and nobody really knew why he ended his life. And when you’re 18 or 19 you’re quite naive and you just write everything down.”

The singer continued: “And it was just more about a celebration of his life than was about his death, really, about the kid sitting on the bank drinking, and lots of imagery of the seasons and the clocks going back and I that’s when I found that descriptive writing is what people would stop and listen to really.”

The song Local Boy In the Photograph has since become a cult classic, and was given a Q Classic Song Award at the Q Awards in 2007. 

Before Anyone Ever Knew Our Name

After some mainstream success with their albums Bartender and The Thief, Just Enough Education To Perform, and You Gotta Go There to Come Back, the band made the difficult decision to sack one of its founding members, Stuart Cable, who had grown less and less enthusiastic about making music.

Some years went by, and the band got their first number-one single with Dakota, featuring Javier Weyler as their new drummer. They also played Hyde Park, released their first greatest hits compilation, Decade in the Sun, and played their first-ever gig at the Cardiff City Stadium.

In 2010, tragedy struck for the band.

Stuart Cable passed away in his home in Aberdare.

It hit Kelly pretty hard, as he had always felt like a brother to Cable despite their differences, so he decided to write a song in his honour inspired by Wales and growing up there with Stuart.

He told The Sun: "I'd been back to Wales to show my kids where I came from, and so the writing was inspired by those memories.

"It's quite a sensitive song and was just pages of thoughts. Stuart is someone you'll never forget. He was a character that burnt very brightly.

"He had a huge smile and personality, and he was very proud of this band — even when he wasn't in it. When 'Dakota' went to #1 in 2005, he was the first person to send congratulations."

Keep The Village Alive

The band has always said how their roots have shaped them.

In an interview for County Times, Richard Jones spoke about how their sense of pride and love for their local community has always been important.

Richard said: “Growing up in a small village, we came across so many vibrant characters and when we started touring, we thought everywhere would be like that, but it wasn’t. So, we knew where we came from was a bit special, and we’ve never lost that connection.”

He added: “We’ve always been proud of being Welsh. Wherever we are in the worl, people ask us where we’re from, and we let them know that it’s Wales, not England or the UK.”

Their 2015 album, Keep The Village Alive, was specifically dedicated to Cwmaman, and Kelly explained people used to shout, "Keep the village alive" at the end of a night when they were a bit drunk on the weekends.

He explained in an interview with Buzz: "It was kind of phrase that stuck with me, which means, I guess, keep the community spirit up, have a good time; work hard, play hard."

Still going strong

In only a few days ( 4 March), the Stereophonics will be releasing a new album, and the Welsh rockers have already shared a new single with fans titled 'Right Place Right Time'.

The latest release, Oochya!, will be their 12th studio album and fans are just as excited as they were in the early 2000s to see what the band will come up with next.

All these years later, the Stereophonics are still going strong and have become one of Wales' most prolific bands, never once forgetting the country that made them.

Happy St David's Day! (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus)

Oochya! will be released on 4th March 2022.