How long have stereophonics been together

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More info. Stereophonics started out as a band, formed in a small village in Wales. The Cwmaman lads soon found fame after almost 10 years of grafting, with their albums and tours becoming incredibly successful. Their output has seemingly dwindled in recent years after some shocking events, but are they still together? Stereophonics is still going strong, though there have been some difficult moments for them and band members have also gone off to do their own thing at times. The group, then known as Zephyr, started playing with other members until Stuart was sacked from the band, and Kelly joined with him to start something new.

Their name changed once more to the band we know and love and soon released their debut album, Word Gets Around, as a three-piece band. In the early s they were achieving a great deal of success, but Stuart was sacked once again from the band.

They hired a new drummer, Javier Weyler, to work with them on their fifth album, Language. During this time they performed some huge concerts and festivals, however, tragedy struck when their former drummer, Stuart, died. He was found dead at his home in Llwydcoed at 5. Two weeks after playing to their mammouth audience in Swansea, the band took home the Kerrang! On the back of the Morfa Stadium show, they released two more singles. I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio and Hurry Up and Wait , both songs which were a departure for the normally consistant, rockier sound that had come to be expected, but still charted well, both hitting the 11 spot.

The videos for the songs on this album also became more elaborate than that of the singles from 'Word Gets Around' and leant heavily on the medium of cinema. The inspiration for four of the singles came directly from the films the band liked and they played out their fantasy roles in their individual promos.

This song would eventually go on to become a Stereophonics favourite in it's own right. Once again teaming up with Bird and Bush to produce their album, the Stereophonics set about recording an album that was a sonic departure for what they had previously amassed as a band. In the years that had taken them away from small town Cwmaman and around the world as the new darlings of the Britpop machine, they had come to experience a lot more of the good and bad sides the music industry had to offer.

Preceded by the track Mr. Writer , it was a downbeat, acoustic drawl that saw their comeback on the UK chart scene. It charted well at 5, and had an infectious melancholy hook, but the song was a direct response to a journalist that had toured with the band on an American tour.

The band claim that he had " lived amongst them, ate their food and drank their drink " citation needed but when he left the band to write about them, the review was very negative. This lead to a steely attitude being taken by the band after this. However, this had a knock on effect to the band in general, as the media regarded Jones with a growing discomfort and unease that neither he, or the band have ever really been able to shake.

The second single, the polar opposite of Mr. The subjects of Jones' writings have for a long time been put under the microscope, but consistently, you can get a feel for the experience he was having at the time by taking the lyrics as read.

Have a Nice Day itself is a clear dividing point for many Stereophonics fan. The success of this song and the album that followed gained the band a wealth of new fans, but older fans felt that the band were moving too far into a new, pop-orientated direction. The band had originally wanted to name the album 'JEEP', a shortened word which stood for the phrase that apparently Kelly got from his brother after he came home from a stint in the army and wrote the word on his bedroom wall.

However, Daimler-Chrysler copyrighted the word this name so it was changed to its current, elongated title. It is commonly referred to by it's acronym, 'J. On July 21st, the Stereophonics followed in the footsteps of the Manic Street Preachers and played a full concert at the newly built Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Then in November , the band announced it would release Handbags and Gladrags UK 4 as an official studio track, though it wasn't on the current album tracklisting.

Vegas Two Times , the album opener was released on DVD single, and live footage from 'A Day at the Races' was overdubbed with the studio track for the video. Vegas Two Times opens the album with a minute of female harmonies before the track kicks in. This extended intro was completely cut for the single version, and also when being played live, but by this point in their career, the live 4-piece had once again grown to included second touring guitarist Scott James, and backing singers Aileen McLaughlin and Anna Ross.

The album itself divided fans and critics alike. Most opinions were and still are very cold towards the record, citing the dramatic departure from the band's signature sound as main reason behind it's poor critial reception. It is also worth noting the effect that 'Mr. Writer' had on the relationship between the media and the increasingly outspoken Jones. Most reviewers refute this claim however, citing a lacklustre performance in songwriting as the principal downfall of the LP.

Fans are also split, for some of them were not fans until the release of the album and use of such tracks as Have a Nice Day on TV commercials. Others see the departure in signature sound as a fall from grace the band has yet to recover, whilst the more pragmatic approaches seem to suggest that the giddy days at the time of 'WGA' and 'Performance' were dizzy heights that will probably never be reached again, if only for the luck of timing and social chords that were struck within the era of these intial albums.

The band themselves were quick to defend the sound of the album, without making any apology for the songs that made the cut, suggesting that the rigours of touring the world as a rock band mean that they were constantly in an environment surrounded by loud music, and when they got back on their tour bus, they wanted to distance themselves from that sound, so they turned to a different type of music. In turn, this music feeds the inspiration for the upcoming songwriting process.

In June , the band headlined the Pyramid stage of the prestigious Glastonbury festival, displaying a confident reportoire of songs new and old alike, and for the first time played unreleased songs, the most significant and electrifiying of these performances being that of future lead single Madame Helga.

After a summer of festival appearances the band settled in back at their homes to write songs for the album. In the coming months, both Kelly and Richard both decided it would be better if they moved to London, to ease their label pressures and commitments. Stuart declined to do the same. Instead, Cable was given his own TV chat show, Cable TV , by BBC Wales, where he would host lively chat and music, which included an acoustic set by Stereophonics , although curiously without Stuart, obviously wanting to draw clear definitions between his band and his TV persona.

They played acoustic versions of songs that would go on to become Getaway and Climbing the Wall. When it came to the new album, it is widely assumed that Kelly wrote the songs without any input from anyone, except live recording engineer and personal friend Jim Lowe. In the liner notes of the new album, Kelly wrote: " We got together as a band and rehearsed the demos at Stuart's garage a week before going into the studio… " But demanding schedulings had already begun to put a strain on the working relationship of the band.

The studio process also changed for this album. Relying heavily on live engineer Lowe to capture the tracks in as few takes as nessessary added to the very live and raw sound on the album.

The song were on a more personal level, rather than on a narrative, and faced issues like alcohol and drug abuse, sex and procarious living more than had reviously been addressed by the band. On July 21st, the band released their biggest international smash song to date, the gorgeous and aching Maybe Tomorrow which charted in the UK at 3, but went on to transcend the band's status as a restricted UK act.

The melotron and rhodes piano sound that gave the song its melancholy charm found it's way onto quite a few American TV and film soundtracks including ' Wicker Park ' and later on the Academy Award-winning film ' Crash '. The band lined up on last single to be released in the UK prior to finishing their world tour in , the aforementioned Since I Told You It's Over was scheduled for released in November. However, in September whilst in America touring the album, Stuart Cable was sacked by the two founding members of the band, Kelly and Richard, citing commitment issues as the sole reason for the departure.

Emotionally to me this is heartbreaking, I love him like a brother, but commitment-wise there have been issues since Just Enough Education To Perform.

Cable had pulled out of imminent and ongoing US tour dates citing ill health and had suspended his own touring regime at the advise of doctors, though the band were set to continue toruing without him, leaving him to return to the UK to recuperate.

Cable has always claimed that he knew nothing of his sacking until being confronted with it by the media. The band replaced him on the road with friend and former drummer for The Black Crowes , Steve Gorman. Gorman remained on tour with the band until they had completed every date, and even appeared in the video for bonus single Moviestar , a track that didn't make the original cut of the album, but was to be released as a single in it's own right.

Stuart Cable provided the drums tracks for the song in studio before his departure, but had already been sacked before the video had been shot. On the 20th December, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium would once again play host as the final gig of the world tour, and end a successful year on the road in which they had played in excess of over 60 gigs and festivals in no less than 14 different countries.

They ended a turbulent year on a high. A settlement was reached between the remaining members of the band and Cable as compensation for his axing, but the bitterness between the band, both current and former, was apparant, with Cable brandishing Jones a 'dictator'.

The recording process for new record was to take up the entirety of Writing for the album had taken place on the road between , and the band quickly put the disappointments of the previous year behind them and focused on recapturing the imaginations of their listeners.

After writing the bulk of the songs for the new record, which was set to throw back to the days of old, the band went into the studio to record the album demos. The band felt at this point that this process required a committed drummer. Steve Gorman was not considered as a full time replacement for Stuart Cable and Gorman later rejoined the reformed Black Crowes in As Weyler had assisted in recording demos for Stereophonics' new studio album, later on that year Kelly Jones and Richard Jones wrote to Javier inviting him to drum permanently within the band.