FADE OUT Stereophonics, "Local Boy in the Photograph" from Word Gets Around, 1997.

FADE IN PRESENTER.

 

PRESENTER:

What I loved about this album was the personal and local feel to it. Kelly Jones studied Film and TV Scriptwriting in college, and like the best writers, he wrote about what he knew — tales of people’s day-to-day lives —in songs such as “Too Many Sandwiches”, where he pokes fun at wedding receptions. “A Thousand Trees” describes the town gossip after a beloved football coach is accused of a crime. A boy plans suicide in front of a train in “Local Boy in the Photograph”, and the boredom of a job at a fruit and vegetable stand is observed in “More Life in a Tramps Vest.”

 

Here was a band that anyone could relate to. And, along with their pure talent and Kelly Jones’ emphatic vocal, it seemed the Welsh trio was the perfect package, and what was needed at this time in the mainstream music scene. During nineteen ninety-seven and nineteen ninety-eight, the dedicated and hardworking Stereophonics performed around one hundred shows, including a world tour and a rare concert at Cardiff Castle on the twelfth of June, nineteen ninety-eight. The last band to play at the venue was the Rolling Stones back in the nineteen seventies. The year was topped off with “Word Gets Around” going gold. And this is an example of why.

 

FADE IN  Stereophonics, “Looks Like Chaplin” from Word Gets Around, 1997