Stereophonics' Wild Night Ride
Welsh rockers Stereophonics' atmospheric park concert shows why the indie band are still around after 11 years
By:Sandra Leong
NO-FRILLS Brit rock was the order of the day at the Stereophonics gig at Fort Canning Park on Monday night.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist Richard Jones and drummer Javier Weyler showed a packed crowd of 5,000 revellers just why they have endured in the indie music scene for 11 years since the release of their debut album Word Gets Around in 1997.
The Welsh outfit have arguably achieved less of mainstream success than, say, Blur or Oasis, better-known Brit bands that gained notoriety in the late 1990s. But true to their underdog reputation, their following has not waned.
The mainly expat audience, some of whom flew Union Jacks or the Welsh dragon standard, started gathering at the venue from 6.30pm. Local band The Great Spy Experiment came on at about 8pm for a 30 minute opening performance.
At 9pm, the main act strolled onstage and launched into Bank Holiday Monday, an energetic track of their latest album Pull The Pin.
The focus was indubitably on songwriter Kelly Jones, the frontman with the trademark pin-up looks and raspy vocals. Sweltering in a leather jacket, he tore through a 1 1/2 hour retrospective of Stereophonics favourites that included recent songs such as Pass The Buck to Traffic and Thousand Trees, from their debut album.
Apart from bassist jones and drummer Weyler, the band were also supported by touring members, keyboardist Tony Kirkham and guitarist Adam Zindani. (Incidentally, it was Kirkham's birthday and the band members got the fans to sing him a birthday song towards the end of the gig)
The atmosphere went up a notch with Mr Writer, one of their biggest hits written as a diatribe against the media.
kelly Jones finally broke for conversation just before It Means Nothing, the lead single from Pull The Pin.
"We wrote this just after the bombings in London," he said before crooning the slow ballad inspired by the terror attacks of 2005. The lyrics:"If the bomb goes off again/In my brain or on the train/Then I hope that I'm with you/Cos I wouldn't know what to do."
After a perfunctory pre-encore exit offstage, he returned onstage solo for a stripped down, singalong rendition of the band's 2003 hit Maybe Tomorrow. The night then ended with the anthemic Dakota, which sent the crowd into a head banging frenzy.
"If you ride a bike at night, wear white", said Kelly Jones cryptically before leaving the stage. Whatever he meant by that, the ride was great, thank you.
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