Gig review: Stereophonics

Published on Wednesday 3 December 2008 19:42

STEREOPHONICS SECC, GLASGOW

AFTER a fickle and critically very unkind decade in the business, Welsh indie rock conservatives the Stereophonics' capacity to sell out two consecutive nights at the SECC as part of their anniversary tour says a lot about the band's enduring knack for simply pleasing their fans.

How much they've pleased themselves is a different question – pint-sized frontman Kelly Jones's "thank you" to the crowd "for sticking by us for the past ten years" was delivered so world-wearily that you'd think he'd been selling them car insurance all that time. At points, as the giant screens zoomed in, he just looked bored.

No singer, of course, could be expected to leap out of bed in the morning thrilled with the prospect of slogging their way through the torpid likes of I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio. Certainly, during some of the louder and ballsier moments – Madame Helga and The Bartender and The Thief – the extra shovels of grit thrown into his gravelly growl were reason enough to believe that Jones was, at last, enjoying himself just a tad.

The ability to pen tunes of some artistic merit isn't beyond the Stereophonics: driving, post-punky closer Dakota – which was accompanied by gusts of smoke and glitter – is a decent song by most standards.

But perhaps being cynical about Jones's songwriting craft is to miss the point – he likely does his grinning offstage, comfortable in the knowledge that even if the music industry were to crumble in the next ten years, his would probably be the last band standing.