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Wales Online
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Live updates as Stereophonics play to sold out Principality Stadium for second night
Stereophonics will take to the stage at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff again on Saturday evening as fans cram into the city on one of the hottest days of the year. The 'Phonics' Stadium Anthems tour fittingly culminates in the capital tonight for a supreme night of rock talent alongside The Blossoms from Stockport. Fans at the sold out concert will be treated to their expansive catalogue including smash hits like Dakota, Have A Nice Day, Maybe Tomorrow, and A Thousand Trees as well as songs from their new studio album. Our reviewer Portia Jones described the Cwmaman band's homecoming gig on Friday night as buzzing and charismatic, saying they're 'still belting out heartbreak and hope like it's 1999' again. We're here to bring you all the latest updates tonight including news, pictures and information about the event as well as traffic and travel updates. There have been train cancellations across the region for thousands of fans due to a rail line issue caused by the heat. TfW have warned that transport north of Pontypridd after the event "will be limited". And there are also long queues on the M4 after a crash shut two lanes. You can stay updated on that below. Roads are closed around the stadium from 3pm until midnight and there will be a special queuing system at Cardiff Central Railway Station. Gates at the Principality open at 5pm and the band is expected to take to the stage at around 8.15pm to 8.30pm. Follow our live coverage of this incident below and remember you can get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here
Wales Online
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Kelly Jones 'didn't think anyone would give a sh**' as he opens up on Stereophonics, getting older and 'the end of the road'
Kelly Jones 'didn't think anyone would give a sh**' as he opens up on Stereophonics, getting older and 'the end of the road' Stereophonics' thirteenth studio album Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait is 'classic Stereophonics' says Cwmaman's Kelly Jones but with a flavour of the band in 2025 (Image: James D Kelly ) "'I had no idea anyone would give a sh*t," Kelly Jones mused as he's asked, probably for the umpteenth time, about what the catalyst and thought process was behind his anthemic tributes to Welsh life back in the early to mid 1990s. Stereophonics have now been in the Welsh, and wider public consciousness, almost three decades and have just released their thirteenth album, Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait - the title of which was inspired by the singer-songwriter's art school teacher back in Pontypridd . The phrase has been worked into Stereophonics lore since Kelly was first told it while developing his other passion, screenwriting, back in that art school, their extensive back catalogue a mix of observational everyday scenes, emotions and situations that can make you laugh and blub in equal measure such is the 50-year-old's mean skill of songwriting - name me a valleys native who doesn't smile, revelling in the shouting of "OFFICE BLOCKS" from A Thousand Trees or get a shiver over the melancholic-but-optimistic Maybe Tomorrow. Article continues below From 1997's debut, Word Gets Around - home of tracks that paint a vivid picture of a certain corner of Welsh life like Local Boy in the Photograph and A Thousand Trees - to this year's new release, and everything in between (including corkers like Performance & Cocktails, Kind, Graffiti on the Train), the band at their best paint a picture of where they are, where Kelly is in that moment. Back at the start, Kelly's rigorous absorbing of what was around him in Cwmaman, a classic Welsh mining village burrowed into the valley almost, it's so far up and the rest of the Cynon Valley , wasn't seen by the writer as channelling emotion and feeling down on to the page but looking back, songwriting allowed those feelings to have an outlet. Local Boy is about a lad from the valley who died by jumping in front of a train, Goldfish Bowl documents a claustrophobic, aimless feeling all small town teens experience once in their life at least.. "When you first start, it's much more observational, it's about people, characters, stories, small town and then you have your own experiences, and those experiences are kind of the typical clichés you see in the world," said the Welsh frontman. "Then you get to a certain point, I suppose, for me, it was around album three or four, where you're starting to feel stuff. In your late '20s, almost 30 you start to not really know what anything means. You start writing things like, Maybe Tomorrow and I didn't really know what that was at the time. I think now 'maybe tomorrow, find your way home'. People will probably think it's about getting back home. But I think home is yourself, really? If you can find your way back to you, to yourself, then obviously you'll have a much more peaceful journey in yourself, I suppose." It's a very unsurprising introspective look at using personal situations and emotions to fuel creative output, but Kelly has come to appreciate that path he ended up on in life. Stereophonics pose for a photoshoot at Las Iguanas in Cardiff way back in 1997 (Image: Mirrorpix ) "In hindsight, being older, I think having the outlet probably really helped me in life because when you do feel a lot. You are sensitive to a lot," said Kelly who chats to us after returning from an Easter weekend back in Wales with his family that was filled with Easter roast dinners and mountain walks. "I know a lot of my friends who I grew up with and from school didn't have that outlet. I didn't know then I felt a lot, and I didn't know I was sensitive to stuff. "It's funny when you look back at your work, as you get older and have a family and do other things in life, you get to know yourself a lot better. I suppose in your '20s and '30s, you're constantly running at very high speeds, and you're not really looking at yourself. "You're going and going and going and you're just doing work as you go along. But I suppose I was doing the work and it was kind of a blessing. A huge distraction from yourself, perhaps, as well. And then when you stop, you start really seeing what you are experiencing in life, and use that in your work. I'm glad that I had somewhere to put it all, because I've got a really fast mind, and I can't keep up with it sometimes." It was perhaps that fast mind that allowed Kelly, along with Stuart Cable and Richard Jones - who all grew up on the same street in Cwmaman - to channel that energy into going for it as a band, and after years of dedicated rehearsals factored in between playing local football, Sunday dinners and working on the market stall they were signed by Richard Branson's V2 in 1996. It seems to be a feat Kelly still can't get his head around, "I don't really know what drove us to do it," he said. "It was an incredible commitment, every Thursday, every Sunday, rehearsing, and then Richard joined the ship about 1994/ 95. That drive to something that there was no f*cking possible chance of think about it, [where we were from] literally was a dead-end street. You go to the end of the road, there's a place where we rehearsed, and then there's a f*cking mountain. You can't drive through it, people say they live on a dead-end street, we literally did live on a dead-end street. "So I don't really know what drove us to do it. I've got no idea. It was just an ongoing commitment that we silently made to ourselves, and it just went on and on until somebody else heard it and recognised it and reacted to it, and then it became what it became. "But at 18, sitting on my bedroom floor writing Local Boy in a Photograph, A Thousand Trees, I had no idea that anybody would give a shit about it. It's quite strange, really." Kelly and Richard with Stereophonics' rhythym section, Adam Zindani and Jamie Morrison (Image: James D Kelly ) We go on to talk about the new album, originally mooted as a second Best Of..., the first, Decade in the Sun, was out in 2008 but Kelly just had too many new original tracks. 2022's Oochya! saw a return to the studio for the band post-pandemic and was a classic album length of 15 songs. Kelly knew with Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait he wanted to do it a bit differently, taking lessons he'd learned from his solo album Inevitable Incredible about the track-listing length and being able to reconnect with his own writing. "What I learned from the solo record was eight songs is a cool attention span [length] in 2025 - it's about 40 minutes so it felt really concise. I narrowed it down until I got eight that I felt connected to. And I just wanted to make a record that was like a classic Stereophonics album, but in an album of us in 2025," said the lead singer of the Stereophonics, who is joined in the line up by lifelong friend, bassist Richard, as well as rhythm guitarist Adam Zindani and drummer Jamie Morrison. "There are elements of all of our styles within it, but I'm talking about where I'm at in my life right now," he continued. "But I think if you're a Stereophonics fan from the beginning to now, it ticks a lot of boxes. It got a lot of anthemic stuff and it's got a very melodic stuff." Going back to the title Kelly elaborates on how he took that lesson from decades before and has used it ever since with the 'Phonics. "He just said, 'make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em wait' and I've always used that with the band's set lists. You start with a big song and it takes people through anecdotes. You make them laugh with a few stories. Then you play the song that makes people cry, and then at the end, you make them wait for the anticipation on the show. So it's always kind of been there that thread the beginning and it just felt like the right time to stick that on an album title." The new album cover (Image: James D Kelly ) While it's a useful directive for an album or gig setlist, the impact of Stereophonics songs on the fans - laughter or tears - doesn't really cross Kelly's mind while writing but he does recognise they are charged with emotion, these days. "I try not to go near how they affect other people," he shared honestly. "At the time I'm writing them, I try to write as honestly and as vulnerably as I can. Don't get me wrong, I've written some f*cking, rock and roll B-sides that don't mean anything," he said. "But the ones that we're talking about, the ones that do that thing, I'm aware of it at the time I'm writing them, like the song, This Life Ain't Easy on the Kind album, or Fly Like an Eagle, those types of songs. They were very, very emotional songs, to both write and perform, Songs are hard to perform without losing yourself in them. You have to pull yourself back a bit and have a look for an exit sign in the corner. Sometimes you can just perform stuff and it doesn't really affect you at all. And then other times if there are things going on in your life, the meaning of the song takes on a new interpretation. I've never really tried to talk about a lot of my songs in terms of interpretation. It's for audiences to figure out what they mean to them. I don't really hold anything back. So I guess if there is stuff I'm going through and it is stuff I'm feeling, then it does get onto the page, and I try to get it onto the performance and the production." Writing in that way must bear a hell of a weight on a person, I ask Kelly how he washes off that day where he's spent a chunk of time writing or recording and it's a simple answer - his kids, who keep him grounded for sure. Kelly is dad to four, Colby, 20, Misty, 18 who he shares with ex-partner Rebecca Walters and Riley, nine and Marley, five, with wife Jakki Healey. "They take up so much of that energy, and it's just about finding that balance," he said, adding that his writing sessions at home take place behind a closed door. He joked on being asked what they all think of the music: "I don't think they do!" Adding that working on the music writing can take a back seat to the school run. "The most peculiar thing for an outsider to understand is that you go out, you do the job, you play Mexico City where people meet you at the airport. You play the show and everybody's crying and singing and then when you come home you're handing out Lakers jerseys and T-shirts - the kids don't really ask you one question about the show. I've never really brought it home in that way," adding:. "I close the door if I'm practising on the piano and the guitar, and they tell me to shut up because they're watching Bluey." Dad-of-four, Kelly, is kept down to earth by his four kids (Image: James D Kelly ) It's now just a few months until the Stereophonics perform at the Principality Stadium, on July 11 and 12. His kids will come and experience the biggest of home gigs for the band, and Richard and Kelly especially three years on from the last sell out performances at the giant venue. Kelly's parents, Arwyn and Beryl, will also be there - Arwyn recently returned to his own on-stage passion, performing with his old band, Oscar Jones and the Kingfishers. It's a tight family unit and this extends to the band, too. Together as best mates since they were three-years-old, Kelly and Richard's friendship is the backbone of the band and the ever-so-slightly younger Jones paid a heartfelt tribute to the bassist who isn't related to him, but you feel they might as well be. "He's like John Wayne, you know, he's the kind of bed that I lie on, you know?" said Kelly who was born in the same hospital and went to the same school as his bandmate. "He's the rock in the band and always has been. Me and Stuart used to be like two cats in a bag and he'd be the one telling us to shut up. When I was younger and mouthing off it was probably because I had him in the background. "I don't ever want to do anything without Richard, even if I want to do other things, and it's called something different. I still want him to be there with me. He's a true friend and he's a brother, really. So, yeah, he is a constant, and I love having him around. And he's always known what to do and what not to do." Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait is out now via EMI. The band play the Principality Stadium on July 11 and 12. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here . Article continues below
