Well, they may have been going for 30 years now but Stereophonics are still at the top of their game, and as popular, as ever as shown by the sell-out Utilita tonight. As usual they never put a foot wrong, and Kelly Jones was in an unusually good mood from the start – he sometimes looks a bit serious. Telling stories about the time when they first got together, they hadn’t got a van and had some sort of old industrial trolley, with a cracking punch line. The music was a mix full of old classic hits and songs from their latest album, ‘Make ’em Laugh, Make ’em Cry, Make ’em Wait’. Three of the new tracks were performed tonight and let me tell you they transfer to the live stage perfectly, and were quite heavy rockers, which was great to see. No doubt they will become live favourites; the problem is that they have so many great songs it must be a nightmare picking the set list.

Kelly Jones is a great frontman, who can manipulate an audience – which incidentally has a broad span of ages, showing they are still picking up fans – to do whatever he wants them to do, and a timeless voice to go with it. It was great to see all the band had a chance to show how good they are, and when the video screens showed photos of the band over the years, it is obvious the bond that they have. And on the subject of screens, the whole production was marvellous, with dramatic lighting, fantastic visuals and a spot on sound, what a night. They finished the evening with ‘Dakota’, but don’t even ask what the highlight of the night was, in one word: IMPOSSIBLE.

We know the Stereophonics are one of the busiest touring bands out there, and the crowd will be hoping they get another chance to lose their voices – and believe me, they sang that hard – again very soon, us included.

Photos – Geoff Griffe
Review – Jennifer Griffe