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Stereophonics
Left-to-right: Javier Weyler, Kelly Jones and Richard Jones
Background information
Origin	Cwmaman, Wales
Genre(s)	Indie rock Alternative rock Britpop Rock
Years active	1992 – present
Label(s)	V2 Records, Vox Populi Records
Website	Stereophonics.com
Members
Kelly Jones Richard Jones Javier Weyler
Former members
Stuart Cable Steve Gorman

Stereophonics is a band originating from Wales with members Kelly Jones, Richard Jones and Javier Weyler. Kelly and Richard grew up together in the village of Cwmaman, near Aberdare in South Wales. Kelly and Richard, along with original drummer Stuart Cable, began writing and performing in working men’s clubs together in 1992 as a teenage cover band.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Formation and early years 1.2 Signing and Brit Award 1.3 Just Enough Education to Perform 1.4 You Gotta Go There to Come Back 1.5 New drummer appointed and Language. Sex. Violence. Other? 1.6 Live from Dakota 1.7 Other projects 1.8 Pull the Pin 2 Charting 2.1 Singles 2.2 Albums 3 Band members 3.1 Current Full-time members 3.2 Live Band members 3.3 Previous members 4 Songs in pop culture 5 Discography 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Official band websites 8.2 Band member websites 8.3 Fan sites

The three-piece began writing and performing music in working men’s clubs together in 1992 as a teenage cover band known as 'Tragic Love Company', a name inspired by their favourite bands Tragically Hip, Mother Love Bone and Bad Company, although initially they were known as "Blind Faith" - but quickly renamed after discovering that Eric Clapton had a band of that name. The band later changed their name to "The Stereophonics", named after the manufacturer of then drummer Stuart Cable's Fathers record player. ^[1]

In March 1996 the band played a gig at their local Coliseum Theatre with Catatonia and Pocket Devils. They played as Tragic Love Company and so impressed Jo Brand, a respected manager within the music industry, he signed a management deal with them after the concert.^[2]

In May 1996 the band were signed to a newly formed record label, V2. The record label was created by Richard Branson and were the first artist to be signed. Upon signing, they dropped "The" from their name and simply became "Stereophonics".

In February 1998 the band received a BRIT Award for the Best New Group. In the same week the band re-released the single "Local Boy in the Photograph" which in turn, reached position 14 in the UK Singles Chart. The band's debut album, Word Gets Around, also went "Gold" in the UK from the heightened publicity .

In November 1998, The Bartender and the Thief, the first single from Performance and Cocktails, was released. It hit number three on the UK charts. "Just Looking", was released next and reached number 4 in March 1999. The same month the much anticipated new album was finally released, entering at number 1 and within three weeks went platinum. Later that year the band played in front of 50,000 people at Morfa Stadium in Swansea. They also collaborated with Tom Jones on a cover of the Randy Newman song Mama Told Me Not To Come for his album Reload.

Throughout 1998 and 1999 the band toured in Europe, Australia and the USA. On June 12, 1998 Stereophonics played to over 10,000 spectators in the grounds of Cardiff Castle in Wales. Footage of the concert was released in VHS and DVD titled Live at Cardiff Castle. The band took a break during 2000 as well as recording their third studio album.

The band released their third album, Just Enough Education to Perform in April 2001. The album included the critical track "Mr. Writer" which was widely disliked by critics due to its lyrics targeting the media. The song caused controversy which in turn caused a lot of bad publicity for the band by the main stream media. As well as this the album contained one of the band's most famous tracks, Have a nice day which reached #5 in the UK charts.

To promote the new album, Just Enough Education to Perform, they [Stereophonics] played a two day festival which was called "A Day at the Races". The two day concert was held at Donington Park on the first day and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on the second. The concerts were supported by Ash, Black Crowes and Proud Mary. Over 200,000 separate tickets were sold for the weekend festival in total. The performance was released on a DVD in 2002.

2003 saw the release of their fourth album, with the title You Gotta Go There to Come Back. Drummer Stuart Cable was sacked from the band due to reported commitment issues, Cable at the time presented a TV show called "Cable TV" and felt that the band would never improve. Because of this he missed several rehearsals and live concerts. He was eventually replaced by present drummer Javier Weyler. ^[3] Steve Gorman, The Black Crowes Drummer stood in for the bands live performances until Javier Weyler was appointed.

Towards the end of the year they did a sold-out tour of the UK, ending with a Christmas show at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, supported by Feeder and Ocean Colour Scene. The meeting of the three most critically reviled British bands of the period was well received by fans, who danced the night away -- one young lad stripping off his tracksuit and streaking across the stage. The group took a break after their 2003-2004 world tour, which included a set at the Manchester Move Festival in July 2004.

Their fifth studio album Language. Sex. Violence. Other? was released in March 2005; it marked their first recordings with their new drummer, Javier Weyler. The band grabbed their first number 1 hit in the UK singles charts with the album's first single, the punky, upbeat "Dakota". The second single from the album, "Superman" was a growling, Black Sabbath-inspired rocker. This song however did not repeat the success of "Dakota", peaking at number 13 in the charts, partly due to limited radio airplay. After "Superman" came "Devil", which featured a controversial video and reached number 11 in the charts. The album was nominated for a Pop Factory award at the end of the year, losing out to Feeder's Pushing the Senses.

The band played in Vancouver, Canada in April of 2005 with opening band The Manvils. Following the concert, Kelly Jones invited The Manvils lead guitarist, fellow Welshman Mark Parry to join Stereophonics on the road as second guitarist in the band for their world tour.

On July 2, 2005, the group appeared at the Live 8 concert, in Hyde Park, London, playing to their biggest audience yet.

The band were scheduled to support Oasis for a number of dates across Europe in early 2006, but pulled out due to family commitments. After taking a break, they are currently working on their next album. In a diary entry on the bands official website, made on the 15 May 2006, Jones talked about how he felt that the new album was their best yet, and those who had heard the demos gave similar sentiments.

2006 also saw the release of Stereophonics first live album Live from Dakota. The album is a 2-disc compilation featuring 20 tracks spanning all five of the band's albums and capturing the best of their 2005 world tour. Rather than being a recording of single show, every night of the tour was recorded and the band picked out the best version of each song individually. The album also features a track by the title of Jayne. This track was later released as part of Kelly Jones' solo Album "Only the names have been changed"

On October 9, 2007 the band saw the US release of their retrospective DVD entitled Rewind: The First 10 Years. A double disc with a runtime of nearly four hours, it traces the entire band history with live and behind-the-scenes footage dating from their earliest gigs to sold-out arena tours. Availability coincides with the US re-release of the Language.Sex.Violence.Other? DVD, and the worldwide digital debut of their latest studio album, Pull the Pin.

In 2007 Lead singer Kelly Jones released a solo album titled "Only the names have been changed" while recording the band's sixth studio album, Pull the Pin. The album contains 10 tracks all named after a woman and features a simple arrangement of guitar, piano and subtle strings. The album also includes the song Jayne, a previously unreleased Stereophonics track featured on the live album Live from Dakota, and the Rewind DVD.

Drummer Javier Weyler also released a solo album titled Lagrima in 2007 under the persona Capitan Melao. The name Capitan means captain in Spanish and Melao is a Latin American slang word for swing, rhythm or soul.

Stereophonics' announced in late April the name of their forthcoming album Pull the Pin, which was released in the UK on 15 October 2007, along with a download-only taster; "Bank Holiday Monday". The track was also available for free to people who pre-order tickets for the band's concerts in 2007. The album was written and recorded by November 2006, but held back for release until late 2007.^[4] It Means Nothing is the frontier single of the album, released in September before the LP was released a week later on October 15th. The album contains 12 songs and reached number 1 in the UK's Official album chart.

Chart date	Single	Position
May 1997	More Life in a Tramp's Vest	33
Aug 1997	A Thousand Trees	22
Nov 1997	Traffic	20
Feb 1998	Local Boy in the Photograph	14
Nov 1998	The Bartender and the Thief	3
Mar 1999	Just Looking	4
May 1999	Pick a Part That's New	4
Sep 1999	I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio	11
Nov 1999	Hurry Up and Wait	11
Mar 2001	Mr. Writer	5
Jun 2001	Have a Nice Day	5
Oct 2001	Step on My Old Size Nines	16
Dec 2001	Handbags and Gladrags	4
Apr 2002	Vegas Two Times	23
May 2003	Madame Helga	4
Aug 2003	Maybe Tomorrow	3
Sep 2003	Maybe Tomorrow (Re-Entry)	40
Nov 2003	Since I Told You It's Over	16
Feb 2004	Moviestar	5
Mar 2005	Dakota	1
Jul 2005	Superman	13
Oct 2005	Devil	11
Dec 2005	Rewind	17
Oct 2007	It Means Nothing	12
Dec 2007	My Friends	32

Chart Date	Album	Position
Sep 1997	Word Gets Around	6
Mar 1999	Performance and Cocktails	1
Apr 2001	Just Enough Education to Perform	1
Jun 2002	Just Enough Education to Perform (Re-Entry)	27
Jun 2003	You Gotta Go There to Come Back	1
Jul 2003	Just Enough Education to Perform (Re-Entry)	37
Aug 2003	Just Enough Education to Perform (Re-Entry)	34
Jan 2004	Performance and Cocktails (Re-Entry)	25
Feb 2004	You Gotta Go There to Come Back (Re-Issue)	35
Sep 2004	You Gotta Go There to Come Back (Re-Entry)	16
Mar 2005	Language.Sex.Violence.Other?	1
Apr 2006	Live from Dakota	13
Oct 2007	Pull the Pin	1

• Kelly Jones (vocals, guitar, keyboards, main songwriter)
• Richard Jones (bass guitar, vocals)
• Javier Weyler (drums, percussion)

• Tony Kirkham (keyboards)
• Adam Zindani (guitar)

• Stuart Cable (drums, percussion, vocals) 1992 - 2003
• Steve Gorman (drums, percussion) 2003 (touring member only)
• Scott James (guitar) 2001 - 2006 (touring member only)
• Aileen McLaughlin (backing vocals - live) 2002 - 2003
• Anna Ross (backing vocals - live) 2002 - 2003

• "Drowning" (from Pull the Pin) was used in the beginning of an episode of the TV show Moonlight.

• "Rewind", season one (2006), t.v. show "Friday Night Lights".

• "Maybe Tomorrow" (from You Gotta Go There to Come Back) is featured over the end titles of the film "Crash", which won the Academy Award for Best Film in 2006. It is also used in the 2004 psychological thriller Wicker Park, in episodes of Charmed, Cold Case, One Tree Hill, Traveler and Smallville ("Phoenix").

• "I'm Alright" from "You Gotta Go There to Come Back" is featured and discussed in great detail in a second season episode of the TV Series South of Nowhere.

• "Have a Nice Day" (from Just Enough Education to Perform) is featured in Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn Of The Dead".

• "Help Me (She's Outta Her Mind)" (from You Gotta Go There to Come Back) is featured in the Vince Vaughn film "Dodgeball".

• "High as the Ceiling" (from You Gotta Go There to Come Back)was featured in a 2005 commercial for a Nissan sports utility vehicle.

• "Devil" (from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?) is featured Dennis Leary's TV show Rescue Me in Season 3 Episode 1.

• "Dakota" (from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?) is featured in an episode of the TV Show "Veronica Mars".

• "Rewind" (from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?) is featured in an episode of the CBS TV series Cold Case.

• "Superman" (from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?) is featured in an episode of Smallville.

• "Long Way Round" is a song written and performed by Kelly Jones specifically for Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman as the main theme for their 2004 travel documentary "Long Way Round". The song is included as a B-Side track on the single Dakota.

• "Pick a Part That's New" is featured in a 2000 film, Antitrust, starring Ryan Phillippe.

• "Just Looking" (from Performance and Cocktails) is featured in the Marc Evans film "Snow Cake".

• "Just Looking" is also featured in British film "This Years Love".

Pick a Part That's New and Roll Up and Shine were included on the dvd entitled "Roy Keane: As I See It", about the legendary former Manchester United captain.

Main article: Stereophonics discography

• Live from London (iTunes)

• Official website
• Official MySpace page

• Cider Lolly Brown
• Only the names have been changed MySpace

• StereoBase
• wordgetsaround.org

v • d • e Stereophonics
Band Members: Kelly Jones • Richard Jones • Javier Weyler • Tony Kirkham • Adam Zindani
Studio albums	Word Gets Around (1997) • Performance and Cocktails (1999) • Just Enough Education to Perform (2001) • You Gotta Go There to Come Back (2003) • Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (2005) • Pull the Pin (2007)
Live album	Live from Dakota (2006)
Singles	Please see the full discography
DVDs	Live at Cardiff Castle (1998) • Live at Morfa Stadium (1999) • Call Us What You Want But Don't Call Us in the Morning (2000) • Day at the Races (2002) • Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (2006) • Rewind (2007)
Record labels: V2 Records • Vox Populi Records (US) • RMG Chart (Ireland) • Sony Music (France) • Rough Trade (Germany)