Stereophonics come from the little village of Cwmaman in South Wales and are now on the way to become the greatest Welsh band (besides the Manics).

Knowing each other since they were kids and being officially together as a band since 1992 they became just in summer 1996 the first signing of Richard Branson's new founded label V2 (after changing their name from Tragic Love Company!).

In November 1996 they released their first single "Looks Like Chaplin" followed by supporting bands like the Manics (I saw them the first time when they supported the Manics at London's Brixton Academy in December 1996, and they were incredibly fantastic), Ocean Colour Scene, Skunk Anansie and the Who.
In March 1997 they released their next single "Local Boy In The Photograph" which went into the UK single charts at just No. 51 but in the next months Stereophonics became more and more successful and popular. They played not less than 100 gigs, their debut album released in August hit the UK charts at No. 6 (which shocked everybody as Stereophonics let know anyone) and the next three singles (More Life In A Tramps Vest, A Thousand Trees, Traffic) went all in the UK Top 40 single charts.

The hard work of 1997 finally payed off when Stuart Cable, Kelly Jones and Richard Jones received the Brit for "Best New band in the UK" in February 1998 (as voted by Radio 1 listeners).
In the first months of 1998 they toured very successfully in Europe, the USA and in Australia and had their first UK Top 20 Chart hit with the re-release of their single "Local Boy In The Photograph" in February

In June 1998 they played their biggest gig so far at the Cardiff Castle in front of ten thousand people! The gig was even released on video
The first single from their forthcoming album 'Performance And Cocktail' was 'The Bartender And The Thief' which entered the UK Charts at No. 3!!!
The next single "Just Looking" was released in February, which also entered the Top 5 single charts and the album, released on March 8, 1999 throughout Europe by V2, stormed the UK album charts at No. 1! They released their third single "Pick A Part That's New" which went into the charts at No. 4. The next months Stereophonics were (and still are) on tour promoting their album including the incredible and fantastic gig at the Morfa athletics stadium in Swansea at the end of July (and I had the luck to be there). Stereophonics toured in Australia in September, in America in October, a few gigs in Europe in November, and they will do a headliner tour in the UK in December.