LIVE: Stereophonics - Cardiff Castle - 3rd Oct 2009
Sunday, 04 October 2009
Written by Saard
Stereophonics, supported by the GLC, set Cardiff Castle jumping this Saturday afternoon when their special, one-off gig finally landed.
Cardiff Castle is an unusual venue. It doesn’t seem that big from the outside, but when you pass through the huge, reinforced gates it all gets a bit Tardis. The fairy-tale buildings and battlements can’t help but add something special to a performance inside. It’s also a good job they knew how to build them sturdy back then, otherwise the Phonics and their fans would have done some serious structural damage.
Goldie Lookin' Chain opened and there couldn’t have been a better warm-up act for the day. The GLC pumped some extra energy and humour into the grey, drizzle-soaked afternoon and got the crowd jumping, cheering and singing along to a, sadly brief, set of their hits including ‘Guns Don’t Kill People (rappers do)’, ‘Your Missus is a Nutter’ and ‘Your Mother has a Penis’.
The rain, which hadn’t quite decided what to do, showed its support by soaking everybody just as the Phonics came on stage. Kelly, Richard, Javier and Adam opened with a new song “she’s all right”, which was greeted with polite enthusiasm, followed by ‘a Thousand Tree’s’ which made the crowd go nuts and ‘Tramps Vest’ which made the crowd go nutser.
Some bands just aren’t good live. Stereophonics aren’t one of them. Every song was as strong as a studio recording, with Jones’ powerful voice belting out over the instruments and driving such energy and enthusiasm into the roaring crowd that the rain practically evaporated two feet above their heads.
“They managed to turn an open air gig,” commented one fan, Peter, “into an intimate gig.” He was spot on, whether it was the venue, the band or a combination, it didn’t seem like there could possibly be the thousands that were supposed to be there, it was far too friendly and cosy. Then, the fans start singing and you’re in no doubt about how many people are in there and friendly and cosy suddenly becomes… whatever it becomes when 7,000 people are involved. That would be a hell of group hug.
Around four tracks from the new album ‘Keep Calm and Carry on’ were performed by the boys (it’s hard to keep track with a pen and paper in the middle of a crowd, even a cosy one). These included ‘She’s All Right’, ‘Innocent’, ‘I got your Number’ and ‘Trouble’. The songs seemed more like classic Stereophonics, with slightly heavier guitar here and there and even a punky edge from ‘Trouble’
Of their back-catalogue, they played ‘The Bartender & the Thief’ (crowd sang nearly as loud as Kelly), ‘Mr Writer’ (with leg-shaking bass), ‘Handbags & Gladrags’ (set the crowd a-swaying), ‘Pick a Part that’s New’ (which prompted the following exchange – Woman 1: This is my favourite! Woman 2: They’re all my favourites!) and ‘Traffic’ (the best sing-a-long song of the night). They played quite a few others besides, but I wont list them all.
“I was supposed to be working til 6 today. I got a day off and it was worth it. The Stereophonics brought us through the rain.” said a hugely grinning Jess from Cardiff and she was not the only one with those feelings. A happy, grinning crowd staggered out at the end, with a large amount of the people at the North Gate singing Phonics classics and a few rugby songs as they spilled out onto the street.
So that was the end of a brilliant gig. The end.
Having said that, it’s worth rewinding the crowds back in through the gates and the band back onto the stage for a minute because Kelly Jones said an interesting thing just before the end. It was this:
“Next Summer, we’re going to do something big in Wales. It’s going to be something huge, something special and something we’ve never done before.”
What could that be? Ideas anyone?
Here are some pics from the gig!
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Cardiff Castle is an unusual venue. It doesn’t seem that big from the outside, but when you pass through the huge, reinforced gates it all gets a bit Tardis. The fairy-tale buildings and battlements can’t help but add something special to a performance inside. It’s also a good job they knew how to build them sturdy back then, otherwise the Phonics and their fans would have done some serious structural damage.
