StereoPhoNics RichaRd JoNes

Rip It Up, Issue 248, 1 April 1998, Page 13

StereoPhoNics Richaßd JoNes

"14. means a lot to us as it was voted J r by the listeners of Radio One, our fans," Jones explains. "So they've taken the trouble to get up off their arses, pay the phone bill and vote for us and it's nice to go on tour and thank them for it as well. ]f the fans back us 100% then we'll do the best we can for them." Their debut album, Word Gets Around, has also gone gold in Britain, but this isn't a Cinderella story. Guitarist/vocalist Kelly Jones and drummer Stuart Cable have been in bands together for about 10 years, and the current Stereophonies line-up has been in existence for around half that. Prior to the band, the trio grew up with older brothers and sisters who instilled in the young Stereos a love for the rich variety and heritage of rock 'n' roll. "We like anything from Otis Redding to

Prodigy and everything in between like punk, Bob Marley, ska, whoever writes good songs," says Jones. That explains why their new version of Local Boy in the Photograph EP contains covers of Creedence Clearwater's 'Who'll Stop the Rain', and the Eagles' hoary old 'The Last Resort'.

Anyway the band's big break happened when they met two New Zealand producers in London. Jones picks up the story. "Yes, our producers are from New Zealand - Marshall Bird and Steve Bush. They moved to London five years ago and we bumped into them there when we were supporting a band called Smalltown Heroes that they were producing. After the show they said they were interested in doing a demo with us." .

Rugby rivalry in the studio then? - "Yes, the last time we were in the studio which was last December, New Zealand was playing Wales and so there was a bit of a showdown between our producers and Stuart and Kelly who are big rugby fans." And the Stereophonies are passionate about their music as well. At a time when a segment of rock 'n' roll is going 10-fi and using understatement to insinuate emotional power, these boyos are delivering bold, unbridled and articulate Welsh passion. Just like the Manic Street Preachers, fellow countrymen that they're endlessly, but appropriately, compared to. "In the UK and Europe the comparisons have stopped especially since our album came out. But we've been compared to Nirvana, the Police,

"When we went into the studio there was only one part to the story as Kelly had only written the first two verses. When he finished the song he turned it around a bit where he was the one doing the messing around instead of his girlfriend. H's one of my live favourites and we put a lot of passion into it. We always like to get emotion across and involve the lyrics as well."

The Stereophonies are due to play Auckland this month. Earlier this year they headlined the NME Bratbus Tour. Was this a major reason for their current rising status? "]n a way, but we'd done four to five tours of Britain of 600 capacity venues before we did the Bratbus Tour. We didn't really wanna get involved in that tour as the NME never really backed us, so we were wary and we only agreed to do it if we headlined as we'd reached a certain stature and to be second or third on the bill would've been a step backwards. Our success has been a surprise, but we've put in the hard work so it's not like a big-headed surprise."

George