STEREOPHONICS // OPEN AIR THEATRE, SCARBOROUGH
Live music returns to this Yorkshire seaside town after almost two years, and the Stereophonics produce a career spanning set to some diehard fans.
★★★★☆ (4/5)
STEREOPHONICS PERFORMING AT OPEN AIR THEATRE, SCARBOROUGH - 28.07.2021
PICTURE BY: | JOHN HAYHURST AT SNAPAGIG.COM
I’ve waited over 16 months to see some live music again and The Stereophonics haven’t played live since their last triumphant UK tour ended in Cardiff on March 15th 2020. If anyone actually timed it right to end a tour in your hometown just before a pandemic took hold and shut everything down, it was this band. They were then due to take some time out to start writing and recording the next album, probably play a few festivals in the summer. Anyway, we all know how that ended, and when Kelly Jones & Co stroll out to this eager Yorkshire Seaside town crowd, he stifles a slight smile and a praying/clapping hands gesture to show that he too has really missed that incredible feeling of walking out on to a stage to perform.
We have in the crowd a couple of newlyweds who got a big cheer when they took their seats in full wedding dress and suits, not bad for a reception this place, but we were still waiting for a few to get through security with proof of a recent covid test - so there is a 15 minute delay. However, what's another 15 minutes when most of us haven’t seen live music since 2019.
Launching into ‘C’est La Vie’ we have a good uptempo track to get this crowd clapping and spilling their pints, there is no Kelly runway on this night, that must be safely packed away from the last tour, so he restricted his moves to just the side of the monitors for the first 2 songs, only ‘Bartender & The Thief’ forced him to come towards the front of the stage for a short while. A belter as track 3, that's a little different from their last tour as they normally save that one for just before the encore.
Maybe they could be switching it up a bit tonight and we might hear some new material – No!, not a chance, this is a one off show for the fans who have waited ages to see their heroes, and they have come from far and wide tonight, plenty of welsh flags around.
Jones is the man in black as usual, leather jacket and a polka dot neckscarf, and that trademark growling vocal is perfect for the acoustics around the tightly packed arena. Some on their feet already as a trio of favourites ‘Wouldn’t believe your radio’, ‘Have a nice day’ and ‘Mr Writer’ give way to a bit of a singalong. I’m not so keen on the slow numbers, but you have to pace yourself and there are signs of one or two blokes that have started a little too early on the sauce and peaked too soon. Which is a shame as the band save their best till last like all professional outfits do.
Thats exactly what The Stereophonic are, an incredibly tight professional unit, consistent in every way, maybe not quite breaking a sweat with running around the stage but I can’t imagine they ever have a bad gig, they have the songs and they space the not so familiar album tracks out, usually playing 3 from the big albums and 4 reserved for ‘Performance and Cocktails’, which in my view was certainly their pinnacle.
To break it up they insert an emotional rendition of ‘Handbags and Gladrags’, Jones’s warble surpassing Rod Stewart here tonight, and several people must have a bit of seaside sand in their eyes judging by their faces.
After that we are into the 4 personal favourites of mine, other than ‘More Life in a Tramps Vest’ you can’t go wrong with ‘Local Boy in the Photograph’ and ‘A thousand Trees’ taking us to an encore of ‘Just Looking’ and their No1 hit of ‘Dakota’ wrapping it up.
We have been starved of live music and tonight we gorged on an all you can eat buffet of brilliance, there was a little lull in the middle but after the 18 months we’ve had – who cares, live music is back and in good form.