After a huge summer playing across the UK and Ireland on their Stadium Anthems tour, some high-profile festival slots and an arena tour pencilled in for later in the year. It's been a busy one for Stereophonics.
Now seems as good a time as any to give you my favourite Stereophonics songs.
Released as the final single from the band’s second album ‘Performance and Cocktails’, it’s a mid-tempo affair, which comes as a welcome respite on the record. Acting as the calm after the storm of ‘The Bartender and the Thief’, the track shows a more reflective side of the Stereophonics. Lyrically, it captures the frustration of wasted time and the monotony of waiting for something to happen, themes that resonated with fans and showcased Kelly Jones’ knack for storytelling in everyday situations.
Chart-wise, the single performed strongly, peaking at Number 11 on the UK Singles Chart in 1999. Its accompanying music video also left a mark, playfully parodying the 1970s film M*A*S*H with the band cast as army medics in a satirical wartime setting.
While it didn’t break into the Top 10 like some of their bigger anthems, ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ has endured as a fan favourite, precisely because of its understated charm. It balances grit with melody, proving that the band were capable of more than just swaggering rockers. It's a song that, in the later years of the band, does not get played as much, but when it does. It receives one of the biggest cheers of the night.
I've been listening to Stereophonics since I was a child, and it took me a long time to find this song, but I'm glad I did.
Released on the band's 1997 debut album 'Word Gets Around', this song shows Kelly Jones' vivid and imaginative storytelling. It's one of the very best examples of this in the band's early work, and sits alongside 'A Thousand Trees' and 'Local Boy in the Photograph' as some of the band's best portrayals of small-town life.
Inspired by a true crime story Kelly Jones came across in a newspaper, the song recounts a murder case where the killer was identified because he and the victim wore the same size shoes. With its ominous riff and brooding vocal delivery, the track adds a haunting edge to an album otherwise celebrated for capturing small-town stories and everyday characters.
Though never released as a single, ‘Same Size Feet’ quickly became a cult favourite among fans, admired for its cinematic storytelling and stark atmosphere. Live, it carried even more weight, with its heavy, deliberate pacing creating an eerie intensity that contrasted sharply with the band’s more anthemic numbers. One of the song’s most poignant moments came at T in the Park 2010, when the band dedicated it to their former drummer Stuart Cable, who had tragically passed away just days before. With frontman Kelly Jones stating, "it was one of Stuart's favourite Stereophonics songs."
'Mr. Writer' remains one of the most iconic tracks from Stereophonics’ career, a raw and powerful expression of frustration that is as much about the media as it is about the personal toll of fame. The song, which features on their third album 'Just Enough Education to Perform', serves as a direct response to a journalist.
At the time, Kelly Jones, the band's frontman and chief songwriter, was furious with how the band had been portrayed by the press. In an interview, he explained that 'Mr. Writer' was written in a fit of anger after a journalist who had accompanied the band on tour for a while published a critical review. The band had given the journalist behind-the-scenes access, yet instead of receiving understanding or empathy, they were harshly judged. Jones, known for his honesty and authenticity in songwriting, quickly penned the lyrics to 'Mr. Writer', venting his frustration with the media, fame, and the pressures of being constantly scrutinised. He later remarked that it only took him "fifteen minutes to write the song, and fifteen years to explain it."
The song’s lyrics are sharp and emotionally charged, with Jones addressing the writer directly: "Mr Writer, why don't you tell it like it really is, why don't you tell it like it really is".
Musically, 'Mr Writer' marked a departure from the more upbeat, straightforward rock sound of the band's earlier hits. The track is darker and more brooding, with a deep, atmospheric tone that perfectly complements its heavy lyrical content. The song opens with a hauntingly simple guitar riff before it gradually builds into a more expansive arrangement, weaving together acoustic guitars and distorted electric sounds. Dare I say it, it's one of the most psychedelic things the band have ever done
Despite its angsty origins, 'Mr. Writer' went on to become one of the band's most memorable tracks, and it played a key role in the success of Just Enough Education to Perform. The song hit No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and quickly became a mainstay in the setlist.
The final single from 'Language. Sex. Violence. Other?' and a criminally underrated and overlooked song in the band's discography. It had the unfortunate luck to follow three of the band's most loved tracks, 'Dakota', 'Superman' and 'Devil', all of which ended up on the band's only Best Of album 'Decade in the Sun'.
However, 'Rewind' perfectly combines the old and new; it's an alternative rock-sounding banger, but showcases Kelly's brilliant storytelling and has some of the hardest-hitting Stereophonics lyrics ever put on record.
"'Cause change is okay What's the point in staying the same Regrets, forget what's dead and gone."
"It's your time
It's your day
It's never too late
To change lanes."
The song was written and recorded during a time of huge change for Stereophonics, the original line-up was no more, Stuart Cable had been kicked out of the band, Jones was fed up with the sound they'd developed on 2003's 'You Gotta Go There to Come Back' and these new songs were a massive step in a different direction. 'Rewind' acts as a snapshot of where Stereophonics were at that time.
When ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ was released in 1999, Stereophonics were quickly becoming one of Britain’s defining rock bands. The track, lifted from their second album ‘Performance and Cocktails’, is a perfect snapshot of a band navigating new horizons while still holding onto their no-nonsense, working-class perspective. Where their debut ‘Word Gets Around’ was filled with stories of small-town life, ‘Performance and Cocktails’ widened the lens, bigger sound, bigger venues, and suddenly, international stages.
But ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ isn’t about falling in love with the glamour of it all. In fact, it’s about quite the opposite. As Kelly Jones explained, the song came out of Stereophonics’ first trip to America. He expected to be overwhelmed by the scale of it, but instead, he was underwhelmed. "I thought I was going to be really impressed," he said, "but I'd already seen it all on television. Even the Empire State Building didn't feel that big. I had to find some parts I hadn't seen before when all I saw were rows and rows of people drinking alone."
That sense of déjà vu runs through the entire song. It opens with a confession:“I’ve never been here before / Didn’t know where to go / Never met you before / I’ve never been to your home” Even in unfamiliar places, there’s something that feels oddly recognisable. The people, the habits, the rhythms, they’re all strangely familiar. When Kelly sings, “People drinking on their own / Push buttons on the phone / Was I here once before? / Is that my voice on the phone?” he’s blurring the lines between past and present, between what’s new and what’s already been done.
Yet, ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ isn’t cynical. It’s more observational. Kelly’s not bitter about America failing to wow him; he’s just stating what so many people quietly feel when they chase new experiences and find them eerily familiar. The song suggests that sometimes we’re so saturated by what we’ve already seen through TV, movies, and the constant hum of modern culture that even the most iconic places feel like they’ve already been lived through second-hand.
It’s this balance between curiosity and disillusionment, between the thrill of the new and the comfort of the familiar, that makes ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ and ‘Performance and Cocktails’ resonate decades later. The album doesn’t pretend to have the answers, and neither does the song. Instead, it holds up a mirror to the modern experience: no matter how far you travel or how much you try to reinvent yourself, you often find that the world isn’t as different as you expected, it’s just dressed in slightly different colours
The second single from the band's fourth studio album 'You Gotta Go There to Come Back' and one of the band's most successful songs ever, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart. It also charted in several other countries, including the United States, where it reached the top five of the Billboard Triple-A chart. Its popularity was helped by its inclusion on several film soundtracks, most notably the Oscar-winning Crash (2004), which introduced the song to a wider audience beyond the UK.
'Maybe Tomorrow' and the album it is on marked a stark departure in sound for the band. Much more soulful and R&B-inspired than the band's early records. Jones told Drowned in Sound, “I was really into soul music—it’s not something I’m ashamed about. I was brought up on Stevie Wonder, and I love Talking Book and all the overdubs on it, and all that freestyling Marvin Gaye thing. I’d always wanted to make a record like that, and this was the first one I produced, so that’s probably why I went, ‘F–k it, I’m just going to do it.’”
Lyrically, the song is deeply personal to Kelly Jones, speaking to Square Mile, he said, "Maybe Tomorrow also meant a lot to me. That was me grieving after leaving Wales, a relationship, and moving to London – not realising how lost I felt." Jones, similar to artists like Damon Albarn, had always written about characters. 'Maybe Tomorrow' was the first time he turned his creative lens on himself, and the result is staggering.
Released in 1997 as the debut single from ‘Word Gets Around’, ‘Local Boy in the Photograph’ was the song that first introduced the world to Stereophonics. It set the tone for what the band were about: vivid storytelling, raw honesty, and a voice that made small-town stories feel universal. The track peaked at Number 51 on its original release before being reissued in 1998, when it climbed to Number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.
Kelly Jones penned the song in the wake of a heartbreaking real-life event from his South Wales hometown. The track was inspired by the tragic suicide of a local acquaintance, Paul David Boggiss, who took his own life by walking into the path of a train between Cwmbach and Aberdare.
“I used to play football with this kid, Paul Borgis,” remembers Kelly, “He was a good-looking, quite cool kid. I lost touch with him for a couple of years but, when I was about 18 and working on the market selling fruit and veg, he turned up and asked what time the trains were.
"Later, I was in another mate’s house when someone came in and said he’d jumped in front of a train. He was exactly the same age as I was, and it really struck a nerve with me. I didn’t know how he ever had the bottle to do it, and I still don’t know the ins and outs of why he did it. Dying that young, you’re probably still in a place where you don’t fully understand what the fuck your problems are anyway.”
“I didn’t want to make the song a morbid thing,” Kelly continues, “It became more of a homage to him; a celebration of his life. I remembered all the kids going to the place where he died, putting down flowers and spending all their nights there drinking and talking. It was a very descriptive, almost poetic song, describing the seasons, how the air smells, clocks going back, all that kind of stuff.
As Kelly recalled in the BBC programme Songbook (2011): “I used to play … football with this kid … he was a really cool kid … and then few years later we found out he jumped in front of a train … there was a picture of him smoking a … joint … and that’s the ‘local boy’ in the photograph.
It's one of the best things the band has ever written, and it has never been taken out of the setlist, originally as the final song of the show, before a certain song came along in 2005.
Released as the fourth single from Stereophonics' debut album 'Word Gets Around' in October 1997, 'Traffic' stands out as a raw, emotionally charged track that delves into themes of isolation, longing, and the complexities of relationships. The song reached Number 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
The lyrics of 'Traffic' are poignant and introspective, written about being stuck in a traffic jam, and looking at those around you in other cars. Jones makes up stories about the individuals around him. All of those people have lives, friends, families and problems. He sits and tries to determine what they are up to, where they are going and why they are doing what they are doing.
The repeated lines:
"Is anyone going anywhere?
Everyone's gotta be somewhere"
act as the perfect metaphor. On the surface, they can describe the literal traffic jam the narrator observes. But on a deeper level, they reflect the journey of life itself—everyone has somewhere to be, but progress is often slow, chaotic, or uncertain. Life is a constant mix of movement and standstill, much like the characters Jones paints in the song.
The song is full of contradictions, presenting characters with multiple potential storylines:
"She paints her lip
Greasy and thick
Another mirror stare
And she's going where?"
These lines capture a moment of preparation, but the narrator is unsure of her destination or intentions. Similarly, the next set of lines presents moral ambiguity and fleeting glimpses into other people’s lives:
"Another office affair?
To kill an unborn scare?
Talk dirty to a priest?
Makes them human at least
Is she running away?
To start a brand new day?
Or, she going home?
Why's she driving alone?"
Here, Jones constantly asks rhetorical questions, leaving them unanswered. The uncertainty mirrors life’s complexity; people’s motives and actions are never fully visible, and each observer can only speculate.
Later, the lyrics continue this motif of juxtaposition and ambiguity:
"She got a body in the boot?
Or just bags full of food?
Those are model's legs
But are they women's are they men's?
She shouts down the phone
Missed a payment on the loan
She gotta be above the rest
Keeping up with the best"
And further:
"Wait tables for a crook?
Wrote a hardback book?
You teach kids how to read?
Sell your body on the street?
A nurse without a job?
Another uptown snob?
But have I got you wrong?
One look and you were gone"
Through these vignettes, Jones captures fleeting observations and snapshots of human life in motion: some mundane, some morally ambiguous, some poignant. Each character is open to interpretation, reflecting the contradictions and unpredictability inherent in everyday life.
Finally, as the song progresses, the traffic begins to move again, and the characters continue on their separate journeys, symbolising that life keeps moving forward, whether or not we understand the choices or paths of those around us.
The first single from the band's fifth studio album, 'Language. Sex. Violence. Other?' and their only UK Number One single. Kelly Jones, the band's frontman and chief songwriter, began to work on writing this song in January 2004. As the band were on tour in support of their fourth album 'You Gotta Go There to Come Back'.
When writing, Kelly wanted to try and come up with a new sound, moving away from the more atmospheric and slow pace of the record they were currently touring.
After he had finished writing the song, he would text the head of the band's record label (V2) telling them that he had written something big. Something he had never done before or has done since.
Although he had the basic framework, he wanted to improve the lyrics, and this was done later on. Whilst the band were in America. More specifically, in Vermillion, South Dakota. Originally, he named the song after the place he'd finished the lyrics. Vermillion.
However, Slikpnott would release a song called Vermillion from an upcoming album. Leading to the name change. 'Dakota' was born.
The song was released in February 2005 and received praise from fans and critics alike. Many saw it as the second coming of the band that had been successful in the late nineties and early noughties, but for some had fallen a little bit.
The band were in the middle of a transition period; they'd lost their original drummer, Stuart Cable, and had made quite an autobiographical, soulful record with 'You Gotta Go There To Come Back.'
'Dakota' acted as the band, starting again, a new sound, a new look. It was the start of a new era. It marked the start of the band cementing their status as a staple UK live band. Filling out arenas and being a mainstay on festival line-ups.
Fans' love of the song saw it reach the top spot of the UK Singles Chart, being the only song by the band to reach this milestone. On a more negative note, it would also be the last song by the band to get into the top 10.
The song was and still is a huge song for the band. It ends every single live show. Without fail. From academy venues to festival fields. It's the song that brings the show to its end. The final card played in a deck of great songs.
Whilst it has not been included in my Top 10, I had to give this song a mention. Released as part of their 2015 album ‘Keep the Village Alive’, the song showcases the band’s gift for combining upbeat, infectious melodies with thoughtful, occasionally cheeky lyrics. Its driving rhythm, punchy guitar riffs, and Kelly Jones’ signature vocal swagger give it an energy that feels both timeless and immediately accessible.
Lyrically, ‘C’est La Vie’ reflects on life’s ups and downs with a wry sense of humour, turning everyday frustrations and observations into a catchy anthem. It’s a perfect example of how the Stereophonics can take ordinary experiences and elevate them into something larger than life, all while keeping a foot firmly in the rock tradition.
Though it might not always grab the mainstream charts as some of their bigger hits do, fans of the band know that this track is a quintessential Stereophonics moment, energetic, relatable, and effortlessly singable. This has remained in the setlist for every tour since its release, and I can't imagine it being removed any time soon.
This had to be top of the list. Hearing this song with my dad is my very first memory of music. I must have been 4 or 5, and I can still remember it now. The exact moment, the exact spot.
Not only my favourite Stereophonics song, it's a real contender for my favourite song ever. As a song, it blends upbeat rock energy with introspective lyrics. Released as the lead single from Stereophonics' 2001 album 'Just Enough Education to Perform'. The song achieved significant commercial success, debuting at number five on the UK Singles Chart and remaining in the charts for nine weeks. It was later certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry in 2020.
The lyrics for 'Have a Nice Day' are based on a cab fare Stereophonics took in San Francisco Bay when they were touring in the United States. When the band got in the back of the cab, the driver said to them, "I hate this place, it's full of tourists and processed fish". Explaining to the trio that he was a poet who believed everyone in the world is alike; the only difference is the accents. At the end of the journey, the driver ended the conversation with: "That'll be seven bucks, have a nice day."
After the cab journey, lead singer and guitarist Kelly Jones took the conversation and placed it into the lyrics.
Despite its upbeat nature, the song is a sarcastic and dark look at the modern world.
The driver's monologue laments the commercialisation of culture ("It's all money gum") and the death of genuine creativity ("No artists anymore"). The song criticises a society where people suppress their real feelings and conform to monotonous daily routines by contrasting the driver's inner angst with his outward conformity, most prevalent in the chorus, with the repeating refrain "have a nice day."
It's a song that has been an ever-present in my life, and a song that I still absolutely adore.
That brings me to the end. What do you think I missed? Anything you'd add, anything you'd take out? Let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading
Jack