Stereophonics 

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Stereophonics are a rock band from Wales with members Kelly Jones, Richard Jones (no relation to Kelly) and Javier Weyler. Kelly and Richard grew up together in Cwmaman, South Wales. Kelly and Richard, along with original drummer, Stuart Cable began writing and performing in working men’s clubs together in 1992 as a teenage cover band.

The three-piece began writing and performing music in working men’s clubs together in 1992 as a teenage cover band known as 'Tragic Love Company', a name inspired by their favourite bands Tragically Hip, Mother Love Bone and Bad Company, although initially they were known as "Blind Faith" - but quickly renamed after discovering that Eric Clapton had a band of that name. The band later changed their name to "The Stereophonics", named after the manufacture of then drummer Stuart Cable's Grandmother's Gramophone.

In 1996 Stereophonics were signed to a newly formed record label, V2. The record label was created by Richard Branson and Stereophonics were the first artist to be signed. Upon signing, they dropped "The" from their name and simply became "Stereophonics".

In February 1998 Stereophonics received a BRIT Award for the Best New Group. In the same week Stereophonics  re-released the single "Local Boy in the Photograph" which in turn, reached position 14 in the UK Singles Chart. Stereophonics 's debut album, Word Gets Around also went "Gold" in the UK from the heightened publicity .

In November 1998, The Bartender and the Thief, the first single from Performance and Cocktails, was released. It hit number three on the UK charts. "Just Lookin", was released next and reached number 4 in March 1999. The same month the much anticipated new Stereophonics album was finally released, entering at number 1 and within three weeks went platinum. Later that year Stereophonics played what was widely regarded as the best gig of the year in Britain in front of 50,000 people at Morfa Stadium in Swansea. Stereophonics also collaborated with Tom Jones on a cover of the Randy Newman song Mama Told Me Not To Come for his album Reload.

Throughout 1998 and 1999 Stereophonics toured in Europe, Australia and the USA. On June 12, 1998 Stereophonics played to over 10,000 spectators at what has become, one of Stereophonics s largest gigs. Footage of the concert was released in VHS and DVD titled Live at Cardiff Castle. As the title suggests, the concert took place in the grounds of Cardiff Castle in Wales.

Stereophonics took a break during 2000 as well as recording their third studio album.

Stereophonics released their third album, Just Enough Education to Perform in April 2001. The album included the critical track "Mr. Writer" which is about the lead singer's dislike of journalists and the media. The song caused controversy which in turn caused a lot of bad publicity for Stereophonics by the main stream media.

To promote the new album, Just Enough Education to perform, Stereophonics  played a two day festival which was called "A Day at the Races". The two day concert was held at Donington Park on the first day and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on the second. The concerts were supported by Ash, Black Crowes and Proud Mary. Matt Bellamy of Muse fell out with Kelly because Kelly claims Muse demanded large amounts of money to support them. Matt Bellamy replied that this wasn't true, and in fact the Stereophonics has asked for a huge amount of money to play Reading Festival. Over 200,000 separate tickets were sold for the weekend festival in total. The performance was released on a DVD in 2002.

2003 saw the release of Stereophonics fourth album You Gotta Go There to Come Back and a change to their logo. Drummer Stuart Cable was sacked from Stereophonics due to reported commitment issues, Cable at the time presented a TV show called "Cable TV". Because of this he missed several rehearsals and live concerts. He was eventually replaced by present drummer Javier Weyler.  Steve Gorman, The Black Crowes Drummer stood in for the bands live performances until Javier Weyler was appointed.

Towards the end of the year Stereophonics did a sold-out tour of the UK, ending with a Christmas show at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, supported by Feeder and Ocean Colour Scene. Stereophonics took a break after their 2003-2004 world tour, which included a set at the Manchester Move Festival in July 2004.

Stereophonics fifth studio album Language. Sex. Violence. Other? was released in March 2005; it marked Stereophonics first recordings with their new drummer, Javier Weyler. Stereophonics grabbed their first number 1 hit in the UK singles charts with the album's first single, the punky, upbeat Dakota. The second single from the album, "Superman" was a growling, Black Sabbath-inspired rocker. This song however did not repeat the success of "Dakota", peaking at number 13 in the charts, partly due to limited radio airplay. After "Superman" came "Devil", which featured a controversial video and reached number 11 in the charts. The album was nominated for a Pop Factory award at the end of the year, losing out to Feeder's Pushing the Senses.

Stereophonics played in Vancouver, Canada in April of 2005 with opening band The Manvils. Following the concert, Kelly Jones invited The Manvils lead guitarist, fellow Welshman Mark Parry to join Stereophonics on the road as second guitarist in the band for their world tour.

On July 2, 2005, Stereophonics appeared at the Live 8 concert, in Hyde Park, London, playing to their biggest audience yet.

Stereophonics were scheduled to support Oasis for a number of dates across Europe in early 2006, but pulled out due to family commitments. After taking a break, Stereophonics are currently working on their next album. In a diary entry on Stereophonics official website, made on the 15 May 2006, Jones talked about how he felt that the new album was their best yet, and those who had heard the demos gave similar sentiments.

2006 also saw the release of Stereophonics first live album Live from Dakota. The album is a 2-disc compilation featuring 20 tracks spanning all five Stereophonics albums and capturing the best of their 2005 world tour. Rather than being a recording of single show, every night of the tour was recorded and Stereophonics picked out the best version of each song individually. The album also features a previously unreleased track Jayne.

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.