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Tonight I went to see the band play and this was the second time I’ve seen them now and that’s within a six-month period.  The wait has been excruciating since the purchase of my tickets, back in the summer, to the day that still hasn’t ended.

We arrived at the venue at around 4:30 and were able to find that less than 100 people had arrived before us, which was great, as it meant later, we were able to get to the front of the crowd.  The wait was boring, the journey from the doors to the stage was ridiculously long and drawn out, with four or five different stewards checking my ticket before finally taking it off me (!).  We were even told off for running towards the stage in an empty stadium – stewards can be such party poopers sometimes.

However, once we were in it didn’t seem so bad, as the stage was tiny and we were very close.

I could tell straight away the influence that U2 have had on the boys during their time supporting them, as the waiting was eased by the introduction of various music videos and footage of people on skateboards and snowboards, being aired on two large screens either side of the stage – very Zoo TV!  In fact, it was called Blink TV.

Feeder were supporting and as far as creating an atmosphere of energy and power, I have to concede that Feeder hit the spot more accurately than the headlining act did.  However I also wondered whether the crowd were a mixed up bunch – the people I was with seemed to know more Feeder songs than Stereophonics songs.

Three songs by Feeder stood out for me in terms of the energy they created - High, Buck Rogers and Seven Days In The Sun.  Reports from previous gigs suggested their set lasted 45 minutes but with us, it was a 30-minute set.  This included a moment where it went unusually quiet, just as one guy, by me, shouted “Go Grant!”  The singer looked over and said “Alright mate!” which sort of took the fan aback somewhat and had the rest of us in fits of giggles.

After the band left the stage, there was a 30-minute gap while the stage was changed around and again Blink TV entertained us.

Then the stage went very dark, additional screens at the back were revealed and some rather odd singing began – this I gradually realised was Kelly singing a strange version of Mr Writer, with backing singers.  He wasn’t on stage, and there were flame like images appearing on the screens behind the stage.  Finally the band appeared, and Kelly waited just a minute longer to which we roared in appreciation – there were a lot of girls in this crowd!

Donned in a frilly black shirt and rather trendy aviator style sunglasses, Kelly still seems adamant to wear the same pair of jeans he’s been wearing for years.  The orange Cadillac patch on his left knee is now accompanied by patches on his right knee now- they’re falling apart and they’ve been patched up so many times you feel compelled to spend some more money and buy him a new pair!

Mr Writer takes on its usual rock song form to open up proceedings to a quite honestly less than perfect performance.  This was not down to the boys but the sound crew who seem to have got it all wrong.  Kelly must have asked five times for his output to be adjusted, and I couldn’t recognise Watch Them Fly Sundays apart from the words coming from Kelly, because the tune was so distorted.

Putting this aside, though, this was the nearest I have got to Kelly and the boys, so far.  Unfortunately, the sound problems meant that I couldn’t tell how well Kelly’s voice has progressed, but he seemed to be hitting the notes, which was all that really mattered.

Songs that stood out for me would be the real biggies – Local Boy, Traffic and Rooftop.  The latter being the best, firstly because the soundmen had finally got it right and secondly it’s just the biggest, fattest, most epic song they do and will always end their shows unless they’re able to top it.

There was a lot of banter with the crowd, most notably when 2 girls threw their bras at Kelly.  “Ladies and Gentlemen, they’re both 36A’s”, he announced, “You’ve both got small tits!”  I’m not sure they were too pleased though as they actually had the nerve to ask for them back! I had a good chuckle though, as I knew what his sense of humour’s like!

Another moment to note was when they played Have A Nice Day, there is a little pause in the song when they play it live, and at this point, Kelly wouldn’t start the song back up, he just looked out across the crowd, smiling again.  He left it until the girls where screaming, and then he slowly lifted his sunglasses, revealing those big dark eyes of his!  The crowd seriously lost themselves at this point.  Kelly wet himself laughing, and looked back at Stuart, who blew him a kiss in jest!

Highlights I would say definitely include being much closer to the boys this time, although I had tall people around preventing me from seeing the whole band.  Also noticing that Stuart now has an impressive array of drums around him, with two bass drums – instead of saying Stereophonics they have his name splashed across them.

Lowlights would be the sounds problems they had throughout the set which smacked of a rush job, and the long wait beforehand, but I wouldn’t have changed anything given a second chance, so here’s to successful gigs for Ella and Shell, and to another tour next year, hopefully, which will result in us all being at the same gig together for the first time.  Here we go girls!

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