The gig started slowly, with warm-up act 'Mover' failing to get the crowd going. This probably had something to do with the fact that all their songs sounded the same- a cross between The Bluetones and Ocean Colour Scene, and although I have nothing against these bands, the mix didn't work.

However, this just made the Stereophonics sound even better! On walked Kelly, Richard and Stuart, and burst straight in with 'Looks Like Chaplin'. The guitar thrashing was fantastic, and made one hell of a sound. Next up was 'Check my eyelids for holes', arguably the worst song title for some time, but the crowd really came to life with the next song- previous single 'A Thousand Trees'. The atmosphere went into absolute pandemonium! Everyone was jumping to the tune, except the mardy sod next to me- a mid-thirties bloke looking completely lost.

The band kept the crowd going all the way through the night, and by the time 'Too Many Sandwiches' was played half-way through, about half the crowd had been on the stage!!

Kelly sang 'Goldfish Bowl' to a marvellous reception from the crowd, and even him getting the words wrong didn't spoil a fantastic song. The crowd called for 'Traffic', and Kelly did a fantastic rendition of it. Near the end, 'More Life in a Tramp's Vest' really hyped the crowd beyond the realms of orgasm, and feeding 'Local Boy in the Photograph' onto the end was simply fantastic.

At this point, the band left the stage, and the mardy sod next to me left the pub altogether! The crowd called for more, and Kelly came back to sing a fantastic redition of 'Billy Davey's Daughter'. When this was over the other two came on and played us out with 'Last of the Big Time Drinkers', one of my personal favourites.

Everyone left the gig on a high, and I loved every minute of it!

Reviewed by Guy Walsh