Stereophonics – John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield: Live!

By Kevin Stanley on 16th June 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Stereophonics, Blossoms – John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield – Saturday 14th June 2025

Blossoms!

The fans are packed into the stadium here today at Huddersfield. Many of them have travelled a long way and turned up early doors at 5pm to soak up the atmosphere and see The Blossoms play a storming twelve track support set. The youngsters from Manchester get stuck in and put in a good performance with their indie rock, synth-pop, new wave brand of music. They open with Perfect Me, throws in the big hits Your Girlfriend and Gary mid set, and nail a big finish with Charlemagne. There are plenty of Blossoms fans around the stadium in their t shirts and they are warmly applauded by the crowd.

here come the welsh

The kick-off of the top billed band on this glorious summer evening is at 8.30pm when the Welsh side Stereophonics enter the stadium. Frontman Kelly Jones is dressed in his unique style of mostly black, topped off with cool shades and a chic scarf. They start quickly, going on the attack with Vegas Two Times. It’s a real screamer from outside of the box. I Wanna Get Lost with You is one of my personal favourites and it really hits the back of the net as well. It’s a quick one-two and they’ve smashed the crowd with a brace of hits early on. Next up is Do Ya Feel My Love to complete an opening hat-trick. Have a Nice Day comes next and the crowd are really getting warmed up with this older hit.

There’s Always Gonna Be Something from the new album sounds like vintage Stereophonics. But better. The crowd enjoy it. And it’s a real shame that they appear to have only been playing playing one song from this new album at the current run of concerts, more about that later.

early classics

Earlier classics Just Looking, Pick A Part That’s New and Superman are played alongside slightly more contemporary tracks like Geronimo and the set does feel slightly uneven. Graffiti on the Train and Maybe Tomorrow both huge fan favourites and sung aloud by the crowd. I might have liked to see a couple of these sidelined in favour of a couple of new tracks such as Seems Like You Don’t Know Me or the witty Eyes to Big for My Belly.

The tour is titled “Stadium Anthems” with the tagline of “No Hit Left Behind” so new huge stadium-ready hits would have been welcome additions, but its understandable that the band are sticking with the classic hits. I would have included More Life in a Tramps Vest as well from debut album Word Gets Around as well which also featured on their Best Of record.

Previous sets on the current tour seem to have been 18-20 songs but for whatever reason tonight they started a little early and seem keen to play on until it gets dark. A two hour set from a band as big as the Phonics at stadium this big to around 25,000 fans is brilliant!

HOUSEHOLD NAME

The Phonics are in my opinion the best of the Welsh rock bands formed in the 90s. Sure The Manic Street Preachers have got a few big hits and Design For Life would get any crowd singing, but dig deeper and it’s the boys from Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley that ultimately win out. Stereophonics are a household name with far greater mainstream recognition and critical acclaim. Ultimately the Phonics have just got a bigger, deeper back catalogue of hits than their contemporaries – which is in no small part down to the lyrical abilities of Kelly Jones. He’s got a fantastic voice as well, so powerful he can be heard clearly all the way back in row Z.

They’ve played a first half full of big, noisy crowd pleasers, so it’s against the run of play when they switch tempo to play Graffiti on the Train and Handbags and Gladrags which marks a transition into a slower paced second half featuring I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio, the epic Mr and Mrs Smith and Fly Like an Eagle, a touching and personal song for Jones that he penned for his daughter when she came out as gay. All in One Night is a deeper cut from Scream Above the Sounds and they also add in another new track from Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Wait, Make ‘em Cry called Make It On Your Own which is superb. It’s a surefire hit from an album of eight very impressive songs. It sounds amazing played live in this stadium setting with its swirling acoustics.

through the roof

Jones seems a little subdued, only chatting to the crowd on two or three occasions for example to tell the story of how they covered Mike d’Abo’s Handbags And Gladrags. He doesn’t even introduce the rest of the band. But it’s music we are here for and they certainly delivered that with some plenty of style and professionalism. The tempo goes through the roof at the end of the main set with another crowd favourite C’est La Vie with its lyrics about love, life and being free to do what you want to do.

As we go into extra time, they put the show to bed as they roar through the perfect encore with the crowd singing along to The Bartender and the Thief – a game changer for Stereophonics when they released it as a single off the Performance and Cocktails album in 1999 – it propelled the band out of the Welsh National League and into the Premier League of rock bands of 1990s. They finish with Dakota much to the delight of the crowd.

giantkillers

Stereophonics really are giant killers of the rock music scene and tonight they’ve proved it with an absolutely stunning set packed with hits. The final whistle comes at 10.30pm when they take their bow before leaving the stadium to rapturous applause and cheering from a euphoric crowd who have been treated to hits across eleven studio albums and thirty three years. The Stereophonics have really hit the back of the net today.

Here’s some audience footage from March 2025: