It isn�t easy being in the stereophonics, not when old mates and tabloid stalkers are messing with your mind. Perhaps that�s why Kelly Jones has been battering cars with a metal bar.
Words - Paul Elliott
It was around one in the morning, a few days after Christmas 2000. Kelly Jones, then 26 and one of Britain�s most successful rock stars, lay along in a bedroom at his parents� house in Cwmaman, the South Wales village where he grew up. The Stereophonics frontman was drunk � �fucking steaming� � and filled with rage.
Earlier that day, he had seen his ex-girlfriend�s car being driven by one of his closest friends. It was only a month since Jones and the girl had ended their 12-year relationship. Now Jones suspected that his friend and his ex were together. He felt betrayed: not by her, but by a friend who had shared his confidence and his trust. Jones gazed at the cuddly toys surrounding the bed � the room doubled as a nursery for his brother Kevin�s baby girl � and wondered what to do.
He sneaked out of the house to his Alfa Romeo sports car and drove fast through five miles of narrow country lanes to his friend�s home. In his drunken state, he was lucky to survive the journey. First he banged at the cottage�s wooden stable-style door. Then he kicked at the lower half until it broke off its hinges. For good measure, he picked up a brick from the garden and threw it through a window.
When his friend appeared at the door, panicked and half-clothed, Jones pushed him aside and walked into the house. He knew he would find his ex there. �I didn�t want to hit him. I didn�t blame her � I�d been a twat to her. But I was pissed off at him. I thought he�d said things about me to get to her.�
As Jones left the house he saw a scaffolding pole on the ground. He grabbed it and set about his friend�s two cars. He was still battering away when the police arrived.
Jones was placed in a squad car and returned to his parents� home. No charges were pressed. Jones and his ex remain friends. He gave his mate ?2000 cash to repair the cars.
When Jones relates this story � on 20 May 2003, at his local pub in Fulham � there is disbelief in his voice. �What I did was completely out of character,� he says, �but what he did was wrong. He was my mate. We haven�t spoken since. It doesn�t hurt me anymore. I had my moment when I smashed everything up.�
He pauses and offers a thin smile. �I�ve not told anybody about this before, but fuck it.�
He is talking about it now because he has written a song about the incident and his feelings for his ex and former friend. The song is titled Rainbows And Pots Of Gold, and it features on the new Stereophonics album You Gotta Go There To Come Back. The lyrics read: �How�s ya cars?/How�s ya life?/How�s my friend?/When�s she gonna be your wife?� the song ends, �I really hope ya happy, both of you/And maybe sometimes you miss me too.�
�I knew I was gonna piss people off with this song,� Jones shrugs, �but it had to be said.�
Why? Perhaps the new album�s title offers a clue. A few days short of his 29th birthday, Jones is a contented man. He shares his home in Fulham with his girlfriend of two years, Becca. And, after a troubled two years in which he felt himself drifting apart from his bandmates � bassist Richard Jones and drummer Stuart Cable � Kelly now says that they are as tight now as when they were first starting out as a band 11 years ago. In both his personal and his professional life, Kelly Jones had to go there to come back.
On the first Stereophonics album, 1997�s Word Gets Around, Kelly Jones wrote of British boozing culture on Last Of The Big Time Drinkers. The band do their best to live up to this title each year in the 16 days between 19 May and 3 June, beginning with Stuart Cable�s birthday and ending with Kelly�s. In between are birthdays for Richard Jones and roadie Simon Collier. �We�re constantly drinking for more than two weeks,� notes Richard. �It�s an excuse.�
This year, Stuart celebrated his 33rd birthday with 20 of his closest friends: Kelly and Becca, Richard and wife Gail, tour guitarist Scott James and keyboard player Tony Kirkham, plus assorted roadies, most of whom are old friends from Wales, and Cable�s girlfriend, TV presenter Lisa Rogers. The festivities begin in a fairly subdued fashion at Hammersmith Apollo, where Neil Young, a band favourite, was performing an acoustic show featuring new materiel linked by a spoken narrative. It was, Kelly admits, hard work.
�No drinking, no smoking, no mobile phones, no flash photography,� Cable grumbles the following afternoon, between spliff-induced coughs.
�Fucking hell, it was like being back at school!�
After the gig they made up for lost time by navigating the cocktail menu at Soho�s Groucho Club before retiring to a roadie�s hotel room and rocking out to the first Van Halen album. The band that drinks together stays together; but it didn�t always feel this way. When their last tour finished in March 2002, Stereophonics were sick of the sight of one another.
�It�s always at the end of the night, when you�ve had a couple of drinks, that it all comes out,� Richard Jones explains. �You see the worst side of somebody. With all the distractions of being successful you lose focus on what you got into it for.�
�It got a bit weird.� Agrees Kelly. �It all comes down to tiredness and boredom. We didn�t go out socially.�
