Good Bands Gone Bad (Episode I)

Stereophonics emerged in 1997 as the latest entrant in the battle to take over the “Great Welsh Rockers” label held by the Manic Street Preachers. They were hyped all over the UK for their premiere album “Word gets around” and their raspy vocals, whip-smart lyrics and pulsating tunes combined to offer not only great promise, but a very good album that still maintains its lustre 10 years on.

Alas, they quickly fell off the rails. Their singer, seemingly suffering from sms, got somewhat high on himself, their drummer went a bit barmy and was subsequently removed of his duties, and their music became uninspired and went straight in the crapper. They still pump out the albums but perhaps I was just never a big enough fan to be sustained through these unoriginal, rock-heavy years!?!

Here's one of their multiple official videos for the largely insufferable "Have a nice day". Don't bother (unless you like watching barmy, puffy haired drummers pretending to drive a speed boat while surrounded by bikini-clad extras). Videos for their good, early songs have all been removed from the public domain, save their self-serving website. Damn those "good-band-gone-bad" bastards.

Stay tuned next week for…

Good Bands Gone Bad (Episode II)… Attack of the Coldplay*…
(actually, not much else to say on that one!)

*Star Wars is on infinite loop in our house currently, can you tell?