Stereophonics + Guests 04/04

Teenage Cancer Trust
30th March, Royal Albert Hall
by Sabuhi Mir

The concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, was billed in the British press as: “Stereophonics plus special guests”.
Speculation as to who these "special guests” might be was rife amongst music fans, causing the price of tickets to rocket – going for as much as £300 a pair on online auction site E-bay – tickets at the box office were normally priced at between £50-£80.
Will Oasis take the stage and give us a sneak preview of songs from their forthcoming album? Or will it be the eternally dull Starsailor? With the irrepressibly arrogant lead singer – James Walsh.
It turned out to be neither. Noel Gallagher, Oasis’s guitarist and songwriter had already made an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall the night before to watch the legendary Who perform ‘Tommy’. Walsh was probably staying at home, looking at himself in the mirror. The audience were instead wowed by performances from “dad-rockers” Paul Weller (ex-Jam), Roger Daltrey – a Teenage Cancer Trust patron, Ronnie Wood (current Rolling Stone) and James Dean Bradfield (lead singer of Manic Street Preachers). Weller opened the star-studded event with acoustic versions of ‘A Town Called Malice’ and ‘That’s Entertainment’, encouraging the audience to sing-a-long (or football-chant along in some cases) as and when, before being joined onstage by James Dean Bradfield – who looked like he needed to wear a bra, and Roger Daltrey.

What followed were wonderful versions of old Who songs ‘I Shall Be Released’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’ and ‘Magic Bus’ (which at one point metamorphosed into the theme tune to the cult 1970s music programme Old Grey Whistle Test).

The best though was still to come - the Stereophonics’ performance. Not known for their stage presence or their rock credentials, the band, defied their critics tonight.
Kelly Jones (lead singer) looked like he had got a few lessons from Liam Gallagher (Oasis’s lead singer) by dragging out his vowels in almost every song, and doing extra twiddly guitar-solos. But the icing on the cake had to be when Jones wheeled out Rolling Stones’ guitarist, Ronnie Wood to accompany him on a Rod Stewart classic ‘Handbags And Gladrags’, the Beatles’s ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and the Faces ‘Ooh La La’.
The audience were truly amazed. Another hour of their set followed, where the band played favourites: ‘Mr Writer’, ‘Word Gets Around’, ‘Local Boy In The Photograph’ and ‘Have A Nice Day’.
The night definitely proved that charity benefits have moved on from those cheesy events staged in the 1980s – anyone remember Live Aid?

For more information about the Teenage Cancer Trust charity. Click here: http://www.teencancer.org/z/frames2.html