Continuing the tradition of rounding things up in a belated fashion… I’m finally drawing a line under this year’s #MindTheBand! I’m still keeping everything crossed that they might decide to mark the 25th anniversary of Word Gets Around in concert fashion, but I’m well aware that this is quite unlikely; Stereophonics are well booked up over the summer, as the festival dates keep coming, and presumably they’ll want to move on to new material sooner rather than later – plus we’re still waiting for the Far From Saints side project album to be released, so that’s likely to be the next priority for Kelly Jones.
It quickly became apparent in my diary entries that I’d bitten off more than I could chew: just because I wasn’t at the office as much didn’t mean I could automatically switch my writing head back on! Hopefully my Insta stories made up for it a bit, as I chucked in as many photos & clips of the two gigs as possible (that’s one benefit of being in seats rather than standing).
Another thing I managed to create was the hallowed Spotify playlist! It all stems from my diary entries, so is made up of the song that includes the album of the day’s title (or best reflects the record), the lead single from the album of the day, the track of the day, and the song that the lyrics of the day came from. Make sense?
And, as far as actual blog posts go, at least I managed to get some written. It’s a shame that I wasn’t more prepared, as I’d had this idea knocking around for a while – maybe I got complacent, maybe things got in the way (probably a bit of both, actually)… But here’s what I did manage to publish:
- Stereophonics: Oochya! (The Brighton Centre) – gig review
- #MindTheBand: I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio – Word Gets Around
- #MindTheBand: I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio – Pull The Pin
- #MindTheBand: I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio – Scream Above the Sounds
That list looks a little pitiful, but it doesn’t reflect how much I enjoyed this week. Knowing it was coming definitely helped me to become much more familiar with the new album in the lead-up to the first gig, and then I obviously couldn’t stop playing it as I headed towards the (almost) unplanned second gig; had the record come out in November as per the band’s original plans, this would just have been a refresher, but as it was I felt like I was cramming for an exam (albeit a very fun one)! Check out Love London Love Culture’s review of Oochya!, while you’re at it.
I also hadn’t realised quite how many Phonics (or Phonics related) t-shirts there were in my collection until I started working out what I could wear during the week. Slightly obscene to have three Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day-based shirts, but there we are.
If you’ve got the Phonics bug thanks to this week, I can suggest a couple of great podcast episodes to get in your earholes too! Kelly has recently featured on both the Rockonteurs podcast (hosted by Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt), as well as Sodajerker on Songwriting. It’s also worth catching his episodes of Happy Place, The High Performance Podcast, and Brydon & from last year.
Should there be any official Word Gets Around celebrations (or if I manage to see them at some point over the summer), then I reckon I might just pick this up again briefly later in the year so I feel like I’ve completed it properly.
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