Stereophonics honoured with Global Special Award

5 March 2020, 22:20 | Updated: 6 March 2020, 15:56

amie Morrison, Adam Zindani, Kelly Jones and Richard Jones of Stereophonics during The Global Awards 2020. Picture: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

The Welsh band were give a very special accolade at The Global Awards 2020... with tributes from celebrity fans including Sir Tom Jones.

Stereophonics have been honoured with the Global Special Award in recognition of their remarkable career which spans over 25 years and their contribution to music and entertainment.

The band - comprising frontman Kelly Jones, Richard Jones, Adam Zindani and Jamie Morrison - were given the accolade at The Global Awards 2020 with Very.co.uk, which took place at London's Eventim Apollo Hammersmith tonight (5 March). The band also closed the show with a 20 minute set that featured their hits Dakota, C'est La Vie, Bust This Town and Maybe Tomorrow.

In a special video, stars such as Sir Tom Jones and James Dean Bradfield from Manic Street Preachers paid tribute to the band's incredible career. Sir Tom said: ""All the best boys, congratulations. I remember when you were opening for someone else, but let's not get into that. You're from Cwmaman, I'm from Pontypridd. Big town, Pontypridd."

It was the second award for the Welsh band, who also walked home with Best Indie, beating off stiff competition from Sam Fender, The 1975, Twenty One Pilots and Florence + The Machine.

Stereophonics in 2018: Adam Zindani, Rchard Jones, Kelly Jones and Jamie Morrison. Picture: Andrew Whitton/Press

Hosted by Capital Breakfast’s Roman Kemp, Smooth Radio’s Kate Garraway and Classic FM and Smooth presenter Myleene Klass, The Global Awards celebrates the stars of music, news and entertainment across a wide range of genres.

Now in its third year, the prestigious event brought together all Global’s radio stations including Capital, Heart, Smooth, Classic FM, LBC, Radio X, Capital XTRA and Gold with award categories reflecting the music, programmes, podcasts and news aired on Global’s radio stations and the Global Player app.

The glittering show featured spectacular live performances from some of the world’s biggest artists – Camila Cabello, Ellie Goulding, Tones And I, Aitch, Aled Jones & Russell Watson and was rounded off with a set by the heroes of the evening, Stereophonics.

When Kelly Jones first started writing songs about his hometown of Cwmaman in Wales in the early 90s, he probably didn’t think his band Stereophonics would end up being one of the most successful British acts of the next few decades.

The trio of Kelly, Richard Jones (no relation) and the much-missed Stuart Cable tried to make it under the name Tragic Love Company, but it was as Stereophonics that they became the first band to be signed to the new label V2.

Stuart Cable, Kelly Jones and Richard Jones in Cwmaman In Wales 1997. Picture: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

Stereophonics burst onto the scene with the single Local Boy In The Photograph, a moving tale of life in South Wales, and the accompanying debut album, Word Gets Around, made the Top 10 in the summer of 1997.

Stereophonics - Local Boy In The Photograph

A triple platinum seller, the LP would spawn the hits A Thousand Trees, More Life In A Tramp's Vest and Traffic.

The trio quickly established themselves as one of the key post-Britpop artists, headlining a huge show at Cardiff Castle in June 1998. Their second album Performance And Cocktails hitting the top of the album charts on its release in March 1999.

It was the first of five consecutive number 1 albums for Stereophonics - they also made the top with Keep the Village Alive in 2015 and Kind in 2019.

2005's Language. Sex. Violence. Other? gave the world Stereophonics' first number one single: Dakota, a wistful, passionate tune that brought the Phonics to the US airwaves and beyond and went Platinum in the UK.

Stereophonics - Dakota (Official Video)

Stereophonics have gone on to have ten Top 10 singles, have sold over ten million albums across the world and have headlined Reading & Leeds, V, Isle Of Wight and Glastonbury festivals among many others.

They have won the BRIT Award for Best British Breakthrough Act and the Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Icon Award.

Now, Kelly, Richard, Adam Zindani and Jamie Morrison see in the 2020s with their eleventh studio album, Kind, a huge UK tour and festival appearances across Europe.

They are one of British rock's most respected, hard-working and loved bands with a back catalogue full of incredible songs like Just Looking, Maybe Tomorrow, Indian Summer and I Want To Get Lost In You.