…and shaped the Stereophonics’ sound.
The Faces
A bit of a no-brainer this one, given that Stereophonics’ rasping cover of Handbags And Gladrags was one of the most omnipresent sounds of 2001 (made all the more so because a different version of the tune provided the soundtrack to The Office). Jones has also performed the band’s Ooh La La with pal (and Faces guitarist) Ronnie Wood at several Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts over the years.
AC/DC
“They’ve always been my favourite band.” Kelly says. “My family used to buy me AC/DC records every birthday on vinyl, then I went round the world and collected them all again on different labels and bootlegs. They go in and out of fashion a lot, don’t they? It pisses me off sometimes, ‘cos to me they’ve always been in fashion!”
ZZ TOP
Nominated by none other than Jimi Hendrix as being the finest guitarist of his generation, the talents of ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons have not gone unnoticed by Kelly Jones. “He’s just such an amazing player,” he enthuses, adding that “every solo is just right; every note, even. And it’s never about speed – it’s always about choice.” On evenings that Jones is at home with a few friends, the house reverberates to the sounds made by the three amigos.
BAD COMPANY
When Kelly Jones and Stewart Cable first began making music together, Bad Company were one of their key musical templates, the elder drummer having introduced his younger colleague to the group’s subterranean groove. Popular but not (at least in their own time) particularly revered, Paul Rodgers’ group are a decent fit for being the Stereophonics of the 1970s.
