{"id":367901,"date":"2025-12-24T02:12:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367901\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T02:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:12:26","slug":"stereophonics-iconic-fan-landmark-phone-box-likely-scrapped-says-bt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367901\/","title":{"rendered":"Stereophonics’ iconic fan landmark phone box likely scrapped, says BT"},"content":{"rendered":"

A south Wales phone box made famous by Stereophonics<\/a> has \u201clikely been scrapped\u201d, BT have revealed.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Stereophonics talk Oasis, new music and survival: \u201cThe shows keep getting bigger and the audiences get younger\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The red kiosk in the band\u2019s home village of Cwmaman, Rhondda Cynon Taf, had become an iconic landmark for fans, due to a photoshoot they did there in 1997.<\/p>\n

At the time, the group\u2019s original line-up of Kelly Jones<\/a>, Richard Jones and Stuart Cable posed for veteran NME photographer Martyn Goodacre, having just released their debut album \u2018Word Gets Around\u2019.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the phone box was removed by BT, prompting locals to lobby to have it reinstated.<\/p>\n

Now, BT has revealed that it can no longer be located after spending years in storage, as \u201cthose conversations were not followed up during the pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vikki Howells, MS for Cynon Valley, had previously called it \u201can important cultural landmark\u201d and said she was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d at the news.<\/p>\n

The phone box had various upgrades during its lifetime \u2013 including new glass, paintwork and signage but was earmarked for removal in 2019, with BT stating it had only been used 13 times in the 12 months prior to being taken away.<\/p>\n

However, Howells and some fans of the group fought at the time to get it back. \u201cI worked really hard to get it returned to Cwmaman, but I needed to find people willing to take responsibility for its upkeep once it got back there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Covid came along not long afterwards and its impact was so great on so many lives,\u201d she continued. \u201cAs a result, most folk understandably had little time to think of anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Stereophonics in 1997. CREDIT: Martyn Goodacre\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A BT spokesperson said requests to adopt the kiosk in 2019 \u201chad not followed the usual process, the payphone having already been removed following a formal consultation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cConversations about adoption were then not followed up during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm that the payphone is no longer being stored by our contractor, and, while our records do not go back that far, it is likely to have been scrapped,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s latest album, \u2018Make \u2018Em Laugh, Make \u2018Em Cry, Make \u2018Em Wait<\/a>\u2019, came out in April and reached Number One. Speaking to\u00a0NME\u00a0in April,\u00a0Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones said<\/a>: \u201cThe shows keep getting bigger and bigger wherever we go and the audiences get younger, three generations, two generations, people who followed the band back in the day but there\u2019s also people who have just discovered us now, which is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that, of their 13 albums to date, \u201cEach record has had at least two or three hits,\u201d adding: \u201cI couldn\u2019t think of anything worse than having to play your first album over and over. I\u2019m proud of the work we\u2019ve done from day one and I love it when some kid comes up to us and says he only discovered us in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The interview also touched on\u00a0Oasis<\/a>\u2019 reunion, Jones saying it\u2019s \u201cpretty amazing\u201d that they wanted to tour again and describing touring with them in the past as being \u201cpretty messy but good fun\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that many people aren\u2019t as engaged with the music they\u2019re listening to as they were in the past, he added: \u201cThat\u2019s why the live show is so exciting because the band is still in control of that. That\u2019s why it\u2019s amazing that bands like Oasis, bands like ourselves, bands like whoever, watching somebody else\u2019s huge show and the energy they\u2019re putting into the world on a nightly basis whether you like their music or not, it\u2019s an energy that\u2019s being put to fucking thousands, hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis and that can only be a good thing no matter who the performer is. People need it now more than they\u2019ve needed it in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A south Wales phone box made famous by Stereophonics has \u201clikely been scrapped\u201d, BT have revealed. READ MORE:\u00a0Stereophonics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,1770,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-367901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-indie","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}