Welsh legends Stereophonics brought their 2025 tour to the Utilita Arena on Saturday and Newcastle loved them
Stereophonics at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Saturday, December 6, 2025
If there’s a better musical cure for the glumness of a rainy weekend in this frenetic and dark part of December than watching Stereophonics live, I’m not sure what it is. Saturday night’s concert at the Utilita Arena left everyone with big smiles heading out into the drizzle.
I always think of Stereophonics as a feelgood band. Partly that’s because they were a soundtrack to my university years, so there’s a surge of warm nostalgia brought on by their music. It’s also fair to say they have plenty of darker, gritty tracks – and that their rockiest songs are all bangers – so I mean feelgood very much as a compliment.
However, they do have a particularly impressive back catalogue of tracks that just somehow make you smile. Perhaps the best loved of these is Dakota, a summery anthem with which they’ve always closed the show in the last twenty years or so that I’ve been watching them live.
OPINION
They know this track, which Kelly Jones wrote in 2003/4 after touring with David Bowie, elicits the screams of anthem hero status and gets everyone on their feet. It works brilliantly and is very much an ending that leaves everyone grinning.
Saturday night at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle was no different, with the joyful mass sing-and-dancealong that accompanied Dakota added to by an array of colourful inflatable balls bouncing over the heads of the crowd. They’d been added during previous encore track C’est La Vie, itself a rousing and rocky finish to what had been a joyous gig from the off.
Stereophonics at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Saturday, December 6, 2025
Opening with Vegas Two Times set the tone and made it clear that the Newcastle crowd was going to be treated to a host of old favourites. Kelly Jones is such a cool frontman, always strolling on to the stage looking the part which last night involved black skinny jeans and a snug leather jacket. He exudes leadership and passion for what they’ve been doing now for more than 30 years.
An extended stage platform into the crowd allowed him to walk out into the audience a few times, and the response was rapturous whenever he did. Chatty and funny between songs, it was clear this tour has some nostalgic glow for the band too, and we were treated to a reel of photos of their very first world tour during More Life in a Tramp’s Vest, a tour debut for this fast and fun singalong from smash hit 1997 album Word Gets Around.
This segued into a long chat from Kelly where, seated on a stool, he regaled us with tales of early years rehearsals in his home village of Cwmaman in South Wales, where he became friends with neighbours, Stuart Cable and Richard Jones. And from here we were treated to a lovely acoustic version of I Wouldn’t Believe Your Wireless Radio, played by Kelly on a ukulele gifted to him by Richard “because he knows I can’t play it”. I thought he did very well!
Stereophonics at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Saturday, December 6, 2025
Mr Writer was a personal favourite, my number one track from Just Enough Education to Perform, an album whose title is to be found in its lyrics. Mr and Mrs Smith, Maybe Tomorrow and the driving rock anthem Superman were also highlights, before the set was closed with a superlative Bartender and the Thief.
I had my 15-year-old son with me, watching the band for the first time, and had alerted him to watch out for the Ace of Spades snippet Kelly always belts out when he performs this one live. It went down very well and Stereophonics can be assured of a new teenage fan.
And that’s what the sustaining power of bands like this that have been going for 30+ years and are still packing out arenas is all about. These are timeless, often anthemic songs performed by a set of super musicians that appeal just as much to a teenage alt-rock devotee as to his middle-aged mum reminiscing about her university days. A rousing, rip-roaring gig and just the ticket for a rainy Saturday.