Stereophonics kicked start their Pull the Pin tour on with a fairly intimate warm up gig at Lincoln’s Engine Shed. 

The Welsh rockers came, saw and conquered; Kelly Jones was delighted at their ‘first visit to Lincoln’. He undoubtedly charmed the women in the audience (by that of course they where screaming hysterically at his tight black jeans and leather jacket) then melted everyone’s faces with an impressive collaboration of hits from A Thousand Trees to Mr Writer.

They opened with their first release Bank Holiday Monday from their new, number one selling album Pull the Pin then jumped straight into Bartender and the Thief leaving the crowd amazed and breathless from the start. Talk about an epic intro.  

On stage it was simple and relaxed, with no fancy lights or graphics setup, allowing the performance to be even more intimate. The gig just bellowed pure British rock ‘n’ roll that created an intense 100 plus minutes of musical seduction.

The performance from Kelly Jones, Richard Jones on bass and Javier Weyler on drums flowed flawlessly from hit to anthem. The atmosphere was raw; middle-ager’s were bopping harmlessly, teenagers and students got leery and couples where almost in tears swaying to the solo performance from Jones of the classic hit Just Looking.

The defining moment?  The encore. The crowd was roaring for more, first came the beautifully composed Daisy Lane followed by the raucous chanting for that catchy, foot-stomping summer anthem of 2005. Kelly Jones cheekily responded and threw Dakota down hard. 

Stereophonics’ define excellence for the nineties and the naughties rock music phenomenon. For a warm up gig they didn’t fail to leave the crowd buzzing and a little bit moist.  For anyone who hasn’t yet listened to the new album, it shows a superb blend of monstrous metal riffs to emotional ballads that exposes the band’s brilliance.

After witnessing them live on stage, they have only grown stronger and after a decade of mixed reactions Pull the Pin proves to be a successful and well-deserved comeback.