A south Wales phone box made famous by Stereophonics has “likely been scrapped”, BT have revealed.
- READ MORE: Stereophonics talk Oasis, new music and survival: “The shows keep getting bigger and the audiences get younger”
The red kiosk in the band’s home village of Cwmaman, Rhondda Cynon Taf, had become an iconic landmark for fans, due to a photoshoot they did there in 1997.
At the time, the group’s original line-up of Kelly Jones, Richard Jones and Stuart Cable posed for veteran NME photographer Martyn Goodacre, having just released their debut album ‘Word Gets Around’.
In 2019, the phone box was removed by BT, prompting locals to lobby to have it reinstated.
Now, BT has revealed that it can no longer be located after spending years in storage, as “those conversations were not followed up during the pandemic”.
Vikki Howells, MS for Cynon Valley, had previously called it “an important cultural landmark” and said she was “very disappointed” at the news.
The phone box had various upgrades during its lifetime – 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.
However, Howells and some fans of the group fought at the time to get it back. “I 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,” she said.
“Unfortunately, Covid came along not long afterwards and its impact was so great on so many lives,” she continued. “As a result, most folk understandably had little time to think of anything else.”
A BT spokesperson said requests to adopt the kiosk in 2019 “had not followed the usual process, the payphone having already been removed following a formal consultation”.
“Conversations about adoption were then not followed up during the pandemic.
“We 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,” they added.
The band’s latest album, ‘Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘Em Cry, Make ‘Em Wait’, came out in April and reached Number One. Speaking to NME in April, Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones said: “The 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’s also people who have just discovered us now, which is amazing.”
He explained that, of their 13 albums to date, “Each record has had at least two or three hits,” adding: “I couldn’t think of anything worse than having to play your first album over and over. I’m proud of the work we’ve done from day one and I love it when some kid comes up to us and says he only discovered us in 2016.”
The interview also touched on Oasis’ reunion, Jones saying it’s “pretty amazing” that they wanted to tour again and describing touring with them in the past as being “pretty messy but good fun”.
Suggesting that many people aren’t as engaged with the music they’re listening to as they were in the past, he added: “That’s why the live show is so exciting because the band is still in control of that. That’s why it’s amazing that bands like Oasis, bands like ourselves, bands like whoever, watching somebody else’s huge show and the energy they’re putting into the world on a nightly basis whether you like their music or not, it’s an energy that’s 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’ve needed it in a long time.”
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