“I haven’t got a fucking clue what’s going on…”

One advantage for the 100 or so audience members here tonight, made up of Q Magazine competition winners and other lucky individuals, is that you can hear everything that is said on stage. Normally this would be greeted with alarm bells, but for tonight it seems, everyone finds it funny.

The most notable figurehead to be finding this funny is the curator of the said line, who is currently trying to recover from a fit of giggles that hit him almost the moment he sat down for his bands first acoustic show for – apparently – five years. The man in question is Kelly Jones, frontman of Stereophonics, who in-between the occasional sip of red wine, is using razor sharp, desert-dry wit get through the exclusive set.

It’s not as if the songs themselves are falling apart though. With many of the bands’ songs originating from the stripped down format, it provided a tantalising experience, with the guttural guitar that frequents hits such as Bank Holiday Monday, The Bartender And The Thief and My Friends being reigned in by the acoustic guitars and equally subdued – but still important – drumming of Javier Weyler.

Clocking in and hour long setlist that focused around both 1999’s Performance and Cocktails and recent LP, Pull The Pin, it was 1996’s Local Boy In The Photograph that is one of the biggest highlights that went “triple plywood with a bullet” according to Jones, with wry smile very much in tow.

The smiles didn’t stop either, as Weyler, bassist Richard Jones and touring guitarist Adam Zindani take it in turns to give eachother knowing looks, trying to get the other to laugh. It’s a joy to watch. Some may ague that it shows a lack of professionalism, but as the eyes and facial expressions continue to dart back and forth whilst Jones sits front and centre like the head of the class, it’s more of a pleasant reminder as to how happy the band appear to be.

Leaving the increasingly vocal crowd with singalong favourites Just Looking and 2005’s Dakota, which bagged the group their first UK Number 1 single, it was Jones who returned to perform Maybe Tomorrow on his own. What then happened was as unexpected to the band as it was to the audience, as a hastily amended setlist later showed:

“Ron Wood is here; wants to play a tune”

Bounding back onstage with Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood in tow and grins that rivalled the elated crowd, a cover of The Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down followed. Wood bobbed and bounded on the spot, sporting a woolly jumper alongside Jones in his leather jacket and shades, whilst the room tried to comprehend what was happening.

Upon finishing, the swelled masses of the Stereophonics leave the stage swiftly, leaving trophy-hunters from the first few rows to grab a piece of music history. The band, however, have more pressing matters to attend to. Scarlett Johansson is in town tonight, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the band:

“We’re gunna try and find her after the gig. Maybe she’ll allow us to be her backing band – now there’s a view you wouldn’t mind staring at from the back of the stage every night” says Jones.

With the way the night has gone so far, it’s almost a feasible outcome…