AFTER a storming performance at V Festival last weekend, the Stereophonics have announced ten UK arena dates for this December – starting at Bournemouth International Centre and including London’s O2 Arena. Their ninth studio album ‘Keep The Village Alive’ is out on September 11 and is written by Kelly Jones, produced by Kelly and Jim Lowe, and comes hot on the heels of 2013’s acclaimed, platinum-selling Graffiti On The Train.

C’est La Vie, the first single from the album, is one of the songs of the year, whilst second single I Wanna Get Lost With You is already a firm live favourite and currently sits on the BBC Radio 2 A list. After selling-out all 16 arena shows on their Graffiti On The Train tour in 2013, tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Stereophonics will play the BIC on Wednesday December 2. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, August 27 at 9am.

Without doubt Stereophonics are one of Britain’s most popular bands and in Kelly Jones they possess one of the country’s great songwriters. Throughout their 20-year career the band has continuously released high-selling albums and Keep The Village Alive, is no exception.

Since winning a Brit Award in 1998 for Best New Group Stereophonics have developed a sound that is like few others. They are the eighth group to achieve five consecutive UK number one albums in a list that includes the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, ABBA, Genesis, Oasis, Blur and U2.

“It’s quite an optimistic album,” Kelly says of the forthcoming Keep The Village Alive and the fine art of story telling lies at its very heart.

“I still think of an album in terms of vinyl,” Kelly admits.

“This is the first song that starts side one. That’s just my upbringing, cassettes and vinyl. The running order was always very important to me. I always remember What’s The Story Morning Glory had a really good running order. It was a cracking opening track and then a bunch of singles and I kind of used that as a template for Word Gets Around and have ever since.”

As for the band’s longevity he adds: “What’s good about the band is that we all still like each other. You talk about band’s fighting, but we meet up every week and rehearse when we’re not touring. It’s nice to still have a bunch of mates to go to work with.”

: Tickets go on sale on August 27 at 9am. Visit bic.co.uk or stereophonics.com for details.