On March 8, 1999, the Welsh band Stereophonics released their second album, titled "Performance and Cocktails," a name extracted from the lyrics of the opener "Roll Up and Shine" ("Roll out the shock parade/Free falling from a stage/Performance and cocktails/Roll up and shine").

The album was preceded by two singles that hinted at the great success to come: the first, "The Bartender and the Thief," is a fun and frenetic rock‘n roll number that reached number three on the UK singles chart. The second, "Just Looking," is a fantastic electric ballad featuring Jones's stunning voice; the track climbed up to number four.

The ground was fertile, then, for the release of the second album, under the V2 label, quickly topping the UK chart and achieving platinum status after just three weeks: to this day, it is universally recognized as the best work by the Welsh band, and it led them to perform in front of fifty thousand people at the Morfa Stadium in Swansea (the best concert of that year in Great Britain).

But let's talk about the album: recorded in three different studios (Real World Studios in Bath, Parkgate in Sussex, and Rockfield in Monmouth) and entirely written by all the band members, it is a raw and very direct work, different from the debut due to the decision to switch to Fender guitars, aiming to alter the sound deemed not entirely satisfactory in "Word Gets Around." Besides the first two, three more singles were extracted from the work; the cheerful and sunny "Pick A Part That's New," the acoustic and lively "I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio," and the melancholic "Hurry Up and Wait," monstrously beautiful in its "progressive" melody.

The rest of the album is at times embarrassingly beautiful; in the more driven tracks, like the aggressive "Roll Up and Shine" and the short but intense "Half The Lies You Tell Ain't True," the blend of roaring guitars and the bluesy, "smoky" voice of the leader works tremendously well. In the slow numbers, Jones's extraordinary interpretive ability is well highlighted, but above all, an incredible inspiration emerges in all the songs, leading the 'Phonics to create incredibly catchy and impactful melodies, as in the rhythmic and beautiful "T-Shirt Sun Tan." Also notably successful is the ballad "Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today?," as well as "Plastic California," which starts slowly and then slowly explodes in the fantastic finale. Complementing all this are some semi-acoustic numbers (including a languid "She Takes Her Clothes Off") that don't detract at all, quite the contrary.

Ultimately, we are witnessing the peak creative moment of the 'Phonics, as well as one of the best albums produced by post-britpop Britain.

Tracklist Lyrics and Samples

01   Roll Up and Shine (03:58)

why dont you take a look in my mouth
why dont you take a look at yourself
so why dont you take a look around
so why dont we take alook inside

roll out the shock parade
free fallin from a stage
performance and cocktails
roll up an shine

i hang the devil from a circus wire
face up seats four in love spittin fire
so why dont you take a look around
so why dont we take a look inside

roll out the shock parade
free fallin from a stage
performance and cocktails
roll up and shine

its time to live its time to love
its time to do whats afraid of
its time to breath time to relieve
its time to shine

so why dont you take look around
so why dont we take a look inside

roll out the shock parade
free fallin from a stage
performance and cocktails
roll up and shine

bring on the shock parade
freaks fallin from a stage
performance and cocktails
roll up and shine

02   The Bartender and the Thief (02:54)

When you think about it
He's watching every word you say, yeah
Say yeah
And when he's sussed you out
He calls her up and out she comes and hustles
Us
Long digging
Gone fishing
Love drinking

The bartender and the thief are lovers
Steal what they need like sisters and brothers
Met in a church a night to remember
Robbing the graves of bodies dismembered

He watched the lesbian talk
She kissed and groped but mostly talked in lust
Crushed
He couldn't make the call
His eyes were gripped on licking tongues
Enough's enough
Failed for once

Long digging
Gone fishing
Love drinking

The bartender and the thief are lovers
Steal what they need like sisters and brothers
Met in a church a night to remember
Robbing the graves of bodies dismembered

Long digging
Gone fishing
Love drinking

The bartender and the thief are lovers
Steal what they need like sisters and brothers
Met in a church a night to remember
Robbing the graves of bodies dismembered

Saved what they stole to meet at the altar
Place where they first set eyes on each other
Flew to the sun to start life all over
Set up a bar and robbed all the locals

Dooooo doooooo doooo doooo doo dooooo doooo dooooo dooo

03   Hurry Up and Wait (04:40)

We wait to wake to get a ride in the rain
buy a ticket they can check we can claim
so we don't spend what's our own
For a seat a place to stop a green light
a red cross they run around naked
doing old things like the ones before

Wait for a break so you can take a little
something that'll make your next break
come along a little quicker than the one before
Wait for an answer spy a sweet dancer
as she walks from the door of the hall
wish you waited for your wedding vows

So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?
So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?

We wait to get warm the car starts
from cold stall to make the first move
magazines made the rules to make us lose
For your dream man the house you could both plan
the car in the sales add the wet dream
with the man you wish that you had

So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?
So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?

A watched pot never boils sugar
seconds to dissolve see your appetite
lost foods relevance is lost inside

We wait to get there and when we get there
we wait around for anyone to
tell us what we even got there for

So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?
So hurry up and wait
but what's worth waiting for?
what's worth waiting for?
what's worth waiting for?
what's worth waiting for?
what's worth waiting for?

So join the queue me and you
wait in line it takes our time
to be satisfied

04   Pick a Part That's New (03:33)

I've never been here before,
Didn't know where to go,
Never met you before,
I've never been to your home,
That smells not unknown,
Foot steps made of stone,
Walking feels familiar

You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, underground, pick a part that's new,
You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, upside down, pick a part that's new.

People drinking on their own,
Push buttons on the phone,
Was I here once before?
Is that my voice on the phone?
That last drink on my own,
Did I ever leave at all?
Confusions familiar

You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, underground, pick a part that's new,
You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, upside down, pick a part that's new.

You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, underground, pick a part that's new,
You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, upside down, anything that's new.
You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, underground, pick a part that's new,
You can do all the things that you like to do,
All around, upside down, pick a part that's new.
So what's new to you?
What's new to you?
What's new to you?

05   Just Looking (04:13)

There's things I want there's things I think I want
There's things I've had there's things I wanna have
Do I want the dreams the ones we're forced to see
Do I want the perfect wife but perfect ain't quite right
Shopping every day take it back the next break
They say the more you fly the more you risk your life

I'm just looking I'm not buying
I'm just looking it keeps me smiling

A house I've seen another coulda' been you drenched my head
And said what I said you said that life is what you make of it
Yet most of us just fake

I'm just looking I'm not buying
I'm just looking it keeps me smiling

06   Half the Lies You Tell Ain't True (02:55)

07   I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio (03:50)

Travelling through a tunnel under sea
You never know if it cracks in half
you're never ever gonna see me

But you can have it all if you like
You can have it all if you like
And you can pay for it the rest of your life

I wouldn't believe your wireless radio
If i had myself a flying giraffe
I'd have one in a box with a window

But you can have it all if you like
You can have it all if you like
And you can pay for it the rest of your

Life in the summers on its back
You have to agree that thats the crack
So take what you want
I'm not coming back

So you can have it all if you like
you can have it all if you like
and you can pay for it the rest of your life

08   T-Shirt Sun Tan (04:04)

09   Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today? (04:02)

10   A Minute Longer (03:46)

They're calling out
Come on lets go
But I'm miles away
To a year before
Laughs from a glass
Drank to the past
On the old green seat
Like velvet to the hand

Think I'd like to stay a minute longer
Would you like to stay a minute longer?

Last one for some
Sick from the rum
I played golf on the carpet with someone

Crash back to date
Few things I hate
But I'd rather us live
In the present day

Think I'd like to stay a minute longer
Would you like to stay a minute longer?
If you'd like I'd stay for a minute longer
As longer
As longer
Longer

(repeat to fade)

11   She Takes Her Clothes Off (03:55)

12   Plastic California (04:30)

Plastic California,
Looks like Blackpool,
Outta date.
Some love, some hate.

It's all your competition,
It's not my occupation, true.
But it's what you do.

Some love, some hate.
Some love, some hate.

I like pink architecture,
Flip back my red strip deck chair, prove.
We got nothing to prove.

Gin stroke amnesia problems,
Over hearing talk of Hollywood,
We wish we could, ya should.

Some love and some hate.
Some love and some hate.

It's a beautiful place for nature,
And all the beautiful people make it true.
But you look as good as you.

Some love and some hate.
Some love and some hate.

Makes me feel great.
Makes me feel great.
I feel new,
D'ya feel new? ha, ha!
D'ya feel new? ha, ha!
D'ya feel new? ha, ha!
Ha, ha!
Well I'm pleased to meet you!

13   I Stopped to Fill My Car Up (04:29)

I stopped to fill my car up
The car felt good that day
I didn't know where i was going
But it felt good for a change
A five and a pocket full of silver
I paid the lady no change
And then it started to piss down
I started driving again

And then i looked up
And looked in the mirror behind me

A man round forty in the back seat
Must have stepped in when I was empty
So why's he sat there just waiting
Likely to smash my face in

He had a bag full of money
He said just drive me away
I didn't know where I was going
Yet it felt good to be strange

And still I look up
And look in the mirror behind me

Curiosity is over
He stepped down from the car
He pulled a gun out from his jacket
Said I was going to die

It gives me so much satisfaction
To watch you beg and cry
Well I just made up this story
To get your attention makes me smile

I never looked up or looked
In the mirror behind me

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