'Meat and two veg' set by Welsh rockers satisfies but rarely thrills

Over their nine-album career, Welsh band Stereophonics have written a handful of stone-cold-classic rock songs. Anthems such as A Thousand Trees, Dakota and Traffic are copper-bottomed, Class A earworms.

However, as this not-quite-sold-out show at London's O2 showed, it takes more than a clutch of great songs to create a truly memorable arena show. In recent weeks, the O2 has hosted inventive spectaculars by U2 and Madonna. By comparison, this concert was meat and two veg: it was sufficient, it did its job, it sustained. But it rarely thrilled.

The upbeat opener C'est La Vie, from the recent number one album Keep The Village Alive, is up there with the Cwmaman band's best. Frontman Kelly Jones injected the lyrics with snarly flashes of Johnny Rotten, but the song was marred by baffling lyrics such as, "I know you're cool but you think that you're chocolate". Quite.