Belsonic 2025 // Sterephonics Stadium Anthems Summer '25 Tour // James Bay // Live Review

Belsonic 2025 // Sterephonics Stadium Anthems Summer ’25 Tour // James Bay // Live Review

Here we are, folks, on the hallowed ground that is Ormeau Park, home to Belsonic each year in Belfast.

We landed down at the press day on Monday of this week and found the site as always in chaos as the final days approach. Everything falls into place, Today marks the opening gig, a run of ten shows that covers multiple genres from legacy bands like Stereophonics to the majestic Alanis Morissette and everything in between. Belfast is surely in for a treat, and thankfully, the weather has finally decided to play ball. Today was chaos! Torrential downpours, impending doom in the sky and then 6 o’clock came and all was good in Belfast once again.

As we made our way down, the blue skies appeared and glorious rays of sunshine rained down on Ormeau as the huddled masses gathered for tonight’s performance. The crowds stream into Ormeau embankment and into the venue itself. As I look around, you can see parents with their kids. Beautiful young ladies out for a party and guys and dolls living their best lives on a cool summer’s night. What a way to kick off Belsonic 2025.

Tonight’s main support is the one the only James Bay. A killer musician, singer-songwriter with hits coming out of every pore on his body. With four studio albums under his belt since his arrival on the scene, and that debut album ‘Chaos And The Calm’, his career went stratospheric! And deservedly so. James is a highly respected artist who rightfully has garnered attention far and wide with his easy-on-the-ear melodic and emotive songwriting. I guess many would say the UK’s answer to the US’s John Mayer, as he slings his vintage guitars whilst performing his array of glorious tunes. The warm light bathes the stage beautifully, and James and his band make their way through a glorious collection of songs with his signature sound all over them. Belfast has turned out in their droves and James and his band appreciate it, lost in their music as he tosses out hit after hit and closing his set with his infamous “The River” and before you know it, it’s all over and there’s that mad rush for the bar in between sets. We get a little time to catch our breath before the chaos of the Phonic’s arrive and Ormeau Park is set alight.

https://www.jamesbay.com

Photography: Mark McGrogan

8:40 pm and as we are standing stage left awaiting the band I can see them walking across from the VIP area and they look pretty chilled as they do, As the band takes to the stage an almighty cheer erupts around the venue and with a quick sound check/thrash of the guitars to signal theyre ready to go the Stereophonic’s get stuck right in! The Stadium Anthems Tour allows the Phonics to revisit the classics alongside their latest offering ‘Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait, via EMI – available to stream here.

This tour, whilst allowing the band to flex their proverbial musical muscles with their glorious new album, also has all those classic tracks under one roof, which brings us right back to the band’s earliest songwriting and their rawkus rock days. Word Gets Around landed in 1997, almost 30 years ago, and launched the Stereophonics out into the ether, but it was 1999’s Performance And Cocktails that made the mark and announced the band to the world, and things have never been quite the same since! The band’s growth from there allowed their songwriting to soar, and the band followed up these huge albums with strong, powerful, anthem-packed recordings and allowing them the grace to record thirteen studio albums to date. Tonight however, Belfast gets treated to the finest songs off those albums which tracks the bands maturity as they grew from strength to strength with each release, but tonight was filled with some of my personal favourites from over the years, ‘Just Looking’, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, ‘Handbags And Gladrags’, ‘The Bartended And The Thief’ and of course ‘Dakota’. No setlist will keep everyone happy, but tonight’s is jam-packed with some of their greats, for the longtime Phonics fans and the newbies who have only come on board over recent years. Ormeau Park is in joyful form as their life’s work is tossed out and the park reverberates in kind.

What a way to kick off Belsonic 2025, a soundtrack for the masses, 19,000 like-minded souls all packed into a corner of Belfast to celebrate their love for one of Wales’ finest bands. For so many who have celebrated a journey alongside Kelly and the boys from their inception, while living their best lives as the soundtrack to their youth plays out before them, memories of their student days flood back, and chaotic nights at The Egg and The Bot play out with each track live. As the huddled masses stream out onto the Ormeau embankment singing their favourite songs, we have a little time to recoup before the next one is up! Lush Classical lands this coming Saturday, but you can check out the full Belsonic line-up HERE:

Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait, via EMI – available to stream here.