Song · Stereophonics
“The Bartender and the Thief” by Stereophonics
From the album Performance and Cocktails (1999)
“The Bartender and the Thief” by Stereophonics appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1998 and 2025. It was first released in 1999 on the album Performance and Cocktails. Its best result is #1 on the Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1998. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #134 alternative song of 1998.
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Video from YouTube (StereophonicsVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"The Bartender and the Thief" was the opening shot from Stereophonics' second album, Performance and Cocktails, landing as a single in November 1998 and climbing to number three on the UK chart well before the album followed in 1999. The band wrote it together that April, with Kelly Jones supplying the words and Richard Jones and Stuart Cable sharing the music, and Marshall Bird and Steve Bush produced it for V2.
It's the Welsh band at their most bruising: a riff that lurches like a pub brawl, drums kicking the door in, and Jones's sandpaper voice riding over the top. The video hauled them to Kanchanaburi Province in Thailand for an Apocalypse Now homage, and on stage Jones has been known to slip a nod to Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" into the instrumental gap before the last chorus.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 1 | Virgin Radio United Kingdom | Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1998 | 10 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 9 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio VR10x10 (April 2003) | 100 |
| 2025 | 29 | Absolute Radio | Absolute Radio 100 Ultimate Britpop Anthems | 100 |
Also listed as: The Bartender and The Thief.
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