G major · Camelot 9B · 130 BPM
Local Boy in the Photograph
by Stereophonics
- 130
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 38
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
After former Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable died in 2010, a campaign launched on Facebook aimed at pushing "Local Boy in the Photograph" to number one on the UK charts. On 13 June 2010, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 60. It had first appeared there in March 1997, when it reached number 51, and a re-release on 9 February 1998 took it to number 14.
The track was the first single from Stereophonics' debut album, Word Gets Around, released in August 1997. That record charted at number six in the UK, helped along by "Local Boy in the Photograph" alongside the singles "More Life in a Tramps Vest" and "A Thousand Trees". The band, formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley, drew the material for the whole album from people and events in the Aberdare area.
Kelly Jones explained the song's meaning during an interview with Sky Arts HD after performing at the Hay Festival in June 2010. He said it was based on the true story of Paul David Boggis, a local boy who was killed by a train travelling between Cwmbach and Aberdare. All music on the track was written by Kelly Jones, Richard Jones and Stuart Cable, with the lyrics composed by Kelly Jones.
Local Boy in the Photograph runs at 130 BPM, the tempo of techno, trance and big-room dance. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.85 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 462 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.