They release their seventh studio album, Keep Calm & Carry On, through Mercury Records on November 16, and will support it with an arena tour in the spring.

It begins at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle on Monday, March 1, and tickets, priced £30, are on sale now.

From humble beginnings in Cwmaman, south Wales, in 1992, Stereophonics have become one of Britain's biggest bands, and their popularity shows no sign of waning.

They have had 21 Top 20 singles and five consecutive No1 albums, and their 'greatest hits' album Decade In The Sun, released last November, sold almost a million copies in two months.

The band's current line-up is Kelly Jones (guitar/vocals), Richard Jones (bass), Javier Weyler (drums) and Adam Zindani (guitar).

The first taste of their new material is the hook-laden single Innocent, which is released a week before the album.

They aired some of it in a five-star performance recently at London's Electric Ballroom and a triumphant hometown show at Cardiff Castle.

Keep Calm was written by frontman Kelly and produced by him and Jim Abbiss, who's best known for his work with Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian.

It contains 12 slices of intelligent, sharply crafted, melodic storytelling, which has taken the band in some surprising and enjoyable new directions.

Much of the record is stripped back, without the walls of loud guitars, creating a space to drive home Kelly's rasping vocal, and allowing the strength of the songs to shine through.

"We needed to up the bar a bit," says Kelly. "Otherwise it was going to fritter away like it has done for a lot of the bands that were around at the same time as us. And I think we're better than that."

Keep Calm & Carry On is a message taken from a Second World War propaganda poster, and lyrically it is probably Kelly's most cohesive set since Stereophonics' debut.

Its subject matter varies, from adjusting to the pace of modern life on 100 MPH, to empathising with the hard time everyone is facing on Trouble, with the zesty rocker Live 'n' Love thrown into the mix to create a change of pace and inject some urgency.

"I love having one of them on here," admits Kelly. "Big guitars, big drums, big anthem. It's really exciting to play live."

Tickets for the Arena date are available now from (0844) 493 6666, or www.metroradioarena.co.uk