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The gig looks set to be moved to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium...

STEREOPHONICS‘ huge outdoor gig at CHEPSTOW is “almost certainly off”, a victim of the foot and mouth epidemic NME.COM has learned.

It is likely that a new date will be set at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, just 40 miles along the M4.

A source at the Millennium Stadium told NME.COM that it was 90 per cent finalised that the Day At The Races gig would be moved to the 72,000-seater stadium – home to 1999’s Manic Millennium concert and this year’s FA Cup Final.

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The source also said only 20,000 of the 80,000 tickets put on sale for the Chepstow gig, which features support from the Black Crowes and Ash on July 21, had been sold.

“The promoters have been talking with the stadium, and they want to move the show here. It’s just a case of ironing out the details now.

“Nothing’s confirmed, but it’s 90 per cent certain that the Stereophonics are coming here instead.”

All horse racing events at Chepstow Racecourse have been cancelled in light of the foot and mouth epidemic, and the weekly Sunday market looks set for the chop too.

The on-off show has been rocky since foot and mouth first took hold in South Wales. And a recent outbreak at a farm in Bayfield, Chepstow – just a mile from the planned site of the Phonics gig – threw the gig into even deeper jeopardy.

Drummer Stuart Cable had already raised his own doubts. He confessed during a ‘Top Of The Pops Plus’ TV interview that the gig was “up in the air” because the racecourse is a greenfield site. The band jokingly dubbed the Chepstow date and a gig at the Donington motor racing circuit their “foot and mouth tour”.

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Under Government regulations, anything within a 10km radius of where a diseased animal has been discovered is designated an infected area.

Concert promoter Stuart Galbraith of SFX was not available for comment. But last week he had hinted that a contingency plan had been made for the under-threat gig.

He said: “Of course we are concerned with the foot-and-mouth crisis. But there is nothing we can do about it. We do have contingency plans, but we are not willing to go into detail.

“We have been told the warmer weather will eradicate the disease.”

The band is due to play the Rockpalast festival in Germany on Sunday (April 15).

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