Stuart James Cable was born on 19 May 1970 in Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and grew up in the close-knit village of Cwmaman nearby. He attended Blaengwawr Comprehensive School, where he became friends with fellow pupil Kelly Jones, who lived on the same street. When Cable was ten, his father died, and he and his elder brother Paul were raised by their mother, Mabel, on her own.
In 1992, Cable, Jones and school friend Richard Jones began playing cover versions in working men's clubs around the Cynon Valley under the name Tragic Love Company. The trio changed their name to Stereophonics in 1996 and went on to become one of the most successful Welsh rock bands of their generation, with Cable as the founding drummer through a run of UK number one albums. He left the band in 2003.
After Stereophonics, Cable moved into broadcasting, presenting a weekend rock show on BBC Radio Wales and later television work, while also forming a new band, Killing for Company. He died suddenly at his home in Llwydcoed, near Aberdare, on 7 June 2010, aged 40, after choking in his sleep. His former Stereophonics bandmates have spoken publicly of him as a hugely popular, larger-than-life figure central to the band's early story.