Keane Talk Tours

As they prepare to embark on their biggest tour to date, Keane talk to Tim Rice Oxley about life on the road and what fans can expect from forthcoming venues.

-So this is Keane's biggest tour yet. 100,000 people in ten dates.
Yes. It's going to be wicked. It's the sort of tour we dreamed of when we were kids watching videos of The Beatles playing the Budokan or U2 doing Zoo TV or Queen at Wembley in '86. We've played a couple of arena shows in Europe in the last few months and I think they showed us that we can fill those sorts of places with our music.

-You feel you can still make that personal connection at shows this big?
Well I've seen a few bands that I really like playing great shows in big places. I think certain kinds of music are suited to filling up those big places and really reaching the back rows and I think our music is that sort of music. The other thing is that I genuinely believe Tom is one of the best frontmen of our generation. It's still exciting for me to watch him pull people in from all around those big places. It's not an easy thing to do, but he's brilliant at it.

-Presumably you'll put a bit more effort into your stage show too?
Yeah, it's really going to be quite a spectacular production. I think it's a more ambitious show than any of our generation of bands is doing at the moment. We're using video and lighting and every other trick we can think of to reach people. In these big places you need to be imaginative and you need variety. I think people are going to be pretty blown away by it. At least I hope they are.

-Are we talking rocket packs and the like?
Well, we're trying to remember where the line is between extremely cool rock show and depressingly camp Spinal Tap parody! But we're pretty excited about it. It really is going to look amazing, I think.

-It seems like it's been a good few months for Keane after some difficult times last year.
Yeah, it's been really good. I think we've all been pleasantly surprised by how smooth it's been. In fact, I think it's been better than ever before, which none of us dared to expect. We did have a very tough time in the middle of last year, but I think coming so close to losing everything actually made us appreciate that we've got something very special. Every tour we've done since then has been better than anything we'd ever done before it. We're playing better, the chemistry is better and Tom is really performing out of his skin at the moment. So, yeah, it's an exciting time.

-Tom's in a better place than he was, then?
Yeah, infinitely better I would say. He's been through a lot and it's not something you can make light of at all, but he just seems to be very inspired again. He knows that he's got a gift and he doesn't want to waste it.

-With the album back in the charts and a sold out arena tour, people certainly haven't forgotten you.
No. I think we've always felt that people cherish us as being more than just a fashion band that will be replaced by the next set of haircuts and catch phrases. Maybe that's because we toured so much in the early days, y'know we really got out there and did the groundwork. But especially since coming back in October we've felt this incredible feeling of love and of people wanting to let us know that we're valued. We've had that all over the UK, Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic. It's great to feel that people care that much.

-Did you guys pick the support bands for this tour yourselves?
Yeah, we always do.

-Tell us about The Dears?
We've played with them a few times in the States and they've got a great sound. I like bands that have a bit of electronica and a bit of rock. Plus they've got really epic, poetic lyrics. They're a great band.

-And Polytechnic?
I think they're one of the hottest and best of the new bands around at the moment. Despite being very hot property, they're also a great songwriting band and those two things don't always seem to go together. They're young, innovative and just write great songs. I've never actually seen them play live, so I'm really looking forward to watching them.

BOURNEMOUTH
-It's the nearest to a hometown gig you're playing
It is, yeah. We've never played there as a band before, but we've heard lots of great things about it. I've heard it's supposed to be the secret party town of the south east.

-Have you ever been?
Yeah. I went on holiday to the New Forest once and we went to Bournemouth on two successive days. The first day we went in and watched 'Young Sherlock Holmes' at the cinema. I loved it so much that I made my mum and dad take me back the next day so that I could watch it again!

-Maybe you should watch it on the tour bus while you're there.
I might well do. It is a great film!

BIRMINGHAM NEC
-You've played a lot of venues in Birmingham over the years.
Yeah, we've played there loads of times, I would actually say Birmingham's one of the places that we've been to most. We played at a tiny little pub in the outskirts of Birmingham in the very early days, long before 'Hopes And Fears' came out and each time we go back we've played bigger venues. It's really nice to go from playing to a few people in a pub to playing a sold out show at the NEC. I actually remember one of the first gigs I ever listened to on the radio, before I'd ever been to a gig, was the Pet Shop Boys playing live at the NEC. I remember being very excited hearing the build-up to the gig and dreaming of playing there one day. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

-Do you have any specific memories of Birmingham?
Well, we had a really good curry after that pub gig! And I remember we actually drove back to Birmingham after playing our most poorly attended gig ever. It was in Stoke back around the time that 'Everybody's Changing' came out on Fierce Panda. My friend Ed, who lives in Birmingham, came to that show, so we dropped him off there afterwards. I believe he was one of three people at the show, so we actually could've given them all a lift home!

NOTTINGHAM
-Have Keane played much there before?
We played at the Rescue Rooms in the very early days. I remember we did our first ever photo shoot for Q sitting on the freezing cold floor of a guitar shop. And we played a memorable Rock City gig, which was actually the show where Tom was in his poorest vocal health ever. We were midway through a tour and his voice was completely gone, but I remember we had this amazing gig. Tom could hardly sing at all, so he'd get halfway through each song and then just point the mic at the crowd, who'd finish the rest at deafening volume. I think we had to cancel several gigs after that, but that show was actually great fun.

CARDIFF
-Do you enjoy Welsh crowds?
Yeah, they're pretty wild generally. They've definitely got a hint of dangerous excitement about them. We've played in Cardiff a lot. The first gig we ever played outside London was at what's now the Barfly. We hired a van and drove off into the great unknown. It was incredibly exciting actually, going somewhere other than London to play a show. If I remember rightly, we were supported by The Futureheads at that gig, who were also completely unknown at the time. We got very, very drunk afterwards at some horrendous club called Flares.

WEMBLEY
-You must be looking forward to playing Wembley?
Yeah. I suppose it's one of the most famous venues in the world. I've seen quite a few bands there over the years. The first one would've probably been Blur when they were at their prime. I remember walking in there and it just felt massive. It still feels quite surreal that we're going to be playing there. It definitely feels like a big achievement for us.

-Will you trot out the "good evening Wembley!" line?
I think I'll leave that to Tom.

SHEFFIELD
-Presumably you've played quite a few shows in Sheffield?
Yeah, Sheffield's featured quite a lot in our history. My brother lives there, so we used to go up quite a lot in the very early days when we were still sleeping on floors. There was a great sense of adventure to those days and we had some great times. Actually, I remember the first time we went there in our van with just the three of us we got lost trying to find my brother's flat at about 3am. We eventually got pulled over by the police because we were driving around looking so suspicious in a residential area!

MANCHESTER
-Keane have played a lot in Manchester over the years.
Absolutely. We actually played our first gig after our guitarist left at the Night And Day. That would've been something like September 2002, before we got a record deal or anything. I remember there was virtually nobody there, but two of the only people were Mark and Lard, which was very nice. We slept on the floor of a friend of a friend of Richard's that night. Those days are very precious. It seemed like a spectacular achievement just to have got someone to allow you to get up on stage, even if it was for no money. Just going to Picadilly Records, then playing at the Night & Day and sleeping on somebody's floor felt amazing.

-Did the first gig without a guitar go well?
I'd say it was pretty rough and ready to be quite honest. We hadn't quite mastered how we were going to do things. But we were playing quite a few of the songs that went on to become hits. In fact, I think that would've been the first time that we ever played 'Everybody's Changing' and 'Bedshaped'live. But we've gone on to play a lot of great gigs in Manchester. They often say that towns like London and Manchester are quite hard to play because they have so much music available to them. But Manchester has always been really good to us, which is great because it's one of the world's great music towns.

GLASGOW
-Do you enjoy playing in Glasgow?
Glasgow is always one to look forward to, definitely. We discovered that the first time we ever went up there in early 2003. We played at King Tut's and it was the northern-most point of our tour with the three of us in a van. It was very exciting driving all the way to Scotland for a show and obviously King Tut's is a legendary music venue. So we got there and to our amazement the show was sold out - it was the only gig on the tour that was. We couldn't quite understand how so many people had heard of us, but they're obviously proper music fans and they find out what's going on. They were the first to really welcome us in and give us a crazy response. And every time we've gone back they've got more and more enthusiastic and passionate. In fact, I believe I'm right in saying that statistically we're more popular in Scotland than any other country in the world. We love it up there.

NEWCASTLE
-Have you played many Newcastle shows?
We haven't played there very much, but I do remember a particularly good gig at the university, not long after Hopes and Fears came out. In fact, it was the last date of the first tour after the album was released and I remember that there was some amazing singing along going on from the crowd. I'd definitely say that Geordie crowds are amongst the loudest singers!

We're all big fans of Ross Noble, who's from just outside Newcastle. We watch his DVDs constantly on the tourbus and we were very pleased to meet him when he presented us with our Q Award at the end of last year. We're actually hoping he might come along to the show if he's in town that night.