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By Brendon Mitchell
It is around two years since Keane were last in Bournemouth playing to an expectant sell-out crowd at the BIC.
That show, in February 2007, was the opening night of a tour widely regarded as the bands comeback after front-man Tom Chaplin had spent time in rehabilitation for a drug addiction some five months previous.
At that time, all eyes and ears were focused on how the band was responding in the face of adversity, and how the fresh-faced lead-singer was coping with a heightened level of media attention. Few could have predicted then that the next chapter in the Keane story would involve a new album that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 1980’s and an intention to change the world as we know it.
Perfect Symmetry, complete with its guitars, synths and cheesy backing vocals, raced to number one, while the vibrant album opener ‘Spiralling’ was named best track of 2008 at the Q awards.
However, pianist and songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley concedes that the band has lost some ground in the charts as a result of the latest singles not being as accessible as the bands previous material. In particular, the new album’s war-themed title track failed to make even the top 100.
“I don’t think we’re very worried about the charts, but getting the songs heard by people is what we love doing. As long as the song is getting played a lot then we’re happy.
“I was disappointed about Perfect Symmetry though, because it didn’t get played very much on the super-mainstream radio stations. It’s a song we’re very passionate about and we’re pretty certain it’s the best thing we’ve ever done, so we’d have been really happy if it had received wider exposure on the radio. But it’s quite a profound song, and it’s not exactly pop-fodder. I guess you’ve just got to do what you believe in and hope people like it.”
Keane’s February tour of the UK was their first with Perfect Symmetry, and their show is now bigger and more spectacular than ever before. In fact, as one of the smaller venues on the tour you almost feel as though the BIC doesn’t do the band’s new set justice. ‘The Lovers Are Losing’ is a slightly flat opener and remains the weakest of the new songs live, but the atmosphere soon rises with old favourites ‘Bend and Break’ and ‘Everybody’s Changing’. Renditions of ‘Again and Again’ and ‘This Is The Last Time’ take the temperature up yet further.
As Chaplin struts from side-to-side with electric guitar in hand, moving between Rice-Oxley and drummer Richard Hughes, they are also joined on stage by a new fourth member. An old friend of the band, bassist Jesse Quin contributed to the making of Perfect Symmetry and has now been playing at their live shows.
“Having Jesse on board has been great,” explains Hughes. “It means we can jam songs down live in the studio, whereas previously Tim would have to record all of the bass onto a computer.
“It’s funny because a lot of bands start off in a garage by just plugging in their amps and playing. We’ve always relied on technology quite a lot, so we’ve kind of done it the other way around.”
It does make a huge difference to the live show, and the backing instruments now provide the kind of rich, unpolluted support that Chaplin’s soaring choirboy vocals deserve. There are even shades of Freddie Mercury as he hits the spine-tingling top notes of ‘You Don’t See Me’.
Quirky new single ‘Better Than This’ is another highlight, and Rice-Oxley insists there is much more to the song than just it’s punchy guitars and funky keyboards.
“The song is about needing to re-arrange our cultural priorities. I think our idea of what constitutes great achievement is gradually being more and more twisted by the media and this culture of fame.
If you’re on the front cover of ‘Heat’ magazine or you’re seen out at the right clubs with the right people that’s seen as the peak of human achievement. Personally I’d have much more admiration for someone who brings up a child without having a nervous breakdown.”
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