Feature: Kasabian gig news 2011

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Kasabian talk about their biggest gigs ever

Kasabian talk about playing their biggest gigs to date, at The O2 and the new stage show they are going to surprise their fans with.

Watch it on YouTube

24th December

Watch Kasabian oin Saturday December 31st.

Celebrate The New Year With Kasabian - NYE Re:Wired Live On YouTube. Kasabian are set to blow the roof off the O2 and rush 2012 this New Year's Eve - and you can watch all the action live on YouTube. The entire gig, including the countdown to the New Year, will be streaming worldwide. Don't miss your chance to and be a part of this very special event - join Kasabian fans worldwide from 11pm GMT (12 midnight CET, 6pm EST, 3pm PST) on Saturday December 31st.

Check the Teaser with Tom and Serge

3rd December

Kasabian play Nottingham

Kasabian's gig at the Capital FM Arena tonight rocked the house by all acccounts. Artsin could not go but many of our friends did. Here are some of their comments:

"Best gig ever" - Kirsty, "Fanastic gig last night" - Donna, " Awesome gig as always!! Second time I have seen them in an arena - so suited to it - just keep getting better n better!" - Phil

" Kasabian were quality last night as was Miles Kane. They know how to get the crowd going. The Leicester boys done us proud yet again. " - Ryan.

26th October

Kasabian at the Leicester O2

Kasabian's show at the O2 Academy in Leicester sold out within hours. The show was broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe hosting the broadcast live from the stage from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

As soon as the show was announced (11th October) queues of fans formed at the box office; over 700 fans queued overnight to register for tickets. Fans were given thousands of cups of tea and coffee and free chips by O2 as they waited in line for their tickets.

As the main room at O2 Academy began to fill with excited fans, Zane Lowe arrived on stage and began the hour long process of warming up the crowd in readiness for the band.

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

Zane Lowe got the crowd cheering and waving their arms in the air in readiness for the start of the Radio 1 live broadcast at 7 p.m. He got the growing crowd to sing Wonder wall, Arctic Monkeys numbers and other songs and played a track by Queens of the Stone Age.

At 7.30 p.m. Kasabian's lead singer Tom Meighan joined Zane at the DJ desk, walking on to the stage to loud cheering from the now almost capacity crowd.

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

I spotted various members of Leicester's rockerati in the crowd, members of local bands and famous singers who were there to enjoy the fun, not to mention one or two of our most prestigious photographers and another magazine editor. Tom chose Invaders Must Die by the Prodigy and went back to the dressing room to get ready for the show.

The floor was now a sea of heads, over a thousand teenagers were crammed together, excited at the prospect of seeing the band they had been waiting for.

The excitement mounted as eight o'clock approached and roadies began to bring guitars on to the stage and tune them up. Zane plays an interview with Sergio and Tom recorded earlier in the day; Serge talks about how he grew up in Leicester and the band's early days in Countesthorpe and the city.

Just before eight, Zane's DJ desk is lowered from the stage in to the pit area and then the lights go out. Am immense cheer erupts from the capacity audience of 1,200 fans and the members of Kasabian take their places on the stage.

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

They open with their song Clubfoot and the fans join in with the chorus. It's a song we all know well. Tom Meighan is illuminated on stage with a Super Trooper follow spotlight. Tom puts on a pair of shades. He is dressed in a navy blue shirt and terracotta coloured trousers; his hair is cut short and gelled, rather like a sixties rocker, I thought.

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

The thickly packed fans are bouncing to the songs, waving their arms and joining in with the songs that they all know so well. There are six musicians on stage, including one on the decks and keyboards. In the third song they are joined by a trumpet player.

Tom keeps the crowd going between songs, encouraging them to wave and cheer. The band performs Velociraptor, the title track from their latest album and Re-wired (you can see a video of this on the Kasabian web site.)

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

The crowd is swaying around with groups pushing forward; Tom warns them to be careful and to help each other if someone falls over.

Altogether a very exciting night in the presence of a world-class band, playing in their home town to a sell out audience. Live music doesn't get much better than this.

Photo © Harjinder Ohbi

It's good when a band of this caliber plays a home gig; that's something a bit special. Kasabian's music has had a massive influence on our 200+ local rock bands and has long been a seminal influence on the thousands of local kids who have learnt to play guitars and sing and who want to follow in their footsteps.

See the Kasabian web site.

If you missed Kasabian tonight you can see them in Nottingham on 3rd December or in Birmingham on 6th December. Details are on the above web site.

Kasabian hold secret gig in Leicester - the full story

Holding a secret gig is nothing new; but when an internationally celebrated band the size of Kasabian does it, the excitement is tangible.

Watch a video of Kasabian's secret gig | See our review of the Velociraptor album

Kasabian have held secret gigs before, even in their home town of Leicester. When they held one on Monday 5th September it was the surprise of the decade.

News of the secret event reached me on Friday morning when someone tipped me off about it, hoping I would know where it was to be held.

The band posted details of the event on their web site, inviting fans to apply for tickets. Lucky applicants would be told by phone that they had won a pair of tickets for the free show.

I started asking local live music venues if they were to host the event but drew a blank everywhere. Venue owners, fans, music colleagues and I, whittled it down to three possible city venues.

We were all wrong. I got an email on Saturday saying I had been given a place to attend the gig. Nothing about the venue. Just an enigmatic sentence asking me to report to the Walker's stadium at 7 p.m. on Monday (5th September) and "all will be revealed." The Walkers Stadium, by the way, has now been renamed The King Power Stadium.

Arriving at the LCFC, I found a fleet of coaches and a long queue of fans waiting to get on them. I still had no idea where we were going. I was ushered on to the VIP corporate hospitality cruiser. A Vevo rep showed me a picture of Serj and Tom seated at the controls of an aircraft; that was clue but I still didn't twig. I thought they had just flown in on a private jet. All she would say is that we were going to "a destination in Leicestershire." Right, so it wasn't going to be in the city after all.

The convey of buses set off shortly after 7 p.m. It was getting dark and it was raining. I noticed we were in Oadby, heading towards Arnesby and the idea of Bruntingthorpe came into my head.

Sure enough, we turned into some winding lanes and soon a big sign saying Bruntingthorpe went passed the window. I knew it was a large site and probably had an aircraft hanger or two where a gig could be mounted.

The coach turned into the airfield's main car park and a huge illuminated Jumbo Jet came into view. I jumped up out of my seat and shouted, "Wow! Awesome!". At last, I the knew where the secret gig would be held. I could never have imagined this in my wildest dreams.

The fans piled off the coaches into the dark, wet night and filed into a large marquee, close to the aircraft. Two hundred people lined up for free beer and a hog roast. This was corporate hospitality with style!

The company that organised the event was VEVO, the international music video corporation. I noticed they had the Boeing's tail fin painted with "Vevo presents Kasabian". So, here we were, about to hear one of the world's biggest bands, a band that had started life in Leicester, playing a gig on a jumbo jet.

A couple of beers and hog burgers later and we were climbing the steps into the massive aircraft. Inside, the fuselage had been stripped out to provide a space the size of a large cargo freighter. A stage was down at the tail end and there was a full sound system, with enough illuminated screens to make it look a bit like the control room of an AWACS. An array of LCD production lights were dotted about the stage area.

Jubilent fans waving for the cameras

The crowd squeezed down to the front. I was about five 'rows' back. The space was, as you can imagine, very narrow and long. Kasabian came on stage at about 9 p.m. The stage was pretty low down so all I could see was the occasional glimpse of the faces of Serj and Tom through the forest of heads and arms holding cameras aloft, in front of me.

The band started to play. It was pretty warm in the densely packed thicket of fans. This was the first time I had ever seen Kasabian play live, even though I knew some of their songs pretty well.

Serge Pizzorno and Tom Meighan with Chris Edwards on stage

They were soon into some really pounding numbers and the crowd began to bounce up and down in unison. The floor was pretty springy and the whole aircraft was vibrating with the music and the frequency of the fan's jumping. I was a bit anxious about all this motion at first until I remembered that the airframe of a Boeing 747 has to cope with huge amounts of turbulence.

Kasabian played a number of their biggest hits including a track from their new album 'Velociraptor', which is also the title of their forthcoming UK tour.

Tom said "Kasabian on a jumbo jet. How cool is this" and later "You guys will remember this night for years to come."

One of the most memorable songs they played was Fire, with its famous chorus, was their final song and a great one to end this amazing night. They didn't however play Clubfoot, which was a bit of a disappointment for me.

Kasabian are playing in Nottingham on Friday 2nd December at the Capital FM arena.

For other dates at Midlands venues, see our Gigs Listing

Read our review of the Velociraptor album.

Other pages you might like

Visit the Kasabian web site.

Find out about Kasabian on the Wikipedia web site

You can see Kasabian videos on the Vevo web site.

Find out about Bruntingthorpe.