Keane are an English alternative rock band from Battle, East Sussex, formed in 1995. The band comprises Tom Chaplin (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Tim Rice-Oxley (piano, synthesisers, bass guitar, backing vocals), Richard Hughes (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Jesse Quin (bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals). Their original line-up included guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001.
Keane have sold over 13 million records worldwide. They first achieved mainstream international success with the release of their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in 2004. Topping the UK Albums Chart, the album won the 2005 Brit Award for Best British Album and was the UK's second-best-selling album of 2004. It is one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. Their second album, Under the Iron Sea (2006), topped the UK chart and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200. They released their third album, Perfect Symmetry, in 2008, and followed it with the 2010 EP Night Train. Their fourth studio album, Strangeland, was released in 2012 and peaked at number one in the UK.
The band went on hiatus after the release of their compilation album The Best of Keane (2013). They returned in 2019 with "The Way I Feel", the lead single from their fifth studio album, Cause and Effect (2019). The band then embarked on the Cause and Effect Tour, visiting Europe and Latin America, before the remainder of the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keane were remarkable for using keyboards as their lead instrument instead of guitar, unlike most contemporaneous rock bands. They used a distorted piano effect from 2006, and synthesisers were a common feature of their music on their second and third albums. In May 2008, both Hopes and Fears (number 13) and Under the Iron Sea (number 8) were voted by readers of Q magazine as among the best British albums ever. In 2009, Hopes and Fears was listed as the ninth best-selling album of the 2000s decade in the UK.
History
1995–99: Early years and formation Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley became friends at an early age.Strangers Keane DVD autobiography. Chaplin's father David was the headmaster of Vinehall School in Robertsbridge, East Sussex (owned by Chaplin's family) for 25 years, the school all three attended until the age of 13. They later attended Tonbridge School in Kent, where Rice-Oxley met Dominic Scott; both discovered their liking for music. Richard Hughes, Keane's future drummer, also attended Tonbridge. Chaplin had learned to play the flute, but none considered music as a proper career at the time.
In 1995, while studying at University College London, Rice-Oxley formed a rock band with Scott and invited Hughes to play drums. The band, named Lotus Eaters, started by playing covers of songs by the members' favourite bands. After listening to Rice-Oxley's piano playing during a weekend at Virginia Water, Surrey, in 1997, Chris Martin invited him to join his newly formed band Coldplay, but Rice-Oxley declined because he did not want to leave The Lotus Eaters. He stated "I was seriously interested, but Keane were already operational and Coldplay's keyboard player idea was dropped." However, because of Martin's offer, and despite the opposition of Hughes and Scott, Chaplin joined the band in 1997 to take Rice-Oxley's place as vocalist, and also to be an acoustic guitarist. Chaplin's entry led to a change of the band's name, from the Lotus Eaters to Cherry Keane, which was the name of a friend of Chaplin's mother, whom Rice-Oxley and Chaplin knew when they were young, who had left money for Chaplin's family after her death from cancer. Chaplin commented: "I used some of the money to see me through the harder times with the music." The name was shortened to Keane soon afterward.
Chaplin departed for South Africa in Summer 1997 to work as a volunteer during his gap year. Chaplin's early experiences there were later reflected in the band's position for the Make Poverty History campaign. Returning a year later, in July 1998, following a meeting with friend David Lloyd Seaman, Hughes' first words when the band picked up Chaplin at the airport were "we've got a gig in 10 days." With original material, Keane made their debut live appearance at the Hope & Anchor pub on 13 July 1998. In this same year, Chaplin went to Edinburgh University to study for a degree in art history which he later quit to move to London to pursue a full-time music career. After their debut performance, the band went touring London's pub circuit throughout 1998 and 1999.
1999–2003: Early releases and Scott's departure In late 1999, and without a record deal, Keane recorded their first promotional single "Call Me What You Like". Released on CD format through Keane's label Zoomorphic, it was sold after live performances at the pubs where Keane used to play in early 2000. Only 500 copies were printed. The EP was reviewed by Bec Rodwell from eFestivals who listed "Closer Now" as the best song of the record. Recording for the band's next release began on 28 October 2000. At the start of 2001, Rice-Oxley and Hughes disclosed that the main recording would be "Wolf at the Door," and that it would be completed soon. The band gave progress updates. Hughes recorded drums in late January, and the final recording session was in February. Mixing took place in April. The single was released in June, and only 50 copies are known to have been made, using unlabeled CD-Rs.
Both singles are considered highly valuable collector's items by fans. In particular, "Wolf at the Door" has been known to be sold for over £1000 on eBay. During production of "Wolf at the Door," the band recorded and released other songs as demos, namely "More Matey," "Maps," "To the End of the Earth," "Allemande," "New One," "Russian Farmer's Song," and "Live in Fear." The band have declared they are not against fans sharing tracks unreleased on CD, such as the demos "More Matey" and "Emily". Chaplin said "They most likely see those recordings as an interesting extra to get hold of— I don't see it causing any damage. If it was the album we have coming out leaked early, then I'd probably feel differently."
Dominic Scott decided to leave the band in July, a month after "Wolf at the Door" was released, to continue his studies at the LSE. Rice-Oxley referenced this departure in "This Is the Last Time," which was being rehearsed in May, according to Hughes. Keane was invited by record producer James Sanger in July to his property in Normandy, France, where the band recorded a number of tracks from August to November, including "Sunshine," "This Is the Last Time," "Maps" (anew) and "Happy Soldier." It was during these sessions that the idea of using a piano as lead instrument began to emerge. Sanger received a shared credit for four songs that appeared on Keane's debut album, Hopes and Fears, including "Sunshine", the only song composed there. The band members returned to England in November.
The band signed with BMG to publish their music in April 2002, and this enabled them to better commit to music, but at this time they did not yet have a recording contract. Sometime in early 2002, Rice-Oxley wrote "Everybody's Changing." He played it for Chaplin, Hughes and people at BMG, and then the band developed the song into a demo completed in July. They also produced a demo of "Walnut Tree" completed in May. 2002 was a hard year for Keane. All recording or live performances were stopped, and Scott's feeling of going nowhere was starting to tell on Rice-Oxley and Chaplin. In December, Keane returned to performing live. One gig at the Betsey Trotwood in London was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records, the same man who had discovered Coldplay years previously. Williams offered to release the first commercial single by the band. This release was "Everybody's Changing", which Steve Lamacq named single of the week on Lamacq Live on 14 April 2003, and came out as a CD single on 12 May. As a result of the attention created by this release and because of the strong live reputation they had built through constant UK touring, a bidding war for the band ensued among major record labels. The band decided to sign with Island Records in summer 2003. After first being attracted to the band by the considerable industry buzz then surrounding them and from hearing "Everybody's Changing" on the radio, the Island A&R, Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, told HitQuarters that he wanted to sign them after hearing the five songs "Everybody’s Changing", "This Is the Last Time", "She Has No Time", "Bend and Break" and "Somewhere Only We Know", saying "every one of them was brilliant...they had a fantastic live show [but] even if I hadn't been able to see them live, I would have tried to sign them anyway." According to Unger-Hamilton, Keane chose to sign with Island because they got on well with the A&R and were convinced that he did not want to change them in any way.
The band released "This Is the Last Time" on Fierce Panda, in October 2003 as the final release on that label.
2004–05: Hopes and Fears and breakthrough
With the release of their first major single, Keane began to achieve recognition in the United Kingdom and the United States. In January 2004, Keane was named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's Sound of 2004 poll; additionally, this year is popularly referred to as one of the best years for new British music. A month later, Keane's first release on Island was "Somewhere Only We Know", which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in February 2004. On 4 May, a re-release of "Everybody's Changing" followed and featured new B-sides and a new cover; it reached number four on the UK Singles Chart.
Keane's debut album, Hopes and Fears, was released on 10 May 2004 in the UK, a day before the band started their first world tour. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the second best-selling British album of the year. It has been certified 9× platinum in the UK. Drowned in Sound gave it 5 out of 10, accusing Keane of excessively imitating Coldplay (specifically comparing "Your Eyes Open" and "On a Day Like Today" with, respectively, "Daylight" and "Politik" on the band's album A Rush of Blood to the Head), criticising the album as being "stylistically all over the place" and its lyrics as being "immature" and "cringe-worthy". However, it gave credit to the album's "fine moments", praising lead single "Somewhere Only We Know" as "breathtaking".
The album has sold approximately 5.5 million copies worldwide. In the UK, it stayed in the top 75 of the UK Albums Chart for 72 weeks, appearing again on its 115th week. Post-release, the band released singles from the album "Bedshaped," "This Is the Last Time" (a version with Island Records) and "Bend and Break" on 16 August, 22 November, and 25 July 2005, respectively. The band won two awards at the 2005 BRIT Awards in February; Best British album for Hopes and Fears, and the British breakthrough act award as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. Three months after, Rice-Oxley received the Ivor Novello award for songwriter of the year.