Keane Live Review

The East Sussex seaside town of Bexhill may seem a strange land for one of Britain’s best-selling bands to make their comeback.
 
But it was a triumphant return for local lads Keane, who enjoyed a terrific reaction to songs from their fourth studio album Strangeland.
 
As teenagers they strolled down the seafront and drank tea at the Sovereign Light Café – tonight the boys from Battle were back to play the first of two special gigs at Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion.

Having toured the world with record sales of more than 10 million under their belts, the shows were only announced in the local paper and tickets were all snapped up in just five minutes.
 
And fans quick enough to get one were treated to a set filled with their biggest hits, but what everyone eagerly wanted to hear was their new material – and Keane couldn't have hoped for a better response.

Opening with You Are Young, the trio-turned-foursome (since the permanent addition of bassist Jesse Quin) went on to debut another nine tracks off Strangeland, including The Starting Line, Black Rain and Day Will Come.

By his own admission, singer Tom Chaplin admitted they were “blowing off the cobwebs”, but he would've been buoyed to see waves of a Holland scarf and Spanish flag on the front row.
 
Silenced By The Night will be the first single taken from Strangeland and Keane fans who loved their debut album Hopes And Fears will love this song.
 
Bringing the curtain down with Bedshaped, the band returned for a four-track encore which concluded with Under The Iron Sea favourite Crystal Ball.
 
Mocked as polite posh-boys, Keane never have and probably never will be popular with the cool kids, but they couldn’t care less if every crowd they play to reacts to Strangeland like this.

Ben Lowe