Why no-one does brash quite like Kasabian
For many years it has been fashionable to deride Kasabian as ‘a meat-andtwo-veg ’ rock band; lads perpetuating laddish behaviour, making music for large groups of more lads. It might be the case that the Leicester band’s following is overwhelmingly male, white, fond of a pint and maybe as Phillip Lynott put it ‘if the boys wanna fight you better let ’em’.
It’s true that their concerts are as raucous as you would get outside of a punk gig but the music is designed for communal celebration. Lead singer Tom Meighan conducts the crowd, constantly cajoling or demanding a response. And he always gets it.
Normally their domain is stadiums or festivals where they often headline – as they did Glastonbury in 2014 – but last Saturday it was the cosier environs of the Olympia Theatre that would contain them.
Backstage a few hours before the show, I meet Tom in his dressing room. He is like a horse at the National waiting for the flag to fall. I wish I had brought a bit for him to chomp on.
He concedes these and recent gigs like it have been a good way to road-test the songs from their latest album For Crying Out Loud. However later, in a 100-minute set they only play five from it and they were far from a chore to hear. It is a beery, cheery, sweaty night. Come to Kasabian anywhere in a live setting with an open mind and they are pretty much irresistible. Putting them in the Olympia is like bringing a tank to a gun fight.
For Crying Out Loud will most likely hit the No.1 spot after it is released on Friday as their previous four have done. But Meighan agrees that after 20 years together they did feel the need to re-state their relevance. ‘We wanted to make a statement. We wanted to say: “Look at us. We’re still here,”’ he says defiantly.
‘We’ve made an album of big songs – I’m an old rock romantic. I like big guitar songs. We’ve often experimented with fuzzy scuzzy electronic stuff. We cut s*** up and loop it but this one is a hearton-the-sleeve, out-and-out guitar rock record. Still it’s got a lot of soul. It’s a big one. It’s a banger.’
The album swaggers towards the listener with the big muscleflexing opener Ill Ray (The King). ‘It’s the most arrogant tune we’ve got, yeah?’ he says then quotes some of its lyrics: ‘What’s your band called mate? Be king for a day. Take all you f **** rs and blow you away.’ That is just… bye bye. We live in a world of grime and pop and r’n’b and all that s*** and we’re like… He gives the universal two-fingered gesture of disdain and he’s off to answer a knock at the dressing room door.
What looks like a letter from a fan has been delivered from the stage door. ‘That’s really sweet.’ He begins to read it. Then he puts it carefully down. ‘I’ll read that after you and me finish up.’ You don’t doubt him. There are a few other letters there. Some short, some longer. ‘It’s just nice to do gigs like this. The tour has been amazing,’ he says in a pronounced English midlands accent. ‘Now that we’ve been playing these songs for the people we can really feel that when they’ve got the album they’re gonna love ‘em. It’s great to come and do gigs like this. To know that you’re playing somewhere smaller because you want to not because you have to [laughs].’
And there is no shortage of fans. Kasabian’s appeal hasn’t become ‘more selective’, to quote the manager from This Is Spinal Tap – they will play some of this summer’s biggest festivals as headliners or near the top of the bill. He and Serge Pizzorno, the guitarist and primary songwriter, know by now the dynamics of what works and doesn’t.
‘When we played the album back, myself and Serge we were like “Whoosh, that’s gonna be good…and then wooow! That’s going to be even better,’ he says mimicking a jet going overhead.
‘I would have been tempted to do these gigs just playing the whole of the new album. I don’t think anybody would have been disappointed. I’d love to do acoustic shows. I’m gutted MTV don’t do those shows any more. Kurt Cobain sitting on a stool with Nirvana. Noel [Gallagher] did it of course with Oasis. Liam wouldn’t do it. Then he’s sitting up in the balcony heckling him.’
The Oasis reference is a pertinent one. Many feel Kasabian have donned the mantle of the Gallaghers, and maybe they have. But sometimes meat and two veg hits the spot like nothing else.
Kasabian’s album For Crying Out Loud will be released on May 5. They play Belfast Custom House Square on August 23.