Keane

The piano-led band from Battle, East Sussex, whose debut Hopes and Fears was the UK's second-best-selling album of 2004, and whose third, Perfect Symmetry, traded some of that piano for 1980s synthesizers and guitar riffs.

Origin
Battle, East Sussex, England
Years active
1995-2014, 2018-present
Genres
alternative rock, pop rock, piano rock
Labels
Zoomorphic, Fierce Panda, Island, Interscope
Also known as
Cherry Keane

Origins

Keane come from Battle, in East Sussex. Tim Rice-Oxley started the band at University College London in 1995 with the guitarist Dominic Scott and the drummer Richard Hughes, under the name the Lotus Eaters. When Tom Chaplin joined as singer in 1997 they became Cherry Keane, after a friend of Chaplin's mother who had left the family money, and soon simply Keane. Their first gig was at the Hope & Anchor in London on 13 July 1998.

They put out two singles, Call Me What You Like and Wolf at the Door, on their own Zoomorphic label in 2000 and 2001. Scott left in 2001 to continue his studies at the LSE. That July the remaining three began months of recording at James Sanger's house in Normandy, sessions that later fed their first album. Rice-Oxley, the chief songwriter, made keyboards the lead instrument, above all a distorted piano, and critics took to calling them the band with no guitars. He himself thought the piano an odd instrument for a rock band.

Hopes and Fears

Everybody's Changing came out on Fierce Panda in 2003, and Island signed the band the same year. Keane won the BBC Sound of 2004 poll, and Hopes and Fears followed on 10 May 2004. It went to number one, became the UK's second-best-selling album of the year, and had sold more than 5.8 million copies worldwide by November 2009. In 2005 it won the Brit Award for Best British Album, the band took British Breakthrough Act, Rice-Oxley won the Ivor Novello for Songwriter of the Year, and Keane were nominated for the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Under the Iron Sea (2006), made in Rye and New York with the producer Andy Green, spent its first two weeks at number one in the UK and reached four in the United States. The band described it as a sinister fairytale world gone wrong. In August 2006 Chaplin announced that he had entered a clinic for drink and drug problems. He left the Priory in October and continued treatment. Is It Any Wonder? brought a second Grammy nomination in 2007.

Perfect Symmetry

The break after Chaplin's treatment gave the band time to plan a new direction. Chaplin pointed to U2, and to Bowie in Berlin, as artists who had changed course, and said they wanted to throw away the rule book. They spent the first half of 2008 in studios in Berlin, Paris and London, trying out guitar riffs and Rice-Oxley's collection of 1980s synthesizers, with Jesse Quin, who had toured with them since 2007, helping to record. Rice-Oxley called those months the best time they had ever had as a band.

Spiralling was given away as a free download in August 2008, reached 23 in the UK and won Best Track at the Q Awards. Perfect Symmetry followed on 13 October, their third UK number one in a row, and reached seven in the US. Reviews were split, from The Guardian's praise for Rice-Oxley's pop instincts to a one-star NME notice, but Q's Best of 2008 named it album of the year and the title track song of the year. The world tour opened at The Forum in London on 29 September 2008 and ran to the end of October 2009. On 2 April 2009 a show at Abbey Road Studios went out live in 3D, over Sky's network and as a webcast. Chaplin later called the album sprawling and "a little bit self-indulgent in places".

Break and return

The Night Train EP, with guests K'naan and Tigarah, reached number one in May 2010. That year Rice-Oxley and Quin formed the alt-country side project Mt. Desolation, and in February 2011 Quin became an official member. Strangeland, recorded partly at Sea Fog Studios in East Sussex with Dan Grech-Marguerat, gave Keane a fourth number one album in May 2012.

In October 2013 the band went on hiatus, which Chaplin insisted was not a split, and The Best of Keane followed in November. Chaplin made solo albums, beginning with The Wave in 2016, and Mt. Desolation released When the Night Calls in 2018. Keane returned in 2019 with Retroactive EP1, a headline set at the Isle of Wight Festival and Cause and Effect, which reached number two. The Dirt EP came out in 2021, and 2024 brought a remastered Hopes and Fears and a twentieth-anniversary tour. They have sold more than 13 million records worldwide, and both Spiralling and Perfect Symmetry were still in their sets in 2025.

Members

Records

Songs

Tom Chaplin, Mt. Desolation, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Sugababes

Where to go next

Official

  • Keane The official site, run by Island, with news, music, video, live dates and a store.

Reference

Discography and data

  • Keane discography Every album, EP and single with chart peaks and certifications.
  • MusicBrainz Every release, line-up dates and links to other databases.

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Film and video

Fan sites and communities

  • Keaneshaped A fan site running since 2004, with a release-by-release discography, chart runs, tabs and videography.
  • Keaneshaped: Spiralling The free-download window and the single's weekly chart run.

Sources

  1. Keane (band), Wikipedia
  2. Keane discography, Wikipedia
  3. Hopes and Fears, Wikipedia
  4. Tim Rice-Oxley, Wikipedia
  5. Keaneshaped discography, Keaneshaped
  6. Perfect Symmetry: Keane's Adventurous Third Album, uDiscover Music (2025)
  7. List of awards and nominations received by Keane, Wikipedia