Keane 'Hopes & Fears' album

On May 10th, 2004 Interscope Records released ‘Hopes and Fears’, selling over 5.8 million copies worldwide, and landing a top 10 spot on the Billboard 200. The album was also voted one of the “Best British Albums” ever in a Q Magazine/HMV poll, the first of two Keane albums to feature in the Top 20*.

Over the course of ten years as an unsigned band, Keane had written what was to become one of the classic albums of our time, and one of the last multi-million selling albums of this generation. It marked a triumph for the three boys from Battle in East Sussex, but it was a success not without controversy.

As a debut record, it stood alone in its originality. The absence of any guitars, a powerful, almost operatic vocal delivery, and a wall of melodic sound made solely from pianos, keyboards and a set of drums. The emotion of the record gave a voice to millions. The landscape at the time was awash with new bands from across the Atlantic, and it took Keane and ‘Hopes And Fears’ to bring all the attention back to British talent. The song writing talent of Rice-Oxley, now world renowned, reaped an Ivor Novello in 2004 for Best Composer of the Year.

Yet despite having written a record that united so many different people from all walks of life across the globe, its sudden phenomenal success almost tore the lifelong friends apart.

For with its undisputed accolades, it quickly changed the band’s lives and threatened not only their long-standing friendships, but the career of Keane as well. Having fought against the grain for a decade around the country’s backroom bars in the back of a van, this sudden shot to fame for Keane transformed the very dynamics that had reaped them these rewards in the first place.

This sweetest of victories could have turned remarkably bitter, but it created an edge and strength of resolution that had pulled Keane through from day one, and has subsequently set the tone for their future releases and successes ever since.

In addition to the original tracklisting this deluxe album showcases previously un-released and rare material including early demo ‘Into The Light’, recordings from the band’s earliest Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley radio sessions, the timeless b-side and fans favourite, ‘Snowed Under’ (from ‘Somewhere Only We Know’), and their debut self released singles.

The sleeve notes have been penned by long-time supporter Steve Lamacq where he describes the first time he caught them at the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, “there were only three of them but they sounded huge. They were independent of mind but definitely accessible”.

Keane biography
Keane formed in 1997 when they were at school together. In 2002, after the loss of their guitarist and a period of time honing their sound, Keane decided that they needed to get out and play gigs again.

They booked two acoustic shows, one at the 12 Bar Club, another at the Betsey Trotwood. Fierce Panda mini-mogul Simon Williams caught the Betsey Trotwood gig, and asked Keane to put out a single on his label.

They chose ‘Everybody’s Changing’, a sweeping, majestic ode to feeling utterly lost when everyone else seems to know the score, which was recorded for zero pence. “The recording session was a little rough and ready – the song was literally made in a room in someone’s house,” Tom laughs. “And we had to go round to a different house to mix it, because the speakers broke.” It would be difficult to find origins more desperately indie, yet ‘Everybody’s Changing’ sounded like a Number One chart hit before you even got to the chorus, and it immediately began turning heads. Steve Lamacq decided that it was one of the best singles in Fierce Panda’s entire history – not bad for a label, which housed early releases from Coldplay, Idlewild and Supergrass. He declared that Keane were “somewhere between a scuffed Coldplay and a frankly bewildered Beautiful South”, hammering the single on his show and eventually calling the band in for a session on BBC 6Music. Xfm were on the case, too, with Clare Sturgess requesting a session from the band, while a Sunday Times profile noted that Keane were responsible for “three and a half minutes of pure pop loveliness”. NME wrote that ‘Everybody’s Changing’ was “indisputably mighty” and compared Keane with “‘Kid A’-era Radiohead covering A-ha”.

What all these people spotted – and what the rest of the world will hopefully find out for themselves – is that despite the reference points, Keane’s beguilingly beautiful music really isn’t like anything else that’s out there right now. “Our songs have universal themes and are emotional,” Tim nods. “People want emotion. But that seems like quite a rare thing these days. I don’t think there are many bands who are making music which actually means anything. There’s nothing to identify with.”

Things, at last, were beginning to gather pace. Keane’s first UK tour saw Tom, Richard and Tim performing at venues up and down the country to audiences of between five and 300 people. They didn’t look like many other bands – there was no guitarist, a factor which might send some purists screaming into the hills but, Richard says, really wasn’t a conscious decision.

By the time spring 2003 rolled around, the boys were out on the road again, and labels were already putting offers on the table. “All we were after was the opportunity to make the right record with the right people,” Tom shrugs – which is where Island stepped in. “We’ve never wanted to be a small, cult band,” Tom adds. “We want to get our music heard by as many people as we possibly can, because that’s why we’re making it.”

Throw in a startling appearance in the New Bands tent at the Reading and Leeds Carling Weekend, more plaudits for the boys’ second single ‘This Is The Last Time’. And, once again, it sounds like all the bands who’ve ever meant anything to anyone, but at the same time it only sounds like Keane.

“People often say that they wish they’d been around in the 60s,” Tom says. “But we’re happy just where we are. We love rock’s back catalogue, and now we’ve got a chance to add to it. After all, tunes never go out of fashion.”

Vocals: Tom Chaplin
Piano: Tim Rice-Oxley
Drums: Richard Hughes

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Keane - Hopes & Fears