Kasabian

Kasabian are an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997. The band's
original members consisted of vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and
vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist Chris Karloff, and bassist Chris Edwards.
The band's line-up was completed by drummer Ian Matthews in 2004 after a
string of session drummers. Karloff left the band in 2006 and founded a new
band called Black Onassis. Jay Mehler joined as touring lead guitarist in 2006.
Mehler left the band for Liam Gallagher's Beady Eye in 2013. In 2010 and
2014, Kasabian won the Q Awards for 'Best Act in the World Today', while
they were also named "Best Live Act" at the 2014 Q Awards and the
2007 NME Awards. The band's music is often described as "indie rock", but
Pizzorno has said he "hates indie bands" and does not feel Kasabian fit into
that category.
Kasabian have released five studio albums –
Kasabian (2004), Empire (2006), West Ryder Pauper Lunatic
Asylum (2009), Velociraptor! (2011), and 48:13(2014). They are due to
release their sixth album, For Crying Out Loud, in 2017. The band's music has
been described as a mix between The Stone Roses and Primal Scream with
the swagger of Oasis. Their music has won them several awards and
recognition in the media, including a Brit Award in 2010 for Best British
Group, and their live performances have received praise, the most notable of
which was their appearance as headliners at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival.

History
Early years (1997–2002)
The band was formerly called Saracuse and started recording at Bedrock
Studios in Leicester where Chris Edwards worked as an engineer. The
original band members all hailed from Countesthorpe and Blaby, and the
band formed while Pizzorno, Meighan and Edwards were
attending Countesthorpe Community College. The first demo EP was
produced by Scott Gilbert and handed to the band late on 24 December 1998.
Three songs were recorded live: "Whats Going On", "Life of Luxury" and
"Shine On". Their first public appearance was at the Vipers Rugby Club to
celebrate Edwards' 18th birthday with family and friends.[19] The band was
then signed to BMG by London DJ and producer Sam Young and changed
their name to Kasabian, after Linda Kasabian, a member of the Charles
Manson cult. In an interview with Ukula, bassist Chris Edwards explained how
former guitarist Chris Karloff picked the name. Reading up on Charles
Manson, the Kasabian name stuck with Karloff. "He just thought the word was
cool, it literally took about a minute after the rest of us heard it... so it was
decided," says Edwards. Kasabian is a common Armenian surname, from the
dialectal Armenia taken from Arabic 'butcher' and the patronymic ending. Sam
Young had been working at small independent label Concept Music when the
bands manager dropped the Saracuse demo on his desk. Concept wanted to
sign the band and a deal was negotiated however Sam took over managerial
duties and got them signed instantly to BMG as Sam had an old friend Darren
Dixon who had just started doing A&R at the label. EMI were interested in the
band as well. The band and Sam Young fell out.
Kasabian (2003–05)
Their eponymous debut album was released in the UK on 13 September
2004, receiving good sales and generally positive reviews. During the
recording, the band lived in a farmhouse near Rutland Water to avoid being
disturbed Kasabian featured at Glastonbury Festival 2005 on the 'Other
Stage'.
Despite having two prior single releases with debut single "Processed Beats"
and lead single "Reason Is Treason", it was their third single release "Club
Foot" that finally gave Kasabian success in the UK Singles Chart. The song,
which was written in the early years of Kasabian, went on to enjoy both critical
and commercial success, becoming one of the band's most loved songs, and
being performed at nearly every Kasabian live performance since its release.
During this period, various drummers played with Kasabian, including current
keyboard player Ben Kealey, DJ Dan Ralph Martin, brothers Mitch and Ryan
Glovers and some others. While recording in Bristol, the band met Ian
Matthews, who plays on "Processed Beats", "Butcher Blues", "Beneficial
Herbs" and possibly some other songs on the debut album and B-sides. He
was asked to tour with them in 2004 and became a permanent member in
April 2005. The album was produced by Jim Abbiss.
Empire and Karloff's departure (2006–07)
During the recording of Kasabian's second album, Empire, Christopher
Karloff, one of the band's chief songwriters, had "artistic and creative
differences" and was asked to leave the band, according to the band's
website, although there is evidence to suggest that he left due to personal
circumstances. He had contributed to three of the songs on Empire.
The album, which was co-produced by Jim Abbiss, was released in the UK on
28 August 2006. "Empire" was released as the first single from the album, and
reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart "Shoot the Runner" reached No. 17 in
the same chart. A third single, "Me Plus One", was released on 2 January
2007.
Kasabian won the Best Live Act award at the 2007 NME Awards.
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2008–10)
The band released an EP titled Fast Fuse in late 2007 which featured the
songs "Fast Fuse" and "Thick as Thieves", however the EP was not given any
promotion or advertisement. Both tracks are featured in their third album.
Kasabian started work on their third album in late 2007 with producer Dan the
Automator. On 5 March 2009, it was revealed that the album title would
be West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, with a release date of 8 June 2009.
The song "Vlad the Impaler" was released as a free download for a period of
4 days, as a preview for the album. The promo video for "Vlad the Impaler"
stars Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh. Noel is a big fan of Kasabian, and
later appeared in an NME cover with the band. The album's first official single
was the track "Fire", which was released on 1 June 2009, used as the theme
song for the English Premier League from the 2010–11 season onward, and
the song "Where Did All the Love Go?" was released as the second official
single. The third single "Underdog" was used in the movie Takers (2010)
On 14 June 2009, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum reached No. 1 in
the UK Albums Chart, spending two weeks there. West Ryder Pauper Lunatic
Asylum was shortlisted for the 2009 Mercury Prize, and was named 'Best
Album' at the 2009 Q Awards. The band won "Best Group" at the 2010 Brit
Awards. At the 2010 Q Awards the band won the "Best Act in the World
Today".[27]
The first 3 albums were released as a box-set called The Albums in 2010.
Velociraptor! (2011–12)
Kasabian started work on their fourth album, Velociraptor!, in November 2010
with Dan the Automator as producer. It was revealed in a number of
interviews that some songs were already written. One track, titled "Green
Fairy", which featured on the London Boulevard soundtrack, is present on the
record under the name "La Fée Verte", but the album version is different from
the soundtrack version. In June 2011, Kasabian closed the Isle of Wight
Festival. They also headlined Rockness festival and played at Rock
Werchter in July 2011. The band confirmed that the album will be released on
19 September 2011.
"Switchblade Smiles", the first song to be heard from Velociraptor!, was
exclusively played on UK radio on 7 June 2011 during Zane Lowe's show
on BBC Radio 1. The title and release date of the fourth album was also
confirmed on the show. This first single from the album was available for
visitors to listen to on the Kasabian website, and was available as a download
for people who pre-order the album. Two tracks from the album were
premièred throughout the four-date warm-up tour including playing at the
Leeds O2 Academy before the RockNess and Isle of Wight festivals in June
2011. A track from the album "Days Are Forgotten" was due for radio release
on 22 July 2011. However, it surfaced online the night before. The album
failed to crack the Billboard Top 200 chart upon its first week of release in the
United States.
On 27 November 2011, Kasabian performed "Goodbye Kiss" during
the BBC's Formula 1 2011 closing season montage. In the same month, the
band went on a full tour of the UK, including two sold out gigs at the Capital
FM Arena in Nottingham, supported at the shows by Miles Kane and
Australian band, ME. On 31 December 2011, Kasabian played a New Year's
Eve concert entitled 'NYE:Rewired' at the O2 Arena, London. The event
was streamed live on YouTube.
Following early 2012 dates in Japan, Australia, and Europe, Kasabian
launched their North American leg in Dallas on 12 March, with 19 dates in
U.S. and Canada until late April. It was announced on 16 May on the
Kasabian website that their show of 15 December 2011, that was filmed at the
O2 in London, would be screened in over 60 cinemas in the UK and Ireland
on 30 May 2012. The film, titled Kasabian Live! Live at the O2 is distributed by
Altive Media and Eagle Vision. On 29 June 2012, Kasabian performed at the
Main Square festival in Arras France. At the end of the set, Tom Meighan
returned to the stage without the band and performed The Beatles "She Loves
You" unaccompanied, something that he had also done three days earlier in
Athens, Greece, and on 16 June in Denmark at the NorthSide Festival. On 8
July 2012, the band headlined the UK festival T in the Park. Kasabian also
headlined the Reading and Leeds Festivals on 24 and 25 August 2012.
48:13 (2013–15)
In March 2013, Sergio Pizzorno confirmed via Facebook that touring rhythm
guitarist Jay Mehler had left Kasabian to join former Oasis frontman Liam
Gallagher’s new band, Beady Eye as a touring bass guitarist. Pizzorno stated,
"Jay is our bro and the last six years have been mega. He's moving on and
will be incredible in Beady Eye". Tim Carter joined Kasabian as a touring
guitarist, first performing with the band on 6 March 2013 at Russell Brand's
Give It Up for Comic Relief, comedy and music gig at Wembley Arena. Carter
is a music engineering producer and assistant to Dan the Automator, who co-
produced West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum and Velociraptor!
Following a handful of gigs and festival performances throughout the year,
Kasabian posted a teaser video in November 2013, announcing that they had
been working on new material for the previous six months. The new album is
being produced by Sergio Pizzorno. They also announced that they will be
playing a homecoming gig in Victoria Park, Leicester to 60,000 people in June
2014, around the ten year anniversary of their debut album. On 4 April 2014,
Kasabian were confirmed to be headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury
Festival 2014 on 29 June 2014.
On 28 April 2014, the band revealed that the album would be titled 48:13, and
released on 9 June 2014. The lead single to promote the album, "Eez-eh",
was released on 29 April 2014 "eez-eh" was performed at Glastonbury
2014 alongside other tracks from 48:13 and previous albums. The show also
featured two cover versions - "Crazy", originally recorded by Gnarls Barkley,
and "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim, which for a while has been used as an intro
to their song "L.S.F".
At NME Awards 2015 Kasabian were nominated for 9 awards, beating the
2009 Oasis record (7 nominations).
For Crying Out Loud (2016 – present)
In 2016, the band played a short tour in May, culminating in two concerts at
Leicester City Football Club's ground, the King Power Stadium, to celebrate
them winning the Premier League. At the first of these two concerts, Kasabian
debuted a new song, "Put Your Life On It", dedicated to the city and those
who are no longer with us to see the cities recent sporting achievements,
accompanied by a gospel choir from De Montfort University. They also
performed a short set in Leicester's Victoria Park, as part of the LCFC victory
parade on 16 May. Numerous inspirations for the sixth album also have been
listed, including Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Claudio
Ranieri. On 8 September, it was confirmed that Comeback Kid will be
featured on EA Sports game, FIFA 17 soundtrack. In December 2016 the
group were rumoured to play Reading & Leeds Festival the following year, but
insisted that "The band are currently finishing their new album." The band
have since been announced for several festivals in summer 2017, including a
slot at Reading & Leeds Festival in August.
In January 2017, in an interview to NME Pizzorno revealed that the upcoming
album would contain a track called "Bless This Acid House", which, in the
musician's opinion, is one of the best tunes he has ever written.
On 16 March 2017, a listing on the Australian iTunes store confirmed that the
band's sixth album will be titled For Crying Out Loud and will be released on
28 April 2017.

Band members
Current members
Tom Meighan – lead vocals (1997–present)
Sergio Pizzorno – guitar, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals, keyboards,
percussion, electronic programming (1997–present)
Chris Edwards – bass (1997–present)
Ian Matthews – drums (2005–present)
Former members
Christopher Karloff – lead guitar, bass, keyboards, electronic programming
(1997–2006)
Touring members
Ben Kealey – keyboard (2006–present)
Gary Alesbrook – trumpet (2006–present)
Tim Carter – guitar (2013–present)
Former session musicians/Touring members
Jay Mehler – guitar (2006-2012)
Ryan Glover – drums (2004)
Mitch Glover – drums (2004)
Daniel Ralph Martin – drums (2004)
Martin Hall-Adams – drums (2004)