Kasabian are currently one of the UK’s most well known indie rock bands, alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and Muse. This year they have, so far, won a Brit Award for best group and NME awards for best album and best album artwork and in 2009 won a Q award for best album. It may then surprise you to know that they have, in fact, been together since 1999 but it was five years before they made any impact on the commercial music scene. To suggest that they are slow burners is fair comment in light of the fact that their first album wasn’t released until 2004 (Kasabian – reaching number 4 in the album chart) and they then took two more years to release the second album (Empire – number one). The third studio album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (number one) was released last year and was, in the eyes of many, their best to date.
It seems strange that a band which has a massive following - particularly on the festival circuit - and sales of all three albums having gone double platinum that, although the singles have done reasonably well most have not made the top ten. Their biggest success was Fire which reached number three in 2009. In fact Kasabian are a bit of a conundrum when it comes to mapping their success. Most big bands have a starting point and the trajectory of success tends to follow a steady upward trend and either peak and level off or plummet off the radar. With Kasabian their commercial triumphs have followed no pattern at all, with erratic singles sales being the most noticeable oddity. Very well known songs have made surprisingly low chart positions, not really reflecting their popularity. Another odd element to their career is the fact that they have only won four music awards in eleven years and two of those were presented just last week!
Having said all that the band seem unconcerned with how successful they are, determined not to bow to pressure to conform or increase sales, they have stuck to being true performers with great pop songs to back it all up. Stage presence is one of the most noticeable features of their live performances, with lead singer, Tom Meighan given to controversial and provocative missives. The artistic driving force is Serge Pizzorno, guitarist and backing singer as well as principal songwriter with a knack for producing great walls of guitar driven lunacy. A band that have, in the past and sometimes deservedly, enjoyed a ‘Lad rock’ tag now appear to have moved on to a point where they will, hopefully, be taken a little more seriously with the latest album showcasing a more subtle side to the thump rockers. The fact that 2010 has been the most critically successful, so far, probably means that we are very close to seeing best from kasabian. Although given their track record this could be a red herring from the boys who don’t give a monkeys what you or I think. And that’s something we should be grateful for!