Kasabian on Edge

U2 Guitarist is special guest at Little Noise

14 November 2008 - Kasabian previewed tracks from their forthcoming third album in London tonight (November 14) after being introduced on stage by U2's The Edge.

It's night number seven in a run of nine Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel with some pretty tough acts to follow, but if anyone can rise to the challenge, it's Kasabian.

I spoke to Sergio Pizzorno and Tom Meighan of Kasabian backstage in the inner sanctum of Union Chapel ahead of their gig and they were pretty stunned when I revealed who was the special guest compere of the evening:

"Who? .... The Edge? Oh Wow he's gonna be here? That's great yeah ... That'll blow my mind!"

And when the beanie-hatted guitar hero took to the tiny stage to introduce the band later that night, he seemed a bit overwhelmed to be able to see the whites of the audience's eyes. It must be several decades since U2 have been that up close to the fans.

But he revealed himself to be a Kasabian fan "even though they support a rubbish football team" and joked they're a really good band, even though "They don't have echo on their guitars and they haven't written any songs about 60s civil rights leaders."

"Who? .... The Edge? Oh Wow he's gonna be here? That's great yeah ... That'll blow my mind!"

They were greeted like returning heroes, with Tom and Sergio making their entrance from the rear of the chapel down the nave of the church with Tom sporting a green mod parka and shoulder length hair, looking, as one fan said, 'like a young, better looking Frank Gallagher'.

Perched on stools they launched into an acoustic version of 'Processed Beats', dropping in lyrics from The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me' and getting the audience out of their pews to dance along.

After the first song frontman Tom Meighan admitted they'd been terrified of playing that venue and going acoustic, but as he introduced the first new song 'Fast Fuse', told the crowd: "you guys make us feel invincible!"

B-side 'Black Whistler' was sung by guitarist Sergio Pizzorno, and Tom then introduced the next song by saying it was a "romantic" cover they'd picked specially for the night before they launched into The Velvet Underground's 'Who Loves The Sun'.

They then dropped a second new track 'Thick As Thieves', and then Tom introduced 'Empire' which sparked a massive sing-a-long, ahead of 'The Doberman'.

Then they launched into a complete change in mood by covering sixties pop classic 'Runaway' by Del Shannon prompting another crowd sing - a long.

They left the stage briefly but were soon whooped back on to wrap up the show with The Beatles' 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' and their own 'LSF'.



Julie Cullen