Kasabian Announce HUGE Gig At Leicester City's King Power Stadium

Kasabian have announced plans for a massive, special, one-off gig at Leicester City's King Power Stadium to celebrate the Foxes' remarkable season.

The band took to twitter to reveal their plans for the gig which will take place at the King Power Stadium in May 28 and tickets will go on sale April 30.

They also stated that "this has been an unbelievable year for the city and it seemed like the perfect thing to do this summer."

Leicester are on the verge of winning their first ever Premier League title and go into Sunday's game against Manchester United knowing that a win will clinch the trophy.

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Rock Werchter Review: Part 4

Rock Werchter Review (Sunday)

As the sun peeks its head through the clouds, it bathes the festival site in sunlight and it's clear that the past three days have been one huge party. But there is still one day left and it turned out to be another day of superb sets. 

We begin with a stage change. British band The Vaccines are due on The Barn at half past three, but Jessie J cancelled her set on the main stage at the very last minute to the shock of some of the younger members of the audience. This meant that The Vaccines are now moved to the main stage. It's the second time the band are playing at Werchter and keen to impress once again, they begin with something new from their third album "English Graffiti". The song 'Handsome' is typical Vaccines, its fast paced, and simple setting up the set perfectly. Front-man Justin Young is another singer who puts on an accent when introducing his songs which some may not care about but it is rather irritating. Credit to him though as he is clearly a passionate front-man, regularly falling to his knees, showing emotion and walking around the stage so that both sides of the audience can see him. Their set is well polished but rarely shows signs of variety, Their songs have great live presence and they create a distinctly positive atmosphere among the audience. Songs like 'Wetsuit', 'If You Wanna' and 'Norgaard' all go down a treat as The Vaccines light up the main stage. 

It's a long wait for Kasabian who are the main support act for Muse's set when they headline later. They are the perfect warm up act and play a storming set albeit in front of a crowd who were there for Muse, but Kasabian are a sensational live band and this performance showed exactly that. After seventeen years of experience you would expect Kasabian to have mastered the art of live performance, and you'd be right. They also have such range in their songs, from the bombastic "Bumblebeee" to the nod back to the 90s rave scene "Treat" (a sound which Kasabian said inspired their recent album 48:13) and the song that gave them their unique and commanding sound "Club Foot". As well as their own songs, Kasabian couldn't resist throwing in a couple of covers including 'People Are Strange" by The Doors which they cleverly added in to then end of "Thick As Thieves" and before their final hurrah they dedicated "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim to the days headliners Muse which led them perfectly in to set closer "LSF". They did find it hard to get the crowd going but eventually they fell under their spell of bullish rhythms and began emulating front-man Tom Meighan's dancing on stage.

Festival Preview: T in the Park

Preview: T in the Park

This year, Scotland’s premier music festival has moved to a new location. That location is Strathallan Castle deep in the heart of Perthshire. And after lots of court hearings, the festival will go ahead and thank god that it has as this year’s T in the Park is not one to be missed.

This year the festival has a vast range of acts from The Libertines to Avicii and from The Prodigy to Paloma Faith. Multiple NME award winning band Kasabian headline on Friday night fresh from their headline set at Glastonbury last year. It’s also the Leicester-based band’s first appearance at the festival for three years so expect them to show off their latest album 48:13 to the crowd. Elsewhere after the release of their first album in four years – Glitterbug-, The Wombats are hitting up T in the Park with their brand of indie-pop along with The Cribs and newcomers Blossoms and Coasts. David Guetta also makes an appearance. If he remembers to pack his USB stick.

Saturday see’s the return of The Libertines to T in the Park who last played in 2004. And with a new album fully written in Thailand of all places, the four-piece will bring their raucous indie to the ears of the crowd hopefully with a few surprises in store too. Saturday also sees a rare festival appearance this summer from The Courteeners who will no doubt get the crowd pumped up. Intricate electro-indie three piece Alt-J also grace the stage on Saturday which will be an interesting and unique experience for all involved. The year’s sensation (thus far) George Ezra will also appear on Saturday along with The Vaccines, Palma Violets, Enter Shikari and St Vincent making Saturday a day of big names across the stages.

If I said the following bands are all playing at a festival, you might think they would be the three headliners over a weekend. Wrong. Noel Gallagher, The Prodigy and Stereophonics are all playing on the same day at T in the Park this year. Two of the three (The Prodigy and Noel Gallagher) have released albums this year already, Stereophonics are set to release their ninth album in September so the crowd can expect lots of new music and spectacular live performances. After Jamie T’s success at the NME awards in 2015 he also plays on Sunday which also see’s Peace, Modest Mouse and much talked-about indie band Wolf Alice.

T in the Park is always a unique experience, set in the rolling hills of Scotland, and now after the move to Strathallan Castle the festival opens a new chapter in its life and this line-up is a perfect way to start this new era. 

Kasabian 48:13 Album Review

Kasabian 48:13 Album Review

Kasabian return with their fifth album 48:13 and have come back with a bang. Ever since their electro infused debut album there has been a flock of British bands all doing the same thing and not appealing to the inner dancer in people. Kasabians new release has done just that. It's an eclectic mix of grooves, heavy riffs coupled with electronic touches here and there. The album also shows a bands progression from shouty Liam Gallagher-esque vocal performances with an almost "baggy" beat reminsicent of that from the late 80's and early 90's to perhaps Britain's "good time" party band.

There was a lot of talk about this album from promoters and the band themselves about how direct and massive it was going to be. And it is clear that the band have been delving in to such bands as the Chemical Brothers and even Daft Punk to create this unique electronic based 5th album. There are many synth lines, bass drops and build ups throughout the album which means you don't want to stop listening to it in fear of missing out on something massive. All of the effective features add to Kasabian's big guitar riffs, most notably these features appear on "Bumblebeee" all the while Tom (frontman) shout's "We're in ecstasy" and the as the chrus comes crashing Serge shouts "Everybody Go" commanding the listener to completely freak out and upon hearing the riff in the chorus most people would probably do just that.

There is a seven minute dance epic on the album which "treat" the song extremely dance orientated especially with the ever-present synth hook which is constant, there is also a fantastic bass line played high up on the bass very similar to Peter Hook from New Order (and Joy Division). Serge said himself that the song is an epic and it even has a little house beat hidden in the song which wouldn't go amiss on a clubland album! Eez-Eh is another dance infused track in Ksabian say we are being watched by Google! The disco drums make the song hard to dislodge from your brain and as Tom says "I'm gonna keep you up all night" Elsewhere on the album, there are signs that Kasabian have a degree of emotion about them. "Explodes" talks about dying on your feet rather than living a life on your knees. Although, the lyrics might be about playing or hearing music at a festival, Kasabian want your head to explode!

All in all the direction Kasabian have tried to go in with this album deserves some credit, they are trying to appeal to a wider audience with new influences but sometimes they seem to forget what makes them such a good band, this album at points lacks their anthemic prowess which we know and love, songs like Empire and LSF do not appear on this album but every band has to evolve and ultimately some will like it and some may hate it.

7/10