Replacing band members like guitarists, bassists or drummers is quite common in the music business and can often be done with minimal fuss and disruption to their look and sound. However, switching the lead singer is a different thing all together. Very few bands have continued after the frontman or woman exits the band for whatever reason whether it be illness, death, scandal or musical differences.
Four years ago, Tom Meighan departed Kasabian as a charge of assault against him was imminent. The band wanted to protect their image and so he was gone. Replacing Tom was a possibility but eventually it was decided that co-founder, guitarist, second vocalist and primary songwriter Serge Pizzorno would step up to lead duties. It wasn’t too much of a surprise really. Tom and Serge were always the focal point of Kasabian and so this felt a natural fit similar to Noel taking over from Liam when he was absent for whatever reasons during the Oasis days.
The last couple of Kasbian albums (‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria‘ and ‘Happenings‘) have produced some absolute bangers but there’s no doubting that the sound is a little different. How would the older songs sound when sung by Serge rather than Tom? Only one way to find out. Yep, watch YouTube! Well other than that, I could go and see them performing live at Zepp Haneda and my original plan was to see this alone.
Unbelievably, a week or two later my wife said she wanted to see another live concert after reflecting on last December’s Noel Gallagher concert at Ariake Garden Theater. She even enquired about Kasabian saying she’d like to see them. I said I’d check to see if they were coming to Japan knowing full well that they were! I managed to get hold of another ticket and days later surprised her with the news that we were going to see them!
The band’s three date tour of Japan included a solitary date at Zepp Osaka Bayside preceded by two nights at Zepp Haneda in Tokyo where I watched Suede and Manic Street Preachers do a co-headline gig 11 months ago. There were some colourful t-shirts on sale outside which I’d seen quite a few people wearing, and I was tempted until I saw the 6,500 ($44) yen price tag!
Beforehand I was a little nervous about getting in with both tickets on my smartphone which I knew would take a bit longer at the entrance whilst I clicked on the right buttons to show the staff member. It certainly wasn’t as smooth as when you’ve got one ticket per person but thankfully didn’t hold up those behind us too much.
Having seen a Japanese guy outside in the 2023-24 Leicester shirt with Vardy 9 on the back, I was expecting to see him again inside and when I saw a blue shirt out of the corner of my eye I thought it was him but when I turned round it turned out to be fellow Leicester fan Max who I hadn’t seen since last year’s Celtic match at Yokohama F. Marinos.
At 7:00 o’clock on the dot the telephone rang (well there was a sound effect on the PA system!) and the band came on stage and bashed their way through recent single ‘Call‘ followed by the classic ‘Club Foot‘.
This was my third time to see Leicester’s greatest band live but the last occasion was way back in January 2007 when they were promoting their second album so a lot of material (a further six studio albums) has been released since then!!
Serge seems to be in his element as the main guy bouncing around the stage and hyping up the audience with hand gestures and so on. He was loving it and smiling throughout whilst touching his heart between songs to show what it all meant. He banged on about the crowd getting what the band was all about with the irony being that most people in attendance probably didn’t get what he was on about!
Serge does some strobe effect with his hands
Many of Kasabian’s songs are like football chants with lots of catchy rhythmic singalong parts that anyone can sing without knowing any English at all. As well as songs from all of their albums, there were also four covers of intros. The opening bars of Deee-Lite’s ‘Groove Is In The Heart‘, Beastie Boys’ ‘Intergalactic‘, Prodigy’s ‘Breathe‘ and Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You‘ were all blended into four of their own songs.
Other than the classic 1989 James single ‘Sit Down‘ I’ve never seen a crowd do anything similar to what happened during ‘Empire‘ and ‘Fire‘. Serge instructed the crowd to squat down low for a few moments before then jumping up at the right moment to go mad and singalong to the chorus parts of those anthemic tunes. It was pretty cool but I was probably just more glad to take the pressure off my legs for a bit!
When talking about the length of the latest Kasabian album (28 minutes!) Serge defended that by saying the kids don’t have time anymore so shorter seems to be the way. That may even be the same for concerts which I always think of being around 90 minutes. That is no longer the case as Noel’s set last December was 80 minutes and this was 75 minutes.
At the finale, Serge sat down on stage to take it all in with an acapella chorus of ‘Italian Horror‘ before making his exit. He seems to be revelling in now taking centre stage and I had been too busy enjoying myself to notice the absence of a certain former frontman!
Setlist: 1. Call; 2. Club Foot; 3. Ill Ray (The King) 4. Underdog 5. Chemicals; 6. Shoot The Runner; 7. You’re In Love With A Psycho; 8. Coming Back To Me Good; 9. Italian Horror; 10. Treat; 11. Vlad The Impaler; 12. Empire; 13. L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever); 14. Reason Is Treason 15. Bless This Acid House 16. Fire.
Click here to read ‘Kasabian Live Concert In Tokyo’
Click here to read ‘Watching Oasis & Kasabian At Summer Sonic ’05 (2005)
Click here to read ‘Manic Street Preachers & Suede Roll Back The Years With Co-Headline Dates In Tokyo’
Click here to read ‘Appearing As A Guest On BBC Radio Leicester’s Football Forum’