KASABIAN, OASIS LEISURE CENTRE, SWINDON, 26TH MAY (LIVE)

This year’s Premier League season was one of the weirdest rollercoaster rides in sporting history. Title holders Chelsea plummeted down the table failing to keep a grip on the prestigious trophy, even falling short of Champions League Qualification. This unusual turn of events left the league wide open to those eager and hungry enough for the challenge. Despite their admirable persistence no one ever thought that Leicester City would go all the way and in the final weeks of the season it looked as if Tottenham might even put an end to their title dreams. However the fairy-tale ran its course and much to the nation’s elation the Foxes were deservedly crowned footballing kings of England. Let’s be honest you were all rooting for them! As you’ve probably guessed though we aren’t here to talk football, this rather out of character passage has an ulterior motive. It turns out a certain UK Rock band are in fact avid Leicester City fans ……..

Kasabian, despite being a heavyweight in UK Rock music, are known to be part-time football hooligans. With plenty of appearances on Soccer AM and that absolute worldy goal from Serge Pizzorno on Soccer Aid its clear the Leicestershire born and bred lads are no strangers to the beautiful game. Overwhelmed with the success of their beloved Foxes they decided to schedule two live shows at the King Power Stadium to celebrate with fans. As you can imagine tickets sold out in seconds with demand heavily exceeded the supply. Having been out of live action for quite some time Kasabian decided to announce two rare intimate gigs at Bridlington Spa and Swindon Oasis Leisure Centre. Having caught wind of this announcement we were determined not to miss out so we sat at 9:30AM on the dot with several tabs up praying we got lucky. Which clearly we did or this blog would be nothing but an empty page of heartbreak and despair.

Shock and disbelief was our initial reaction; the venue was genuinely tiny. Over the years fans have become accustomed to seeing Kasabian on the stages of the O2 Arena, Reading & Leeds Festival and at some of the world’s largest venues. Oasis, Swindon was just like any local leisure centre really, with a hall similar to the one at my old secondary school. Gigs like this are an incredible experience for those fans lucky enough to grab tickets. They create that rare opportunity to see established acts in intimate settings. Clearly Kasabian were pushing the boundaries with this one, the place was full to the brim, queues at the DIY make shift bars where uncontrollable for staff. We only managed to grab ourselves a couple of pints before Kasabian hit the stage and it took near enough an hour just for that. You can’t complain though, the nature of the gig meant it was bound to be packed they probably squeezed the capacity to its absolute peak in order to max out ticket sales and capitalise on bar takings.

There was a lot of hype leading up to the gig with plenty of whispers going around twitter and other social media platforms about the evenings supporting act. A few days before the Bridlington Spa show Kasabian announced that Blossoms and Slaves would be supporting their King Power Stadium dates on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Having heard this it would be routine to think that Blossoms and Slaves would also support the warm up shows right? We thought so too, but this would be only half true. Blossoms played at Bridlington Spa on the Tuesday and this almost nailed on that Slaves would play in Swindon. But there was no formal announcement to confirm it. The show was flooded with Slaves band tee’s, clearly many were hopeful that they would be bursting onto the stage to give us some of their rowdy punk rock. They tweeted what many thought were encrypted messages throughout the day suggesting that they were nowhere near Swindon and replying to fans confirming that they weren’t playing. Many took this as a diversion and maintained their misguided belief. In the end, much to our disappointment, this rang true and there was no support act on the night. Gutting really that would have been an epic addition to what turned out to be an incredible gig.

The set itself was everything you could expect from Kasabian, they have such a vast number of hits it would be hard to put on a show that fell short of expectations. Opening with Underdog is always a great way to get the crowd pumped from the word go. We were treated to a variety of career spanning songs, with Bumblebee up next then Shoot the Runner and Days Are Forgotten shortly after. You can check out the full setlist HERE: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kasabian/2016/oasis-leisure-centre-swindon-england-bfe898a.html#!. They came back on for an encore after belting out a cover of Praise You by Fatboy Slim that merged gracefully into L.S.F. Now this is where it got a bit embarrassing really. Kasabian are renowned for playing this song as their ‘last’ right before the encore, it’s the perfect track to get the crowd chanting along. Let me just take this moment to say one of my personal best experiences at a gig is when they played L.S.F at Reading Festival in 2012. The sound of thousands of people chanting along to that was incredible, something I’ll never forget for as long as I live. They left the stage before the encore and the crowd roared the tune of L.S.F back at them. It carried on long after the encore and well into the night whilst we trekked back to the campsite. Now it’s well-known that despite the fact bands will obviously be coming back out for an encore it’s expected that the crowd makes as much noise as possible to show appreciation and coax the artist back onto the stage. This can be a beautiful moment in live music like it was during that Reading Festival set in 2012 but much too my demise I expected such an experience to be replicated. I can appreciate that 80,000 people at Reading Festival is a heck of a way off 2500 at a Leisure Centre in Swindon. However, I expected that the crowd would be filled with avid fans eager to create an electric atmosphere and soak in the intimate experience. The venue, as mentioned earlier, was full to the brim so how they managed to create such a feeble display of appreciation during the break between set and encore is beyond me. If it was us backstage and we heard that reaction of sporadic half arsed chants we would seriously considering not coming back out. That place should have been absolutely rocking. Allegedly they were supposed to have a three song encore with Vlad The Impaler but they only played Stevie and Fire before leaving the stage. Maybe a reaction to the poor support, who knows? Just to put the cherry on the cake, the reaction to ‘Empire’ was likewise underwhelming. Who’s to say the crowd were shite though? It might be down to us having higher expectations of the evening; each will have their own opinion. But from where we were standing and that was front and centre in the heart of the “moshpit” it looked as if a large portion of the crowd didn’t even recognise the song. Some may say we’re being picky here but come on it’s hardly a fucking B-Side track or something is it? We’ve just offloaded an almighty rant onto y’all there, so swiftly moving on…….. This was the only flaw we have to pick up on from the whole evening; the rest of it was out of this world.

Highlights for us were ‘Shoot the Runner’ and ‘Goodbye Kiss’ that was dedicated Ryan, a fan in the front row who tragically lost someone dear to him in a car accident whilst on route to a Kasabian gig. Great stuff from Tom Meighan, again a gesture that wouldn’t be apparent at some of their larger shows. Nestled in the foliage of the setlist we were treated to yet another cover ‘Ready or Not’ by The Delfonics which was

absolutely incredible! Great little surprise. Kasabian never fail to disappoint with their live shows! Apparently they premiered a new single during their King Power Stadium stint, which would suggest we can expect some new material maybe even a new album somewhere along the line? Regardless of what, where or when they come back again the important thing is that they do. If you are sat reading this thinking to yourself, why have I never been to see Kasabian? Then make it happen! Trust me, if it were up to us seeing Kasabian live would be a mandatory item on everyone’s bucket list. Here's a video we found on YouTube of 'Rewired' ENJOY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52lNFz1uJ5s