Part two of our blog from The O2

8.52pm: They’re on! And the whole place is going crazy!

Tim admitted to being slightly terrified about 20 seconds before he went on, but from the minute they hit the stage, it clicked into place. Really, it did.

Now, who’s up for a Richard drum challenge? Click here to view the video. First person to email the correct song title to us at ontour@keanemusic.com gets the glory.Hello to everyone emailing from Mexico, by the way.

8.58pm: Way to go Martin McDonald with the correct answer! Very impressive.

And, no Mary-Ann, we won’t get to see all that much of the gig, because we’ve got to keep you folks up to date. Selfless, we know.

We’re sitting right behind the stage, though, so we can hear it pretty well from here. They’re playing Nothing In My Way at the moment. Actually, it’s just finished. Big cheer!

9.02pm – We thought we should move across to another thread as that last one was getting very slow. “We might as well, we might as well…” rings out across The O2…

9.07pm – Lots of you have got Richard’s drum challenge correct. Congrats to Ana, Melissa, Alicia, Luly and many others. Your knowledge of Keane beats is impressive!

9.09pm – “I can’t stop now, I’ve got troubles of my own…”. Actually, do you think the wireless internet might work out there in the arena? It might you know.

9.15pm – Before we go to check out the wireless situation, here’s some pics from just before and just after the band went on. (By the way, we’re sitting in the pitch dark back here, so do forgive any typing errors.)

9.26pm – Wow. Amazingly the wireless does work out here. We’re sitting in a very comfy seat watching the band play ‘Frog Prince’ on the B-stage. People are looking at us a bit funny because we’ve got a laptop on our knee, but that’s a small price to pay.

9.28pm – Someone’s just asked us if we’re the ones who write the KWN. Oh dear, cover blown.

Now they’re trying to take our picture. We may have to move.

9.33pm – Thankfully they’re leaving us alone now. The band are still on the B-stage playing ‘Hamburg Song’. It’s pretty mad looking out at this many people, all giving the band their undivided attention. You could hear a pin drop. Well you could if the band weren’t playing.

9.37pm – This is how it’s looking from our (excedingly comfy) seat.

9.43pm – We’re quite proud of this one…

9.40pm – Happy days, we’ve found a seat right in the corner where people don’t keep turning around and asking how tall Tom Chaplin is (“um, quite tall”).

Tom’s belting through the ‘Leaving So Soon’ and The O2 is waving its hands in the air like it really doesn’t care.

Ooooh, ‘This Is The Last Time’…

9.46pm – “Frankly I’m speechless. This is going to go down as the most memorable moment of my entire life,” says Tom. It really is quite a special atmosphere.

9.54pm – If you’ve seen Keane on any tour since the one in the UK before Christmas last year, then you’ll have heard a recording of Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy reading the poem ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ by WB Yeats before ‘A Bad Dream’. Well, tonight (as in Dublin) he read it live. That man must have balls of titanium to have stood up there in front of all those people and read a poem. He nailed it too.

This laptop is making our thighs warm.

9.58pm – The roof in the O2 is very high. Very high indeed. But the crowd just blew it off when the band started ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. 17,000+ people are bellowing every word.

Don’t be sad if you’re not here. It’s gonna make a stonking DVD. Let’s just hope the cameraman don’t point in the direction of the chap with the laptop on his (increasingly warm) legs.

10.03pm – There are soldiers marching around the arena!

How cool is that?! For ‘Is It Any Wonder’, as you may have guessed.

The band finished the main set with that song. Now Tom’s back on playing ‘Broken Toy’ on his acoustic.

10.13pm – This is how Tom looked for ‘Broken Toy’

That seems to be an Italian flag in the background. We keep trying to take a pic of the Brazilian one too (cos there are lots of Brazilians reading this) but it’s too far away. Sorry.

‘Crystal Ball’ now and The O2 is pogoing. Tom’s on the ego ramp, leaning into the crowd and getting a lot of love.

10.09pm – The band are playing a mighty-sounding ‘Atlantic’. We’ve been meaning to tell you all day, but keep forgetting – the plan is for the DVD to come out before Christmas.

10.18pm – Wow, confetti canons!

And now we’re onto ‘Bedshaped’ – the last song of the evening. We’d better leave our comfy seat to go and get some pics of the band as they leave the stage. All feels rather emotional here.

10.45pm – Hello again. We’re really making the most of the wireless tonight, as we’re now blogging direct from band’s dressing room.

Tim, Tom and Richard are all very happy with how the gig went. “There’s a lot of pressure on for a gig like that,” says Tim, “particularly when you know it’s being filmed. But it was amazing.” Tom’s just been talking about the adrenaline that hits you when you go onstage in front of that many people. “There’s really nothing like it”. Meanwhile, Richard’s telling everyone about an idea he had for a video during ‘Bend And Break’. “I thought, I’ve got to remember this, but I should really concentrate…” His idea for a video is indeed rather good too.

The crowd, during ‘Bedshaped’.

Three very exhausted, happy and relieved bunnies.

11.06pm – Right, well it’s cheerio time from us. The band are all having showers and getting changed, before heading up to see their friends and family at the after-show party.

All the tension and stress that was drifting around backstage before the show has lifted and there’s a lot of smiley faces and laughter about now. Quite right too.

Thanks to the (literally) hundreds of you who emailed ontour@keanemusic.com during the day, keeping us company. We read all of them and it was really nice to hear from you. Also, thanks to the commenters and the folks on the message board too. Keane are very lucky to have fans like you lot.

We’ll leave you with a picture of the setlist, to give you a little bit more of an idea of what you’ve got to look forward to when the DVD hits the shelves. It’ll certainly bring back some good memories.

Night night. Thanks for reading. It’s been a blast.