Tom sends a blog, Rob sends pics, we start the countdown to Saturday’s gig

On Saturday night, Keane play their last headline date of the ‘Under The Iron Sea’ tour at London’s O2. All week, we’ll be building up to the show here on keanemusic.com, with blogs, pics and news. We’re also heading off on the road with the band, to cover their trip to Dublin and, of course, The O2 live and direct.

Let’s kick things off with this blog from Tom, which turned up yesterday night. The pictures illustrating it come from the band’s tech dude, Rob.

Hello

Just got through the door at home after a lovely trip to Aix-les-Bains. All I can say is that it was a pleasure to be back in France and playing in the warmth and beauty of the place. I know it’s a terrible English cliche to bang on about the weather but this “summer” has been ridiculous. Everywhere we’ve gone the elements seem to have conspired against us and we didn’t even play Glastonbury! It was no surprise then that there was a look of enormous relief and happiness on the faces of both band and crew yesterday as the temperatures soared into the 30s (that’s celsius for the more advanced nations amongst you).

Highlights included a high-speed boat trip out on the adjacent lake…Iain , our evergreen sound engineer, managed to  scare the living shit out of everyone by attempting some high speed turns. However, he made up for this by commenting that there appeared to be a boat dragging in an enormous fish. I had to point out that this was actually a half-submerged water skier. Thank God we rely on his ears and not his eyes! Thanks to everyone who was at the gig itself. I really admire the passion and perceptiveness of the French and it was there in abundance last night.

There was just enough time for us to catch the Arctic Monkeys before having to make the trek back home. Brilliant musicians and songwriting. We still had a long way to go at that age and I have nothing but enormous respect for them .

All of us were entertaining the idea of staying put in our French idyll but Dublin and London beckon. Hope to see lots of you there.

Lots of love
Tom

And now onto more of Rob’s pictures…


Iain and Tom.


Iain’s driving causing much hilarity.


Next someone decided to let Richard drive. Here’s what happens.


(i) Piano player relaxing and enjoying the view.


(ii) Drummer does a U Turn – unexpectedly drenched keyboard wiz.


Things calmed down a bit then as the professional started driving again.


View from the bow.


Back on dry land.


..and off to the catering (where the aforementioned delicious
French cheese was found).