Historical Background

Keane is a band hailing from Battle, East Sussex, UK. It consists of three members, Tom Oliver Chaplin (Vocals, Live Keyboards), Tim James Rice-Oxley (Piano, Keyboards, Bass, Backing Vocals), and Richard Hughes (Drums, Live Vocals). Originally, there was also a fourth member of the band, Dominic Scott (Guitars), but he left in 2001. The band was formed originally as a cover band called Lotus Eaters by Rice-Oxley, Scott, and Hughes while they were studying at University College in London. Chaplin, an old friend of Rice-Oxley's (Chaplin and Rice-Oxley's brother Tom were born on the same day, causing their mothers to become good friends), joined later. At that point the band began to do more original songs, and after Chaplin spent a year in South Africa volunteering, they starting touring pubs throughout Great Britain. It was then that the band's name was changed, as Rice-Oxley described in an interview:

TC: Why the name Keane?
Tim Rice-Oxley: We were sitting in this pub in Dublin waiting to play a gig and were told that we needed a name. We hadn't actually gotten round to choosing one at that point, it was just one of those things we kept putting off.
Anyway, we were all reminiscing about this old lady who used to look after us when we were younger, her name was Cherry Keane. So in the end we decided to name ourselves after her. Later on we decided to drop the 'Cherry' part and just be known as Keane. We thought it was a magical name, we really liked it.

TC: So it has some significance then?
Tim Rice-Oxley:Yeah definitely. She was one of those people who really encouraged us to follow our dreams and do the musical stuff we loved rather than worrying about whether we were going to get 'proper' jobs. She was always really nice to us - even when we sounded completely awful! She has a special place in our hearts.

In 1999 and 2001, the band released two singles on their own independent label, Zoomorphic, even though only a small number were made (many of which were simply on unlabeled CD-R's). Soon after the second single, Scott left the group to continue his studies, and soon after that, Keane signed a publishing deal with BMG Publishing. They recorded a few sessions in this time in France, where they started to toy with the idea of using the piano as a main instrument. However, without a recording contract and with few gigs in 2002, they had a rough time.

Soon, the answer came in the form of Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records, who had discovered Coldplay a few years before. He offered to release the single "This Is The Last Time," a big hit which led to a bidding war between major record labels. The band eventually decided to sign with Island Records in 2003. They released two singles on this label before finally releasing their first full album, Hopes and Fears. Released on May 10, 2004, It consists of twelve songs, including "She Has No Time," a song written by Rice-Oxley supposedly to cheer Chaplin up:

"I always find this quite a hard thing to tell people about, 'cause I don't know how an audience is going to react...but this song is basically about being in love with someone and they're not in love with you, and this was something that happened to me a few years ago...Anyway, this fellow here [Tim] wrote this song, as a way of sort of comforting me at the time. Anyway, it really is a song that means so much to me, because it was basically Tim putting his arm around my shoulder and saying 'Don't worry, this happens to everyone at some stage'."

Also receiving writing credit for the song is James Sanger, who is the reason the band recorded in France in 2002 and who also receives writing credit for the songs "Bedshaped," "This Is The Last Time," "Sunshine," "Walnut Tree," and "To The End Of The Earth." Hopes and Fears hit #1 on the UK charts, and as high as #45 on the US charts. It is estimated that it has sold between 4 and 5.5 million copies worldwide.

Following the success of their first album, Keane embarked on their first world tour. They then released their second album, Under the Iron Sea, in May 2006 and toured for that album as well. Along with successes for their songwriter, Rice-Oxley (he collaborated with Gwen Stefani, has written songs for various films, and won the 2004 Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year award), the band continues to find success touring the globe, and is currently recording their third album, expected to come out September 2008.