‘Hopes and Fears’ was a landmark album for Keane and has set all kinds of records in the process. It’s one of the best selling albums in UK chart history having sold over 2.5 million in the UK in its first year, and a million in the USA propelled by their absolutely classic song ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. ‘Hopes and Fears’ is 9x platinum in the UK, a remarkable achievement. The album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Keane emerged alongside a new vanguard of bands that would change the shape of music: Snow Patrol, Scissor sisters, the Killers and Coldplay. They were the first to create a sound solely revolving around keyboards which enhanced the emotional pull of their songs. ‘Everybody’s Changing’ from ‘Hopes and Fears’ became a fan favourite and a top five hit.

In 2004 Keane were the biggest selling British artist in the UK. The following year they won two BRIT Awards: Best British Album for ‘Hopes and Fears’ and British Breakthrough act award as voted for by Radio 1 listeners.

‘Somewhere Only We Know’ has enjoyed a recent revival on Tik Tok going viral in Indonesia which lit the spark for a global renaissance of the track which is currently clocking up two million Spotify streams a day, and in the past 12 months has become Island Records’ biggest selling single. In total it has been streamed over a billion times.

Next year’s tour will celebrate Keane’s acclaimed body of work from their imperious debut ‘Hopes and Fears’ through to their 2019 studio album ‘Cause and Effect’

No-one quite operates in the realm of the visionary Everything Everything. Setting dystopian ‘Black Mirror’-style concepts to songs which thrillingly find the sweet spot between esoteric experimentation and art-pop accessibility, the band have earned critical acclaim and a devoted following in equal measure, leading to five Ivor Novello and two Mercury Prize nominations, a run of six consecutive Top 10 albums, and major headline shows including London’s Alexandra Palace.

Everything Everything have always explored grand concepts in their albums, as demonstrated by 2022’s ahead-of-the-curve ‘Raw Data Feel’ (which fed everything from 4Chan forum posts to the teachings of Confucius into an AI program, and used its responses as a basis for its lyrics and titles).

That continues with the release of their new album ‘Mountainhead’. It imagines an alternate society in which those at the lowest rung of society’s ladder are forced to work relentlessly to keep its elite, at the mountain’s peak, elevated. While it’s an idea that looks to a nightmarish future, it’s full of engaging metaphors for our current existence, from capitalism and environmentalism to religion and celebrity worship. The music is just as engaging, their art-pop heart coloured by an array of off-kilter production touches and a new-found alt-pop accessibility.