Noel Gallagher Checks Out Kasabian At Somerset House

Fittingly, the most proletarian of bands is tonight introduced by that most proletarian of actors, Danny Dyer. "Ladies and gentleman..." says the inebriated cockney... "Kassshabian!" The Oasis de nos jours take the stage an hour late, with Noel Gallagher and Noel Fielding among the other celebrities present.

"Let me hear you Somerset House!" roars Kasabian's singer Tom Meighan. It's been a long road from the pub venues of Leicester to The Duke Of Somerset's 16th century palace, and tonight Meighan gets to be the town crier.

Much has been made of Kasabian's arrogance offstage, but onstage their frontman works hard to dismantle the kind of wall between act and crowd that Bob Dylan, say, has long since bricked himself behind. "I see you darlin'!" flirts Meighan when a girl responds to an enquiry as to whether anybody from Leicester is in the house. Meighan can do messianic as annoyingly as Richard Ashcroft, but he is also refreshingly aware of the public's role in his success.

Further in, he dedicates "The Doberman" to "father, friend and player" Noel Gallagher, while "Processed Beats", sounding exactly like it says on the tin, takes us all the way back to the band's first single. When the crowd takes over the "Stop! We're all wasting away" chorus of "Empire", it is a reminder that Kasabian's karaoke jukebox can have a peculiarly dark quality; for all their everyman aspirations they have yet to write a song that pervades the psyche across generations, probably because military-speak and machismo-infused bluster do not a "Wonderwall" make.

For the full review of the gig click here

Source: www.independent.co.uk