Kasabian

Kasabian, recipients of the Brit Award, blend echoes of the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and Primal Scream with the swagger of Oasis and electronic flourishes shaped by DJ Shadow. The Leicester-based outfit took its name from Linda Kasabian, the getaway driver for Charles Manson who later testified for the prosecution, and drew inspiration from the Band when the members relocated to an isolated farmhouse to create their earliest material. Shared living quarters and overlapping musical touchstones yielded a hybrid of electronic and rock textures that evoked the Madchester era of loose-fitting clothing and chemically enhanced movement on the dancefloor. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2004, after which the group broadened its palette across subsequent releases while preserving a core built on splintered dance grooves and raucous rock energy. That formula earned strong acclaim, beginning with the band’s first ascent to the summit of the U.K. album chart via 2006’s Empire, followed by the 2010 Brit Award for best British group, and continuing through the 2022 arrival of their seventh album, The Alchemist’s Euphoria, which secured a sixth consecutive number-one position.

Tom Meighan’s sharp-tongued manner during early interviews quickly drew media scrutiny, while the band’s provocative logos and distinctive cover artwork heightened curiosity further. Singles such as “Club Foot,” “L.S.F.,” and “Processed Beats” appeared in elaborate formats that included foldout posters, 10-inch pressings, and hand-stenciled jackets. The attention translated into commercial success when the debut album entered the Top Five in October 2004, only a month after its domestic release; four singles reached the Top 20 inside half a year, elevating Meighan, guitarists Sergio Pizzorno and Chris Karloff, bassist Chris Edwards, and drummer Ian Matthews to prominent status within British rock.

Creative differences prompted Karloff’s departure two years later. Empire had already been completed, so guitarist Jay Mehler was enlisted solely for live duties. The album surfaced in August 2006 and entered the U.K. chart at number one, with its title track becoming the group’s third Top Ten single. An NME Award followed in 2007, and work on the next record began later that year. Dan the Automator joined Pizzorno behind the console, Mehler was installed as a permanent member, and the resulting West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum topped the U.K. chart in 2009 while yielding the band’s sole Top Three hit, “Fire.” After earlier nominations in 2005 and 2007, Kasabian claimed the Brit Award for British Group in 2010. Automator returned for 2011’s Velociraptor!, the band’s third successive U.K. number one, whose strongest-performing track, “Days Are Forgotten,” reached the Top 30.

Mehler exited in 2013 to join Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye, leaving Kasabian to continue as a quartet with Pizzorno handling production duties alone. The 2014 release 48:13, titled after its precise duration, featured the Top 30 single “Eez-eh.” Early 2017 brought new songs, among them “You’re in Love with a Psycho,” ahead of the sixth studio album, For Crying Out Loud, which appeared that May and became the group’s fifth straight number-one record despite none of its tracks entering the Top 40.

On 6 July 2020, Tom Meighan stated he was departing to address “personal issues.” The following day it emerged that he had admitted guilt to assault charges arising from a domestic violence incident the previous April. The Alchemist’s Euphoria, Kasabian’s first album with Pizzorno as sole lead vocalist, arrived in August 2022. Recorded mainly in Pizzorno’s home studio and co-produced by Pizzorno and Fraser T. Smith (Adele, Stormzy), it extended the band’s run of U.K. chart-toppers. Pizzorno later collaborated with producer Mark Ralph (Zara Larsson, Tom Chaplin, Rudimental) on the eighth album, Happenings, issued in July 2024.