Keane at the O2

Friday night and I hauled myself all the way out to North Greenwich after work to see Keane. Even though a pain to get to, it is still an impressive sight. And interesting how something that was derided as a white elephant when the Dome, now it has been turned over to private enterprise as an entertainment centre rather than something that was meant to be educationally "improving" at the Millennium, it has become a great success.

This is the first time I have been to the O2 to find it as an all-seater venue, with the stage in the middle of the pitch as it were. I had a great view from pretty comfortable temporary seating  which was placed at one end over what would normally be the stage. As I say, it was perfectly comfortable, but you did feel just a slight tremor as every person walked up the steps to their seat, making one just ever so slightly queasy with motion sickness after an hour of it.

Support act were Wolfgang, sadly not a Kraut rock band from Germany, but a bnice bunch of young Londoners whose sound fitted in well with Keane, but without anything sufficiently distinctive to mark them out.

But the all-seater job probably worked for their demographic. It is rare for me to go to a gig and not feel out of place, but here I was with my generation, plenty of bald heads and wrinkles. Which is odd as they are not an old band, but just appeal to an older age group than their own. Much as I love Keane and Tom Chaplin's fine voice (backed occasionally by his much more limited ability with a guitar), they just aren't very rock 'n' roll. And despite 4 good albums, including their latest, Strangeland, I can't help feeling that their best by far was their first, Hopes & Fears. Its songs from that which really get the crowd going. I will continue going to see them, even though I would prefer to go to a smaller venue (and stand), but I think its a shame they don't seem to appeal to the youth of today. But if you are going to play the O2 and make it all-seater, then its just us oldies who are going to come.