I'm stealing this from the Fun & Games 'Question' thread, a question posed by Lonelykeanefan. Malena thought it should have it's own thread too.

My answer...

Saw them the first time at the Tsunami Relief concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, 22nd January 2005, never heard of Keane before that. Loads of other greats there too, Manic Street Preachers, Snow Patrol, Heather Small [M People] and my up till then all time favourite artist, Eric Clapton who performed an awesome Blues set with Jools Holland. A truly amazing gig considering it was arranged in only 3 weeks to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami on boxing day 2004.

Keane played the 3 biggies from that time, SOWK, EC and Bedshaped, which prompted the obligatory waving of lighters in the air.

Went out and bought H & F soon after that, but only really listened to it properly while travelling by bus to a holiday in Belgium later that year. Totally bowled over by Tom's voice and Tim's awesome talant as a songwriter and musician. The rest is history as they say...................

Now tell us yours.

Kaz xx

Thanks for that Kaz!

So I quote myself here... (is that allowed? )

To the topic: I think I first heard of Keane in 2004. Can't remember the time correctly...

But I sat on my sofa and watched MTV. And there it was: the SOWK video! I turned it louder and drew bf's attention to it.   I was hooked this very moment! I instantly looked them up on amazon, then listened to H&F in the record store and bought it straightaway! It was all a matter of one or two weeks! (Was a fan since the early days, now I come to think of it...)

I just want to add, that I only consider myself a true fan, after seeing them playing live for the first time in 2006! It was truly something like an eye-opening experience! I was so blown away by their presence on stage.... well you know the rest....

 

In my wheelie bin. LOL

No really, i was listening to the radion on Feb 24th 2004 at around 3.15pm when i heard a song come on and it sounded real good, so i had to call the station up cos they never said who it was after it finished and they said it was a group called Keane and the song was Somewhere Only We Know, and obviously i asked if they knew anything about it, like when it was being released or if it had already been released and they told me around May so i decided to buy the album and hey i loved every song on it which was a first for me cos every other album i had bought before that i didn't like the entire album so i was surprised and i've never looked back, pretty glad i had the radio on back then but even if i didn't i still probably would have heard one of their songs somewhere eventually later on and got to like them.

Through my mumcos she bought hopes and fears

 I'd always been distantly aware of them (being British and all) because they were in the media all the time here in 2004 and 2006. I remember H&F coming out and liking their stuff but I wasn't really into that style of music then (I was ten so obviously I was into rubbish music). I distinctly remember seeing the IIAW video on TV and being pretty drawn to them but again I never really payed much attention. Then, a couple years ago I finally got myself and MP3 player and I was pretty much trying to find music to put on it so I was looking on Virgin Music On Demand and I saw an advert for their music and I found myself sat there thinking 'Ohhh yeah! Keane! I like Somewhere Only We Know quite a lot actually'. So of course I immediately looked up their music and watched all their videos and instantly fell in love with TITLT and SOWK and EC though those were the only ones I had for a while until I really looked into them and started liking IIAW and most UTIS tracks.

Then obviously in October 08 I was sat eating my tea and heard this really funky song and when it finished the presenter said it was Keane and I was totally shocked but at the same time elated because the band were making a new album and I like Spiralling from the first time I heard it. 

And the rest, as they say, is history I've pretty much been addicted to their music ever since.

Ha! when i saw this thread i thought: i remember asking that question but i don't think i made a thread about it... Lol!

weel i discovered Keane in my Dad's car. he's played Hopes and Fears since i was quite little and then later on UTIS too. i didn't know the name of the band, or the CD or even the songs, but i still loved the music. especially SOWK, but really that was my brother's favorite song and Bedshaped was mine. we always used to listen to Keane on really long journeys - often at night - and this, more than anything, is the image i associate with the first two albums. Long journeys in the dark...

Araul94:

 Then obviously in October 08 I was sat eating my tea and heard this really funky song and when it finished the presenter said it was Keane and I was totally shocked but at the same time elated because the band were making a new album and I like Spiralling from the first time I heard it. 

OMG i had nearly exactly the same experiance! i was lying in bed listening to Virgin Radio, not really paying attention and drawing in a notepad. when the song finished i heard the word 'Keane' and realised that it had been a new song! of course i was thrilled, but then i got really cross with myself for not listening more carefully to it! that's how i found out about the new album.

I remember liking SOWK and EC when Hopes And Fears was released. I can't, however, remember the exact moment I realised I 'liked' Keane. Kind of a gradual realisation, I guess.

Lonelykeanefan:

Ha! when i saw this thread i thought: i remember asking that question but i don't think i made a thread about it... Lol!

Sorry to steal your thunder LKF, just thought it was too important a question to get lost in the Fun & Games thread. Besides, other than Jazy, I don't think many of the South Americans use the F & G and it would be good to hear their stories too.

Kaz xx

wrightk15:

Lonelykeanefan:

Ha! when i saw this thread i thought: i remember asking that question but i don't think i made a thread about it... Lol!

Sorry to steal your thunder LKF, just thought it was too important a question to get lost in the Fun & Games thread. Besides, other than Jazy, I don't think many of the South Americans use the F & G and it would be good to hear their stories too.

Kaz xx

oh i totally agree! this was a very good idea of yours!

Yes, it's a good idea to have this as a thread here! I'd like to read everyone's answer :)


I read about Keane on the Internet and how amazing they were in the beginning of 2004, and always intended to check them out but never did...

Later....one late night, I couldn't sleep and turned the radio on. Then this song started and it blew me away. I remember getting up and just sitting on the edge of the bed all surprised lol
It was SOWK .
They didn't say who sang or the name of the song , so I just speculated (At one point I thought they might be Kashmir )
But the next day I turned the radio on all day to see if they played it again and heard it again at the same time at night *lol*

A couple of days later, I went to a record store to get some cds and saw Keane's Hopes & Fears. I bought it because I wanted to listen to Keane for a long time and for some reason I just knew it would be good...it was intuition I guess. I bought some others and the store gave me a free cd with"Indie hits" including Everybody's Changing haha
And well, I went home, put on H&F first because I was so curious and I nearly fainted when I heard the first song.
I went to school the next day telling everybody "I got the most incredible album yesterday! You MUST listen to this!!"
Love at first listen

Newbie here...  To the fandom, to the boards...  I guess this is an introduction of sorts...

A little over a year ago...  I heard a cover of SOWK sung by one of my favorite musical theatre actors, Euan Morton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmLsRjkleaU

Around the same time someone made a vid for the ITV version of Persuasion (starring Rupert Penry-Jones, who is another obsession of mine...) set to We Might As Well Be Strangers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o36zg8OimtI

After discovering who sung both songs and seeing the CD cover I realized I actually got the single for free in Tower Records back in the day...  So I was playing those songs on repeat for the longest time.

Not till this Christmas, did I decide to buy the full album.  Then Perfect Symmetry, then Under the Iron Sea (which is my fav at this point...).

I'm in love!  And playing catch-up.  Gonna see them in concert next month!!!

well it's a wonderful story how i found out about keane. My sisters friend's brother works in a c.d store and about 2 years ago he was getting rid of all the stores old c.d's. My sisters friend saw hopes and fears and remebered that my sister was siging a line from "somewhere only we know" and couldn't remeber the name of the artist. She saw that the first track was called "somewhere only we know" and decided to take the c.d and give it to my sister. My sister listened to it and imediatly fell in love with keane's music. she lent the c.d to me and i couldn't stop listening to it too. It was an even bigger treat when we looked up keane and saw that tom was drop dead gorgous!! the days we would listen to keane together are very memorable to me, since she doesn't listen to them anymore :( it was kinda like keane found us instead of us finding keane. 

In 2004, a radiostation in Holland tipped Somewhere Only We Know as a big hit (before the song was a hit in Holland) and they said that Keane al so would have a big future ahead of themselves. The played SOWK quite a lot and the first time I heard the song, I was completely hooked to Keane! The rest is history!

 

Chris:

I remember liking SOWK and EC when Hopes And Fears was released. I can't, however, remember the exact moment I realised I 'liked' Keane. Kind of a gradual realisation, I guess.

"liked"? Then do you remember when you realised you "love" KEANE? (no love yet? lol)

How I discovered KEANE...it was a TV music program introducing the video of SOWK as the "the next big thing" in UK. It was February 2004. I will not go into details about how I thought about them...

Sometime in summer 2005 a TV station over here was airing some performances from Glastonbury, and they showed Keane doing SOWK, EC, and TITLT, then saw them perform again at Live 8.  I remember thinking they were good songs and that the singer and a great voice, and mentally noted to check them out.  After that though work took over I unfortunately kind of forgot about them until I was watching an episode of The OC in 2006 and they played part of A Bad Dream in the episode.  The OC was good in that they always mentioned the artists that were featured in the episodes, so when they said Keane I remembered how I'd wanted to check out their music.  So I asked for and got both albums for Christmas of that year and from that point on I was a fan.

 Out of interest, I've just looked up my original post on the old board about this subject. Here it is.

 

Early last year [By this I mean 2004], around February time, I got an email from my sister saying 'if you get the chance, check out a band called Keane (is there no end to sensitive denim-clad young men making music?) they have a really simple song called 'Somewhere only we know', very sweet.' A couple of weeks later I was listening to Xfm and I suddenly heard these big, stomping piano chords which got my attention immediately - it was so unusual to hear something which wasn't a guitar! Then the piano subsided a bit and this lovely, ethereal tenor began to croon over the top of it, paying immense care and attention to the consonants and the meaning of the words. As for the words ... as soon as I heard 'I came across a fallen tree...' I was suddenly eight years old and foraging about in the woodland park near where I grew up in South Wales. I was already hooked (and hopelessly in love with the singer) by the time we got to the chorus and I realised it was the song my sister had flagged up! She subsequently bought me 'Hopes and Fears' for my birthday ...

 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

morganalefay:

 Out of interest, I've just looked up my original post on the old board about this subject. Here it is.

 

There was a thread like this on the old board? 

Well anyway, it's really interesting and heartwarming, to hear all those stories from fellow boardies! As we share the same love for a certain band, it's also lovely to hear, how we fell in love with them!

So thanks to everybody for sharing! 

the first time i heard keane was driving home one sunday night with the radio 1 chart show on the radio. keane was the next song on and it was somewhere only we know (a new entry). fell in love with it staight away .singing along at their gigs to that song with everyone else...AMAZING!

hi Kaz,

well, I discovered Keane during my tirp to England last year.Me and my two friends went to East Sussex, to a town called Bexhill-on- Sea which is not far away from Keane´s hometown.

We lived in an English host family and my host mother was a big fan of keane and so she listened to H&F everytime she drove us to the station or anywhere else. Since then I am a big fan, I love every song on every album and the music always reminds me to this beautiful, wonderful, cool trip to England. Well, I am from Germany and i have never seen the band, so I hope I will anytime. Until then ,i will joi this chat.

So, this was my story.

Bye,                            Jana-www