Are Kasabian our last real rockers? Forget TV talent show crooners - the guitar heroes are fighting back

Are Kasabian our last real rockers? Forget TV talent show crooners - the guitar heroes are fighting back Guitar music might be fighting a rearguard action against the double whammy of electronic dance hits and DIY solo stars. But, for the hordes descending on the Reading and Leeds Festivals this weekend, rock is still alive and kicking. With Glastonbury taking a year off, and last weekend’s V Festival dishing up a more eclectic mix of sounds, Reading is the last bastion for rock ’n’ roll fans — as well as party central for thousands of students letting their hair down (or drowning their sorrows) after their GCSE results. Still cutting it (from left): Kasabian's Chris Edwards, Serge Pizzorno, Tom Melghan and Ian Matthews Launched in 1961, as the National Jazz Festival, and expanded in 2001 to include a second site at Leeds, it is the oldest open-air rock jamboree still going. And for headliners Kasabian, playing there is ‘an honour’. The band have crept, almost unnoticed, up to music’s top table since forming at school in Leicester 15 years ago. They sell out the UK’s biggest arenas, and won the best group award at The Brits in 2010. Topping this weekend’s bill, however, is the icing on the cake. ‘This is something we’ve worked for,’ says guitarist and songwriter Serge Pizzorno. ‘The first time we played Reading was in 2004, when we were in a small tent. Now we’ve got the know-how to hold a crowd of 90,000. Rockin' it: Kasabian's Tom Meighan performing at Brixton Academy earlier this month’ But, while Kasabian will be joined by seasoned heavyweights such as The Cure and Foo Fighters in the next three days, they could well be the last of a dying breed. Guitar bands are no longer the cornerstone of British pop music — a fact not lost on Kasabian. When they topped the charts in 2006 with their second album, Empire, it seemed as if they were just the latest link in a chain of great British bands stretching all the way back to The Beatles. But the chain, it seems, is coming to an end. ‘New bands don’t seem prepared to put in the hard yards,’ Serge says sadly. ‘Where are the boys and girls who form bands at school and buzz off each other in dingy rehearsal rooms?’ Singer Tom Meighan agrees. ‘These days, record labels find out about new music on the internet. In the old days, you had to play gigs. We were 16 when we formed. We were a bunch of scrappy kids and we were happy to go out and play to 20 people.’ Sitting in their publicist’s office, the guitarist and his singer are contrasting characters. Both 31, they were born a month apart and raised two miles from one another. But while Serge is thoughtful and reserved, Tom, who sports Bradley Wiggins sideburns, is a real live wire. The guitarist said he knew at once that Tom (whom he touchingly describes as ‘Bowie, Jagger and Freddie Mercury rolled into one’) was the right man to front the band. ‘We were on a park bench, drinking beer, and he started singing Under The Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers,’ Serge recalls. ‘My ears popped. I knew he was charismatic, but I didn’t know he could sing.’ Back then, at Countesthorpe Community College on the outskirts of Leicester, their idols were Oasis. To Serge, the Gallagher brothers had ‘a punk attitude that showed you could play rock ’n’ roll, wherever you came from’. Musically, Kasabian were never restricted by the Britpop blueprint. After the million-selling Empire, the band — whose line-up includes bassist Chris Edwards, drummer Ian Matthews and touring guitarist Jay Mehler — began to experiment. They added psychedelic undertones and cinematic moods on their third album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, before performing another about-turn on last year’s Veloci-raptor!, combining the turbo-charged riffs of Led Zeppelin with passages of striking melodic beauty. Early days: Rock band Kasabian first played Reading in 2004 in a small tent ‘There’s a risk of losing people when you change direction,’ Serge says ‘But I’ve always reacted against our previous record. A shark has to keep moving.’ The past two years have seen other changes, too, with Serge and Tom both becoming dads. Serge is the proud father of a two-year-old son, Ennio, while Tom welcomed a baby daughter, Mimi, in May. ‘I feel blessed to have a family, and my son is an amazing little man,’ says Serge. ‘He’s really into music, always playing his little plastic guitar. ‘A family changes things. As you get older, you realise how odd the life of a rock band is. Being on the road means detaching yourself from normal life, and I don’t want to do that so much now. We love gigging, but I can’t leave home for six months to chase a dream.’ Kasabian fans need not panic, though. Reading and Leeds will be the group’s last UK gigs for a while, but Pizzorno is already contemplating their next record. ‘I want to put rock music to the sword and make it more futuristic, like David Bowie did in the Seventies,’ he says. ‘There’s still so much you can do with guitars. Being in a band isn’t about having the right leather jacket. It’s about giving people a lift and putting on a great show.’