In the first of a series of Keane announcements, the band has released their first UK tour dates in three years, beginning in May 2012.

Not many British bands these days have more than one album, which sells a million copies, let alone three. Fewer still manage to replicate – and maintain – that success outside the UK.

The three members of Keane – Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes – began making music together as teenagers in sleepy East Sussex. But it was only after years of energy-sapping dead ends that things started to go right for them. After a chance gig sighting in 2003, Fierce Panda founder Simon Williams offered the band a limited edition single release. That quickly led to a deal with Island Records, which led to Hopes And Fears, Keane’s brilliant 2004 debut album, and well, you know the rest of the story.

Their new and highly anticipated new album, was recorded in the UK at Sea Fog – Ivor Novello Award winner Tim Rice-Oxley’s studio, and are calling it their most personal record yet.

Four years have elapsed since Keane’s last album ‘Perfect Symmetry’; and two since ‘Night Train’, the mini-LP. In the eight years following the release of 2004’s 9 times platinum Brit award winning ‘Hopes & Fears’, every Keane album has marked a clear progression from the previous one: the anxious emotional terrain mapped out by ‘Under The Iron Sea’; the iridescent poptimism of ‘Perfect Symmetry’ featuring the electro charged hit song ‘Spiralling’, voted Q Magazine’s 2008 Song Of The Year. Now a four piece, new member Jesse Quin, who collaborated with Rice-Oxley on Mt. Desolation, plays bass and has been playing live with the band since the release of ‘Perfect Symmetry’.

Check out the video trailer for the UK tour dates:

UK tour dates:

May 2012
Wednesday 23 – Newcastle O2 Academy – 0844 477 2000
Thursday 24 – Glasgow O2 Academy – 0844 4999 990
Friday 25 – Birmingham O2 Academy – 0844 477 2000
Tuesday 29 – Leeds O2 Academy – 0844 477 2000
Wednesday 30 – Manchester O2 Apollo – 0844 477 7677

June 2012
Monday 04 – Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall – 0844 847 1776
Tuesday 05 – Bristol O2 Academy – 0844 477 2000
Wednesday 06 – Leicester De Montfort Hall – 0116 233 3111
Friday 08 – London O2 Academy Brixton – 0844 477 2000

Tickets are priced at £25, £28.50 for London. Keane will also be playing at this year’s South By South West Festival. Details to be announced.

For more information visit www.keanemusic.com