Kasabian

Kasabian are an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997, led by guitarist and songwriter Sergio Pizzorno alongside vocalist Tom Meighan, who departed the band in 2020. Taking their name from Linda Kasabian — a peripheral figure in the Manson Family — the band built their identity on big-rock ambition, combining Oasis-sized guitar anthems with electronic production and an unabashedly laddish swagger.

Their 2004 self-titled debut established the template: psychedelic rock laced with loops and samples, built for festivals. West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2009) was their critical high point — ambitious, eclectic, and sonically bold enough to win the Mercury Prize. Velociraptor! (2011) and 48:13 (2014) delivered the rock spectacle their fanbase demanded.

Following Meighan's departure, Pizzorno stepped up as frontman on The Alchemist's Euphoria (2022), a record that largely maintained the band's Festival-ready energy. Kasabian's natural home has always been the main stage — they headlined Glastonbury in 2014 — and their music is designed to sound enormous in the open air, a quality they share with contemporaries Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight.

They represent a particular strand of British rock in the 2000s: unafraid of bombast, rooted in the Madchester and Britpop tradition, and committed to the idea of rock as communal, euphoric experience.