Preview - Kasabian to rock Wolverhampton Civic for third time

After selling out arenas across the country and making headline slots at festivals around the world, it comes as something of a surprise – albeit a pleasant one – to see the Midland five-piece Kasabian play Wolverhampton's Civic Hall.

The show is one of four intimate gigs the Leicester-based rockers are playing as a warm-up to festival season – and fans can expect to hear the first live performances of new material from their highly-anticipated upcoming fourth studio album, due for release in October.

Possible new additions to the setlist include confirmed track titles Switchblade Smile, Neon Noon, Goodbye Kiss and I Hear Voices, as well as Green Fairy which featured on the London Boulevard soundtrack.

And hopefully, the gig will give eager fans some indication of the "new direction" the band are taking with their music.

Past interviews with outspoken guitarist Serge Pizzorno have so far described the album as possessing elements of punk, Radiohead's The Bends, Jackson 5, "epic" and "a mixture of everything you've ever heard".

"Whatever, it will sound better live," he says.

"I just want people to come away from it going 'Yep, great album. It's different, I love it. Let's go and see 'em live."

This solid verging-on-arrogant level of self-belief has propelled Serge and co to come up with the noble aim of making each and every album better than the last one.

Whether they have achieved that is another matter of course – I personally can't help but feel that the vibrancy of Processed Beats, LSF and Reason is Treason has been lost over the subsequent offerings – but at least they're trying (not referring to anyone in particular here. . . *cough* Arctic Monkeys). And with that aim comes a lot of pressure to live up to the hype, both from the music press and from fickle fans.

"I try to stay well clear of other people's expectations because you'll just do your head in trying to second guess what other people want," says Serge.

"With the first album, no one's waiting for it, so you've got the luxury of working on it if you don't think it's quite right. I think that's why you get bands who have great debut records but then as they years pass, their albums tend to get worse.

"The people who stick around are the people who think, 'I've learned something from doing this album, so next time I can do something else'."

The show, on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, is unsurprisingly sold out.

By Charlotte Cross