Ten years after winning “Best Live Act” at the Q Awards, Kasabian have announced a huge homecoming gig at Leicester’s Victoria Park on Saturday July 6 2024. They will be supported by Kaiser Chiefs.
The “Empire” and “Underdog” rockers last played Victoria Park in 2014, days before going on to headline the Glastonbury festival, and in an interview with Sky News said that they are eager to “create memories”, as well as inspire a new wave of musicians in the city.
"Seeing something like this in your hometown, you know - the sound, the noise, the music - those memories, that's what you take with you when you look back on your life,” said frontman and songwriter Serge Pizzorno. “It's like, you've gotta be there, you can't miss it, you can't let this happen and not be at that gig, you know?
"It's creating those moments and doing it where you're from and inspiring the next wave, hopefully, of young kids in Leicester seeing it happen and then them starting a band, that's kind of what it's all about."
As well as playing Victoria Park a decade ago, Kasabian headlined two triumphant shows at Leicester City’s King Power stadium in 2016, following the football club’s unlikely Premier League title win: their 2009 anthem “Fire” had been used as the team’s walk-on song all season.
Serge rocking the stage supporting Liam Gallagher at Knebworth in 2022.
Emotions at Victoria Park will be further heightened as it will be their first major headlining show without original frontman Tom Meighan. The singer had formed the band with Pizzorno and bassist Chris Edwards in 1997, but left the band by mutual consent in July 2020 after it emerged that he had assaulted his then-girlfriend. Since then, Pizzorno has taken over all vocal duties, and in 2021 the band returned to touring. In June 2022 they performed a rapturous set supporting Liam Gallagher at his Knebworth shows.
The Victoria Park announcement follows the release of Kasabian’s seventh studio album The Alchemist’s Euphoria, which in 2022 became the sixth of their LPs to top the UK charts. A new album, Happenings, will be released in summer 2024.
Tickets for the huge show go on general sale from Friday December 8.
“We are truly honoured to be playing Victoria Park in our beloved hometown, with all our people for summer solstice two,” said the band in a statement. “We cannot wait to get out there and play the biggest party of the summer with you all. See you in the mosh pit.”
Tickets be available from 9.30 am GMT on December 7 via a fan pre-sale, and from 9.30 am GMT on December 8, via Live Nation. Fans ordering the album via Kasabian’s website will also receive early access to UK tour tickets.
