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CASH FOR QUESTIONS
THIS MONTH: KASABIAN
Words: Paul Stokes – Photographs: Alex Lake
Tom and Serge spill the beans on bunking up with Oasis, favourite crisp flavours, inadvertently running over family members and – literally – putting the boot into boy bands…
Eating fish’n’chips, dodging seagulls and breaking your teeth on sticks of rock… for Kasabian a typical British seaside holiday is now permanently off the agenda. Led by singer Tom Meighan – an engaging whirlwind of restless energy – and the charming yet quietly determined guitarist/songwriter Serge Pizzorno, the Leicester band have steadily become one of the world’s most in-demand summer festival acts. Even when they thought they had last year off, their football team, Leicester City, won the Premier League so Kasabian played a hastily organised celebratory bash in the club’s stadium. With sixth album For Crying Out Loud having come out in May, months of outdoor stages now beckon, including a headline slot at the Reading & Leeds Festival in August. To compensate, Q has made Tom and Serge a rudimentary beachfront, complete with deckchairs and ice lollies. Not that the pair feel they’re missing out – this is the only life they’ve ever wanted. “What would I be doing if we weren’t in a band? It’s just not a question I can answer,” muses Meighan of the trajectory that’s seen these teenage friends – plus bassist Chris Edwards, and drummer Ian Matthews, who joined in 2005 – go from being opening acts to bill-toppers. “If I had to guess, I’d say Serge would be a sculptor,” he grins. “But I don’t know what I’d be doing…” “You’d be an astronaut,” Pizzorno deadpans. The world of sculpture and space flight’s loss is the Q readers’ gain today as one of modem rock’n’roll’s best-loved double acts momentarily settle down to answer your questions…
You’ve slagged off other bands in interviews over the years, did you ever bump into any of them afterwards and have to apologise?
Jenette Young, Cirencester
Tom Meighan: My Chemical Romance, oh man! It was about five, six years ago…
Serge Pizzorno: What did you call them? “Ventriloquist music”?
TM: Yeah, and just after that came out I got on the plane and who was sitting next to us for about eight hours? My Chemical Romance! I’m face to face with the singer [Gerard Way], We’re looking at each other, so I said: “Look, man, let’s just have peace here!” And he just laughed. He bought me a bottle of champagne and we got pissed. What a sweet man. He’s fucking cool!
Have you ever had a haircut you instantly regretted?
Tom Campbell, Perth
TM: The Reverend Meighan was a terrible haircut. Tell them what happened…
SP: He came to band practice in the late ’90s looking like a proper Church Of England priest, so we dubbed him Reverend Meighan. I got my fringe too short once. You know Yolandi [Visser]from Die Antwoord? She’s got the best fringe ever, sol thought, “I’m going to do that”, but ended up looking like the geezer from Slade, Dave Hill.
If Kasabian had their own product line, what would it be?
Heather Williams, via Q Mail
TM: Peanuts? How about a nice cider?
SP: We should have absinthe because we’ve named a song after that [2011’s La Fee Verte]
TM: What would we call it? Sergio’s Oil!
Have you ever kissed each other?
Claire Moore, via Q Mail
TM: Yes!
SP: Never on the lips, though.
TM: I think we have, millions of times.
SP: Have we?
TM: Onstage, offstage…
What’s your favourite word?
Sean Gunn, via Q Mail
TM: Knob.
SP: Soothsayer.
Tom, you own the bike from E.T. Ever taken it out for a spin?
Ian Devlin, Bolton
TM: Never! I’ve thought about it, but I never will. I’ve ridden around my flat on it. Is it the actual bike from the film?
SP: Just say it is.
TM: Yeah, it is. I got it from Spielberg, he sent it to me personally!
How come Ian and Chris aren’t in your interviews/photo shoots, etc? Are they jealous of the attention you two get?
Helen Morrell, Fakenham
SP: They are in the photos, but people just don’t use them [laughs]! Tell whoever asked that, we’ll sub with them and those two can do the next lot of interviews!
Who would play you in Kasabian: The Movie?
Jeremy Anderson, Crewe
SP: OK, [Ultimate Fighting champion] Conor McGregor will play Tom, and Vincent Gallo will play me. It will be the best film ever made. We’ve got the stories!
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“WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO GO ON BAKE OFF. I CAN’T BAKE, THOUGH. I TRIED TO DO RICE KRISPIES CAKES FOR MY DAUGHTER BUT I F**KED THAT UP.”
TOM MEIGHAN
Tom, a few years ago you accidentally ran over your own dad. On a scale of one to 10, how much of a bollocking did he give you afterwards?
Gina Naismith, via Q Mail
TM: Do you know what, he was quite calm about it. He called me a dickhead and that was it. So four or five.
SP: Obviously at the time it was horrendous, but it’s not until you get asked a question about it that you realise what a funny story it is. It’s going to be a good film when they do our story, I tell you. I remember the day. Tom rang me – oh mate, it was the worst. There was a 20-minute gap between the first call and the second call.
TM: You thought I’d killed him.
SP: The first call haunts me, just thinking about it. Tom was on another planet – he wasn’t making any sense. It was fucking horrendous.
TM: Afterwards I went, “Dad, I’m sorry.” He just said: “Son, you’re a fucking dickhead!”
You’ve played a lot of celebrity football games, has it ever got tasty?
Jodie Fleet, Telford
SP: Massively! There was one at Reading’s ground in 2008. It’s weird, they had all the fixtures on the wall and you could see that McFly – who had [ex-Manchester United player] Lee Sharpe in their team – were going to play us in the semi-final. But because all the stadium was full of little girls screaming for them, all of a sudden the fixtures changed because the organisers wanted them in the final. So it ended up with us playing them in the final instead and it was a battle. Full on! We won 4-0 and we fucking went through them.
Who’s your favourite TV detective?
Libby Parker, Kesgrave
TM: Inspector Gadget!
SP: Fucking Poirot, innit? [David] Suchet! Back in the day it was good comedown TV.
Your mate Noel Fielding is the new host of The Great British Bake Off. What does he know about cakes?
Daryll Clark, Peterborough
SP: He makes exceedingly good cakes!
TM: Don’t lie, he hasn’t made you a cake has he? No, he hasn’t!
SP: He bought me cake. He’s had an art exhibition in a cake shop too.
TM: We’re going to have to go on Bake Off, aren’t we? It’s fucking big. I can’t bake, though. I tried to do Rice Krispies chocolate cakes for my daughter but I fucked that up!
SP: I’ve never baked anything but I’m willing to try. I think Noel will be great for Bake Off. He’s a very intelligent man.
Back in your stoner days living on a farm together, what were your munchies of choice?
Peter Thompson, Thames Ditton
TM: Super Noodles – Serge was chicken, I was beef – cheese and ham toasties, and fish pie. What a combination that was. Also, big fucking Galaxy bars.
SP: Lots of those Sensations [crisps]. When they first came out, we were like, “What is this?” and there was a lot of Monster Munch
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going on. We just used to walk around the kitchen in circles, cooking shit. We had a practice room on a farm but we could only afford to rent half the house, so we all slept in the same room on mattresses. We’d go to bed smoking with Can on. Then wake up, light the spliff and watch Magnum P.I. Every fucking day!
What’s the most ridiculous question you’ve ever been asked in an interview and what’s the most random answer you’ve ever given?
Mark Orton, via Twitter
SP: There was a Japanese one once which went: “What would you do if you woke up one morning and you were a 15-year-old girl?” It was bizarre and weirdly specific… “I cannot answer that mate, sorry.”
You two have been best mates for a long time, what’s the biggest bust-up you’ve ever had?
Harry Bowers, Chorley
SP: The most fighting was in the early days, wasn’t it? Do you remember when we got thrown out of that club in London and you were sat in the front of the cab?
TM: I was angry, yeah. I punched Serge.
SP: We were buzzing off getting thrown out, but Tom was really angry about it. So we ended up fighting through the back of a car seat.
TM: [Shows Q a small white mark by his knuckle] That scar there was where I hit Serge. I hit him in the tooth.
SP: We were staying round Dibs’ [bassist Chris Edwards] mum’s house, we weren’t talking, and then I got a knock on the door, he came in and said sorry and we were alright.
TM: So I’ve got a Serge scar. I chipped my fucking hand, but his tooth was alright. That’s as bad as it got.
What’s your favourite curry? And how do you like your naan – plain or garlic?
Louis Mellin, Q Mail
SP: It’s a chilli naan. It’s hard to choose between garlic chilli chicken or a chicken balti, and a lamb dosa on the side. The place I go to in Leicester has closed down though and it’s broken my heart. The guy didn’t tell anyone, he just wrapped it up. I reckon I was doing four grand a year in there! I don’t really go anywhere else now – it was that good that everywhere else tastes shit.
TM: Keema naan and a chicken tikka masala, for me.
What other famous duo do you think you two are most like?
Brian Neil, via Q Mail
TM: Great question. [80s comedians] Cannon & Ball! But who would be who?
What’s the best piece of advice Noel Gallagher’s given you?
John Davis, via Q Mail
SP: You know what, he’s never given any and that’s the best advice. “You’ve got to get on with it, mate. It’s your gig and if you’re still around, you’ve done the right thing. See you later.” That’s how he rolls. We got on so well instantly, so it’s never been weird to be friends with them despite being fans originally. Oasis took us on an American tour on our first album, so it was just a roller coaster.
TM: It was funny sleeping on Liam’s bus, wasn’t it?
SP: That was unbelievable. It was one of the funniest nights ever. He was trying to make Tom eat yellowtail sushi and because he had this stripy top on, Liam kept going: “You look like a muscle man from the circus!” It was like a weird camping vibe. We were all in bunks shouting at each other. We were just along for the ride, we didn’t think any of it would last, so every day was just another adventure. Amazing.
What’s your favourite crisp flavour?
Patrick Marsland, Holmfirth
TM: Without a doubt, cheese and onion. Don’t you dare say salt and vinegar…
SP: …Salt and vinegar!
TM: I knew it! If he’d said ready salted, I’d have gone mad. Actually, that’s the celebrity duo we’re most like. Forget Cannon & Ball, we’re Cheese And Onion & Salt And Vinegar. That’s perfect!