Keane world video exclusive

The video for Sovereign Light Café, will be available to view exclusively on the homepage of the Rye and Battle Observer website at www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk from 9am on Wednesday May 30.

Sovereign Light Café, to be released on July 16 through Island records, is the second single taken from Keane’s new hit album Strangeland.

Numerous local businesses and residents took part in the video, filmed in various locations around Bexhill earlier this month.

Sovereign Light Café is the theme to Strangeland. It was the first song that band member Tim Rice-Oxley wrote for the album. He said the idea came to him when he was in a taxi in Sao Paulo.

The song namechecks the seafront café in Bexhill where, as teenagers cycling from nearby Battle, Tim and Keane drummer Richard Hughes would ‘spend hours sunbathing underneath cloudy skies.’ 

After a ‘Springsteeny-sounding’ demo was laid down on the tour bus, Tim and Richard, along with vocalist Tom Chaplin and bassist Jesse Quin, listened to the demo and took stock of what they heard.

The band said the song’s sentiments - “perhaps something to do with trying to make sense of the present by taking a look at your past” – shined a light on what would follow. 

“It felt very emotional,” recalls Tim. “From the heart.” 

Keane say the Sovereign Light Cafe video features locals who, “create a portrait of a much loved seaside town and joyful celebration of English life.”

Strangeland remains at number one in the UK album charts for a second week and is Keane’s fifth consecutive number one album, equalling Coldplay and Radiohead, and beaten only by The Beatles. Strangeland has debuted in the top ten in twenty countries around the world. 

Following two recent sold out performances at Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion, Keane are now set to continue their world tour with a string of sell out UK dates in May and June, before heading to North America and Europe.

They will also headline the Hastings Beer and Music Festival in July.