’Tis the season to be jolly, but like an MOR Darth Vader, ex-Keane singer Tom Chaplin can only see the dark side. Celebrating the release of his “quite sad Christmas album”, Twelve Tales of Christmas – which laments lost loved ones, loneliness and the lamentable state of the world – there’s no tinsel, no light-bedecked tree and not a festive jumper in sight.
But melancholy has always been kind to Chaplin. With their sonorous, angsty pop, Keane sold more than 11m albums and, following the decision to put the band on hold back in 2013, their frontman dug deep into his personal battle with depression and addiction for his debut solo album, 2016’s The Wave. Despite his broad smile and sparkly, satin jacket, Chaplin seems more uneasy on stage than his 20 years’ experience would suggest. “I have a tendency with big London shows to get very nervous and anxious and not enjoy myself very much,” he confesses, before adding that, since this is the last he’ll perform “for a very long time”, he’s determined to have a good time.
And the 38-year-old does just that, albeit in a restrained, polite way. Alongside respectful covers of Joni Mitchell’s River and the Pretenders’ 2000 Miles, Chaplin replaces the vacant ease of East 17’s Stay Another Day with haunting intensity, while the schmaltz of his own London Lights and I Remember You is eclipsed by the genuine feeling of Follow My Heart and Quicksand.
Having promised “a few little surprises”, Chaplin augments his five-piece band with the London Contemporary Voices, an 18-strong choir who send Chaplin’s evergreen choirboy vocals soaring. Keane bandmate Richard Hughes makes a surprise appearance on drums for their megahit Somewhere Only We Know – turned into a festive favourite thanks to Lily Allen and a John Lewis ad in 2013 – and sends the adoring audience into meltdown.
Despite their success, Keane never suffered from credibility, and Chaplin uses this to his advantage with a spine-tingling cover of Christmas classic Walking in the Air, revealing the songwriter Howard Blake invited the singer to his home. “Maybe he’s looking for a new frontman for the song after Aled Jones’… voice dropped,” he smirks. By the encore, a brilliantly bizarre mashup of White Christmas and Wings’ Live and Let Die, Chaplin’s shaken off his nerves and, while not quite Santa, delivers on his promise of having fun.
- This article was amended on 15 December 2017 to correct a misspelling of drummer Richard Hughes’ first name from Russell.
