Although many fans of the TV show made it clear on social media that he might be hiding under the disguise of a dog volume Chaplin (Look!), however, most did not recognize the famous artist even when he took off his disguise. This was because he looked completely different than in his team’s heyday. The slim, slightly graying musician did not resemble the long-haired, slightly chubby boy who, with an almost angelic voice, sang hit hymns from his debut album at the beginning of the 20th century. “Hopes and Fears”.
This May will mark 20 years since the release of the album, which turned the young band from East Sussex into an overnight British sensation, whose popularity quickly spread across Europe and, in the following years, also reached America. “Hopes and Fears” delighted the audience with its atmospheric delicacy, full sound and incredible power of subsequent single hits. “Somewhere Only We Know” and “Everybody’s Changing” became iconic songs and a sign of quality with which the group was associated for years to come. Over six million copies sold worldwide made it Keane he visited almost every corner of the world with his concerts. The next album “Under the Iron Sea” consolidated the group’s position, and a joint tour with U2 in America, it gave the group fourth place on the Billboard charts.
Success, popularity, money, fatigue and constant pressure are not always good friends of famous people. This was the case with Tom Chaplin. In 2006, information about him appeared more often in the glossy press than on music portals. Finally, it turned out that the musician ended up in the famous addiction clinic, The Priory, due to his strong addiction to alcohol and cocaine. The group was forced to cancel concerts so that Chaplin could regain full health and control his own life.
The first signs that problems might be on the horizon emerged already during the recording sessions of “Under the Iron Sea”. There were tensions and fights on the line Tim Rice-Oxley, who was the leader of the group and author of most of the material, and Tom Chaplin. The latter couldn’t cope with the popularity, but also with the wave of criticism that came his way in harsh reviews after the group’s concerts. Chaplin didn’t look like a rock idol. His slightly greasy hair, slightly chubby face and almost teenage pimples were always a source of ridicule and contrasted with his vocal perfection. One may get the impression, and the musician later admitted this, that he had problems with self-acceptance. Journalists believed that his style of being on stage was artificial and forced. “I had a lot of money and could live anywhere I wanted, and I came back to my family home to get away from it all. I sat in my room for hours, drinking, snorting and crying, watching stupid TV shows. I was tired of reading this nonsense, about what I look like,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. One of the people who lent a helping hand was Rice-Oxley.
Both musicians had known each other since their school years. Their mothers were friends, so both boys went to a private school, which was owned by Chaplin’s parents. There they met Richard Hughes the group’s future drummer. As Tom recalled, maybe it was his quiet, almost petty-bourgeois upbringing that made him not ready to face the brutal world. “Such things simply shouldn’t happen to boys from good homes,” he joked in an interview with The Herald. – adding after a moment: “When Keane had a lot of success early on, I felt even more closely watched and under even more pressure, so it’s easy to see how I had a major breakdown at the beginning and why it continued over the following years.” .
Initially, information about rehab was not taken very seriously by many. Some journalists believed that it was a marketing ploy to make Chaplin more credible in the eyes of the public as the charismatic leader of a hit band. One of the articles in “The Sun” suggested that maybe after the treatment, critics from “New Musical Express” would finally look more kindly at the stage achievements of singer Keane, after all, he would seem “a little cooler” to them as a rock and roll veteran of the cocaine route.
Tom Chaplin seemingly dealt with his problems, and two more albums followed “Perfect Symmetry” and “Strangeland”, although they did not have such single hits as their earlier ones, they still reached the top of the British charts, also gaining recognition overseas. Years later, it turned out that the problems that had come to light a few years earlier had not ended during the famous addiction treatment. Singer Keane has repeatedly undergone addiction treatment, and this condition has persisted for years. In 2012, after releasing an album with their greatest hits, the group suspended its activities, officially due to the desire to continue solo projects.
In August 2016, a new composition “Quicksand” appeared, heralding the arrival of Tom Chaplin’s solo album. At the same time, in The Daily Telegraph, the singer made a moving confession that appeared in an article by Neil McCormick: “I thought I was going to die. I had this feeling before, but this time it was very intense. I had been on “I took a sharp turn and couldn’t breathe. I had a panic attack, I was standing against the wall and I thought I was going to fall.” Later in the article, Chaplin tells the famous journalist and author of the hit book “Killing Bono” the story of his addiction, which pushed him to the very brink a year after the birth of his daughter.
Album “The Wave” is a record of the story of the musician’s fight against addiction, struggle with problems and final victory and survival. Chaplin realized years later that he could not overcome his addiction with conventional therapies, which made him sober for some time, but after some time he returned to familiar paths. His, as he called, dark soul needed its own therapy. That’s why among the thanks on the album cover, apart from those for his wife and daughter, for their love and strength, we can read the words dedicated to psychoanalyst Martin Schmidt: “Thank you for helping me understand myself and deal with my demons.”
“My parents are wonderful people, but they definitely have a very bourgeois approach to life, they try to sweep under the rug the more negative, sad or ugly truths that everyone encounters. They pretend that they don’t exist, that it will pass. Unfortunately, the problems do not “they will leave if you don’t confront it” – this is how Chaplin shared his reflections in an interview with “The Herald”, recalling this dark and difficult period. It was psychological therapy that had a beneficial effect on his life and, as he says, he still uses it regularly, which gives him a sense of stability and strength in confronting the world. Thanks to her, he no longer feels the fear that accompanied him for years and is now able to look at things that are happening around him rationally.
In 2019, the paths of Keane musicians crossed again, and the result of the meeting was the album “Cause and Effect”. This time, recording the album had a therapeutic effect on Tim Rice-Oxley, whose personal life fell apart at the same time as Chaplin’s, and he also struggled with the problem of addiction, which resulted in his arrest for causing an accident while intoxicated. This time it was Tom who extended a helping hand to his longtime friend and musical partner. He believed in himself and took the next steps firmly and carefully. Strengthened by the success of the solo album and the Christmas album released two years later, it had enough strength to become a solid element of the reactivated group. The successful tour promoting the fifth album was interrupted only by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, even then Chaplin did not allow himself to stagnate. He used this time to write new songs that made up his next solo album “Midpoint”. Produced by Matt Hales, known under the stage name Aqualung, the album brought intimate and lyrical compositions that are the musician’s attempt to look at the passage of time.
“Since I turned 40, I’ve had a lot of doubts about what I should do with my life. This may explain my previous fears of returning to the stage. So much for being a ‘pop star’, it’s all not very authentic. It’s kind of an absurd game, and there’s certainly a part of me wondering if it’s something I want to continue doing. There’s a real, artistic side to it, of course, but there’s also something about the world of showbiz that’s just artificial, isn’t it? In the end, it suits me,” he shared his reflections with “Big Issue”.
It seems that Keane, the team is returning to excellent form after the ordeal and is preparing a lot of surprises for this year. An anniversary tour promoting the anniversary of the release of the debut album is one thing that awaits the group’s fans, and perhaps we will soon hear new songs.
Why did the poodle in question sing Elton John’s famous hit on a TV show? “I thought it would be a clear signal to many people. Poodles are my wife’s favorite breed, and Elton is one of the friends who gave me a helping hand. In 2007, he told me that my story reminded him of his own life. He added “then that recovery is not a one-time shot, but a process that will last for years to come. I didn’t understand it then. It took me years to see how right he was in what he said then and now I try to draw conclusions every day” – Tom Chaplin told The Sun newspaper.