Keane, Southampton Guildhall.

THERE are now three Keaneos in UK popular culture.

But unlike the more documented Messrs Robbie and Roy from the footballing world of Spurs and Manchester United respectively, the third and youngest Keaneo are a musical three-piece from Battle in East Sussex.

If the Keano chants of a sold-out Southampton Guildhall on Saturday night are a fair reflection of the meteoric rise the band has enjoyed over the past year and a half, then they are here to stay.

On the back of their debut number one album Hopes and Fears, Keane came to excite a fan base that has been eating up their melodic, heartfelt output as though starved of songs with a meaning.

Theirs is a sound built on rocky emotional foundations with the bricks and mortar of life's experiences.

Unlike contemporary bands there is not a guitar to be spotted when Keane take to the stage. With the sublime ear-shattering stage voice of Tom Chaplin on vocals, the trance-like Richard Hughes on drums and the violently shifting Tim Rice-Oxley on piano and keyboards, all guitar sounds have to be pre-recorded.

Amid a string of recent and probable future top five smashes came explanatory interludes from Tom on the meaning their music carries.

It would seem the supremely talented Keane have a lot of love to give. Southampton lapped it up as though deprived of hugs.

The stage, featuring cameras relaying more intimate view points on to a big screen was clever if not convincing and the ultrasound image of a baby in the womb during On a Day Like Today seemed to be letting us in on a private tit-bit of information no one quite understood. However, their music, including a rousing final rendition of their top three hit Somewhere Only We Know was faultless.

In music success brings a bigger fan base and demand for larger arenas. Keane's music, however, is perhaps too intimate for that.