Many bands have been saddled with the tag "the next big thing" but Keane look well placed to achieve the rare feat of actually living up to the label.

Even before Keane's recent single Somewhere Only We Know crashed into the top three last month, people were comparing the Battle-born band to Travis and Coldplay.

But many could also see Keane were bringing something different to the world of emotional, uplifting guitar music - mainly because the three of them were doing it without a guitarist.

This unusual approach to rock artistry was not a deliberate attempt to be different.

Keane began life with a guitarist they later lost and ultimately decided not to replace.

Frontman Tom Chaplin said: "It's weird because once we got the piano in we realised we'd always been gravitating towards that sound.

"Tim always wrote the songs on the piano and then our guitarist left and the songs just sounded good with piano and voice.

"I think it was just a natural evolution, a bit of coincidence, a bit of luck, whatever.

"I suppose in a way the music feels like a guitar band but doing it without a guitar is not something we did to be different. It's nice people have picked up on it though.

"I don't mind that people write about it because it intrigues people who haven't heard us to have a listen."

After all the hype, there is a weight of expectation on Keane.

The success of Somewhere Only We Know has put extra pressure on Tom, 25, Tim Rice-Oxley, 27, and drummer Richard Hughes, 28.

New single Everybody's Changing and forthcoming album Hopes And Fears are hotly anticipated within the music industry but the band themselves are trying to stay calm.

Tom said: "It's nice to have people on your side and saying they like what you do.

"You can't really complain about that. But what comes with that is a certain level of expectation which we have to match.

"On one level we're very confident. We've spent a long time doing this and we're very proud of the record we've made.

"But at the same time it is our first album. People have been saying we are the next this or that and we're not - we're just ourselves."

Comparisons to similarly melodic and melancholic Travis - whom Keane supported on tour recently - and Coldplay are met with wary gratitude. Tom said: "It's hard to say how we're different from them without offending those bands.

"They are bands we admire but when we get lumped in with them we just think, well, it's a bit unfair.

"Our influences come from lots of different places. We admire bands like the Smiths and the Beatles and loads of different bands.

"So when you get pigeonholed with other bands I think it's a bit misleading."

It has taken Keane almost seven years to get to this point and they are making the most of it.

Tom said: "It's such a great time at the moment.

"Because the album's not out yet we can enjoy all those things like going on TV and hearing ourselves on the radio, and the life we have of touring and being able to make a record without having the flipside of being in the public eye.

"When we toured with Travis they told us to enjoy this time. It's exciting as a band when you're just starting out and things are going well.

"They said it was basically the best time we'd ever have."

Parts of the band members' lives are suffering, however, due to their new-found fame.

Tom said: "I've got a girlfriend and it's pretty hard to see her.

"She's aware of the problems of going out with someone in a band and it has made us realise the time we do have together is very important. We always make the most of it."

Keane formed in 1997 as boarders at Tonbridge public school, just over the Sussex border in Kent, having all grown up in Battle.

Tom has said: "Battle has definitely informed our music. It's a sleepy town and there isn't much going on there but to us it's home."

As a four-piece, complete with guitarist, Keane started out performing cover versions.

Tom said: "It wasn't anything serious when we were at school. It was a bit of a joke. We just wanted to sound like Oasis."

As time progressed they began to write songs of their own. But their dreams of success suffered a setback when the guitarist left.

Tom said: "Things had gone a bit stale and I don't think he felt he was adding anything.

"He was a great guitarist but things also began to deteriorate on a personal level.

"He was a nice bloke and we all got on very well, really, but it just wasn't to be.

"The other thing is when you get into your early 20s and people all around you are beginning to settle down and you're left stuck in a band you've been in since you were 13 with a stupid dream, you begin to feel real pressure.

"My mum and dad were always on at me asking what I was going to do as a back-up plan.

"But there was always something that was enough to keep me going. I think our guitarist just felt he couldn't do it any more."

They pondered finding a replacement but eventually rejected the idea.

Tom said: "We ummed and aahed about it but we're a solid group of people who've known each other since we were age zero.

"We just wanted to keep it simple with the three of us."

They started gigging in their current incarnation in 2002, taking their name from Cherry Keane, an old lady who used to work at their school.

They booked two acoustic gigs in London, one at the 12 Bar Club and another at the Betsey Trotwood.

Simon Williams, of the Fierce Panda label, saw them and asked them to put out a single, Everybody's Changing, on his label before they signed to Island, which is now rereleasing the song.

Fierce Panda is the indie label that launched acts including Supergrass and Coldplay.

Now Keane are on a sell-out UK tour, including a concert close to home at the Eastbourne Winter Gardens on May 8.

Tom said: "We've just been in Europe doing gigs in small sweaty clubs to about 200 people and it was one of the most enjoyable tours we've done so far.

"Nobody knew any of the songs but they were such a giving crowd.

"We played some gigs that probably rate as my favourite gigs ever.

"It's exciting and I hope it's going to be the same over here."