Noel Gallagher announces Tom Meighan as support act for arena tour
Former Kasabian singer Tom Meighan is to support Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds on their arena tour of the United Kingdom later this year.
Earlier in 2023, Meighan released his debut solo album The Reckoning. Additionally, he played alongside Gallagher in Essex for Heritage Live on August 5th with The Zutons also on the bill. The tour begins at Wembley Arena in December this year.
Meighan left Kasabian in 2020 after he was convicted at Leicester Magistrates Court of assaulting his partner Vikki Ager. The frontman was sentenced to 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to the attack.
Following the sentencing, Meighan said in a statement: “I would like to make a statement about recent events and publicly apologise to my partner Vikki, my band-mates, my friends, family and fans. I am very sorry and deeply regret my recent behaviour. In no way am I trying to condone my actions or make excuses. I am completely to blame and accept all responsibility.”
“The incident in April was a wake-up call for me, for who I was, and what I was becoming,” he added. “I was spiralling out of control. My mental health was becoming more and more unstable and I was at breaking point.”
The day before his sentencing, Kasabian announced his exit with Meighan initially keeping coy on the reasoning behind his dismissal until it was revealed in the press. His former bandmate Serge Pizzorno stepped up to replace him as singer with The Music’s Rob Harvey joining the group on guitar.
When Meighan was announced as the headliner of Be Reyt in Sheffield in May, many acts including Rianne Downey and Trampolene pulled out of the event because of his domestic violence conviction.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post earlier this year, Meighan claimed the conviction wasn’t the real reason for his exit: “Serge wanted to be lead singer for years, he just didn’t admit it. Maybe we’d been together too long, I don’t know. I think they used what happened as a way of getting rid of me, but getting where we got to, the chase, was amazing.”
However, in contrast, Pizzorno said last year: “I never wanted to be a singer. I’m the writer, the introvert. But I had to do it. The band needed me to do it. We had no choice – there’s no way we could have left it like that.”
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