Keane is a band to watch - as was evident at its debut show in Beijing on Saturday night.

Pointing a finger toward the crowd at Starlive, the lead vocalist Tom Chaplin sang, "But everybody's changing. And I don't feel the same", as more than 1,000 fans sang and chanted. It was a moment of mutual affirmation.

"We didn't expect you would sing along with us," Chaplin said, addressing the crowd. During the one-and-a-half-hour performance, he sang nearly 20 songs from their previous massively successful albums. Some of the standout moments of the night were heart-tugging anthems, including This is the Last Time, She has No Time and Bend and Break.

Keyboardist, pianist Tim Rice, drummer Richard Hughes, bassist Jesse Quin, and Chaplin closed the night with the hit song, Somewhere Only We Know.

"We will come back soon," Chaplin said, waving goodbye to fans.

"If U2's Bono is a spiritual hero like God in heaven, then Keane are angels. Their music is so British and the singer's voice is so beautiful," said Liu Bo, 25, a fan.

Compared with the band's first show in Beijing a week ago, a commercial event for Burberry, its performance on April 16 was "much more musical, which allowed us to feel the crowds and do the music", said Rice, who is the band's main songwriter.

"We hadn't done a live show for four months and it was really exciting to see the crowds here in Beijing."

The trio - Rice, Chaplin and Hughes - began making music together as teenagers. They were found by Fierce Panda Records' founder, Simon Williams (who also discovered Coldplay), in 2003 and offered a contract. That led to the debut album Hopes and Fears, in 2004, which catapulted Keane to world fame, selling almost 6 million copies and picking up many awards.

"We didn't expect all this success. For us, it was great enough to put our first album out and release it," Rice said.

The second album, Under the Iron Sea, topped the UK's album charts. The third album, Perfect Symmetry and fourth, Night Train, are loaded with songs the four musicians from Battle, East Sussex, created between gigs, showing yet another sonic swerve, but staying close to the heavily piano-based sound which has earned them the name "the band with no guitars".

"It was an accidental success in some ways. Because we didn't have a guitarist at the beginning and I am good at piano," Rice said. "It was a surprise to find that things work out without guitar."

The band played in 28 countries and regions in 2010, from Russia, Australia and Columbia, to South Korea and Lebanon.

"We are always absorbing the influences from all around," Rice said. "We would head to studios and work on tracks any time there was a gap in our schedule. That's what we love."