Leeds, UK · indie-rock

Kaiser Chiefs

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'I Predict a Riot' still starts one — Leeds lads keeping mid-2000s indie's terrace-chant energy alive.

Kaiser Chiefs trace back to 1996, when Ricky Wilson, Andrew "Whitey" White and Nick Hodgson formed Runston Parva at school in Menston, West Yorkshire, a name that deliberately misspelled a nearby hamlet. Bassist Simon Rix and keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines joined after university, and the renamed band Parva released one album, 22, in 2003 before their label dropped them.

That year the group became Kaiser Chiefs, named after the South African football club Kaizer Chiefs, whose first club was former Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe. The band emerged during the mid-2000s British indie boom with Employment, an album of short, chant-friendly songs including "Oh My God" and "Everyday I Love You Less and Less", built on Baines's keyboard hooks and Wilson's declamatory vocals.

Employment sold over three million copies, was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, and won three Brit Awards including Best British Group. A second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, produced the UK number one "Ruby", which has sold over 461,000 copies, alongside further top-twenty singles "The Angry Mob" and "Everything Is Average Nowadays".

Founding drummer and principal songwriter Nick Hodgson left the group in 2012 and was replaced by Vijay Mistry the following year. The band has kept recording since, releasing Off with Their Heads, The Future Is Medieval, Education, Education, Education & War, Stay Together, Duck and Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album, and has continued to tour, with Wilson also spending several years as a coach on the television series The Voice UK.

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indie-rock