Several members of the band are ardent fans of the English football team Leeds United (as the band originates from Leeds). The band are named after the South African Kaizer Chiefs Football Club, the former team of long-serving former Leeds captain Lucas Radebe.
The band's main musical influences include The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, Blur, Eric Burdon, The Jam, and other new wave bands. Andrew White (b. England; guitar), Ricky Wilson (b. Charles Richard Wilson, 17 January 1975, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England; vocals), Nick Baines (keyboards), Nick Hodgson (b. Nicholas Hodgson, 20 October 1977, England; drums) and Simon Rix (b. James Simon Rix, 18 October 1977, England; bass) formed the band in early 2003, having originally played garage rock under the Parva moniker. Their energetic brand of post-millennial guitar rock, which would have been branded "indie" in previous decades, quickly found favour on the local gig circuit. The quintet issued their debut, the XTC-soundalike Oh My God, before they had even signed a proper recording contract, teaming up with the Drowned In Sound website in May 2004 for a limited edition release. A contract with the B-Unique label followed and the band began to attract wider interest at the end of 2004 with the release of their storming I Predict A Riot. The topical lyrics, concerning alcohol-fuelled violence in small English towns, attracted as much attention as the band's anarchic update on late 70s new wave.
The band's explosion onto the global music scene in early 2005 was epitomised when they had their first single I Predict A Riot off their debut album Employment played on the radio around the world and opened Live8 in Philadelphia. Several years prior to 2003 the members of the band had been a garage rock group called Parva (before that they had been known as Runston Parva). However, after their label Mantra Records went bust in late 2002, the band went back to their roots and adopted a more britpop sound, helping the band reach their current popularity within the UK and beyond as a consequence.
The band re-released the single Oh My God on 21 February, which charted at #6. The debut album Employment was released on 7 March 2005 and entered the charts at #3 that week. Despite becoming favourite after being shortlisted, the album failed to win the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. They covered the Marvin Gaye classic, Heard it Through the Grapevine for the War Child album Help! A Day in the Life, giving a whole new slant on the song.
A DVD, entitled Enjoyment, was released in November 2005. The basis of the DVD is a (semi-false) documentary about the band narrated by Bill Nighy. It also includes all the promo videos, live performances and more.
An internet-only (so far) music video for their song Sink that Ship has been released in September 2005. The video appears on Electronic Arts' website as a promotional tool for their game Burnout Revenge but is completely unbranded.
Wilson auctioned off his red tambourine to radio show Xfm in late 2005 to raise money for the homeless charity Shelter. The winning bid was £375.00.
On February 5th, The Kaiser Chiefs Released their next single, Ruby, which was a major success reaching #1 in the singles charts.
The Kaiser Chiefs released their new album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob on February 23, 2007 in The Netherlands and Belgium, February 26, 2007 in the United Kingdom and on March 27, 2007 in North America. A double disc edition is also available, the second disc being a DVD.
It is known that three of the band members went to a school near Highroyd, Leeds. Also, Nick (drummer) announced during a gig in Newcastle Upon Tyne that his dad went to a school called St. Cuthberts in Newcastle. Other famous people from that school include Ant & Dec and Sting.
The band released their third album, Off With Their Heads, on October 20, 2008. It contains the hit single Never Miss a Beat.
Songfacts states that the band's fourth album, The Future Is Medieval was released through the band's website on June 3, 2011. In effect the world's first bespoke album, fans are able to create their own version of the record by choosing their favorite 10 tracks from the selection of 20 on offer. One-minute excerpts allow them to make their selections and each song is represented by an object.
After creating their own album, people can then share their version of the record with other fans, and earn £1 each time it is purchased by someone else.
5th album "Education, Education, Education and War!" was released on 31st March 2014 on Fiction Records, featuring the UK Top 40 single, 'Coming Home', and was their first UK number one album since 2007's 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob'.
Also on the Fiction label, their 6th album, Stay Together, was released on the 7th October 2016, with a notable shift towards dance-pop, hitting #4 on the UK Albums Chart.
In 2019, they moved to Polydor, and released 'Duck' on 26th July, featuring the singles 'Record Collection' and 'People Know How To Love One Another'. It peaked at #3 on the UK Albums Chart.
Performances
Kaiser Chiefs' first big festival show was at the dual-site Reading and Leeds Festival on 27 August 2004 and in the following year, on 16 May 2005, they appeared at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, The Netherlands. After that, things went fast. They were the opening act at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert on July 2nd 2005, one of only two British acts in the lineup (Def Leppard being the other). They performed I Predict a Riot, Everyday I Love You Less and Less and Oh My God. They played Reading and Leeds in 2006 before Franz Ferdinand and were extremely popular.
June 2005 saw them headline at the May Ball at Queens' College, Cambridge, supported by Anada, before an acclaimed appearance at a rain-soaked Glastonbury festival during the same month, whilst August's appearance at the V Festival featured a very enthusiastic set despite Ricky Wilson having his leg in plaster. Also more recently they embarked on their own headline UK Tour, supported by Maximo Park and The Cribs. Their first US tour (with The Cribs) ran through the summer of 2005, and they followed it by playing a few shows on the Foozer tour. This was followed up by opening for Foo Fighters during their Australian tour in December 2005. They also played to Jools Holland and his audience on December 31, 2005.
Their song Ruby, from the album Yours Truly, Angry Mob was featured as a bonus song in Guitar Hero III, and I Predict a Riot from Employment was eventually released as downloadable content for the game.
Kaiser Chiefs are set to return to the European festival scene this summer, having been booked for Switzerland's Gurten Festival.
Always Happens Like That
Kaiser Chiefs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And we turned it on
And we made it up
As we went along
[Chorus]
And it always happens like that
And it always happens like that
Yeah we made a film
Starring you and me
Just hanging around
Turned out to be a smash
[Chorus]
You can do what you like
But you cant do that
You can say what you want
But you cant say that
You can go anywhere
But you cant go there
That looks like a letter that I don't want to open
And we broke into
The municipal pool
And we turned it in
To a madrigal
[Chorus]
You can do what you like
But you cant do that
You can say what you want
But you cant say that
You can go anywhere
But you cant go there
That looks like a letter that I don't want to open
That looks like a letter that I don't want to open
And we made a vow
To the holy cow
And we set it up
Just to knock it down
[Chorus]
And it will always happen like that
And it will always happen like that
And I always do it like that
And I always do it like that
The lyrics of Kaiser Chiefs's song Always Happens Like That depict a lighthearted account of various experiences had by the singer and their friends. The opening verse talks of plugging something in and making it up as they went along, perhaps referring to creating music or some other kind of project. This carefree attitude is further shown in the chorus, where it is stated that things "always happen like that" - suggesting that the singer and their friends have a tendency to act impulsively and without much forethought.
The second verse recounts making a film with a friend and it turning out to be unexpectedly successful. However, the following lines introduce a more cautionary tone, with a list of things that one is not allowed to do or say. This is an interesting contrast to the earlier verses, which portrayed a sense of freedom and lack of restraint. The repeated phrase "you can't do that" creates a feeling of restriction and rules, perhaps illustrating a growing awareness of consequences.
The final verse sees the singer and their companions breaking into a swimming pool and turning it into a "madrigal" - an interesting choice of word which suggests a harmonious and musical environment. The closing lines see them making a vow to a "holy cow" before knocking it down, which could be interpreted as a playful subversion of tradition and authority. Overall, the lyrics depict a sense of youthful rebellion and joy in experimentation, tempered with a growing awareness of boundaries and limitations.
Line by Line Meaning
Yeah we plugged it in
We started something new
And we turned it on
And we started doing it
And we made it up
And we improvised as we went along
As we went along
As we progressed in what we were doing
And it always happens like that
Things usually happen like this
Yeah we made a film
We created a movie
Starring you and me
Featuring us as actors
Just hanging around
Just loitering
Turned out to be a smash
It ended up being a huge success
You can do what you like
You are allowed to do whatever you want
But you can't do that
But there are some things you're prohibited from doing
You can say what you want
You can speak your mind
But you can't say that
But there are some things you can't say
You can go anywhere
You have the freedom to travel anywhere
But you can't go there
But there are some places where you're not allowed to go
That looks like a letter that I don't want to open
That resembles a letter that I don't want to read
And we broke into
We illegally entered
The municipal pool
The community's swimming facility
And we turned it in
We transformed it
To a madrigal
Into a complex vocal song
And we made a vow
We committed ourselves
To the holy cow
To something sacred or revered
And we set it up
We established something
Just to knock it down
Just to destroy it
And it will always happen like that
Things will always happen in that manner
And I always do it like that
I always do things in that way
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ANDREW WHITE, CHARLES RICHARD WILSON, JAMES RIX, NICHOLAS BAINES, NICHOLAS HODGSON, NICHOLAS JAMES DAVID HODGSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind