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.
Hard Times Send Me
Kaiser Chiefs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All I'm spending, is all weekending,
You're on my street, but we don't meet,
I've got neighbours, total strangers
Spend the day with a friend, relax and go for meal. Spend the day with a friend..
STOP!!
Was it worth it? What you thinking?
So let's quit work to-morrow morning,
The public transport, smells like urine
I'm the king of the world and you're the king of my tribe here,
Try to give it a whirl, You don't know you might even like it,
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la STOP!!
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
Why you rubbing your eyes? When you know that its making them redder,
Why you rubbing your eyes, right now it's not making them better
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la STOP!!
Ohhhh!
The lyrics to Kaiser Chiefs' song "Hard Times Send Me" is a depiction of the mundanity of life and the feelings of dissatisfaction that arise from it. The singer expresses his frustration at being caught in the monotonous cycle of working and drinking, and feeling like he's not really living.
The opening lines "Hard times send me round the bend, all I'm spending is all weekending" speaks of the dealing with tough times that have pushed him to the edge. The singer then describes his surroundings and how he's so close to his neighbors, yet they are total strangers. He complains about the public transport, which smells like urine.
As the song progresses, the singer suggests that he should quit his job and take a break. He then mentions being the king of his world and his companion being the king of his tribe, implying the closeness of their relationship. However, he also questions the habits of his companion, such as rubbing their eyes, which only makes them worse.
Overall, the song is a commentary on modern life, where people often feel trapped in a cycle of work, spending, and temporary highs. The singer suggests that it's time to break that cycle and start living life fully.
Line by Line Meaning
Hard times send me round the bendy
Difficult situations push me to the brink
All I'm spending, is all weekending
I work to spend every penny on my weekends
You're on my street, but we don't meet
We live in the same locality but don't ever see each other
I've got neighbours, total strangers
People living next door are complete strangers to me
All week working, two nights drinking
My week involves working hard and drinking excessively on weekends
Was it worth it? What you thinking?
I question if the wasted youth was even worth it
So let's quit work to-morrow morning
Tempted to abscond from work as soon as possible
The public transport, smells like urine
The stench from public transport is unbearable
I'm the king of the world and you're the king of my tribe here
I feel powerful and you're the only one who gets me
Try to give it a whirl, You don't know you might even like it
Take a chance, you may end up enjoying it
Why you rubbing your eyes? When you know that its making them redder
Don't rub your eyes, you'll only make them worse
Why you rubbing your eyes, right now it's not making them better
You're rubbing your eyes at the wrong time, it won't help
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ANDREW ROBERT WHITE, CHARLES RICHARD WILSON, JAMES RIX, NICHOLAS BAINES, NICHOLAS HODGSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Moonchild
Today I checked out the band's Lap Of Honor EP.
Good thing I did.
I'm literally stuck listening to this and Seventeen Cups on repeat! <3
Okay, okay, I had actually heard this song on the Oh My God EP (OMG indeed, what a song!!), but back then I just liked the song.
Regardless :D !
Nina Zankurova
It's a really nice song :DDD <333
Kali Yuga
<3