Q&A with Newmarket Nights headline act Kaiser Chiefs
Warren Higgins talks to the band's Simon Rix about racecourse gigs, betting and staying together.
There was a time during the first decade of the 21st century that the Kaiser Chiefs were everywhere.
Taking their name from South African football team, Kaizer Chiefs, the Brit Award-winning, million-selling indie band from Leeds broke through spectacularly in 2005 with the raucous and catchy I Predict A Riot.
They followed this up with further hits, including Everyday I Love You Less and Less, Modern Way and the 2007 number one smash, Ruby.
The five friends – Ricky Wilson (lead vocals), Andrew White (guitar), Simon Rix (bass), Nick Baines (keyboards), and Vijay Mistry (drums) – have enjoyed six top 10 albums in the UK charts, and will be looking to continue the success when a new album, Duck, drops next month.
The band are back headlining Newmarket Nights on Friday, June 28 and you’ve headlined a couple of times before. What keeps bringing you back to play the Jockey Club?
It was surprisingly good. So when we first got an offer, it was quite a few years ago now – 2014, I guess, maybe 2013 – to play in York at the races, we thought, ‘OK, it might be fine, we’ll see how it is’.
And then we turned up and there was like 27,000 people there or something crazy; it was like a festival but only we were playing so we loved it!
We did some more the year after and then the year after that, and we’ll do a couple more this year.
I think everyone has a good day out and it’s just a different thing. I think we’re lucky as a band actually that we can do lots and lots of different things and our fanbase is kind of diverse enough so we can play Glastonbury and we can play a traditional rock festival, or whatever that is.
And then we can also play at a racecourse to loads of people.
Do you approach the racecourse shows any differently to your normal kind of tours?
It’s more like a tour than it is a festival, I think, because obviously when you play at a festival there’s loads of bands and loads of things going on, and this is only us basically, supported by some horseracing!
So we just try and put on a good show for everybody.
At the end of the day, everyone’s had a good time, hopefully they’ve won some money and they’ve got drunk.
So then we just try and put on a good show to sort of end it all off.
Play some hits, get everyone there bouncing and loosening their ties and kicking off their high heels.
With so many huge songs to choose from, and obviously your new album in the pipeline, how do you go about choosing your set list?
It’s got a little bit harder. I generally write the set list and I think it sort of writes itself.
There’s songs that everybody wants to hear and then we’ll play some new songs from the forthcoming record which we played on the road earlier this year.
Then we’ll try and dig out a couple of things that maybe are a bit unusual, which I think keeps us interested and some of the people who come and see us a lot obviously will be there as well, so we play a little bit of that…
As you say, we’ve got quite a lot of songs that everyone knows so it makes it quite easy.
Are there one or two songs that you dare not leave out of the set?
‘Dare not’ is an interesting question... One of the things about our band is that we like to play a gig and we want everyone to have a good time.
I think not playing big songs is a bit selfish for the people who have bought tickets, so I don’t think we’d ever do it.
I don’t think it’s a matter of not daring to, I think we feel like we’ve written some songs, some great songs that everyone likes, and we love the reaction when we play I Predict A Riot, Ruby and other songs – even those that are quite old now.
We love that reaction, so why would we not play them?
And what song do you think does get the best reaction?
I think there’s a few obvious ones... different places, different things.
So when we go to Europe, Ruby was a much bigger song than anything else really.
That’s our number one biggest hit. I think in the UK, I Predict A Riot is our trademark, and then also Oh My God because we finish with that – that’s one with a great reaction.
You guys are now a permanent fixture on the British music scene while so many of your contemporaries have long since called it a day. Why do you think you as a group of friends from Leeds have succeeded while so many have not? Is this something that you think about?
We don’t really think about it too much.
I mean, we have an album called Stay Together and I think one of those things is we have stayed together, and we are all still very keen to be in a band.
We’ve had a few ups and downs but, on the whole, we try and write some great songs that we like, the people like and that connect to the audience – and play great gigs.
I think one of our strengths, even probably more than the albums, is just the fact that I think people come and see us live and they know they’re going to have a good night.
They’re going to know the songs and they’re going to sing and run around – and Ricky’s going to be entertaining.
I think being a good live band and being a good group of friends and still wanting it and still doing it after all these years, that’s the reason that we have managed to stay around.
Have any of you been lucky when it comes to betting on the horses? Has anyone in the band had a little flutter and done quite well?
We’ve all done well and we’ve all done badly I think is the answer.
I think at the first ever gig, me and Peanut [Nick Baines] put money on a horse and won our first bet ever at the Jockey Club Live events, and since then we’ve been trying to have another winner.
You don’t really study the form too much, you just go basically on name. It’s not very scientific.
Kaiser Chiefs will be appearing at Newmarket Racecourses on Friday, June 28.
Tickets: £29-£49.50
thejockeyclub.co.uk