Kaiser Chiefs biography
Kaiser Chiefs are a British indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 1996. The band consists of lead vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines and live drummer Vijay Mistry. Founding member drummer and co-songwriter Nick Hodgson left the band in late 2012.
Primarily inspired by New Wave and punk rock music of the late 1970s and 1980s, the band have released four original studio albums: Employment (2005), Yours Truly, Angry Mob (2007), Off with Their Heads (2008) and The Future Is Medieval (2011), one EP Lap of Honour (2005), one compilation album Souvenir: The Singles 2004-2012 (2012) and numerous singles, including the number one hit song "Ruby".
Their album Employment enjoyed critical and commercial success with over three million copies sold. It has won the band three Brit Awards, including the award for Best British Group, a NME award for Best Album, and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.
Their UK hit singles include 2004 number 22 and 2005 number 9 hit "I Predict A Riot", 2007 UK number 1 hit "Ruby" from their platinum album "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" plus a further two Top 20 singles in 2007 with "The Angry Mob" and "Everything Is Average Nowadays". In 2008, they had a UK number 5 hit with the Post-Punk Revival track "Never Miss a Beat", as of April 2013 their last Top 40 hit.
In July 2005 they were chosen to open Bob Geldoff's Live-8 festival in Philadelphia, their performance was broadcast by satellite to every Live-8 venue around the world, giving the band massive world-wide exposure.
In 2012 they performed The Who's "Pinball Wizard" at The London Olympics.
Formation and early years (1996-2003)
When they were around eleven years old, Nick Hodgson, Nick Baines and Simon Rix met in the same class at St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston, West Yorkshire. After leaving school, Rix and Baines left for university in 1996 whereas Hodgson remained in the Leeds area, meeting both Andrew White and Ricky Wilson. Hodgson, White and Wilson formed the band Runston Parva, its name a deliberate misspelling of a small East Yorkshire hamlet called Ruston Parva. After Runston Parva failed to secure a record deal, the group re-formed as Parva upon the return of Rix and Baines from university. Parva's career went beyond the boundaries of Leeds, and the band was able to obtain both a record and publishing deal. However, after Beggars Banquet closed the Mantra label, Parva were dropped and left desolate and without any direction after the release of an album (22) and three singles ("Heavy", "Good Bad Right Wrong" and "Hessles").According to manager James Sandom in an interview with HitQuarters, as a dropped band they had become damaged goods, "No one would touch them because they had a history. A lot of people used their history against them." The band decided that they would aim for a longer term record deal and started afresh with new songs and a new name: Kaiser Chiefs. The new name was taken from South African football club Kaizer Chiefs.
Biography from
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