Following the success of their 2007 catchy radio hit Ruby, Brit indie-rock band Kaiser Chiefs have a good feeling about their music and are hoping to cause more of an influence as 2009 rolls around.

Back in their early days, school friends Nick Hodgson, Simon Rix and Nick ‘Peanut’ Baines met at primary school at around eleven years old; Rix and Baines left for University in 1996, whilst Hodgson met Andrew Whitey White and Ricky Wilson. The trio formed the band Runston Parva which didn’t go very far and after meeting up again with Rix and Baines, began to play together and started afresh with new songs and a new name: Kaiser Chiefs was derived from the South African football club, where former Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe had once played.

They began recording in drummer Nick Hodgson’s bedroom in 2003, and played their first gig under their new name at Joseph’s Well, Leeds in September 2003. Their sing along indie-pop style was highly influenced by the Beach Boys, The Kinks, Beta Band, Super Furry Animals, Blur, Supergrass, 10CC, Small Faces and Madness. Their first single Oh My God was released and entered the UK charts at #66.

“One guy at a festival was shouting, ‘You’re shit!’ and Ricky was mocking him by saying, ‘What?’ ‘You’re shit!’, ‘What?’, ‘You’re shit!’, ‘What?’, ‘You’re shit!’, ‘What?’ And then this guy says, ‘Actually, you’re alright!’, so they don’t even mean it!” … Nick Hodgson – drummer

Kaiser Chiefs debut album, Employment was release in 2005 by Universal Records in the US, after a battle with two other record labels; they were received well and the single I Predict A Riot gained plenty of radio play and television appearances. In the UK they remained in the Top 10 for several months to become one of the best-selling artists of 2005.

They opened the 2006 Brit Awards and won three of five categories they were nominated in, beating Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillas and Oasis to win ‘Best British Group’, ‘Best British Rock Act’ and ‘Best British Live Act’.

In February 2007 Kaiser Chiefs released their second album Yours Truly, Angry Mob, taking inspiration from Led Zeppelin and US rock music. It wasn’t as popular as Employment with critics saying it was ‘an album full of jukebox hits’ and ‘predictable’, nonetheless it reached #1 on the UK albums chart. The albums lead single Ruby became Kaiser Chiefs first UK #1 single and seemed to influence the nation.

“At the end of last year someone showed me a newspaper clipping that said the second most popular name of kids in England in 2007 was Ruby.” … Nick Hodgson

Back with their third album in 2008, Off With Their Heads, the boys teamed up with producer Mark Ronson – it delivers a slinky overhaul of Kaiser Chiefs’ 2005 Britpop throwback Oh My God and features Lily Allen. The title of Off With Their Heads hints at a backlash inflicted upon bands as their success spreads; as with Yours Truly, Angry Mob it presented a similar darkness beneath the catchy three-minute pop gems the Yorkshire group excel at, with an ugly violence also present on breakthrough hit I Predict A Riot.

“We’re very keen on breaking the cycle of what normal bands do, which is an album every two years and tour for a year-and-a-half and take six months to write. Not only does it get predictable, it gets boring. A lot of our contemporaries do the same thing.” … Nick Hodgson

When Kaiser Chiefs first formed their original aim was merely to get an early slot at the Leeds Festival … Who could have predicted that they would have achieved so much over the last few years?