Kaiser Chiefs at Alexandra Palace
A late July Saturday, humidity so thick it’s practically a solid, Alexandra Palace looming over London, Kaiser Chiefs. Last Saturday may have been the absolute peak of British summertime. Celebrating 20 years since their debut album Employment, Kaiser Chiefs took to Ally Pally to play the record in its entirety along with some of their other smash hits.
Kicking off the evening, We Are Scientists gave a lively set, helping warm up the already sticky and sweaty crowd. Following up was the iconic The Coral. When you mix Koppaberg and The Coral’s track In the Morning, the strangest thing happens. Suddenly it’s 2008 and you’re Georgia from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Suddenly, life is simple and good again.
To make things all the more British, as soon as this writer stepped into the VIP bar, Leigh Francis (better known as Keith Lemon) was spotted. One might have assumed he was attending as a fan. Then the huge LED on-stage screen lit up to intro Kaiser Chiefs with Francis/Lemon in a fake beard. In the VT, he laments over how Kaiser Chiefs once ruled the charts and toured the world, before introducing the boys out. Post-show, he told The Upcoming, “Ricky’s my good mate, so I was happy to do it for him! It’s so strange to see because to me, he’s just my friend, but when he gets on stag,e he becomes this huge rockstar.” His wife, Jill Carter, laughed as she explained that they made the fake beard he’s wearing out of their dog’s bed stuffing and filmed it all on an iPhone.
Though the introduction was grand, with humility and grace, Ricky, Peanut, Simon, Whitey and Vijay took to the stage. Walking out in a single file line and bowing before thousands. Ricky took the mic and proclaimed, “We are Kaiser Chiefs and we will not let you down,” before launching into the first track of Employment, the classic Everyday I Love You Less and Less, followed up by fan favourite “I Predict a Riot”.
The crowd, though mixed and varied, was teeming with men who were once boys, who learned these songs on guitar in their mum’s houses. Men who haven’t smoked a cigarette in years, but tonight they’ll let themselves have the one for old time’s sake. Less of a “throwback”, more of reaching out for the past. In the same vein, frontman Ricky is also yearning for a bygone era. His eyes light up with flickers of memory as he controls the crowd. They clap when he wants them to. He calls and they answer. “We’ve been Kaiser Chiefs for 20 years. Can you believe? Some people say we should’ve stopped earlier”. It is clear, though, for these boys, they could go another 20, even if no one watches. Speaking of watching, the boys joke that there will be “no kiss cam tonight” after the recent Coldplay kiss cam cheating scandal.
After Oh My God, a song made even more popular by Lily Allen’s rendition, the LED backdrop drops and the band take a second off stage. This is mainly to clean up the confetti that they excitedly popped too early into the set. On the screen, we see a PlayStation parody of a Jurassic Park-esque game under the title “kaiser-station”. One can appreciate seeing artists these days use considerate stage visuals that seem to have been made by real people rather than AI cop outs. From fake news headlines about raging pigeons to China doll versions of the boys that smash on screen, there was real effort put in.
Ruby gets the crowd screaming so loud that after the song, they continue to sing it a cappella using the crowd as backing vocals. As the set comes to a close, you could say they were getting ready to go home with the track Coming Home. Returning to his opening statement, Ricky asks if they have let the crowd down, to which there is a resounding “No!”. He takes the mic one last time to say, “We are Kaiser Chiefs. Sometimes people call us the Kaiser Chiefs. We are the angry mob,” capping off with The Angry Mob before bowing out one last time. In the misty rain, the mob of a crowd slowly march uphill and makes their way home. Metaphorically and literally.
Sara Belkadi
Photos: Mike Garnell
For further information and future events, visit Kaiser Chiefs’ website here.
Watch the video for I Predict a Riot here:
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