Kaiser Chiefs – Live Review – Temple Newsam, Leeds
By David Schuster, June 2025
Some gigs go into musical folklore: people who were there speak of them like badges of honour, and people who weren’t there wish – or claim – they were. I’m not going to list them here; you know them anyway. The Kaiser Chiefs’ home-town 20th anniversary celebration of their iconic album Employment was one of those gigs. The concert at Temple Newsam in Leeds featured dinosaurs, surprise guests, football heroes and silverware. But I’m getting ahead of myself. To begin at the beginning…
Back in the 1760s, Frances Ingham strongly suggested to her husband that they get the celebrity gardener of the time, Lancelot “Capability” Brown, to redesign the gardens of their red-brick Tudor mansion on the outskirts of Leeds. Being a sensible fellow, Charles agreed, and Brown gave them his trademark, archetypally English landscape of rolling vistas, lakes, streams and trees. He also gave them a huge front lawn, a natural amphitheatre, sweeping down to level off at the trees beyond.
“Unapologetic anthems”
At the moment, there are 14,000 ecstatic Kaiser Chiefs fans on that lawn, all yelling the extended “Ooh!” that leads into the chorus of ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’. I’m pretty sure the Inghams would have been appalled – but it’s the perfect setting for the band’s triumphant birthday gig. That’s why it’s important to see the Kaisers live; their songs are unapologetic anthems, with easy hooks and choruses designed to be sung by crowds. The Kaisers’ love of football is well documented, and that terrace chant background has clearly made its way into their music. To prove the point, they move straight into ‘I Predict a Riot’, which produces exactly that reaction. I spot a bloke, previously in front of me in the beer tent queue, crowd-surfing before disappearing into the frenziedly moshing crowd.
As you’d expect for a concert of this scale, the staging is cleverly impressive. Screens at the rear look like an employment office, the multiple windows flashing striking images to accompany each song – for example, the dancing skeletons of the video to ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’. There’s a double staircase leading up to a mezzanine level in front of the “employment office”, which silhouettes the band members as they pass in front of it. In case they should appear dwarfed by all this, there are also huge screens to either side showing the musicians in glorious HD.
“Endearing”
The flexibility of the staging is fully demonstrated even before the group come on. The familiar Jurassic Park movie theme plays, whilst someone who looks suspiciously like the character of John Hammond narrates how the band were brought back from recovered DNA. It’s a humorous spoof of the film, topped off with the musicians walking on to the sounds of ‘Walk the Dinosaur’ by Was (Not Was). It’s a clear, tongue-in-cheek reference to the group’s age – an endearing self-parody.
By their third song – and third hit single – of the night, ‘Modern Way’, vocalist and frontman Ricky Wilson pauses. He points out, for anyone who hasn’t realised it yet, that they are not just playing the entirety of Employment, but playing the tracks in the same order as the album. Now, at first thought, this struck me as a strange move. After all, the astonishing haul of five singles taken from the CD all appear in the first half.
“Sense of surprise”
However, on reflection, it’s a very good idea indeed. Firstly, twenty years ago artists, producers and record companies put a lot of thought and planning into track listings – the way songs complement or contrast with each other, the ebb and flow of pace, the holistic feel of the end product. All of that is becoming a lost art in the streaming age, where the chances of a record being played in its entirety are small. Secondly, there’s the sense of familiarity for real fans. Those who’ve listened to the songs repeatedly have an expectation of what’s coming next. Have you ever had that sense of surprise and slight disappointment when you hear a favourite track played on the radio, and it’s not followed by the next one on the album? My first experience of this working really well was at the Air gig at Halifax Piece Hall in 2024, where they played Moon Safari in full, marking its 25th anniversary. As if to underline their debt of gratitude, Wilson introduces and brings on Stephen Street, co-producer of Employment, to take a bow.
Anyway, lest we forget the music – the group clearly haven’t. Wilson’s voice remains strong and clear, despite two decades of punishment and never remaining in one place on the vast stage for more than a couple of seconds. Nick Baines, dressed in what I’d call “Adrian Edmondson chic” (trilby, glasses and brown suit), has tweaked the keyboard riff on the verses of ‘Less and Less’ into the characteristic bleep-bloop of the 70s Pong video game, which works really well. White rocks out during the Stranglers-esque, punk-inspired ‘Saturday Night’, backed by Vijay Mistry and Simon Rix on drums and bass, who play rhythm like men possessed.
“Killer version”
Unusually, over two decades, the Kaiser Chiefs have only had one change of personnel. Mistry replaced original drummer Nick Hodgson in 2013. It’s therefore a particularly sweet moment when the band bring Nick back as a guest to play on ‘Oh My God’. But what do you do when you’ve already got a drummer? Fortunately, Nick’s a talented multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass, piano and flute. Since leaving, he’s written for the likes of Mark Ronson, Olly Murs, Dua Lipa and even Shirley Bassey. He arrives on stage looking – it has to be said – slightly bemused and brandishing an acoustic guitar. Reunited, they deliver a killer version of their 2004 breakthrough hit.
All too soon, they are playing the glorious riff that underpins ‘Caroline, Yes’. I’ve always thought this would have made a better closing track to the album than the downbeat and introspective ‘Team Mate’. I’ve since discovered that ‘Caroline, Yes’ was the last song on some editions of the record. Maybe the band agree, because it’s a pleasant surprise when they carry on the Employment set to finish with the much more rousing ‘Take My Temperature’, a bonus track from the Japanese extended release. This is a fine slab of millennial punk-pop – well suited to finishing with a bang.
So, how do you follow a seminal album, widely regarded as your best work?
“Epic”
Well, running on stage brandishing the Championship trophy, triumphantly won by home-team Leeds United this season, is certainly one way to do it in style. The second part of the set (or possibly multiple encores, however you want to look at it) has a more relaxed and celebratory feel to it. The silverware is placed reverently on a plinth front and centre stage, whilst the guys play a fun cover of The Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. They then pull off an astonishing coup by bringing on Leeds United forward – and local hero – Patrick Bamford to play acoustic guitar for a second rendition of ‘I Predict a Riot’.
It’s easy to overlook the fact that Kaiser Chiefs have released a whopping 33 singles over their long career, and almost all of the second set is comprised of these. Highlights, of course, include ‘Never Miss a Beat’, another great pop-punk song, and the group’s only UK number one hit ‘Ruby’ – one of the best stadium shout-along choruses of all time. As flames appear to engulf the employment bureau behind, they close the show with ‘The Angry Mob’. It’s an epic and thought-provoking finale. The words “We are the angry mob, we read the papers every day. We like who we like, we hate who we hate. But we’re also easily swayed,” are as relevant now as they were when they were penned, back in 2007.
The Kaiser Chiefs at Temple Newsam was a legendary gig that people will still remember in another 20 years from now. But if you weren’t lucky enough to be there, you can still catch them on their current tour: https://kaiserchiefs.com
images: Phoebe Fox
David Schuster describes himself as an “adventurer, collector, musician and writer. Not necessarily in that order.” Growing up west of the Pennine hills of the UK and living his adult life east of them, he’s inclined to think that the Wars of the Roses were a mistake. David loves discovering new bands and musicians and is happiest listening to live music. He has travelled extensively in the UK and is fascinated by the variety, history and landscapes of the thousands of islands that comprise the British Isles. David is always reassured when online shops confirm that he’s not a robot.
