The Kaiser
Chiefs are one of those bands that shot to fame during the blossoming indie
scene in the mid noughties, before inexplicably disappearing into an abyss.
Whether they were predicting a riot or singing “Ruby, ruby, ruby ruby-
aha-aha-ahhhh”, for about two and a half years, the chiefs' ruled the airways.
After the release of their moderately successful album Off With Their Heads and their UK tour in 2008/9, the band decided to take a break. That marked the beginning of the end. The bands stock had been falling steadily since their 2005 breakthrough album Employment and the time off pushed them to the edge of obscurity.
After their hiatus, they returned with the their album The Future Is Medieval. The band took a risk releasing the album on their website. They allowed buyers to choose 10 tracks out of the 20 they'd recorded, for the cost of £7.50. This helped the album gain media attention, especially after popular DJ’s such as Chris Moyles created their own albums.
But the media
attention did not serve them well. Despite playing two sell-out comeback gigs,
the record received bad reviews and was a flop once the physical album was released
in stores. In an effort to bounce back they released compilation album
Souviner. But once again, they failed to achieve decent sales.
In June 2012
Ricky Wilson, the lead singer, stated in an interview that the band were
working on material for their next album. But in February 2013 it was announced
that they'd stopped writing to focus on other things. Today there is still no
release date set – it looks like there will never be another album. To add to
the band’s misery, drummer and main songwriter Nick Hodgson left earlier this
year.
The Future Is
Medieval may have triggered the death of The Kaiser Chiefs. But like many of
their contemporaries: Maximo Park, Milburn, The Futureheads, and Franz
Ferdinand among others, they are victims of an increasingly lost British music
scene.
Words by
Emily Murray
