Simon Rix

Primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock music of the late 1970s and 1980s, the band have released seven original studio albums: Employment (2005), Yours Truly, Angry Mob (2007), Off with Their Heads (2008), The Future Is Medieval (2011), Education, Education, Education & War (2014), Stay Together (2016), and Duck (2019), 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.

Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, before reforming as Parva in 2000, and releasing one studio album, 22, in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year.

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 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, the first club of ex-Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe.

Manager James Sandom was tipped off about the band by Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams, who persuaded him to go and see them live.

Sandom said: "I went to see a couple of shows and you were just bombarded by a series of potential hit singles."

Soon after Sandom became their manager, Kaiser Chiefs signed to B-Unique Records.

Atlantic Records had also made an offer for the band.

Their UK hit singles include 2004 and 2005 number 9 hit "I Predict a Riot", 2007 UK number 1 hit "Ruby", which has sold over 461,000 copies, 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 July 2004, while still relatively unknown inside the UK, Kaiser Chiefs performed their first festival outside the UK at a festival in Moscow.

The first single released from the album was "Oh My God" in 2004, which reached number six on the UK singles chart when it was reissued in February 2005.

One of the major factors in the band's breakthrough in 2005 was their involvement in the NME Awards Tour at the beginning of the year.

Like Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand before them, their position as opening act proved an influential one, attracting a lot of positive media attention.

The group's debut album Employment was released in March 2005, being primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock music of the late 1970s and 1980s.

The album was well received by music critics, described as "thrilling from beginning to end" and "quintessentially British, without pretension and most importantly, a whole lot of fun".

It reached number two on the UK albums chart, and was certified five times platinum.

In 2005, Employment was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, an annual music prize awarded for the best British or Irish album from the previous year.

Bookmakers made it favourite to win the award, but they eventually lost out to Antony and the Johnsons.

The top twenty singles "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" and "Modern Way" followed in late 2005.

The band opened and performed several of their singles at the Philadelphia Live Eight concert in 2005.

The song "Saturday Night" was featured in a pre-release video for the Xbox 360 gaming console.

It was posted on the official Xbox 360 page before its launch.

In 2006, Employment won the Ivor Novello award for 'Best Album'

In 2006, the band received NME awards for 'Best Album' for Employment and 'Best Dressed' for Ricky Wilson.

The group recorded the album throughout the September and October 2006 at Hookend Recording Studios in Oxfordshire, England.

In 2007, the song was covered by Mark Ronson and Lily Allen for Ronson's album Version.

"I Predict a Riot" soon followed as the album's second release.

In 2007, the song was ranked number thirty-six on the NME "Greatest Indie Anthems Ever" countdown.

Kaiser Chiefs' second album Yours Truly, Angry Mob was released in February 2007.

Their singles "Ruby", "I Predict a Riot", "Everyday I Love You Less and Less", "Never Miss a Beat" and "Oh My God" had sold a combined total of 1.1 million up to August 2012.

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.

Since their formation, the band has consisted of lead vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew "Whitey" White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick "Peanut" Baines and since 2013 drummer Vijay Mistry, who replaced founding drummer Nick Hodgson following his departure from the band in late 2012.