Kaiser Chiefs, Flippers 21/4/2024

When you’re a post-Britpop indie band from Leeds, you need a good name. That of a South African football club featuring an ex-captain of Leeds United might not be the obvious choice.
The Kaisers were an overnight success in the mid-2000’s after 10-years in the wilderness and a failed first album under another name. They made a stir opening for the annual NME Awards tour and first single ‘On My God’. The follow-up, ‘I Predict a Riot’ is a glorious Friday-night-kebab-shop singalong delivered by singer Ricky Wilson in full cheeky chappy mode and was the appetizer for ‘Employment’, an album of solid indie-pop wonderment. ‘Ruby’ was the big number one single and made them huge.

The first and last time I saw the band was at Glastonbury 2007, touring ‘Yours Truly, Angry Mob’ and playing a blinder on the Pyramid Stage before The Who obliterated everything we’d heard that day. After that I thought the band went off the boil, although they survived the departure of drummer Nick Hodgson, who as well as contributing the occasional lead vocal was a major part of the songwriting team. Over the years, the appearance of each new album surprised me (‘haven’t they split up?’) and then ‘The Easy Eighth Album’ was released and to me was a return to form.

The concert announcement was a bit baffling. When I looked up ‘Flippers’, it appeared to be a roller-skating rink somewhere in Shepherd’s Bush. As I was working in Shepherd’s Bush at the time, I had no idea where a skating rink could be hiding, plus they didn’t advertise having any other concerts on. I bought a ticket anyway.

I’d forgotten that it was the weekend where I was attending a course about music in art at the Royal Academy, having been flying birds of prey on the Friday. Just a regular weekend. Anyway, with a load of handouts and a head full of cubism, minimalism, Indian ragas and other esoterica I found myself in a pub on Shepherd’s Bush Green.

The roller-skating rink is in what looks like an old factory next to the bus station outside Westfields shopping centre. Very modern inside though, although the bar was a bit odd. Everything was in white cans marked ‘Lager’, ‘G&T’, whatever.. It was like a supermarket own-brand from the 1980s. Still, on the positive side I had a comfy seat to wait for the music. And it was a big room – a proper roller-hockey sized rink surrounded by booths, with a high ceiling and it turned out, excellent acoustics.

The support band Daytime TV were channelling Duran Duran with a punk vibe. Odd, and not totally objectionable, and they seemed to have some fans in.

The Kaisers were excellent. Wilson’s voice was stuffed after a tour, but he pointed out it was the last night, so he didn’t need it the next day. So they played the hits and he sang his heart out, and when he needed a break the crowd picked up the songs and carried on. As a band they don’t move around much, but Wilson is manic and is very much the pop music equivalent of Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson – he really knows how to get the crowd up and keep them there. At one point security cleared a path from stage to sound-desk for him to run down. Having walked all over the desk he made his way to the tables at the side and did a whole song from half way up one wall before clambering table to table back to the stage. A solid night’s entertainment and a surprisingly good venue.