Kaiser Chiefs Plan Long Holiday After Festivals

The Kaiser Chiefs' Reading and Leeds sets mark their farewell to summer -- after this, frontman Ricky Wilson and drummer Nick Hodgson tell us they're looking forward to a long break.

How long? That, Wilson says, is a very good question.

"I'm going to be opening letters I haven't opened for years," Wilson tells Spinner. Hodgson adds: "I was back in my place in Leeds for ages and all our post in the building gets put into pigeonholes. All my post was literally jammed in the pigeonhole so I could take it out in one piece."

Wilson says the band, who released their third album 'Off With Their Heads' late last year, have given no time limit for their extended break. "This is proper relaxing." He adds, "Even if you have a four weeks off, you end up thinking 'OK, four weeks to go,'" Hodgson has picked up a Schnauser puppy from a rescue centre (Spinner's seen photographic proof -- it's very cute) and Wilson may get his hands on a greyhound; he already has a portrait of one on his phone.
The band have spent a summer largely out of the UK, which included support slots for U2 and joining the Green Day tour in the US as well.

Wilson says the experience was a huge benefit, allowing the band to play to crowds who would never have heard of them otherwise.

"That's the thing about the States. You can play to a couple of thousand people in New York and they haven't even heard of England -- literally. We were in one place where we said we were from England and a guy said, 'Great city.'"

At Reading a few hours later, the Kaiser Chiefs reminded a British crowd what they had been missing over the last few months. In front of a roaring, up-for-it crowd, Wilson and Co. carried off an enthusiastic set, the singer looking trim and fit and ever-so-Californian with a healthy glow and tousled hair.

"You can sing, you can clap, you can dance, you can have a good time, you can make the loudest noise you ever have -- now double it!" Wilson shouted, amid a set sprinkled with festival-friendly fodder such as 'Ruby' and 'Everyday I Love You Less and Less.'

At one point during 'I Predict a Riot,' he climbs the gantry as the band build up for the song's last explosive chorus, dropping the microphone and urging the crowd to keep the pressure rising. All this enormo-dome touring has gone to their heads, it seems, but you can't fault them for raising their game a little.