Song 37: I Predict a Riot

I Predict a Riot - Kaiser Chiefs

Madness were on Jonathan Ross last week. 37 years after they formed, 34 after their first album, still (apart from a hiatus in the late 80s/early 90s) going strong, having Top 10 albums and playing to tens of thousands of people. A national treasure, or whatever.

Seeing Madness playing to a packed main stage at Benicassim in 2006 was one of the great pleasures of my music-watching life. Reader, I skanked, I nutty-danced, whatever you want to call it, like some middle-aged skinhead in a North London pub. Madness. My first love. They made it all the way.

The year before at Benicassim, I'd seen the Kaiser Chiefs, and frankly they were almost as good. Utterly entertaining, full of good tunes and great stagecraft, they were chart stars and in their element. And I saw them again at the 02 in 2008, nominally supporting the Manic Street Preachers (the line-up also included the Klaxons, the Cribs and Bloc Party) for the NME Big Gig. Again, they absolutely rocked it, and I remember reading the review in the Standard next day saying that the Manics, in terms of popularity, should have been supporting them.

And being very surprised at how wrong this journalist was getting it. Because the Kaiser Chiefs' time had transparently already come and gone, while the Manics had been going for 20 years and could keep going for another 20 with a big fanbase if they wanted.
But the Kaiser Chiefs, bless them, were past it. They could still entertain 20,000 people but no one was going to buy their records anymore.

And I write this after reading their main songwriter has left the band but they're going to carry on without him. But, I guarantee you this, they will not still be going on chat shows and playing to 50,000 people in 30 years like Madness.

But I don't think that's their fault. I'm not the first to make the point, but they are the natural successors to Madness - an astute, witty, likeable pop/rock band with a string of great tunes who no one need take seriously. Hell, they were good on pop shows, the lead singer gave good banter - what could go wrong?

But Madness had about 20 Top 10 hits and spent hundreds of weeks in the singles chart while the Kaiser Chiefs had 5.

I'm sure they won't look at themselves as failures, but they are indicative of the boom and bust state of British music over the last few years. Your first album can go five times platinum, but that doesn't guarantee anything. The fans will desert you just like that.

Is that the fans' fault? A little bit. But there are lots of reasons, aren't there? The way the press works, the increasing choice, the lack of TV exposure bands get these days, the development. of the iTunes stores meaning the scope of the singles chart has narrowed and rock bands have all but given up on it. And, for me, quite simply, Madness were able to have 20odd hits in about 6 years because they never needed to stop - they could release an album a year and three or four singles every album, all of which would get on Top of the Pops. No end to the momentum.

Whereas bands like the Kaiser Chiefs release an album every two years at best, sometimes more. Now, I don't know all the in-depth reasons for this (Bob Dylan and Beatles did a couple of albums every year in the 60s, pretty much, and they're generally thought the greatest albums ever made) but, suffice to say, it is a "business" thing. The cycle of promotion, tour, try to break America, tour, rest etc seems interminable and seems to me to scupper the chances of so many bands to develop the kind of exposure and momentum that would allow them to become a Madness, a national treasure.

The Kaiser Chiefs were a singles band from the old school. They were never going to be Coldplay, thank goodness, they were never going to be Blur (though I'm sure they'd have liked to have been) - they should hav been enabled to keep on putting out single after single. It's likely people would have forgotten about them/tired of them anyway, but they never really stood a chance.

One thing is, Madness has a surprising gift for sentiment and poignancy even from the early stages, with the likes of 'My Girl' and were also very very good musically and more eclectic all the way than they're given credit for.
I'd say the Kaiser Chiefs are a pretty tight band, but I don't think they'd ever have been able to carry off heartwarming balladry.

Anyway, 'I Predict a Riot' ... perhaps there are some people who really hate it, I can imagine it being hated like 'Come on Eileen' by association, perhaps people have seen it soundtracking aggressive, beery lads, but, hell, I still think it's fun - a monster pop song with a great chorus, an adrenaline rush of a song with a bit of wry commentary. Perhaps it's too shouty, too graceless, but I don't see anything wrong with allowing room for indie floorfillers like this in your life.

If I'd been 8 in 2005, like I was 8 when I first heard Madness, I think Kaiser Chiefs might have been my favourite bands, and i think I'd be pretty gutted at how it had petered out for them.