Kaiser Chiefs at Silverstone Racetrack - Gig Review

IN recent years, Formula One races have developed from the sport to providing entertainment weekends.

This usually means the addition of major concerts. Take last year, for example. Race ticket holders for the Singapore Grand Prix got included free tickets to see The Killers and Rihanna – both major acts who sell out stadiums worldwide on their own. This was before Abu Dhabi later in the year, where Jay-Z, Muse and Depeche Mode – three of the world’s biggest live acts – did their own “free to race ticket holders” gigs after practices and the actual race.

Ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Silverstone has decided it fancies a go at this and this means that for the first time in its now-50 year history of hosting the race, there is a pre-race gig.
Some may view the organisers as doing it a bit cut-price by bringing in Kaiser Chiefs, although their hit potential is certainly there despite a recent rough patch. The West Yorkshire band did look in trouble when original songwriter and drummer Nick Hodgson left the band following a best-of tour in 201, yet the appearance of singer Ricky Wilson on The Voice as a judge, the drafting in of Adele writer Fraser T Smith for a few songs and the arrival of new drummer Vijay Mistry appears to have revitalised the band. Their 5th album was a number one on its release a few months ago and the band played two acclaimed slots at Glastonbury Festival last weekend.

After a bizarre interlude before the start where the band are interviewed by former Formula 1 racing driver Eddie Jordan, the band return to an intro of the classic Edwin Starr hit War, before breaking into 2005 oldie Everyday I Love You Less and Less.

Wilson remains an energetic presence as a frontman, and now thinner than before, he seems to run further and faster than ever before. Barely two songs in and Wilson is high-fiving the front row during Everything Is Average Nowadays, before bouncing around a tinier stage than usual for newie Ruffians on Parade. Later on he engages in more fun, such as borrowing the side-stage cameras for band close-ups, scaling the scaffolding and jumping from the drum kit.

In keeping with the F1 spirit, however, Jordan and his bright orange trousers re-emerge four songs in for a called for but fairly pointless cameo on additional drums during Na Na Na Naaa. This is slightly redeeemed, however, by an impressive one-two of Never Miss a Beat and Little Shocks – the two extremely impressive lead singles from their 3rd and 4th records, and indeed the only songs from those two aired in the whole concert.

This show is one of the first UK shows on the tour for fifth album Education, Education, Education & War, and there is naturally airings for the material on there. But as much as Wilson jokes, the nicely-crafted new tunes like Coming Home and Meanwhile Up in Heaven aren’t quite as big fan jumpers as the classics.

The classics are the nearest a largely sterile crowd gets to a classic mosh-pit. Ruby retains the classic pop song feel that made it a number one in 2007, while I Predict a Riot, now without the ubiquity it enjoyed in the mid-to-late-2000′s, is still brilliantly calibrated.

But the subtle danger to that one is not really prevalent here. The crowd do bounce a few times, but are largely tame by the standards of big gigs like this.

There was a concern over the sound, yet considering this is not a gig venue, the sound is surprisingly good and certainly the tunes are clear enough to be made out from the sound of the first riff.

But it certainly could be longer. After an hour or so, the band tear through Angry Mob and call in a rest for a little bit. They return for two more, culminating in an extended run-through of Oh My God that climaxes with Wilson doing the traditional F1 thing of spraying the crowd with champagne.
Despite the weak crowd, the gig was certainly impressively proportioned and did have more than a passing glimmer of the old days when the band were a legitimate challenger for the crown of Britain’s biggest bands.

It was also certainly a more than acceptable welcome to gigs at Silverstone, and hopefully this can be a tradition that continues.
3.75/5

Supporting Kaiser Chiefs were highly-tipped band The Dexters, who performed a brief 30 minute warm-up session before the main event and fresh from a tour that included a show in Milton Keynes back in March. But their slot wasn’t helped by poor acoustics that left the guitars almost gasping for air, and a lack of quality songs. The band do at least deliver a decent song near the end of their slot, in the form of the subtle yet impressively crafted Start to Run. But for the bulk of their stint, they fail to fire up a crowd of drunk race fans – something which should’ve been an easy win.