Kaiser Chiefs – live at Bilbao BBK Festival – July 8, 2011 – RNE – Radio 3 –
‘Scuse the badgering but . . .
Kaiser Chiefs, recorded at Bilbao BBK Festival on July 8, 2011 by Radio Nacional España – Radio 3.
Now – first off, this concert is quite good – but – this concert is also marred by some really over-chatty announcers who gush non-stop, over intros, between song patter and song endings. It is also a little over half-hour of what was surely a much longer set.
Much as I love concerts from the European festivals, just about every broadcasting entity can’t get their announcers to shut up long enough to let the show just take place. I know why they do it, for the most part – so the unscrupulous in the audience won’t be tempted to sell this thing on the bootleg market, for one thing. The other, I imagine, is so other broadcasters won’t hijack bits of it for their own programs without giving proper credit (i.e. licensing fee) to the originating network.
Whatever the reason is, the end result is frustrating in the midst of a very good show, and you find yourself tempted to yell at your speakers just to make them stop.
That said – what you do get to hear is pretty sensational and it’s plainly obvious why Kaiser Chiefs are one of the more popular Indie groups the last few years.
A little background on the band right around the time of this concert:
Following a hiatus, Kaiser Chiefs announced that they expected to release their fourth studio album in mid-2011. The album was recorded over a period of eighteen months at various locations including drummer Nick Hodgson’s self-built east-London studio. The album’s producers included Tony Visconti, Ethan Johns and Owen Morris, in addition to Nick Hodgson himself. On 3 June 2011, Kaiser Chiefs launched their new album from their website. Using a create-your-own album technique, fans were able to choose 10 out of 20 songs to create “their album” for £7.50; the band provides streams of roughly one minute to preview each track before selection. Many celebrities including, Radio One DJ Chris Moyles, The Guardian Newspaper, and frontman Ricky Wilson, created their own version of the album, donating the £1 reimbursement for each copy sold to the Alzheimer’s Society.
On 27 June 2011, Kaiser Chiefs released an official track listing for the album, featuring 12 of the 20 available tracks and including a previously unheard track ‘Kinda Girl You Are’ which did not make the initial launch as it was not ready in time. They played two sell out comeback gigs at Falmouth Princess Pavilion. Then followed by appearances at Germany’s Hurricane and Southside Festivals in June, Switzerland’s Gurten Festival, Pinkpop in The Netherlands, Belgium’s Rock Werchter, Portuguese festival Optimus Alive! in July, V Festival in August, Hard Rock Calling in June, the Isle of Wight Festival in June and at Terres Rouges Festival in Luxembourg in September. They also played at Tennants Vital in Bangor, Northern Ireland and in September they played two sold out home town shows at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds. They also be played in October in Festa das Latas, Coimbra – Portugal.
On 6 March 2012 the album was re-released under the title Start The Revolution Without Me for the US market. The track list differs significantly from the initial release, including the track “On The Run”, which is exclusive to the US album and served as its lead single in early 2012.
Like I said, if you can get past the gush and long-winded chattiness, there’s a good show in there. Worth the frustration, I swear.
