Kaiser Chiefs at the Isle of Wight

United Kingdom | | 13 June 2008

Sarah Champion: Welcome to the Isle of Wight, Kaiser Chiefs! How are yer and how did you get here?
Ricky Wilson: We're alright. We came by ferry. I slept through it because I just got back from America.

SC: It must have been a bit of a weekend of highs and lows just recently with your Elland Road stadium gig...
RW: Yes it was equally high to equally low - brilliant and rubbish. We played Elland Road, Leeds United football ground in our hometown, and that was amazing. Then we went to Wembley the next day and watched Leeds United lose against Doncaster Rovers in the play-off final. Heartbreaking.

SC: How was it playing with Paul McCartney just a couple of weeks ago as well?
Nick Hodgson: That was great, he's good isn't he? Apparently he's retiring from live music after one last tour. You heard it here first!
RW: Hopefully he'll come up with his next Sargeant Pepper's album. That's what they came up with when The Beatles stopped touring. 

SC: Is there anyone else on the list of people you'd like to perform with?
NH: David Bowie. I've never seen him though.

SC: So Mark Ronson joined you on-stage at Elland Road. How was that?
RW: That was funny. He came on in a Leeds scarf, chanting.
NH: He's a Chelsea fan, though!
RW: Yes but it's nice that he was willing to put the Leeds scarf on. He probably has no idea about football, growing up in New York, so he's done well to even follow a team. Likewise it would be hard for me to understand baseball.

SC: So, speaking of Mark, how's the new album?
RW:  It's not finished yet. We're having a good time making it really good and we've got all the songs, and we've done most of the recording. It's good.
NH: We whittle the songs down as we go along. The crap ones go out as B-sides!
RW: We don't know when it's going to be out - might be this year, next year, the year after or 2015. But it will be out when we've got it right.

SC: Are you going to do any new stuff tonight?
RW: Yeah we'll do two new songs tonight. We did four at Elland Road. Because we haven't rehearsed much, and you don't get a soundcheck at festivals, it'd be pretty nerve-racking to do more than two here and we might well get them wrong.

SC: Are you going to stay tonight?
RW: I don't think so, but we've been told we can if we want to. This is the first time we've headlined a big festival in England. We don't have to rush off to Norway or anything like we usually do, so we may stay to get ratted and watch the Sex Pistols tomorrow night. 

SC: See you in the beer tent then!
RW and NH: See you there!

Check out Virginradio.co.uk after the festival to hear live performances from the main stage and watch extended backstage interviews.