Following a performance at Glastonbury the previous week, the middle of the road favourites performed at Carlisle Racecourse to end a very enjoyable day. Seen by a near record crowd for the racecourse, the Leeds band played a healthy balance of old sing along tunes and songs from their new album “Education, Education, Education and War.”
Beginning with a song from the latter “The Factory Gates” was maybe not the best idea and the real start to the set was “Everyday I Love You Less And Less” which got the 9,000-strong crowd going. Perhaps the highlight of the entire set was when lead singer Ricky Wilson ordered a halt to a song, leaped into the crowd and grabbed a girls iPad. “We were playing a song then, and you were watching the previous song on your iPad! Stop living your life through a f*****g screen!” She did get it back at the end of the night though, no doubt with a few ‘selfies’ of the band on it for good measure.
This was just one part of a great amount of audience interaction that the band had, really adding to the occasion. There also was a sense that the band know what a crowd want from them, they appeared down to Earth and accepting that the majority of the crowd only knew or only wanted to hear songs from the older and arguably better older records.
Nevertheless, the best song vocally was new single “Meanwhile Up In Heaven” which has a strong presence of keyboard from fan favourite ‘Peanut’. This was part of a two-song encore, ending with “Oh My God” which people seemed to have stuck in their head’s for the rest of their night.
Although the Kaiser Chiefs are past their best they gave the crowd exactly what was needed on the night after a fantastic event.
THE GARAGE FLOWER 
[…] household names crop up. Headliners Kaiser Cheifs return to Cumbria for the first time since they played at Carlisle Racecourse and will pleasantly surprise those who claim not particularly to be fans. A new-look Ricky Wilson […]