Day After Day #181: I Predict a Riot

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

I Predict a Riot (2004)

In the glory days of early 2000s indie rock, certain songs quickly became iconic. Just as guitar-driven bands like the Strokes, Interpol and the White Stripes were emerging on this side of the Atlantic, there were similar acts coming out of the U.K. and Europe. One of the latter was Kaiser Chiefs, an indie rock act from Leeds, England that had released an album as Parva in 2003 before renaming themselves after getting dropped by their label.

Inspired by '70s and '80s new wave and punk, the band released their Kaiser Chiefs debut album Employment in March 2005. Their first single "Oh My God" was released nearly a year earlier and became a hit when it was re-released in February 2005, hitting #6 on the U.K. Singles chart. The second single, "I Predict a Riot," was released in November '04 and then re-released in 2005, hitting #9. 

The song is a snapshot of the heavy drinking club scene in Leeds at the time. Drummer Nick Hodgson used to DJ at a club and would drive home past another club where drunken patrons would fight police and sometimes bang on the windows of his car. 

"Watching the people get lairy/It's not very pretty I tell thee/Walking through town is quite scary/It's not very sensible either/A friend of a friend he got beaten/He looked the wrong way at a policeman/Would never have happened to Smeaton/An Old Leodensian/I predict a riot/I predict a riot."

Singer Ricky Wilson is a charismatic frontman, bringing Britpop charm to the proceedings as he describes the unfolding insanity on a typical Friday night.

"I tried to get to my taxi/The man in a tracksuit attacks me/He said that he saw it before me/And wants to get things a bit gory/Girls scrabble 'round with no clothes on/To borrow a pound for a condom/If it wasn't for chip fat they'd be frozen/They're not very sensible/I predict a riot/I predict a riot/I predict a riot/I predict a riot/And if there's anybody left in here/That doesn't want to be out there/I predict a riot."

In addition to being a fairly huge U.K. hit, the song got some play in the U.S., making it to #34 on the Alternative Airplay chart and getting plenty of notice on the MP3 blogs I was following at the time. Kaiser Chiefs also were the opening act at the Live 8 charity concert in Philadelphia in 2005 (part of the 20th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts), which had an estimated 800,000 people in attendance.

Employment became the fourth best-selling album in the U.K. in 2005, going to #2 on the U.K. Album chart. Since then, the band has released seven albums, including this year's Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album. Their success has been primarily in the U.K., but that makes sense because they're a very British band. The band hasn't made much of a splash over here since their second album, 2007's Yours Truly, Angry Mob, but it hasn't deterred them. Nor should it.