Kaiser Chiefs have announced a homecoming ‘Employment’ 20th anniversary show with Razorlight, The Cribs and more celebrating their own anniversaries on the stacked lineup.
The Leeds indie legends will play their biggest show in their hometown to date at Temple Newsam Park on May 31, 2025, where they will celebrate 20 years of their debut album ‘Employment’.
The album remains the biggest-ever selling record from a Leeds act, and is responsible for classics like ‘I Predict A Riot’ and ‘Oh My God’. The record went on to be awarded seven times platinum, with other musicians like Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor hailing the debut as “really, really good and super legit.”
Joining Kaiser Chiefs are Razorlight, who will also celebrate 20 years of their own debut ‘Up All Night’. The Cribs, who also recently celebrated 20 years of their sophomore ‘The New Fellas’ will also support, with The Coral and We Are Scientists (who will commemorate the 20th anniversary of major label debut ‘With Love And Squalor’ at the gig) completing the line-up so far.
On top of that, former NME Cover stars HotWax will be joining the line-up to open alongside West Yorkshire up-and-comer Ellur.
Pre-sales are open now here, with general admission to commence at 9am on October 11 – get your tickets here.
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Speaking about the upcoming show, Kaiser Chiefs said in a statement: “very excited to announce our biggest Leeds gig ever. Twenty years since ‘Employment’ and twenty-three years since we last played at Temple Newsam we are delighted to be back.
“Last time we played there (in Parva) we joked we were on after Guns n Roses who had played the previous night so it’s been a long wait to finally actually headline the Park. We are a band that historically always looked forwards but after 20 years of people telling us how important Employment is to them and how it soundtracked people’s lives, we felt we had to organise a celebration.”
They concluded: “We’ve managed to get a few of our old touring friends to come and celebrate with us and of course everyone is invited. Come celebrate the 2000’s, Employment, When Leeds took over the World. See you all in May.”
Frontman Ricky Wilson previously discussed the potential of touring ‘Employment’ in full with NME back in 2019, where he shared: “In a world where everyone’s going out on tour to celebrate the seventh anniversary of their first record…I don’t want to do it.”
Later in the chat, bassist Simon Rix said: “I never like to say never because we’ll end up doing it and then someone will call us on it, but we always felt like it wasn’t the right time. When ‘Employment was 10-years-old, which is now four years ago, we just thought, ‘Well, why would we do that?’ Maybe when it’s 25-years-old we’ll feel like it.”
In other news, meet Everyone Says Hi – a new band made up of ex Kaiser Chiefs, Kooks, Dead 60s and Howling Bells.