Kaiser Chiefs eye up Blur support slot

Blur's mobiles must be chirping, their email accounts chiming, and their mailboxes stuffed with cards. Not only have tickets to their Hyde Park date sold out within an hour of going on sale, but bands are jockeying for position to open for them. Especially Kaiser Chiefs.

It's been scarcely days since Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree announced they were reuniting to play London in July, and already bands are queuing for a shot at the opening spot, keen to impress their idols.

"This doesn't feel like a reunion," Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson raved to BBC Newsbeat. "I like this because it actually feels like unfinished business and they've actually got something to do it for. They've reunited as opposed to got back together for a load of cash."

Opening for Blur, Kaisers bassist Simon Rix said, was "my first thought". "I was in me car [when I heard the news] and thought, 'We're going to get asked to play that gig - will we do it?'"

For Hodgson it's a no-brainer. "I'd like to do it," he said. But Rix was less sure. "It's too much doing what people think you'd be doing and we hate doing that," he said.

But maybe Kaiser Chiefs hemming and hawing about opening for Blur is rather like Noel Gallagher ruminating on whether he would accept an invitation to front Belle & Sebastian. Perhaps Damon Albarn's predilections of late, Toumani Diabate or Amadou and Mariam, would seem more likely to introduce the gig.

Then again, there's always Coldplay.

"I saw [Blur] play before REM in 1995 and it was incredible," Chris Martin said yesterday. He told NME Radio he is certain he will attend the July 3 reunion. "It was so incredible, in fact, that there was steam coming from the mosh pit. And I thought: 'God, not only do they play great music but they let people barbecue!'"

Here's an idea - maybe Martin could do a stand-up routine.


Original article here