Kaiser Chiefs Songs - I Predict A Riot Lyrics

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Employment
Released: 2005

I Predict A Riot Lyrics

Watching the people get lairy
Is not very pretty I tell thee
Walking through town is quite scary
And 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
And old Leodiensian

[Chorus]
I Predict A Riot, I predict a riot
I predict a riot, I predict a riot

I tried to get in my taxi
A man in a tracksuit attacked me
He said that he saw it before me
Wants to get things a bit gory
Girls run around with no clothes on
To borrow a pound for a condom
If it wasn't for chip fat, well they'd be frozen
They're not very sensible

[Chorus]

And if there's anybody left in here
That doesn't want to be out there

Watching the people get lairy
Is not very pretty I tell thee
Walking through town is quite scary
And not very sensible

[Chorus]

And if there's anybody left in here
That doesn't want to be out there

[Chorus]

Writer/s: HODGSON, NICHOLAS / WILSON, CHARLES RICHARD / RIX, JAMES / BAINES, NICHOLAS / WHITE, ANDREW ROBERT
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Predict A Riot

This song refers to closing time (11pm) in pubs in the UK, which means people being very drunk and lots of fights. Closing time was eventually moved back in the UK, which spread out the drunkenness.

The song depicts some colorful British characters; "Man in a tracksuit attacks me," "Girls run around with no clothes on, to borrow a pound for a condom, if it wasn't for chip fat, well they'd be frozen."

"Lairy" is British slang for rough and abusive.

The line, "Would never have happened to Smeaton" refers to John Smeaton High School in Leeds, where the band comes from. John Smeaton (1724-1792) was a civil engineer from Leeds.

The Kaiser Chiefs are from Leeds and as Leeds United supporters they named themselves after former Leeds player Lucas Radebbe's club in South Africa.

Kaiser Chiefs played this at Live 8, where they opened the US show. Live 8 was a series of concerts Bob Geldof put together to spur activism in light of the G8 Summit.

In the Guardian newspaper, February 24 2006, Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson said: "I used to DJ with my friend Nick at the Cockpit in Leeds. We'd drive home past a big nightclub and there were always lots of police and people fighting. I went home and wrote the riff on the piano and started singing some words. It says: 'A friend of a friend, he got beaten.' That was a friend of Nick the DJ. At our club night, Pigs, we had a band on, Black Wire. They were going mad and so were the crowd. You could see the bouncers moving in and I said to the club's boss, 'I predict a riot.' The structure was there, then everyone invented their own parts. Ricky [Wilson] wrote the second verse. Smeaton was John Smeaton, a leading figure in the development of Leeds; an 'Old Leodensian' is someone from Leeds. We thought maybe it was too punky but our manager thought it sounded like 10cc meets the Clash. I was pleased with that. When you play a song to other people you can tell if it's good or bad."

In an interview with NME, lead singer Ricky Wilson explained the only way to write a universal song is to not try to write a universal song: "It's weird because people get it when you write personally. If we'd have tried to write a song about being at a club and having a time, it wouldn't work because it wouldn't be us. So, we've gone back to that on this record, which is don't worry about the outside world; be yourself, and the rest will fall into place."