Ricky Wilson “didn’t appreciate the magnitude” of playing Glastonbury before Kaiser Chiefs’ first appearance.
The Everyday I Love You Less and Less hitmakers performed at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the first time in 2005 following the success of their debut album Employment, and the 47-year-old star has recalled how he hadn’t realised how big the group had got in the UK until they took to the Pyramid Stage in front of a huge crowd.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “I didn’t really appreciate the magnitude of playing there. We were playing so many shows, I was just taking it in my stride. We’d just released Employment and we’d be playing to 200 people in Italy, then 1,000 people in America.
“Then we got back to the UK and we didn’t realise how big it had got here until we arrived at Glastonbury and the crowd was mental. Everyone knew the words to our songs. It blew us away.”
Kaiser Chiefs will open the Pyramid Stage on Saturday (28.06.25) but Ricky revealed they will be changing up their set from what they have been playing on their current tour.
He said: “We’ve been on tour with Employment to celebrate the 20th anniversary and at those shows we’ve been playing it in full.
“We thought about just doing that but we’ve got too many other songs that would be missed.
“Many people know the songs but we’ve also got weapons in our arsenal that may be bigger.”
The former Voice coach last attended the festival in 2023, where he had a bizarre encounter with actor Andrew Garfield.
He recalled: “I stood in the crowd watching Elton John and then I noticed Andrew Garfield was next to me.
“When Your Song started, our hands happened to brush past each other. I said to Andrew, ‘Shall we?’. He nodded and we just held hands. He won’t deny it if you ask him.”
And he had another odd moment during the festival that year.
He said: “I dressed up as Elvis Presley — the full jumpsuit, everything. I was supposed to be doing some songs in Block9 but I got there and didn’t bother.
“I was with Leigh Francis and we ended up going to Glastonbury-on-Sea instead and we did the bingo calling twice.”