The NME Awards Tour, rolls into Southampton on Saturday for a sell-out gig at the Guildhall. What's On's Craig Mowat took some time out with The Kaiser Chiefs ahead of the city's biggest gig of the year so far.

THEY'VE being hailed as one of the brightest new talents on the UK music circuit and are one of the best bands featured on the NME Awards Tour this year.

From the streets of Leeds the Kaiser Chiefs are now on their way to international super stardom, but bassist Simon Rix can still remember the day they came up with their name.

"We were looking for something that would really stick out, something individual that people would recognise," he recalls.

"We heard that Lucas Radebe, who played for Leeds, also played for an African team called the Kaiser Chiefs. We all liked the name, it was powerful so we stuck with it."

Simon said the band was fed up with American, Australian and Swedish domination of the music scene, so they decided to draw inspiration from British bands like the Kinks, the Beatles, 10CC, Beta Band, Blur and Madness.

The result is a heavy mixture of sounds now being dubbed 'art rock'.

The Kaiser Chiefs' recorded their first single, Oh My God, on their own and sent it to NME for feedback.

Simon said: "We recorded the demo and NME gave it airplay on Drowned in Sound it went down really well reaching 66 in their chart.

"Then we released I Predict a Riot and that went all the way to the top of the Indie chart. That felt good."

The rest as they say is history.

Touring has become their life as they fly back and forwards between the UK and USA.

"It's been great," he said.

"Everyday is packed there's always something to do, somewhere to be and someone to meet. We're just back from touring in the US, doing the NME tour, finishing on February 9 then back to America. I think we have a few days off in the middle of the month then back to the recording studio."

First up in the NME line-up is the Las Vegas rockers The Killers, followed by the Futureheads from Sunderland and South Londoners Bloc party.

"I think we're all pleased with the line-up we all have similar styles and play the same type of music. It's going to be a great night," said Simon.

The NME Awards tour is at Southampton Guildhall on February 5. The gig is a sell-out.