You would think that getting a record deal once would be helpful if you needed another one later.

Nope. In some cases it can actually harm you.

Nick, Nick, and Simon met at school in Leeds, England at the age of eleven. Little did they know at that tender young age they would be linked for life. But the trio had to separate for a few years first.

In 1996, Nick B. and Simon went off to attend university out of town while Nick H. stayed behind at Leeds University and formed a band with new friends Ricky and Andrew. The group didn’t achieve much success until Nick B. and Simon returned to the fold and the reunited school chums named themselves Parva.

This lineup of the band managed to score a record deal with an offshoot of indie label Beggars Banquet. They recorded and released their debut album and three singles in 2003 and it looked like everything was coming up Parva. But none of the singles hit, their offshoot label folded, and Beggars Banquet decided to drop them.

To anyone in the UK music biz, the name Parva now became associated with failure and nobody wanted anything to do with them, despite the fact they were good enough to get a record deal in the first place. The band couldn’t shake the stigma, so they could either break up or try and disguise themselves in an effort to shed the past.

They chose the latter, rebranding themselves as Kaiser Chiefs (named after a South African football team).

The name change had an immediate effect, garnering them a manager, a series of high profile live gigs, and another record deal, this time with indie label B-Unique.

The idea for one of the songs Kaiser Chiefs recorded for their debut album came from drummer Nick H., who had spent time as a DJ in Leeds. He would leave his gigs late at night and try to slalom unobtrusively through the drunkenness and violence in the streets after the pubs closed, dodging patrons fighting themselves or sometimes the police. Nick arrived home early one morning and banged out a riff on the piano with lyrics describing the late night chaos. This became “I Predict A Riot,” a title which stemmed from an evening watching another DJ play to an out of control crowd.

Released as a single in the fall of 2004, “I Predict A Riot” fought its way into the UK Top 10, but also provided the band with their first hit in Europe and the US. Three years later the group would score a UK #1 with “Ruby.” Little could those 11 year-olds have imagined.

So watch the people get lairy… with Kaiser Chiefs.