FOR Simon Rix and the rest of the Kaiser Chiefs returning to arena shows is always something to look forward to.

The Leeds-based band play Manchester next Friday as they perform songs from their latest album Stay Together live for the first time.

“We do lots of gigs,” said bassist Simon, “and I think we have become quite famous for our festival shows where people have a great time.

“But for us, the gigs we really look forward to are the arena gigs. I think you get to do a bit more planning for them and you get to put on even more of a show.

“With a festival, you often only have a limited amount of time in which to give everyone a good time so you just tend to play the hits.

“But this is the tour for the album which gives us a chance to play tracks from the new album and dig deep into the collection for things we have not played for a while. We will do all the hits too but it just gives us a chance to make things a bit different.”

Fronted by Ricky Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs have become renowned for the energetic live shows.

Stay Together is their sixth album and marks a change of direction for the band. They recorded it with producer Brian Higgins and his dance and electronic influences can be heard throughout.

“With the album we did want to do something a bit different,” said Simon, “but above all we wanted to write some great songs and hopefully that comes across on the album.

“When people first heard the album I think they thought they would be hard to integrate into a live show but actually they work really well, Some of them do require a little more attention to help them come across live but it’s good for us after 12 or 13 years to try different things and keep ourselves hungry.

“We don’t just fancy knocking out the same old stuff.

“Originally when you start off as a band you just want to get out there and get a fanbase. Then you set yourself targets. For us it was originally to sell out some small gigs in Leeds, then it was to play the Brixton Academy.

“I remember playing Manchester Apollo for the first time was a really big deal for us as it’s such a great rock venue.”

Simon said that fans of the band were not too surprised about the change of direction with Stay Together - it’s something they have got used to.

“The thing about us is that we often do the opposite of what did the time before,” he said.

“The last album Education, Education, Education and War was very much back to basics and classic Kaiser Chiefs if you like. That was tremendously well received but it spurred us on to do something different for Stay Together.

“We’ve always been like that. Look at our debut album Employment. We were all there on the cover in stripy blazers and then the second one came out and were were all moody and dressed in black.

“We are fortunate that we are fundamentally in control of everything we do as a band and this time, partly due to Brian’s influence, we started writing in the studio as we went along and allowed the album to sort of develop around us.

“We’d record everything and then listen back to it and hone it down. It was a much more patient approach and I think we all got a lot out of it.”

Another change for the band was playing together in the studio with a number of the tracks being recorded “as live”.

“It was a very enjoyable process,” said Simon, “and now we can’t wait to get out there and do some live shows.”

Kaiser Chiefs, Manchester Arena, Friday, March 3. Details from manchester-arena.com