Early-life: Born in 1976, in South London to a dancer and comedy writer Ray Cameron, McIntyre had a thoroughly middle-class upbringing that he describes as being entirely short of misery or material. He did his first open mic spot in 2001 having dropped out of a biology degree at Edinburgh University.

Early-life: Alison was born in Birmingham on February 5, 1975. Her first claim to fame was a short appearance as a contestant on Big Brother in 2002 - she was the second housemate to be evicted.

Early-life: Charles Richard Wilson was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, on January 17, 1978. His first band was called Runston Parva (later just Parva). He was an art lecturer at Leeds College of Art and Design for a year before the Kaiser Chiefs were formed.

Early-life: Born James Hillier Blount in Tidworth, Wiltshire, on February 22, 1974 to Jane and Charles. He split his early childhood between England, Cyprus and Germany, where his father had been posted with the British Army Corps. James gained an army-sponsored place at the University of Bristol, where he first studied aerospace manufacturing engineering before switching to sociology. He went on to train at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and joined the Life Guards, a unit of the Household Cavalry, where he rose to the rank of captain. During his six years in the army, James served as an armoured reconnaissance officer in Kosovo, joined the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London and stood guard at the coffin of the Queen Mother during the days of her lying in State.