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Bloc Party biography
BLOC PARTY BIOGRAPHY
Bloc Party arrived in 2004 hailed as the coolest new band in Britain by the NME. Post-Franz Ferdinand, purveying jerky, angular guitar pop, they seemed like the next pop-art band with big ideas, irresistible hooks and, in lead singer Kele Okereke, a cult icon. They were compared to The Cure, Gang Of Four, Sonic Youth and The Pixies and, oh yeah, they seemed to hate every minute of it! Sometimes obtuse and difficult in interviews, lead singer Okereke says he hates any comparisons with other bands and claims never to have heard of half of them. Despite the band's unwillingness to play ball with journalists' musical pigeonholes, their debut album, Silent Alarm went gold 24 hours after its release in February and like it or not, Bloc Party were hailed as the next big thing.
Bloc Party were formed in 2002 and went through a variety of names - Superheroes of BMX and Union - before settling on their name, a union of Soviet Bloc connotations and hedonistic, Westernised block parties. Singer Okereke and guitarist Russell Lissack first met in 1998 in Essex where the pair attended neighbouring schools. Forming a bond through a common dislike of the "small-minded people" in the area, the pair retreated into writing music together. Okereke's plan was to go to university in London where he would have a better platform to launch his band. After arriving in London and two years into an English Literature degree, Okereke recruited drummer Matt Tong and bassist Gordon Moakes and abandoned university to devote his full attention to the band.
In November 2003, the band had their track The Marshalls Are Dead featured on a compilation CD called The New Cross. But their break came after Okereke went to a Franz Ferdinand concert in 2003. He thrust a copy of the band's demo into the hands of Radio One DJ Steve Lamacq and as a bonus, gave a copy to the Ferdinand's lead singer Alex Kapranos. Lamacq subsequently played the demo on his show, loved it and invited the band to record a live session. The subsequent buzz sparked A&R interest which led to another single release, Banquet, on the label Moshi Moshi. The band were eventually signed to indie label Wichita Recordings in April 2004.
Their debut album, Silent Alarm, was released in February 2005 and met with instant critical acclaim. NME hailed it as the album of the year and it reached No.3 on the UK album charts. With heart-on-sleeve emotions, taut, edgy, post punk pop on tracks like Positive Tension and emotional ballads, the band seemed to straddle a neat line between grand, stadium-like U2 gestures and street-cred earnestness. The first single from the album, So Here We Are, reached No.5 on the UK charts, typical of the album's edgy atmospherics.
Soon the band were being feted by their peers. Okereke collaborated with The Chemical Brothers on a track for their Push The Button album and an album of remixes of tracks from Silent Alarm was released later that year featuring reworkings by the likes of Ladytron, M83, Four Tet and Mogwai. In July 2005 the band released the EP Two More Years and contributed the track, The Present, to the War Child charity album, Help.
The band's second album, A Weekend In The City is out in February 2007, preceded by a single, The Prayer and should consolidate the groundswell of support the band have built up. Don't expect Kele Okereke to relish the prospect of worldwide domination though. "I've got to resign myself to realising this is what's life going to be like now because it's what I've always wanted," he told Q magazine in 2005. "But it won't last forever. And if it gets too much for me, I'll stop." ends
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