Artists: Super Furry Animals, Bloc Party, Sex Pistols, Neon Neon

Words: Mike Diver
Posted: 22 Jul ‘08, 17:54

Gruff Rhys (pictured), vocalist with Super Furry Animals and the Mercury-nominated Neon Neon, has backed Kele Okereke’s claims that the Bloc Party singer was the victim of an unprovoked attack at the weekend.

Following yesterday’s news that Okereke was beaten up by Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon’s entourage in Barcelona, at the Summercase Festival, and Lydon’s subsequent statement suggesting the Bloc Party man should “grow up and learn to be a true man” and that his band were “jealous fools“, Rhys has spoken to MTV News:

“It was horrific. Kele is a very brave man and what he said is exactly what happened.

“The statements Kele has said are absolutely true. It did happen.”

On DiS yesterday, a member of a band that witnessed the attack commented:

“It was total chaos. It got out of hand so fast. The Spanish security guards were total thugs. Our tour manager was put in a headlock after asking the security to let us go as we had a flight to catch to England. I managed to sustain a knee injury at some point which was remarkable given that I barely got involved.”

The case, it seems, is far from closed.

http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/3706129

British rocker John Lydon has denied allegations that members of the Sex Pistols’ entourage assaulted and racially abused singer Kele Okereke.The BBC said Okereke, frontman for the British indie rock group Bloc Party, accused members of the crew for Lydon’s band of attacking him after he approached Lydon backstage at the Summercase music festival in Barcelona and asked Lydon if he had considered reforming his old band, Public Image Ltd.

Okereke told the BBC the assault, which included punches to his face and head, was “unprovoked” and left him with a split lip and bruises.

He also described Lydon as “intimidating and aggressive,” and said someone in Lydon’s group told him, “Your problem is your black attitude.”

“I feel very sorry for a man that needs to lie about what was a perfect evening,” Lydon, who goes by the stage name Johnny Rotten, said in a statement issued to the BBC.

“After the show, John Rotten and management remained behind to sign autographs, which we did for four solid hours without incident and had a great time talking to other Spanish bands. This seems to have sparked jealousy in certain bands. The trouble was brought to us, resulting in those causing the trouble being physically removed by festival security.”

http://www.upi.com

‘Mercury’ has been added to the MTV Chart as one of this week’s Hot New Ones.

You can vote for it here.

http://www.blocparty.com/news.php?newsID=343

Hello dear friends and comrades

A little bit of news for you ahead of the US tour, our first tour in some eight months. To have been away from the winding road of touring so long is a pretty big deal for us, considering we’ve spent most of the last four years playing our skewed R’n'B meltdown with barely so much as a pause for a cup of tea between shows. But the time has come to stretch the gig legs and break out the spandex once more.

Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to join the boys during the next month or so of touring. The reason for this is that my wife is expecting our first baby in a few weeks and after some long hard thinking we all decided, band included, that it was a bit silly for me to be flying round the world at such a critical time in the pregnancy. No one wants me to wind up in the wrong continent should there be any complications or should the little one decide to put in an early appearance. So while the other chaps are jetting around the Pacific Rim I will be buying the groceries, attending ante-natal classes and generally preparing myself for the cloud of unknown that is becoming a Dad.

In my stead we’ve been schooling a friend of ours, Daniel Lindegren (aka Tommy Sparks), in the ways of the Bloc. For the next few weeks Daniel will be doing his best to cover my portfolio of bass, keys, buttons, knobs and things that go ‘clonk’. He is more than proficient at many of these things so I can’t see it marring anyone’s enjoyment of the Bloc Party experience while I’m away. All being well, I will return to reclaim my mantle around the end of August, possibly bringing with me some profound wisdom as a new father, if not a complete lack of sleep.

Keep on rockin’ young ‘uns

Gordy. x

Although not quite as popular as Sun sign astrology, “Mercury Retrograde” has certainly become a buzzword - or buzz phrase - these days.What is Mercury Retrograde? Three, and sometimes four, times a year, the planet Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky for a period of approximately 3 weeks. “Appears” is the key word here, because, technically speaking, no planet actually moves backwards in their orbits around the Sun. In fact, they don’t even slow down. Retrograde-station-direct cycles are essentially illusions that result from our point of view from Earth, simply because the Earth is also orbiting the Sun at a different speed than the other planets. Mercury turns retrograde more frequently than any other planet. It can never be more than 28 degrees from the Sun, and whenever it reaches its furthest distance from the Sun, it changes direction.

Mercury stations and turns retrograde on May 26th, 2008.

Mercury is Retrograde in Gemini from May 26 to June 19, 2008.

11 May 2008 04:42 pm 12°59′ Enters Rx Zone

26 May 2008 11:42 am 21°32′Rx Stationary Retrograde

19 Jun 2008 10:26 am 12°59′ Stationary Direct

04 Jul 2008 08:33 am 21°32′ Leaves Rx Zone

Details: 26 May 2008 11:42 am 21°32′Rx to 19 Jun 2008 10:26 am 12°59′

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Official video for ‘Mercury’ by Bloc Party.
Director: Ace Norton

Mercury

My mercury’s in retrograde

This is not the time, the time to start a new love
This is not the time, the time to sign a lease
Try not to worry about what’s forgotten
Try not to worry about what’s been missed
Scars on shins and scars on my knuckles
Today I woke up in a basketball court
Jonjo’s in Sydney and he ain’t returning
I,m sitting in Soho trying to stay drunk

In any bar in the world
From Silverlake to Williamsburg
You could pick another stranger
And fall in love

My mercury’s in retrograde

This is not the time, the time to start a new love
This is not the time, the time to sign a lease
Try not to worry about what’s forgotten
Try not to worry about what’s been missed
Bleeding gums and v-veins protruding
You’re starting to hate all of your clothes
Neumayr’s in LA and she aint returning
I’m sleeping with people I don’t even like

My mercury’s in retrograde

When I saw you last night
I wanted to say…
‘Run away with me’
‘Away from these cynics’
That this could be the start of
Something truly real…
But all that I could say was ‘Hey!’

My mercury’s in retrograde

Kele arrives at Radio 1 to drop Zane Lowe an exclusive copy of ‘Mercury’, a brand new song that the band have put together. Sorry it’s so dark but that’s the way it rolls in the Zane Lowe studio!

Bloc Party gave a world exclusive first play of their new single ‘Mercury’ to the Zane Lowe Radio 1 show in the UK tonight.

If you missed it you can hear the new song now on Radio 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe

Speaking live on the show about the new song and the on-going recording session for the band’s third album Kele said “we’re in the middle of it. we’re still writing and working on it so it’s quite hard to have an overview really, we are making the record i always wanted us to make so we just can’t wait for it to be done.”.

‘Mercury’ will be released on the 11th of August.

Also click the new sidebard widget, which plays the song and the video!

Band begin mystery internet count-down

Bloc Party have launched a mystery count-down on their website, Blocparty.com, with a time counter set to reach zero at 11am (BST) tomorrow (July 7).

The band have not given any indication of what will occur when the counter reaches zero. However, as they are currently working on their third album, fans have been speculating about the possibility of the Kele Okereke and co. making a new track available online.

As previously reported in NME magazine, the band are working on new material with producers Jacknife Lee and Paul Epworth in Kent.

Content usually available at Blocparty.com beyond the count-down homepage is now unavailable, leading some fans to suggest that the count-down may be pointing to a new website as oppose to new music.

http://www.nme.com/news/bloc-party/37870