It was announced that highlights from Bloc Party’s Kentish Town gig will be on Q Radio on 6th October. Time TBA…

Just got back. Here’s a very quick review. Firstly the setlist:

Halo
Hunting For Witches
Positive Tension
Talons
Signs
Song For Clay
Banquet
Better Than Heaven
Mercury
This Modern Love
The Prayer
So Here We ARe
Like Eating Glass

Ares
Price Of Gas
Flux
Helicopter

SKELETON!!!!

Was really looking forward to hearing the new songs and getting Ares was a real treat. I think the band still need to work on the presentation of the new songs because they sounded a bit light/scarce…

Highlights for me were:

Seeing Gordy! [yay!]
Matt’s drumstick flying out of his hand and hitting him in the face and he was unable to do his drumbreak during on of the songs. Funny as hell…
Kele’s outfit - he had on shortpants, a Micky Mouse t-shirt and a baseball cap. Reminded me of Charlie Brown.

I was yelling at Kele after they played Ares, I wanted to say thank you, but then he proceeds to come over to me and hands me the microphone [again…..]. I just said “Thanks for Ares. I’ve been looking forward to hearing that live. God bless you.”

I wish I’d had said more - like welcome back Gordy and congratz on the new album, but when you’re put on the spot, sometimes the old grey matter doesn’t kick in as fast as it should….

On the downside, the lighting was poor and there was a lot of smoke, so I was unable to get good pictures. Apart from that it was a banger of a night and well worth waiting 9 hours for…

Big up to Becs, Dan [sorry you couldn’t be there mate], Chris, Aly, Kara and Jack. Also Kash and his posse

I’ll have pix up tomorrow. Vids are uploading and will be here - eventually.

http://uk.youtube.com/user/Keanuette2

Sorry, must sleep…

Nettie xox

Kele Okereke has said that Coldplay should be ‘applauded’ for their re-working of Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’. Chris Martin famously lifted the tune from one of the German techno giants’ most famous song and used it for Coldplay’s arena-filling hit, ‘Talk’. The song, which featured on Coldplay’s ‘X And Y’ album, drew high praise from Bloc Party’s singer. Introducing Kraftwerk’s original, he said:

“The next song is ‘Computer Love’ by Kraftwerk. You may recognise the melody because it was used in a recent Coldplay song called ‘Talk’. One really has to applaud Coldplay for making Kraftwerk sound like stadium rock. That’s one of my favourite achievements of theirs”.

In other news to be taken slightly less seriously, drummer Matt Tong alleged he barely knew the surname of his alleged ‘friend’ and band-mate. Talking about the benefits of co-hosting The Residency with Kele he said,

“I’ve become really accustomed to hanging out with you even thought I’ve been hanging out with you for five years. It’s amazing how you can hang out with someone on a tour bus and not now their surname”.

Listen to Bloc Party’s Final Residency Right Now

Members of Blocparty.com can now download Talons from their website. Just log into the shop here, click ‘order history’ and select Intimacy. It’ll be there in bright green [thanks Karen].

After the VERY busy webchat where we announced ‘Intimacy’, we realised that we didn’t actually get to answer very many questions, so we invited members of Marshals / Pioneers to submit some questions for us to answer… so without further ado:

Hey Bloc Party. I’ve got a question… What should I name my band? (Lisa)

RUSSELL: Argh.
GORDON: Chas n’ Rave
MATT: Dry Nurse
KELE: The Vanity Stitch

(more…)

So we meet again. We have a few pieces of news to share with you all.

First thing is the are playing a gig in the US on the 18th of September. You’ll have to check out the iMeem profile for more information, or you can watch Matt’s announcement…..

The next thing is going ALL the back way back when to that webchat. We invited members of Marshals / Pioneers to submit questions to the band because most of your questions didn’t get through, and just before heading off to Canada the band have come good. You can read their answers here.

Finally - we’re about to launch a very cool competition. The prizes will change over time, the first round will be pairs of tickets to the Q Awards : The Gigs show at Kentish Town Forum in London.

The gig is on the 30th of this month, and we know that a lot of you that wanted tickets didn’t get them, so be prepared to get a bit creative, we’ll announce details tomorrow!

http://www.blocparty.com/

Milena from Pin Me Down has updated their blog to say that new track ‘Ticking’ has been added to the playlist…

Go read her latest blog entry here.

The band are also featured in Bullet Magazine, which you can read here.

*** [out of 5]

Bloc Party: Intimacy (Available as download from www.blocparty.com)

Bloc Party’s oeuvre can be summed up thus: albums that initially batter the conventions of singalong indie rock and then lose their way. Their third, Intimacy, released digitally ahead of a physical release on October 27, is more even but there’s the sense that a defining record is yet to come. Perhaps that’s down to Kele Okereke’s voice; it’s distinctive but predictable. Which is a shame because what’s going on underneath is genuinely interesting.

Mercury is like a grown-up Hadouken!, all crunching beats, swirling, grimy synths and a brass coda. Biko could have been a straightforward ballad from Silent Alarm but a neat, shuffly drum loop takes it somewhere near Radiohead territory. Zephyrus, too, signposts a band who, if not pushing boundaries (Ares should have a Chemical Brothers copyright from 1996) are certainly fusing dance, rock and - gulp - operatics in confident new ways.

Okereke has also toned down many of the lyrical tics that made A Weekend In The City the object of derision. And, as closer Ion Square’s pulsing machine music gives way to an old-fashioned guitar solo, Bloc Party are, you feel, edging back on track.

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke was supposedly spooked by a ghost before his set at the Hydro Connect festival in Scotland this weekend.

“I was walking on my own when I saw an old woman with a dog on a dirt path,” he said. “When I got back to the dressing room, I told my tour manager and he said it was a famous ghost.”

It seems Kele may have seen a real spirit as well as the Duke Of Argyll confirmed the castle’s grounds have allegedly been haunted by five ghosts. (Daily Record)

http://www.nme.com