Bloc Party are a British indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes, and Matt Tong.
The band was formed at the 1999 Reading Festival by Okereke and Lissack.
Moakes joined the band after answering an advert in NME magazine,
while Tong was picked via an audition. Bloc Party got their break by giving BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq
and Franz Ferdinand's lead singer, Alex Kapranos, a copy of their demo "She's Hearing Voices".
In August, 2013, the band then began an indefinite hiatus to continue with their respective side projects.
-Wikipedia
From:
London, England
Genres:
Indie rock, post-punk revival, post-Britpop, alternative dance alternative rock
Years active:
2003-2013 (hiatus) 2016-present
Associated acts:
Pin Me Down, Young Legionnaire
Name Origin:
After going through a variety of names, such as Union, The Angel Range, and Diet, the band settled on Bloc Party
in September 2003, a play on block party. The band has said that the name was not intended to be an allusion
to the Soviet Bloc or the Canadian political party Bloc Québécois.
However, Moakes said on the group's official
Internet forum that it was more a merging of the eastern "Blocs" and the western "parties", in the political sense.
He also notes that the name was not explicitly driven by politics, but rather it "looked, sounded, seemed fine
so we went with it."
Members:
Kele Okereke -
lead vocals, rhythm guitar, sampler
Russell Lissack -
lead guitar, sampler, programming
Gordon Moakes -
bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, glockenspiel
Matthew Tong -
drums, percussion, backing vocals
Bloc Party Trivia:
• Their songs have been used on many TV shows including "CSI: NY", "The O.C.", and "Entourage"
Bloc Party Quotes
"We've just been touring with Interpol who did it a few years ago and they said they had a really good time
and that all the bands really pulled together. That's the main fear about doing something like this, the fear that
you might not get along with the other bands"
-Kele
"We're a lot more competent these days. And sweatier."
-Kele
"When we recorded our album in Copenhagen we often found ourselves in a bar, drinking Danish lager at 6am
and then riding home drunk on bicycles! So who knows what might happen."
-Gordon
"We've been told not to pull shows even if we're all deathly ill so the show'll go on no matter what."
-Kele
Bloc Party Awards
2006
PLUG: Independant Music Award for Indie Rock Album Of The Year "Silent Alarm"
2005
Nominated for MTVu International Woodie Award for "Banquet"
Tour Dates: