Bloc Party go back on hiatus

In case you hadn't noticed, Bloc Party came out of hiatus last year. But apparently, like some sort of indie Punxsutawney Phil, they didn't see their own shadows, and they're returning to their burrows.

Kele Okereke is an Olympic-standard misdirection artist

Remember all that stuff last year when Bloc Party and Kele Okereke were supposedly falling apart?

It was all a ker-azzzzzy stunt:

Bloc Party's frontman has something to confess. In 2011, a little over a year after Kele Okereke released his solo record, The Boxer, the singer-guitarist impishly suggested he was worried about being given the axe by his bandmates Russell Lissack (guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass) and Matt Tong (drums), after he randomly ran into them outside of a New York City rehearsal space. "I don't really know what's going on," Okereke said at the time. "We haven't really spoken recently and I'm a bit too scared to ask." This, folks, is what magicians call misdirection. "We were making a record, but we weren't really letting anyone know," Okereke says now, speaking on the phone from a tour stop in Honolulu, Hawaii. "I was just joking and it kind of was taken out of context and became this huge story which was quite funny." Now with the impending August 21 release of their fourth studio album — straightforwardly titled Four — the band is ready to come clean.

Without wanting to be too tart, Bloc Party could have quite happily beavered away in the studio on a fourth album without anyone noticing with or without an elaborate misdirection stunt.

In fact, at the time, the idea that Party had got rid of Kele was a bit like when one of those notices appear in a shop that hasn't opened for a while announcing the landlord has taken back possession; it's just a little further out of business.

The purpose of the stunt was probably less about making people look the other way, as making people look, and it sort of worked. I'm not sure it did much to create desire for another album, though...

Bloc Party comedown for NME

The ructions over at Bloc Party feel a bit like Big Brother or the Rugby World Cup, don't they? You're mildly aware that there's some sort of competition going on, but it's hard to be interested because, whoever wins, it's not like anyone else cares much and nobody is sure what the prize is supposed to be.

In fact, it's like it's only the NME who give a rat's bandana about it, and are now desperately trying to shore up their original coverage of the story:

NME has been accused of sensationalising, or even fabricating, details of the band's apparent split after Kele revealed he had discovered the band's plans to continue without him.

Faced with the singer's allegations, we contacted the band to clarify the situation, and guitarist Russell Lissack confirmed that while Kele is busy with his solo career, the remaining members would be auditioning new singers to allow them to continue playing together. But it appears that Bloc Party are now backtracking on the admission.

I don't think it's fair to claim the NME sensationalised anything. As there was nothing especially sensational about the idea that Bloc Party were looking round for a new singer. But the NME is desperate to uphold its reputation, and so has embedded great chunks of audio which somehow proves something:

But with fans confused and concerned, here we publish all the conversations in full to set the record straight.

Yes, the streets are full of young people, ashen faced, gripping the sleeves of passers-by and crying "what news of Russell Lissack?" Seriously, I even liked the second Bloc Party album, and I can't get very bothered about who may or may not be singing on the next one.

Still, full disclosure from the NME. Because it's the biggest guitar-based scandal of our age:

Here is Kele opening up about spotting his bandmates going into a New York rehearsal space without him. The claim comes four minutes into the Soundcloud file.

Hmm. Apparently, even the NME can't really be bothered about this, as it couldn't be arsed to fired up Audacity and snip out the key bit of the conversation.

They also embed five minutes of an interview with Lissack. There's thirteen minutes of stuff, there.

They end on a plea:

Do you see a future for the band without Kele? Or are Bloc Party trying to whip up publicity at the expense of their fans? As ever, leave your thoughts below.

You might have thought that the second question was one that the NME should have had the answer to before running the story in the first place.

The lions will eat him: Russell Lissack

Now, as rock and roll injuries go, being bitten by a lion is quite cool. It's only slightly diminished by Russell Lissack having been in an animal sanctuary when it happened.

Still a bloody lion, though.

Bloc of Ash

Russell Lissack is taking some leave from Bloc Party in order to be the all-important fourth member of Ash on their UK tour.

There's a press-release gobbet of 'how we met and fell in love':

Russell - of Bloc Party and solo project Pin Me Down - is a life-long Ash fan, "I've always loved Ash, my first ever stage performance was part of an Ash covers band, so when they asked me to join them on their forthcoming tour I jumped at the chance!"

Ash's Tim Wheeler: "We first met at South By Southwest in 2005, we’d heard he and Kele Okereke met when Russell was playing Ash songs at a party, so we've always felt that connection with him. We've loved Bloc Party since their first single and have always really admired his guitar playing."

They haven't told Russell yet that he's going to have to try and squeeze into Charlotte Hatherley's old stage outfits.

Downloadable: Tunng

And the second half of a two-for-one-where-one-is-free deal, the splendid Tunng, all remixed by Bloc 'the time is clearly weighing heavily on their hands' Party. RCRDLBL for it again.

Kele goes it alone

More vague plans: Kele Okereke is apparently working on a solo record. Or at least that's what he's told his producer:

Hudson Mohawke told BBC Radio 1xtra that he may be working on the record with Okereke.
[...]
"It hasn't been finalised yet, but I'm doing a bit of stuff for Kele from Bloc Party's solo album," the producer said. "He's doing a record with one of the guys from Spank Rock."

So... not quite a solo record, then.

Bloc Party tease us by hanging round the door

Kele Bloc Party shrugs as he looks into the future:

"We don't know what the future holds," he said. "It's weird, we're out of contract now so... we might take a year off, we might take three years off.... we might never make a record again or we might head straight back in and do a record. We'll see how we feel come the end of this touring cycle."

The trouble with dropping this sort of hint is that it's like stagediving - you really need to be sure the audience is there to catch you when you leap.

The noise you can hear? It might just be Okereke landing on the ground.

Downloadable: Block Party

Alex Metric has got his hands on Bloc Party's One More Chance. And you can get your hands on the results, thanks to RCRD LBL - download the One More Chance remix for free.

Glastonbury 2009: Bloc Party

They're not as good as they used to be, you know. Still, Bloc Party managed to pull this out the bag last night:



[Part of Glastonbury 2009 videos]

UPDATE:

Ultra Unbloced

Bloc Party have pulled out of the Ultra Music festival in Florida; Kele's unwell. Viral pharyngitis, if you want to spend some time with WebMD.

They're calling it Bloctober

Let's hope Bloc Party have secured the rights to the tricksy name Bloctober for their October UK tour - when the Colorado Rockies made it to play off a couple of years back, they didn't realise that someone had beaten them to registering Rocktober as a trademark and wound up having to shovel cash for belated rights approval.

Still, those dates:
Blackpool Empress Ballroom (October 2)
Edinburgh Picture House (3)
Inverness Iron Works (4)
Aberdeen Music Hall (6)
Dunfermline Alhambra (7)
Hull City Hall (8)
Sheffield Academy (10)
Leeds Academy (11)
Lincoln Engine Shed (12)
Stoke Victoria Hall (14)
Birmingham Academy (15)
Newport Centre (16)
Llandudno Arena (18)
Liverpool University (19)
Bristol Academy (20)
Truro Hall for Cornwall (22)
Plymouth Pavillion (23)
Brighton Centre (24)
Southend Cliffs Pavilion (26)
Cambridge Corn Exchange (27)
Nottingham Rock City (28)
Reading Rivermead (30)
Bournemouth Bic (31)

Bloc Party: Just over One Month Off

On January 26th, Bloc Party will be rolling out a new single, One Month Off, and as is their embrace of modern ways, it's getting its first outings on the YouTubes:

Kele not drawing line, moving on

Kele out of Bloc Party not sounding entirely like he's put the unpleasantness with advertising's comedy character John Lydon behind him, then:

"I have only one thing to say about that man – John Lydon is the devil in my eyes," he told The Sun.

Speaking about the fight, he said: "I really wanted to, like, whip his face off. I was lucky I had lots of people around me who were calming me down.

"I didn't really think about what was happening at the time. I'm not really someone who's very good at backing down from fights. I'm just pleased there are witnesses."

While he's understandably got the hump - and without defending what Lydon's fawners and friends said - Okereke's decision to abandon the moral high ground to detail just how much bad hurting he thinks "the devil" deserved doesn't really do him any favours, either. The response to buffons to Lydon is to that which they fear the most: turn your back and forget him.

Bloc bookings

NME.com us reporting a Bloc Party tour for next year:

Glasgow Academy (January 25, 26)
Manchester Apollo (28, 29)
Wolverhampton Civic Hall (31, February 1)
London Olympia (April 11)

The shrewd amongst you will notice there's a huge gap between the UK dates and the London booking. I'm guessing there will be some things penciled in between.

The Talon-ted Mr Kele

Bloc Party's new video, for the single Talons, gets a YouTube release:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it has to do with An-ar-cheeee

Once again, John Lydon takes time to give his side of the claims that his entourage had a pop at Kele Okereke:

“He's talking nonsense, right. Bloc Party! What, you can't sell a record, so you need to try and tarnish my name? You mugs. I've done more for this world than that bunch of fucking losers could ever hope to offer. All right? But for me, bands like that really wouldn't be existing. All right? Respect is Johnny Rotten's motto, but for that lot: none.”

Lydon doesn't actually list exactly what he's done for the world - clearly, helping Dairy Crest sell Country Life butter will be part of it, but this particular gift has yet to be formally unwrapped. Public Image were wonderful, but we suspect that might not constitute a gift to the general populace.

It's also quite revealing that Lydon assumes that the motivation for the telling of the tale is simply to sell records - as ever, he assumes that everything's about the deal.

As the Times buys him lunch, he trots through the same old, same old - but things turn nasty when Andrew Billen tries to get a point clarified:

When I gently check if he is referencing David or Dickie Attenborough, he turns nasty.

“You're playing games. There you are. Caught you! Gotcha!” He had lost me, I promise. “I'm going lose you very quickly. I've been nice enough to come here and talk to you, don't you fucking ever try and mug me off.”

Ah, yes - how sweet of Lydon to make time in busy schedule to promote his DVD and eat Rupert Murdoch's puddings.

There's then an attempt to strong arm Billen:

I ask for the bill. Rambo shoulders his way towards me. “Don't fuck us over. OK? Don't. We don't like it.” Frankly, the bill is scarier.

This at the end of an interview where Lydon attempts to claim he doesn't preach and that his mantra is respect. It's like a little pool of delusion, where only Lydon is trustworthy and everyone else is out to get him. Perhaps everyone else is wrong. Or at least if we tell him we believe that, he might go away.

At least until the next DVD he's flogging.

New Bloc Party album gets closer

The third Bloc Party album - that legendarily difficult third album - is about to be live. It's called Intimacy, and while you have to wait until the back end of October if you want a physical copy, it's being sold from blocparty.com from Thursday.

Yes. This Thursday.

That's quite a gap between download and physical release, you'll have noted. If you pre-order a physical CD through the official site, you get a comped digital version - so, effectively, you've got the chance to have both sort-of simultaneously. In it's way, this is every bit as interesting as the In Rainbows experiment.

John Lydon attempts to explain

As we expected, why, John Lydon has issued an explanation of his side of the attack on Kele from Bloc Party:

"I feel very sorry for a man who needs to lie about what was a perfect evening. 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."

"We are in the middle of a wonderful tour, after 30 years we are achieving a true unity in our audience. They are multi-varied, all ages, all races, creeds and colours.

"When you are at a festival with bands who are jealous fools, lies and confusion usually follow. If they need publicity so badly this is the allegation universe they run into."

Oddly, though, it's Kele who has got the cuts and bruises, not Lydon.

In many ways, this is classic Lydon eyewash - even down to responding to the claims in a way that, once again, focuses on what a wonderful chap he is; so wonderful his brilliance leads to lesser bands turning up to rain blows down on his splendid head.

Still, at least he didn't fall back on "some of my best friends are black" line, choosing instead "some of the people who have seen me play aren't white" to demonstrate his impeccable credentials.

Of course, you're down to which of the two sides you believe; but a man who issues a statement about a violent attack and refers to himself not only in the third person, but as "John Rotten" (which isn't even his own stage name) seems more interested in the myth than truth.

There's a final flick of the fingers:

Lydon concluded by telling Okereke to "grow up and learn to be a true man.

"When you have achieved as much as I have, come back and talk to me," he added. "It's a shame that the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this.

Now, considering that he's talking to a man who Lydon claims was causing trouble, that sounds surprisingly belligerent. It's not known if Okereke will, indeed, wait until he's done a couple of celebrity reality shows and got a job in his wife's estate agency before taking things further.

Lydon: this charming man

We expect it's only a matter of time before we get the 'plausible explanation' for this, but for now we've only got Kele Okereke's side of what happened at Summercase Festival in Barcelona.

Okereke asked Lydon about the chances of a PIL reunion, which Lydon described as showing a "black attitude" (no, us neither) before standing back to allow his entourage to beat Okereke up. Lydon hurt more than the bruises, says Okereke:

"It's not an issue of the physical assault, even though it was an unprovoked attack. It is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily. Someone as respected and as intelligent as Lydon should know better than to bring race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow-minded attitudes. I am disappointed that someone I held with such high regard turns out to be such a bigot."

Although we've not got a very high opinion of Lydon, we had always assumed that beneath the self-importance and desire to make a myth of himself, his heart was at least in the right place. Even that seems over-hopeful today.

The one amusing aspect of a sordid evening is that the attack took place in front of fifty or so members of indie royalty:

Mystery Jets, Neon Neon and Har Mar Superstar, all of whom saw what unfolded

And Ricky Wilson and Foals' Yannis Philippakis were the heroes of the hour, wading in to try and pull Lydon's thugs off Kele. Ricky Wilson a hero of the hour. Who ever would have thought?