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.

What the pop papers say: 50 lamest ideas for an issue

The NME has been having, if not a golden age, at least a run of shiny chrome lately. Sure, you still get ones where it's Kasabian chuntering about football, but that's balanced by some lovely coverage of The Drums. There have been more nice things said about the Field Mice in the last month than ever there was when they were a going concern.

There was a weakness with The Drums edition, though: apparently concerned that simply interviewing a band might not be an idea, it came wrapped in a 'special issue' bit of blather about how America has lots of bands. Or it might have been 'Bands named after instruments' special. But it was themed.

The idea of a themed issue can work, but not if every bloody week there's a theme. And this week, we get a stinker of theme. It's another one of those pointless lists that have been bedeviling the NME for over a decade, but this week's sets the bar lower than ever before.

The 50 Most Fearless People In Music

By a lucky coincidence, the most fearless person in music turns out to be Kele Okereke, who is the big interview this week.

Most fearless people? Seriously? What does that mean? With Kele at the top, it turns out that the measure of lack of fear is 'making a dancey record after having made some guitary records'. If that's the true measure, then surely Bobby Gillespie would have to be braver than Kele for the sheer distance leaped by Primal Scream from I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have to Loaded?

The rest of the list clearly was come up with by throwing darts at a list of anyone who's ever made a record with more to it than The Archies. To adapt an old saw, NME use these lists as a drunk use lamposts - more for support than illumination.

Number 35, by the way, is The Population Of Greenland. So this is actually, the 56,377 Most Fearless People In Music. If everyone in Greenland counts as people in music.

Elsewhere this issue, this Shockwaves advert appears for what feels like the 600th week running:

Isn't that the sort of one-note 'use this product and women with big tits will be yours for the taking' clunker of an promo that more-or-less died of shame in the 1980s? I was surprised the NME ran it in the first place - hell, I was surprised any advertising agency would have come up with it in the first place - but can't believe it keeps going in, week after week.

Obviously, Shockwaves underwrites the NME awards so perhaps nobody wants to upset them, but really: this ad treats the female side of the NME readership with contempt and the male side with a different sort of contempt. It's ugly both creatively and socially. Is this how the paper sees the people it wants to buy it?

Downloadable: Kele

He's dropped his surname, and now he's dropping the charges on the Tenderoni XXXChange Dub. Free, for you, from RCRDLBL.

Embed and breakfast man: Kele Okereke

Or Kele, as for his solo career he's dropped surnames. Like he's Beyonce. Or Jarvis.

Anyway, this is what he sounds like sans Bloc Party:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gruff Rhys: Lydon attack was unprovoked

Gruff Rhys has told MTV news that Kele Okereke's side of the story of being attacked by John Lydon's chums was, from where he was standing, the true one:

“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.”

Presumably, though, Gruff would also be characterised as "jealous" by Lydon. Or maybe even as a h8r.

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?

Chip off for old Bloc

Bloc Party have, they reckon, tried the dance thing on their recent tracks, but are now heading off in a backwards direction:

They both agreed that their latest single Flux has taken them off in a new direction, Matt admitted: "I think one crucial thing about that song was it was radically different from anything we attempted before and I think it was important in terms of opening up... broadening our horizons".

Kele added: "Flux isn't an indication at all about the next record... The important thing about this record for me was that it showed we could do anything we wanted, we weren't going to settle for being any other guitar band of 2007. Luckily it was successful."

Having found they can do anything, it sounds like they might not bother using these newly-developed powers:

Matt was quite pointed about what he would like to see happen in 2008: "I want to have more songs like Banquet..."

Once around the Bloc again, then.

We're rubbing our eyes

We suspect that Kele Okereke's tale of meeting Madonna may have, uh, grown in the retelling. The scene? Backstage at Live Earth:

"She's a super-huge fan. But our tour manager is this guy from Scotland who doesn't know much about popular culture.

"So when she came in, he alerted security and security dragged her out. In a headlock. It was really surreal, and everyone stopped speaking.

"And all we could hear is Madonna cursing and saying she's gonna kill these guys. She's really tough because of all that Pilates that she does, so she got out of the headlock quite easily."

So, it's not only the tour manager - a tour manager - who didn't recognise Madonna, but security - the security team at an event Madonna was headlining - didn't either? Kele, by tomorrow night you're going to be suggesting that Madonna burst in with a gun...

Reading's role as Bloc's foundation

After they've done Leeds tomorrow, Bloc Party are going to head into the studio to spend the autumn making their thrid album. Today, mind, they were at Reading, which turns out to be the band's Woolton Village Fete:

"This is the third time we played Reading and we've always been successful here so it's got a special place in our hearts," he explained, adding that without the event the band may never have formed.

"I met Russell our guitar player over there and we decided to be in a band."

Understandable, of course: most of the line-ups at Reading are so poor you'd believe that forming a band with some you've just bumped into at random would have to do better.

Modern life is junk

Kele Okereke out of Bloc Party has told Total Spec magazine that he thinks living and drugs are two sides of the same wrap:

"I think in the 21st Century drug-taking is something that is synonymous with life, really. All I intended to do with the songs is to capture what modern life feels like."

We would have had something to say about that, but we were swigging down coffee as we were thinking about it so, hey, maybe he's right. Because it's all drugs, yeah, kids?

Kele quoted as saying Doherty quote was misquote

Kele Okereke is desperate for people to not think badly of him. He's not, he insists, having a go at Pete Doherty:

“I read something this week about me cussing out Pete Doherty, when I didn’t do anything of the sort.

"I was just giving an example when I was asked a question about the nature of suffering and art, but if anyone's really that bothered to find the quote they'll see the context.

“I don't really pay it too much mind really. I think it’s just the nature of news these days."

Oh. Well, apparently, Bloc Party are busy writing for their next album, but maybe this is out of context, too:

"We have been writing. I think we’re a band that enjoy writing and it’s always been easy. So if we have time we're always thinking about new songs or new sounds or new ideas."

Then again, maybe Kele was just talking about theoretical songwriting.

Es off his Bloc: Kele talks drugs

Well, that's Kele ruled out of leading the Tories any time soon - he's been honest about taking drugs. He's a big fan of E, apparently:

The drug I do enjoy taking is ecstasy, which gives a real sense of euphoria.

“It makes your senses so much more acute. It makes music sound so powerful. And it makes touch incredibly sensual. You know, every touch is orgasmic.”

He sings the praises of cocaine, too; although he acknowledges a downside:

"Cocaine can be very attractive, very seductive. But for me, it's bad news because that drug can really damage your voice."

Not to mention, of course, it spells misery and murder for Columbians, and turns nice, interesting people into obsessive bores, and obsesseive bores into advertising executives.

Lets hope, though, the Daily Mail isn't looking for a soft front-page outrage this Easter.

Not that Kele does drugs now, ohnonono:

"These days I don't even bother with pills that often. To be honest, I haven't taken anything for a whole year."

That's only a "youthful indiscretion" away from getting a marginal seat in the North West to fight, Kele.

Kele: Oasis are stupid, overrated, and not even good at copying The Beatles

Kele Okereke has effectively patted Liam Gallagher on the head and said "quiet now, son" in response to Gallagher's suggestion that Bloc Party are "like a band off University Challenge."

To be fair, Kele's response would have been a bit sharper if he hadn't taken two years to respond, but even so, it's a lovely thing to behold - on a par with Homer Simpson's "I give you: your moron":

"Why is it bad to better yourself? It is really daft to reinforce the idea that there is something cool about being dumb."

Okereke responded by saying Oasis were "overrated", although he admitted the University Challenge comment was "quite funny".

"It probably would have been a lot more funny had he not used exactly the same words to describe Travis a couple of years ago," he added.

But it's in his destruction of Oasis's claims to be the heir to The Beatles that he really hits home:

"They claim to be inspired by the Beatles but, and this so saddens me, they have failed to grasp that the Beatles were about constant change and evolution," he said.

Of course. The message is: if you want to be the new Beatles, better make sure your band isn't led by a pair of Ringos.