About Bloc Party
Bloc Party are an English rock band that was formed in London in 1999 by co-founders Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack . They are joined in the band's current iteration by Louise Bartle and touring bassist Harry Deacon. Former members Matt Tong, Gordon Moakes and Justin Harris left the band in 2013, 2015 and 2023 respectively. Their brand of music, whilst rooted in rock, retains elements of other genres such as electronica and house music.
Upon their formation at the 1999 Reading Festival by Okereke and Lissack, the band went through a variety of names before settling on Bloc Party in 2003. 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 Alex Kapranos a copy of their demo "She's Hearing Voices".
In February 2005, the band released their debut album Silent Alarm. It was critically acclaimed and was named Indie Album of the Year at the 2006 PLUG Awards and NME Album of the year which both honour indie music. That year, the record was also certified platinum in Britain. The band built on this success in 2007 with the release of their second studio album, A Weekend in the City, which reached a peak of number two in the UK Albums Chart and number twelve in the Billboard 200. In August 2008, Bloc Party released their third studio record, Intimacy which entered the UK Albums Chart at number eight and number eighteen on the Billboard 200.
The band went on a hiatus in October 2009 to focus on side projects. They reunited in September 2011, and shortly thereafter released their fourth album, Four, which entered the UK Albums Chart at number three. In 2013, Bloc Party released their third EP titled The Nextwave Sessions in August; the band then began an indefinite hiatus to continue with their respective side projects. The band's fifth studio album, Hymns, the first to involve Harris and Bartle, was released on 29 January 2016. Their sixth studio album, Alpha Games, was released on 29 April 2022. On 21 July 2023, they released the High Life EP. Bloc Party have sold over 3 million albums worldwide.
Russell Lissack and Kele Okereke first met in 1998 in London. Lissack had attended Bancroft's School, while Okereke attended Ilford County High School, then Trinity Catholic High School, Woodford Green for sixth form. They bumped into each other again in 1999 at Reading Festival and decided to form a band. Bassist Gordon Moakes joined after answering an advert in NME, and drummer Matt Tong joined after an audition. 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."
In November 2003, Bloc Party had their track "The Marshals Are Dead" featured on a compilation CD called The New Cross released by Angular Recording Corporation. They then released their debut single "She's Hearing Voices" on the then fledgling record label Trash Aesthetics. Also in 2003 Bloc Party personally mailed Steve Aoki a 7-inch of the track “She’s Hearing Voices” and signed to Dim Mak shortly thereafter. Dim Mak teamed up with VICE, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, and entered a major label deal for the first time. Dim Mak and Atlantic later released Bloc Party's critically acclaimed and commercially successful Silent Alarm in 2005. The band got their break after Okereke went to a Franz Ferdinand concert in 2003, and gave a copy of "She's Hearing Voices" to both lead singer Alex Kapranos and BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq. Lamacq subsequently played the song on his radio show, labelling the track "genius", and invited them to record a live session for the show. The buzz generated off the back of the single led to another release, "Banquet/Staying Fat", this time through Moshi Moshi Records, and to the eventual signing with independent label Wichita Recordings in April 2004.
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