Bloc Party announce huge London show to celebrate 20 years of ‘Silent Alarm’ with Friendly Fires, The Hives and more
Bloc Party have announced a one-off London show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Silent Alarm’ – find all the details below.
The band are set to play their biggest concert to date at Crystal Palace Park in London on Sunday, July 7, 2024. Kele Okereke and co. will perform their seminal 2005 record in full plus a selection of their greatest hits.
“We’ve been having so much fun playing shows over the past year, so it makes sense to do something special for old and new fans, celebrating 20 years of Bloc Party,” explained frontman Okereke.
“We heard from a lot of people that they couldn’t get tickets for the [2018/2019] ‘Silent Alarm’ gigs, so a one-off summer party playing that and the bangers feels like the right thing to do.”
Support at the outdoor event will come from special guests Friendly Fires, The Hives (UK exclusive performance), The Mysterines and Connie Constance.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am GMT this Friday (December 8) – you’ll be able to buy yours here. Alternatively, presales are scheduled to go live at the same time tomorrow (December 7).
Check out the announcement post here:
Sign up to the mailing list at https://t.co/aKVoLBtjz5 to get tickets in the pre-sale tomorrow and get first news when everything goes live on your favourite streaming service next year!
— Bloc Party (@BlocParty) December 6, 2023
Next year will also see Bloc Party re-release a large selection of rare songs, deep cuts and fan favourites to streaming services, ensuring their complete catalogue is available to fans for the very first time.
Produced by Paul Epworth, ‘Silent Alarm’ contains the singles ‘Banquet’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘So Here We Are’ and ‘Positive Tension’. The record peaked at Number Three on the UK Albums Chart.
NME gave the LP a glowing 9/10 review, describing it as “the unpigeonholeable soundtrack to 21st-century life as a cast-off”.
It added: “[Bloc Party] never shy away from showing their truest feelings, even if those are of vulnerability or weakness. It’s this honesty which has spoken to people and will speak to a hell of a lot more when ‘Silent Alarm’ rings out beyond the desks of music journalists.”
The critically acclaimed record later received a Mercury Prize nomination and was named NME’s album of the year in 2005.
Speaking to NME in 2023, Okereke explained: “I’m completely thankful that [‘Silent Alarm’] connected with people; but it’s at that point when I hear any record that we’ve made, I hear the things I’d do differently if I had the opportunity to do it again.”
Bloc Party released their sixth and most recent full-length effort, ‘Alpha Games’, back in April 2022. Earlier this year, the group supported Paramore on their UK and Ireland arena tour.
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Tom Skinner
NME