http://www.blocparty.net/blogparty.html

Sunday, October 28, 2007

London Roundhouse, 27.10.07

Kele defied his doctor's orders last night to lead Bloc Party through a momentous gig for this year's BBC Electric Proms. Despite suffering from acute pharyngitis (a throat inflammation), Kele proceeded to rip up his medical note, down some Lemsip and explain there was no way he could let down his friends, the Exmoor Singers of London.

Bloc Party played 14 songs in total, all backed by the chamber choir, apart from 'Sunday' (a slightly cheesy performance by Kele and an acoustic guitar-toting Russell) and 'Flux' (the first UK performance of the new single). The other 12 songs were bolstered by various backing vocals, chants, foot-stomps and claps courtesy of the Exmoor Singers.

Whilst the choir took a backseat during some of the more straight-ahead rockers ('Banquet', 'Helicopter'), it's hard to imagine any rock songs more suited for a choral arrangement than 'The Prayer', with its rhythmic tribal backing and 'Uniform', the call-and-response vocals of the middle section giving the song a camp 'Bohemian Rhapsody' feel.

Download the set below at 128 kbps quality. The 'higher quality' tracks are a different bootleg of selected songs, recorded at 192 kbps. 'Kreuzberg' is a slightly muffled 320 kbps audience recording.

01. Song For Clay (Disappear Here)

02. Waiting For The 7.18

03. Where Is Home?

04. Banquet / Banquet (higher quality)

05. Kreuzberg (audience recording)

06. Uniform

07. Price Of Gasoline (higher quality)

08. This Modern Love

09. The Prayer / The Prayer (higher quality)

10. Sunday (acoustic) / Sunday (acoustic, higher quality)

11. Flux

12. SRXT / SRXT (higher quality)

13. Helicopter / Helicopter (higher quality)

14. The Pioneers

[Setlist]

All songs performed with Exmoor Singers of London, except where noted.

Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Waiting For The 7.18 / Where Is Home? / Banquet / Kreuzberg / Uniform / Price Of Gasoline / This Modern Love / The Prayer

Sunday (Kele and Russell acoustic) / Flux (without Exmoor Singers) / SRXT / Helicopter

The Pioneers

Labels: Audio, Gig_reviews, Setlists

¶ 10:47 AM

Comments:

They should tour with them, that was so cool!!!!

they've missed out POG and Kreuzberg on the website, and it cuts off before Pioneers, dissapointing!

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:05 PM

when i 1st heard that bloc party were gonna perform with a choir i thought the choir would ruin the performance...but...

Kele and the choir performed a brilliant set and i reckon' that the choir should be a regular feature...

definately thumbs up :D

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:33 PM

thats amazing but how pissed off am i that they msised out POG, kreuzberg and pioneers.
pfft.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:13 PM

There is a serious need for quality MP3s of that set! Get on it!! :D

# posted by

Kristoffer : 3:07 PM

that SRXT performance was beautiful

# posted by

Lawrence : 8:20 PM

they missed out POG on the website, but it was shown on the BBC highlights show on saturday night! shame about the other two though!

# posted by

Peanuts : 8:22 PM

i was sitting at home wondering if they were going to play skeleton...

why dnt they play it very often live?

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:37 PM

because they don't want to alienate the rich scenesters who heard the prayer once and thought it was pretty decent :p

anyone think there might be a live cd of this? it was an ace show for sure :D

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:44 PM

the beauty of Waiting for the 7.18 brings tears to my eyes.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:41 PM

God that was good! I too wondered what was going on with a choir but boy did they and the band work well together. Never mind the mp3s where's the CD?

# posted by

Chaz : 11:27 PM

SO {PISSED THEY LEFT OFF KREUZBERG!
aRHGHGGH

# posted by

Katie : 11:50 AM

Cheesy? I thought it was amazing; the song is cheesy as it is, at least they did something brave with it. Probably the best Bloc gig I've been to - and that's without "LEG", "SHWA", "PT", "SHV"...

# posted by

crafty bison : 12:45 PM

"Kreuzberg" wasn't as good as it should've been though. They could've had a proper division of the four parts at the end but it wasn't particularly well done. I knew they'd do "Kreuzberg" and thought it would be the highlight but it was one of the more limp performances.

I agree with those above - a live CD/DVD set of this should be made!

# posted by

crafty bison : 12:47 PM

wish i could get this to work in the states

# posted by

ap : 1:46 AM

have to say one of the best gigs i ever been too

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:33 PM

Doesn't work in the States? I'm in MN right now and watching it while I'm working =)

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:30 PM

I don't know who the lucky Anon is in MN, but I can't get it work, either, on my home -or- work machine, in New York City. On WinMedia or RealPlayer. I am very, very sad...if this video ends up anywhere, else, please let us poor non-streaming folks know, yeah?

# posted by

Incognitiously : 2:43 PM

Lucky MN Anon here...

Try pasting this link into a web browser:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms/2007/player/livesets/console.shtml?c=blocparty

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:30 PM

I can't get it to work either. Damn.

# posted by

Kat : 11:03 PM

to everyone who's having trouble, update your windows media/real player. after i did this, it worked fine for me

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:29 AM

that show is fierce. cheers for putting this up.

# posted by

Bri : 4:13 AM