Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos shares note from Bloc Party asking to support them in 2003
Franz Ferdinand‘s Alex Kapranos has shared a handwritten note from Bloc Party‘s Kele Okereke asking to support the Scottish band in 2003.
Kapranos’ band, who were to release their self-titled debut album six months later, played a headline show at the Electrowerkz venue in London on October 24, 2003.
Ahead of the gig Okereke wrote to Kapranos and the band, sending them Bloc Party’s first demo and asking to be considered as a support act at their next London show.
“Hey Alex, this is Kele from Bloc Party,” Okereke’s note read, which Kapranos shared alongside a photo of an accompanying press release about the then-fledgling band. “Here is our demo – I hope you like it.
“We would really like to support you guys when you play in London next – let me know what you think.”
Sharing the note, Kapranos wrote: “We liked their demo and soon after, they did play with us at Elektrowerkz in Islington. It was a great night. I remember they had a song I really liked about Helicopters. They were a good band weren’t they?”
In the comments of the post, Mystery Jets frontman Blaine Harrison then revealed that Bloc Party did his band the same favour a few months later on their debut UK headline tour.
“We wrote a very similar letter to Kele and he invited us to open for Bloc Party on their first headline UK tour,” Harrison wrote. “Karma is a beautiful thing.”
It’s widely acknowledged that Okereke handing Kapranos the pictured note and a copy of early track ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ at a Franz Ferdinand show earlier in 2003 gave Bloc Party their big break.
On the same night, Okereke also gave a copy of the song to DJ Steve Lamacq, who invited the band to record a live session for BBC Radio 1 and called the song “genius.”
Franz Ferdinand released their most recent album ‘Always Ascending’ in 2018, while Bloc Party’s ‘HYMNS’ came out in 2016.
