Bloc Party

There are times when you know you should be a bit tiresome, insistent, because sometimes the reward is worth the trouble.

We arrived at Place de la Bourse at 10.30PM, with Get Well Soon. We had made some noise on the empty Place, danced with a guy who sold oysters and made us taste it, shot a bunch of beautiful songs (online soon). It was Colin’s first Take Away Show, and we had already been shooting for an hour, but a rumor pushed us to go on.

Bloc Party had just finished their surprise show at the Nouveau Casino, and guys from the label told us they’d probably go have some drinks at the Truskel right after. Get Well Soon had to meet their team there, so we lead them to the pub, and then asked them to play a song in front of it.

While the Germans were playing, Kele Okereke popped out of the bar. He was standing next to me, asked who were the guys singing, and what they were doing here. I told him it was a Take Away Show, and he said, shyly "Oh great, that’s good". I patted him on the back, joked "Hey, good timing, after that, it’s your turn !"

We’d been told it would not be easy. A year before, we already tried to set a Take Away Show with them in London, with the support of JD Beauvallet, but nothing could convince them : they never play acoustic, they’re very shy, it’s impossible. So, back to the present, on October 14th, we tried harder.

We had some help. Matthieu, of Coop, was drunk and happy. Both the band’s managers were drunk and happy. We were drunk and happy, and that’s how Kele found himself pressed against a wall, facing a dozen of enthusiastic people, urging him to play a song.

We cut, during the editing, because it took us 25 minutes to talk them into doing it. Just enought time to stop him from running away, go get Russel, decide what song they were going to play. When Kele eventually started singing, Colin was pressed against him, and it felt like he was jumping from a diving-board too high for him... He caught us off-guard. Everyone was speechless. There’s nothing more to add. Five minutes of rare sincerity, two artists doing something with no safety net and without really understanding why. They took that risk, and that’s what we thank them for.

Translation by Nora