Bloc Party are an English indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke on vocals and rhythm guitar, Russell Lissack on lead guitar, Gordon Moakes on bass guitar and Matt Tong on drums. Lissack and Okereke first met in 1998 in Essex, bumping into each other again in 1999 at the Reading Festival, when they decided to form a band, initially under the monker "Union". Moakes joined after answering an advert in NME, and Tong joined after an audition. After going through a variety of names, from "Union" to "Superheroes of BMX", "The Angel Range" and "Diet", "Bloc Party" was settled on in September 2003, a play on 'block party' (the band have said that the name was not intended to be an allusion to the Soviet Bloc or the Canadian political party Bloc Quebecois, however Moakes has 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 driven by politics, but rather it "looked, sounded, seemed fine so we went with it").

Bloc Party got their break after Okereke went to a Franz Ferdinand gig in 2003 and gave a copy of debut single "She's Hearing Voices" to BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq and FF lead singer Alex Kapranos. 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 success of the single led to "Banquet" being released on Moshi Moshi Records, and an eventual signing with Wichita Recordings in April 2004.

In February 2005, debut album "Silent Alarm" was released, which reached number 3 on the UK Album chart, made The NME's Album of the Year list, and was also certified platinum in the UK. The first single from the album, "So Here We Are", made the Top 5 in the UK charts, with subsequent singles "Banquet" (which reached number 13 in NME's "Top 50 singles of 2005" list), "Helicopter", and "Pioneers" all managing to reach the UK Top 20. The band were met with good reviews from critics in the US and they toured there heavily in the 18 months that followed, finishing their tour with sold out shows in Los Angeles, Miami and Berkeley. "Silent Alarm" sold more than 350,000 copies in North America and over a million worldwide. Success provided the opportunity for collaborations, with Okereke joining The Chemical Brothers for "Believe", a track on the Brothers' "Push the Button" album. An album of remixes of tracks from "Silent Alarm" was released at the end of August 2006 in the UK - "Silent Alarm Remixed" retained the album's original track list and includes remixes from the likes of Ladytron, M83, Death from Above 1979, Four Tet and Mogwai.

Next, Bloc Party recorded 2 new tracks with "Silent Alarm" producer Paul Epworth - the songs were on an EP titled "Two More Years", and the release of the EP was accompanied with a re-release of "Silent Alarm", which included "Two More Years" along with former single "Little Thoughts". The band also contributed the track "The Present" to the "Help!: A Day in the Life" compilation, the profits of which benefited the War Child charity.

The band built on this success with the release of their second studio album, "A Weekend in the City", produced by Garret 'Jacknife' Lee, in February 2007. The album reached a number 2 in the UK and number 12 on the Billboard 200. The first single "The Prayer" became the band's highest charting single in the UK Top 40, reaching number 4. Next single, "I Still Remember", was Bloc Party's highest charting American single, peaking at number 24 on the Modern Rock Chart, and third single "Hunting for Witches" their only ARIA Chart entry, peaking at number 20.