A family friend, Christopher Alaneme, had been murdered in a racist attack, while London bartender David Morley was beaten to death in a possibly homophobic "happy slapping" incident.

Okereke has claimed that these events, combined with the 7 July London bombings, "galvanised [his] mindset" and prompted him to make the lyrics "dark, bigger and quite abrasive".

The third album released by the band Intimacy, was initially only made available for purchase on their website as a download on 21 August 2008.

[9] Okereke made a guest appearance on Tiësto's song "It's Not the Things You Say"[10] on his album Kaleidoscope, released 6 October 2009 and also Martin Solveig's 'Ready 2 Go', after which Bloc Party went on hiatus.

Both the album and its lead single - Octopus, released a month before - peaked in their respective UK charts at number three.

[11] Okereke released his first solo album, titled The Boxer, produced by XXXChange, on 21 June 2010, through Wichita / Polydor in the UK and Europe and Glassnote Records for the rest of the world.

[13] On 13 September 2011, NME and Wichita Recordings announced that Kele would be releasing a follow-up to The Boxer; an EP titled The Hunter.

[18] On 19 March 2018, the Bloc Party Facebook page put a picture up indicating they were doing a tour of six shows in Europe performing songs from their first album, Silent Alarm.

Announced in September 2018, the musical about an interracial gay couple was preceded by the single "Not the Drugs Talking" which showed a move back towards beats following the more acoustic Fatherland.

[19] Telling a love story through the Prism of Brexit, the new show is accompanied by a tie-in album of new songs.

The opportunity to tell a story about people from different cultures coming together and finding love in the shadow of that is an important thing to stand up for.

[21] The title is a reference to the year that census data predicts ethnic minorities will become the majority in the United States.

[22] Much of the album tackles political themes such as the Windrush scandal, Grenfell Tower fire and Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest.

Musically, Kele fuses funk with experimental electro, glitchy guitars and West African beats, according to NME.

He had previously been reluctant to discuss his sexuality, though he had compared himself to bisexual musicians Brian Molko and David Bowie.

Liam called Bloc Party "a band off of University Challenge" while Noel dismissed them as "indie shit".

"[29] When Oasis cancelled their headlining set at the Rock en Seine festival in August 2009, which would lead to the band's demise, Okereke and the band's tour manager Peter Hill announced to the crowd that Oasis had cancelled their slot during Bloc Party's own set and sarcastically declared the breakup to be a shame.