Before I start, I'd like to say a big hello to my first reader as far as I know from the USA, Chelsea! It's lovely to have you here and I hope you enjoy reading.



With a 2009 tour off and running and 2 HUGE dates at London's Olympia coming up in April (see you there kids), Bloc Party seem to have hit 2009 at full pelt, shooting across the UK with double dates in random cities and then pummeling America for a while.
The states have always been very kind to Bloc Party with plenty of festival slots and extensive touring including a pair of upcoming gigs at Terminal 5 in New York and a marvellous return to the 9:30 club where they played one of my favourite recorded Bloc Party performances. America's acceptance of Bloc Party has always taken me somewhat by surprise, especially as many of their indie counterparts and crashed and burned in their attempts over the pond. AWITC, though speaking of teenage exploration, disillusionment and a constant weakening identity, was London based and as such, many references would've gone awry. But, Bloc Party continue to succeed and rightly so.

The British media has differing tastes to my own on contemporary music. Not a day goes past when I don't see a poster on the tube for Razorlight's 4/5* album (though using The Sun as one of your accreditation's is scraping the barrel slightly I feel) when my feelings on Razorlight have been made perfectly clear many a time.

Bands that are successful are often made to be easy targets. Fans will continue to be outraged by any piece of material against the band and will bolster their support. The journalist is seen to be edgy and non-conformist by not always admitting that a brilliant band's new album is all that and speaking out against the wave of hype. However, when your newspaper lets said band take over your music section for a week and then you give their upcoming, sold out tour such a derogatory review, the effort to be cool is just a little too obvious.

Now admittedly, Bloc Party can hardly do a thing wrong in my eyes but for a review of an upcoming tour, this is shoddy journalism with no content and a pointless jab at a band that are trying new things when sticking to the original form would be too boring and easy.

Rant over.