91Èȱ¬

ChartBlog: Gordon, I'm here to test your party skills, so obviously we're going to want to get in the right mood, so here is a party blower thing!
Gordon: Well this is a great start.

ChartBlog: You feel ready to party now?
Gordon: [slightly baffled] Well, yes!

ChartBlog: I would have preferred party hats but alas they do not have ANY in this town. Wanting party hats? Don't come to Bournemouth.
Gordon: I'll remember that [blows blower - ChartBlog jumps].

ChartBlog: Thanks for that - excellent. So, your bloc party… what music would you have at this event?
Gordon: It's funny you say that, we're actually going to have a party next week, an album release party. Interestingly, we're having it in Reading, of all places...

ChartBlog: You could chose to have a party...in Reading?
Gordon: Nah, we're just playing a gig there that night. Two guys from the record company are going to DJ, they'll no doubt be bringing their psychedelic, stoner rock along.

ChartBlog: Well what would you have? Do you have a secret love for the Spice Girls?
Gordon: Well certainly if you did a straw poll across Bloc Party you'd find closet fans of, er, er...

ChartBlog: TELL ME!
Gordon: Well actually quite open fans of Girls Aloud. I'm sure we can all name a Spice Girls song we like, I'd probably go for '2 Become 1' but it's not really a party song. I like 'Spice Up Your Life'!

ChartBlog: Yes! That's my favourite! [joint singalong]
Gordon: [laughing] The forgotten latin number.

ChartBlog: Have you ever thought of covering that? Please...
Gordon: No! But it's a good idea. We're notoriously bad at agreeing on anything. At one point we were going to have a go at covering 'I Would Die For You' by Prince but we never quite got there. We're also into Destinys Child...

ChartBlog: Oh no...
Gordon: Oh yes! Kelis, Britney Spears and the Sugababes - 'Overload' by the Sugababes is particularly great.

ChartBlog: OK, so you're having your actual party in Reading, but if you could have it anywhere...
Gordon: Anywhere?

ChartBlog: Yep, middle of the sea on an oil rig, anywhere!
Gordon: Ooh. Well I would have it on my street, well not literally on my street by somewhere nearby cos we travel so much, the ideal thing would be being able to walk there, so somewhere near where I live.

ChartBlog: Lazy. So what shape of bouncy castle would be at the party. What do you call it if they're not in a shape of a castle? Bouncy...thing?
Gordon: Yeah, right, hmm... [thinks about this more that he has done about anything, ever]...how about a giant drum kit? You could climb inside the bass drum, you can roll around and have fun in the drums!

ChartBlog: When you jump on it it could bang like a drum.
Gordon: That would be a bonus!

ChartBlog: If you could have anyone on the guest list, who would you have?
Gordon: Well you know, the good people. Our families and friends, so no-one too celebrity…

ChartBlog: No? Not, er, the Queen?
Gordon: I spose someone dignified in the public eye would be nice, perhaps Stephen Fry.

ChartBlog: He would make any party, for sure. Now, the genius question...who would you block from your party?
Gordon: Very good!

ChartBlog: I was cheering myself in the car when I came up with that.
Gordon: [laughing] Who would I block from my party? Well, anyone who's been in the pages of Grazia in the last couple of weeks. Barred.

["TAKE THAT, GRAZIA!"]

ChartBlog: Good rule. Now on to the serious matter of party games...
Gordon: You're after innocent or debauched?

ChartBlog: Both.
Gordon: Well I like musical statues, you could do an adult version with some really hardcore electro or something.

ChartBlog: Sounds great! I hated musical chairs, it always got really violent at the parties I went to.
Gordon: Oh yes, that would get nasty. When I was at college we used to do these drinking games that were fun where you sit around tables and cross arms and you have to do this thing where you tap in the right order and if someone taps twice then it goes the other way...[Really loud music starts up from downstairs]...ooh it's some music, some party music! We're right above the stage I reckon.

ChartBlog: It's fine, we'll chat and dance! If the party was fancy dress, who or what would you go as?
Gordon: I have been to fancy dress parties in my life...

ChartBlog: Well done...
Gordon: Thanks. I once went to one dressed as, this isn't very cool, I once went dressed as a Russian army colonel, I got the Russian army insignia from when we went on a school trip and it was a Halloween party so I thought I'd dress up as someone vaguely evil, I was a communist.

ChartBlog: Er, but for the record you don't think Russians are evil?
Gordon: [laughing] Not at all! Nor even communists or communism in its purest form, but that's another issue.

ChartBlog: Excellent, I really didn't think we'd end up discussing that topic.
Gordon: Also, I'm going to continue on this… We used to have fancy dress days at school and I went as the Joker from Batman. I had a green wig and a hat and face paint, the purple jacket and this cravat. The thing was, I felt really self conscious all day and I looked really glum cos I felt like a sore thumb, so it kinda all backfired on me.

[Gordan and Amy, who has a surprisingly big mouth, don't you think?]

ChartBlog: Have you been to any swanky popstar parties?
Gordon: We once played a gig at the Dazed and Confused party, this was quite early on, it was around the time we were being signed. I just remember going "oh look, there's Jo Whiley from Radio1!" She was at the party, and I remember seeing one of Junior Senior!

[ChartBlog laughs a LOT and needs to be calmed down]

Gordon: Not that we get invited to things like that - I tend to avoid things like that. I'm not into all the gossip mags stuff although my wife just eats it up.

ChartBlog: Right. Serious stuff now. Cheese and pineapple on sticks - classic or criminal?
Gordon: Well I don't like pineapple. So it's not a classic for me, cheese on a stick I could do.

ChartBlog: I don't get the phenomenon, y'see I don't think they go together at all, so I always go and nick the bits of cheese from the sticks...
Gordon: Do you go back?

ChartBlog: Yes! Then I go back later and think 'ooh look, I left that earlier, I'll have it for pudding now'
Gordon: A two course meal! Cunning.

ChartBlog: I feel really cheesed off if someone's nicked my bit of pineapple. Anyway, if you could go to someone's house for a party whose would it be?
Gordon: You want me to say 'I want to go to a famous persons house for a party and that famous person is…'

ChartBlog: Uhuh...
Gordon: Ruby Wax!

ChartBlog: The oddest thing you could have possibly said. Are you an admirer?
Gordon: Oh. No. You may be familiar with the new Kaiser Chiefs song 'Ruby'...

ChartBlog: Is it about her?
Gordon: Well we were debating yesterday as to who Ruby might be and we decided it's probably Ruby Wax. That's why she's been in my brain in the last couple of hours.

ChartBlog: I see. Well the party's over now and it's the next morning, so what's the standard Bloc Party hangover cure?
Gordon: For me it's always been the greasy fry up, bacon and egg sandwhich. 91Èȱ¬ made, it helps if you've delivered the grease yourself so you can appreciate it that much more.

ChartBlog: Of course. That's the end of our party and as is tradition - here is your party bag.
Gordon: Oooh, what's in it? Balloons, bubbles! Russell will love them, this is amazing, thank you. Party poppers, lets have a go, we can celebrate the first night of out tour!

[We then make a jolly mess of the room and feel a teeny bit rock and roll, but naughty. So we then tidied up]

Gordon: Thank you!

ChartBlog: No problem, thanks for chatting, goodbye…

Your ChartBlog reporter has been: Amy V