Telling the story of "a young gay couple suddenly faced with an uncertain future"

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has announced details of his theatre debut with the musical ‘Leave To Remain’. Check out the song ‘Not The Drugs Talking’ below.

Opening in January in Hammersmith, the show comes with songs penned by Okereke and Matt Jones – telling the story of “a young gay couple suddenly faced with an uncertain future, told through a mixture of music, drama and movement”.

‘Leave to Remain’ is the story of what happens when a marriage forces two very different families to come together,” said Okereke of the play. “For the music for this project I took cues from the records that my parents would play in our house when I was growing up, West African high-life music, and I tried to combine those sounds with the electronic dance music I hear in clubs today.

“It was important to me to make something that represented the meeting of two very different worlds.”

Get a taster of the music below with the track ‘Not The Drugs Talking’ – a simmering electro-rock number in a similar vein to Okereke’s debut solo album and Bloc Party’s ‘Intimacy‘.

Directed by Robby Graham, ‘Leave To Remain’ stars Olivier Award nominated actor Tyrone Huntley in the lead role of Obi, with the full cast to be announced shortly.

‘Leave To Remain’ will at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre from 18 January – 16 February 2019, with tickets on sale from 9am tomorrow (September 5) and available here.

Bloc Party on tour
Meanwhile, Bloc Party are preparing to celebrate their seminal debut album ‘Silent Alarm’ by performing it in full on tour. UK and European dates are below with tickets available here.

NME’s review in 2005 stated: “‘Silent Alarm’ is the unpigeonholeable soundtrack to 21st-century life as a cast-off. In a world of posers, fakers and bandwagon-jumpers, Bloc Party are unquestionably ‘4 real’. They never shy away from showing their truest feelings, even if those are of vulnerability or weakness.

“It’s this honesty which has spoken to people and will speak to a hell of a lot more when ‘Silent Alarm’ rings out beyond the desks of music journalists.”