Clubs

PICK OF THE CLUB NIGHTS
Zzzap! (feat Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke)
Liquid Room, Victoria Street, Tuesday, 11pm-3am, £10, 0131-225 2564

KELE OKEREKE is no stranger to Edinburgh, his band, Bloc Party, having played some stupendous gigs here over the years.
On Tuesday night, the singer and guitarist with one of indie’s most consistently interesting and progressive acts returns to these parts - though in a different guise.
This time he’s showing off his DJing skills at the launch of Zzzap!, a new club night for Liquid Room.
With his band on a hiatus, last year saw the release of Okereke’s solo album The Boxer, on which he focused on the more dance-orientated direction of later Bloc Party singles like Flux and One More Chance.
After making the album, he admitted to having a meltdown. “I was doing a Britney,” he says. “I’d had enough and I needed to start again - I was having a meltdown. I was attacking photographers with my umbrella and not being so good to myself.” Okereke’s interest in dance music can be traced back to his 2005 collaboration with The Chemical Brothers, Believe, and he teamed up with superstar DJ Tiesto in 2009 on the track It’s Not The Things You Say - so you’d imagine he’ll know exactly what he’s doing behind those Liquid Room decks.
“I don’t really go to gigs so much any more,” he says. “But through DJing, I’m exposed to clubs - albeit from a different perspective. It’s made me a lot more on the ball about new music and listening to how frequencies operate.”
Words: GARY FLOCKHART