Gordon Peter Moakes (born 22 June 1976) is an English musician, best known as the bassist of rock band Young Legionnaire and former member of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band that was formed in London, England, London in 1999 by co-founders Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, sampler) and Russell Lissack (lead guitar). Their first four albums all featur ...

Bloc Party

Moakes became a member of

after responding to an advertisement placed in the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' music magazine by Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack, who were seeking a bassist. Although not originally a bassist, Moakes was the only player the band auditioned who was able to play the

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...

for a song that Okereke and Lissack had presented. In 2002, Moakes, Lissack, and Okereke formed the first incarnation of Bloc Party – then known as The Angel Range – and played shows across London. Moakes also ran and updated the band's website at the time. Moakes shared co-writing credits with Okereke on some of the band's earlier lyrics. In the early days of the band, he contributed lyrics mostly to the band's more political songs, and he composed the song "Diet". Moakes added new instruments to his repertoire on Bloc Party's second and third albums, '' A Weekend in the City'' and ''

Intimacy An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves emotional or physical closeness between people and may include sexual intimacy and feelings of romance or love. Intimate relationships are interdependent, and the member ...

'' respectively. He played

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

on "Sunday", electronic drums on "Ares",

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

on "Waiting for the 7.18" and "SRXT" and a microKORG

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

on "

Flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...

". His voice can be heard in many of the band's songs, often in contrast with Okereke's lead vocals. Moakes remixed the band's song " Talons" from their album ''Intimacy''. It was featured as a part of the single download as well as appearing as the B-side to its vinyl release. In 2015, Moakes confirmed that he had left the band to focus on Young Legionnaire. He was replaced by Justin Harris later in the year. Moakes resided in Austin, Texas for several years but currently resides in London, England with his wife and children.

Other works

Moakes worked with yourcodenameis:milo on the track "Wait a Minute" from the album '' Print Is Dead Vol 1''. "Wait a Minute" was released on a limited edition 7" single on 4 October 2006. Moakes designed the cover art. In December 2009, Moakes, Paul Mullen (vocalist and guitarist of The Automatic) and William Bowerman (drummer of La Roux) worked in the studio together on a new side project, with

on hiatus and both The Automatic and La Roux inactive over the Christmas break. In January 2010, the group were revealed to be named Young Legionnaire and were set to play their first show at the end of January in London.3 days recording with an exciting new side project starting tomorrow with @paulmullen and Gordon Moakes
william bowerman, twitter, 13 December 2009 In February 2024, Moakes performed a series of gigs with The None, his new band. The band was born out of Moakes’ desire “to start something new” after relocating from Austin, Texas back to London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moakes, Gordon English rock bass guitarists British male bass guitarists Bloc Party members People from Newport Pagnell 1976 births Living people People educated at Ousedale School 21st-century English bass guitarists English expatriate musicians in the United States