City band Kaito are playing to sellout audiences as part of their high profile tour slot with the current darlings of the UK music scene, Bloc Party. On Sunday 9 October the group will fulfil one of their dreams when they strut out on stage at the UEA in Norwich. The date sold out within days of being announced and the quartet are hoping for a warm response from their home crowd. "Sunday will be amazing," said bassist Gemma Cullingford. "I used to go to gigs at the UEA from when I was 13 and it was an ultimate ambition to be up there playing and I've achieved it." Kaito fans in the audience will include singer and guitarist Niki Colk's mum and sister and Gemma's mum and dad. "My parents haven't seen me play very much, so I'm hoping it goes really well," said the 25-year-old. The Bloc Party tour kicked off in Edinburgh on 2 October, but Kaito decided to get on the road in advance to play a batch of warm-up dates including one for Norwich gig promoters Wombat Wombat in a decision which has paid off. "The shows have been going really, really well," said Gemma. "It's been very exciting and very nerve-wracking but we've been playing very well as a band. We've been warming up and we're glad we did that." The band - who have also toured with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and brought out their debut album, Band Red, last year - have been surprised by some aspects of supporting one of the UK's newest top groups. "It's totally different for us," said Gemma. "There is such a big crew and it's so professional. Everything is in exactly the same place on stage each night. "It's really strange too as there are girls hanging around after the show screaming the band's names as they get on the bus," she added. While Kaito have been getting used to playing to capacity audiences every night, they have just had news confirmed of their biggest gig to date. They have been asked to support Bloc Party on 29 October for a concert at Brixton Academy, which holds 6,000 people. | 
