Gorillaz



Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated members: 2-D (lead vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards) and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion). These members are fictional and are not personas of any "real life" musicians involved in the project. Their fictional universe is explored through the band's music videos, as well as a number of other short cartoons. In reality, Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, and the music is often a collaboration between various musicians. Writers and critics have described their music as alternative rock, Britpop, trip hop, hip hop, electronica, indie, dub, reggae and pop.

The band's 2001 debut album Gorillaz sold over seven million copies and earned them an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, but the nomination was later withdrawn at the band's request. Their second studio album Demon Days (2005) went five times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. The band has won other awards, including one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, an NME Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, and have been nominated for nine Brit Awards. The band's third studio album, Plastic Beach, was released in March 2010. Their fourth studio album called The Fall was released in December 2010 as a free download for fan club members, then in April 2011 as a physical release. After a six-year hiatus, Gorillaz announced their fifth studio album Humanz, which was released on 28 April 2017.

Formation and early years (1997–99)
Musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur, a band Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewlett's comic strip, Tank Girl. Hewlett initially thought Albarn was "arsey, a wanker"; despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon's ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997. Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica.

The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV. Hewlett said, "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that." The band originally identified themselves as "Gorilla" and the first song they recorded was "Ghost Train" which was later released as a B-side on their single "Rock the House" and the B-side compilation G Sides. The musicians behind Gorillaz' first incarnation included Albarn, Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala, who had previously worked together on the track "Time Keeps on Slipping" for Deltron 3030's eponymous debut album.

Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said that 'one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes' was Blur's 1997 single "On Your Own", which was released for their self-titled studio album Blur.

Phase One: Celebrity Take Down (2000–03)
The band's first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000. The band's first single was "Clint Eastwood" and was released on 5 March 2001, reaching No. 4 in the UK. It was produced by hip hop producer Dan the Automator and originally featured UK rap group Phi Life Cypher, but the version that appears on the album features American rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, known on the album as Del tha' Ghost Rapper, a spirit in the band's drummer Russel Hobbs. The Phi Life Cypher version of "Clint Eastwood" appears on the B-side album G Sides. Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz, was released, producing four singles: "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Tomorrow Comes Today", and "Rock the House". In June 2001, "19–2000" charted at No. 6 in the UK, and the song was used as the title theme for EA Sports FIFA video game FIFA Football 2002.

The end of the year brought the song "911", a collaboration between Gorillaz and hip hop group D12 (without Eminem) and Terry Hall about the September 11 attacks. Meanwhile, G Sides, a compilation of the B-sides from the Tomorrow Comes Today EP and first three singles, was released in Japan on 12 December 2001 and quickly followed with international releases in early 2002. Gorillaz performed at the 2002 Brit Awards in London on 22 February, appearing in 3D animation on four large screens along with rap accompaniment by Phi Life Cypher. The band was nominated for four Brit Awards, including Best British Group, Best British Album and Best British Newcomer, but did not win any awards.

In November 2002, a DVD titled Phase One: Celebrity Take Down was released, giving the phase its name. The DVD contains the four Phase One promos, the abandoned video for "5/4", the Charts of Darkness documentary, the five Gorilla Bitez (comedic shorts starring the band characters), a tour of the website by the MEL 9000 server and more. The DVD's menu was designed much like the band's website and depicts an abandoned Kong Studios.

Rumours were circulating at this time that the Gorillaz team were busy preparing a film, but Hewlett said that the film project had been abandoned: "We lost all interest in doing it as soon as we started meeting with studios and talking to these Hollywood executive types, we just weren't on the same page. We said, fuck it, we'll sit on the idea until we can do it ourselves, and maybe even raise the money ourselves."

Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades (2004–07)
On 8 December 2004, the band's website reopened with a video entitled "Rock It". The album Demon Days was released on 11 May 2005 in Japan, 23 May in the United Kingdom and Australia, and on 24 May in the United States. The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart.

The third single was "Dirty Harry", which had been released as a promotional single earlier that year. It was released in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2005. On its first week, it charted at No. 6. The release of the single raised the album once again back up to the top 10. The fourth and final single was the double A-side, "Kids with Guns"/"El Mañana". It was released in the UK on 10 April 2006. Unlike its Top 10 predecessors, "Kids With Guns" / "El Mañana" reached No. 27 upon its release in the UK. A week later, the single had fallen out of the Top 40 in the UK (see 2006 in British music). By the end of 2005, Demon Days had sold over a million copies in the UK, making it the UK's fifth best selling album of 2005. Demon Days has since gone five times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the United States, triple platinum in Australia and has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. At the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards in Miami on 28 August, Gorillaz won two awards for "Feel Good Inc.", including the award for Breakthrough Video.

Gorillaz performed "Dirty Harry" at the 2006 Brit Awards in London, and the band was nominated for Best British Group, and Best British Album (Demon Days). Plans were unveiled for Gorillaz to go on a "holographic" world tour in 2007 and 2008. The cartoon members would be shown as virtual characters on stage using Musion Eyeliner technology, giving them a lifelike appearance on stage. The virtual characters were first used at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards on 3 November 2005 and again at the 2006 Grammy Awards on 8 February 2006 with the addition of Madonna, where the band played a pre-recorded version of "Feel Good Inc."

In 2005, a set of Gorillaz figures were released by Kidrobot to coincide with the release of Demon Days. Two variations of the set were released, known as the Red and Black editions, and a limited edition Noodle from the music video for "Dare" was also released. Three new sets of Gorillaz vinyl figures were released in 2006. The basic set which was limited to 60,000 was released on 16 October 2006, and on 2 November 2006 the two-tone set limited to 1,000 and the white edition which was limited to 4,000 were released.

The Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades DVD was released on 30 October in the UK, and 31 October in the US. The Gorillaz illustrated autobiography, titled Rise of the Ogre, was released on 31 October 2006 in the UK, and 2 November in the US. D-Sides, a compilation of B-side and remixes, was released on 19 November 2007 in the UK and on 20 November 2007 in the US.

Hopes for a Gorillaz film were revived in 2006 when Hewlett stated that they would be producing the film on their own. Film producer and the Weinstein Company co-chairman, Harvey Weinstein, was said to be collaborating with Albarn and Hewlett. In a September 2006 interview with Uncut magazine, Albarn was said that the band "has been a fantastic journey which isn't over, because we're making a film. We've got Terry Gilliam involved. But as far as being in a big band and putting pop music out there, it's finished. We won't be doing that any more."

On 24 October 2007, the official Gorillaz fansite announced that a documentary film about Gorillaz, titled Bananaz, would be released. The film, directed by Ceri Levy, documents the previous seven years of the band. The film was released online on the Babelgum website on 20 April 2009 followed by the DVD release on 1 June 2009.

Phase Three: Escape to Plastic Beach (2007–13)
In late 2007, Albarn and Hewlett began working on Carousel, a new Gorillaz project which eventually evolved into the band's third studio album Plastic Beach.

Albarn said "I'm making this the biggest and most pop record I've ever made in many ways, but with all my experience to try and at least present something that has got depth." The album features guest performances by Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Gruff Rhys, Mark E. Smith, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Kano, Bashy, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, sinfonia ViVA, and the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music.

On 18 January 2010, it was announced that Gorillaz would be headlining the final night of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 18 April 2010. The first single from the album, "Stylo", featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def was made available for download 26 January 2010.

In October 2010, Damon Albarn announced to the media that he would not let the cast of Glee cover the band's songs, claiming that the music on the Fox network's TV show is a "very poor substitute for the real thing". This statement led most people to believe that Gorillaz had been asked by Glee producers to lend their music to the show, which they had not. Albarn responded to the confusion with a laugh and said "and now they definitely won't."

On 5 October 2010, Gorillaz announced their new single "Doncamatic" featuring Daley. On 8 December 2010, Albarn confirmed that a Gorillaz album recorded on the American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach tour would be released to download for free exclusively to paying fan club members from the Gorillaz website on Christmas Day, 25 December 2010. The video for "Phoner to Arizona" was released on Gorillaz' website for free on 24 December, and a day later, their new album was released, entitled The Fall.

On 18 April 2011, Gorillaz announced the release of their own version of the iPad app iElectribe, by Korg – which features loops and samples taken from The Fall as well as other samples. The new version features a Gorillaz designed and styled interface, and is customized to generate Gorillaz samples from their album The Fall and includes 128 new sounds created by the band and 64 ready-to-use pre-programmed patterns from Gorillaz, Stephen Sedgwick (Gorillaz' engineer) and Korg. The app was based on Korg's Electribe: R device app. On 5 October 2011, Gorillaz released their first "greatest hits" compilation, The Singles Collection 2001–2011.

On 9 February 2012, Gorillaz announced "DoYaThing", a single to promote the Gorillaz-branded Converse shoes that were soon to be released. The song would be part of Converse's "Three Artists, One Song" projects, with the two collaborators being James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and André 3000 of Outkast. An explicit, 13 minute-long version of the song became available for listening shortly after on Gorillaz.com. Hewlett returned to direct the single's music video, featuring animated versions of the two collaborators on the track.

In April 2012, Albarn told The Guardian that he and Hewlett had fallen out and that future Gorillaz projects were "unlikely". Tension between the two had been building, partly due to a belief held by Hewlett that his contributions to Gorillaz were being diminished. Speaking to The Guardian in April 2017, Hewlett explained: "Damon had half the Clash on stage, and Bobby Womack and Mos Def and De La Soul, and fucking Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Bashy and everyone else. It was the greatest band ever. And the screen on stage behind them seemed to get smaller every day. I’d say, ‘Have we got a new screen?’ and the tour manager was like, ‘No, it’s the same screen.’ Because it seemed to me like it was getting smaller."

On 25 April 2012, in an interview with Metro, Albarn said he had worked out his differences with Hewlett, that he was confident that they would make another record. On 24 June 2013, Hewlett stated that he and Albarn plan to someday record a follow-up to their 2010 album Plastic Beach.

Phase Four: We Are Still Humanz (2014–present)
In April 2014, Albarn told the National Post that he "wouldn't mind having another stab at a Gorillaz record." Two months later he reported that he had "been writing quite a lot of songs on the road for Gorillaz". On 19 October 2014, Albarn told The Sydney Morning Herald that he was planning to release new Gorillaz material in 2016.

Albarn has described the music that he has written for the next Gorillaz album as being very upbeat, humorous, and positive, stating that he plans on giving the tracks "a benchmark of 125 bpm and nothing underneath that", while also suggesting that it once again may have many collaborations.

On 16 July 2015, Albarn stated during an interview for ABC's 7.30 in Australia that he would begin work on the next Gorillaz album: "I'm starting recording in September for a new Gorillaz record, I've just been really, really busy so I haven't had a chance. I'd love to just get back in to that routine of being at home and coming to the studio five days a week."

Speaking about his relationship with Hewlett, Albarn said that the pair's well-publicized fall-out has helped their relationship in the long term. In October 2015, Albarn revealed to Rolling Stone that he and Hewlett were working on a new Gorillaz album. In April 2016, Hewlett uploaded two video clips onto his Instagram showing the continued work on the album. The first clip featured Liam Bailey and rumored executive producer on the album The Twilite Tone. The second clip was a time-lapse video featuring Albarn, Bailey, Twilite Tone and Jean Michel Jarre. On 17 May 2016, Gorillaz were in the studio with Chicago-based hip hop artist Vic Mensa.

On 20 September 2016, Gorillaz began an abridged retrospective timeline of the history of Gorillaz releases since 2000. On 3 October 2016, Gorillaz began posting a series of interactive multimedia stories revolving around the fictional lives of each Gorillaz character since their hiatus to their social media profiles, beginning with "The Book of Noodle" (she ended up in Japan and tracked down a demon crime boss), then "The Book of Russel" (he was still a giant from the storyline of Plastic Beach, where he washed up on the shores of North Korea and starved so much he shrank back to normal size), then "The Book of Murdoc" (he was captured by the band's record label EMI at sea and told to make another album), and finishing with "The Book of 2-D" (he was swallowed by a whale named Massive Dick on Plastic Beach, and washed up on the shores of Mexico, where to survive he had to eat the whale's blubber, but it turned out he was just at an empty part of Cabo San Lucas).

On 8 October 2016, Noodle was given her own Instagram page and was announced to be the Global Ambassador of Jaguar Racing. On 19 January 2017, a new song from the band entitled "Hallelujah Money" featuring Benjamin Clementine was released. On 6 March, Gorillaz announced the launch of their own festival, called Demon Dayz Festival, which took place on 10 June 2017 at Dreamland Margate in Margate, Kent, England. The band headlined the festival.

On 17 March 2017, the tracklist of the forthcoming album was leaked online, showing guest features from a variety of artists including usual collaborators De La Soul, as well as new collaborators such as Grace Jones, Vince Staples, Pusha T, Rag'n'Bone Man, Anthony Hamilton, Kilo Kish and Kali Uchis.

On 23 March 2017, Gorillaz announced via Instagram that the new album will be entitled Humanz, with a scheduled release date of 28 April 2017. On the official Gorillaz YouTube page, two new music videos were released for their track "Saturnz Barz", one of which was in a 360º view. The track features vocals from Jamaican dancehall artist Popcaan. The band also released an art video for the track "Andromeda", featuring an animated planet in a galaxy. The track features the American rapper D.R.A.M. Two more art videos were released: "Ascension" (featuring American rapper Vince Staples) and "We Got the Power" (featuring Jehnny Beth of the English rock band Savages and Noel Gallagher of Oasis). On 6 April 2017, the fifth single from Humanz, "Let Me Out", (Featuring Mavis Staples and Pusha T) was released, followed by a performance of the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on 27 April. On 10 April 2017, A Gorillaz themed augmented reality app created in collaboration with Electronic Beats was released. On 24 April 2017, four days before the Humanz release date, another promotional single was uploaded, titled "The Apprentice". It is the only new song taken from the deluxe edition of Humanz.

On 28 April 2017, Humanz was released worldwide. On 8 June 2017, the non-album single "Sleeping Powder" was released, along with an accompanying music video.

Live performances
In March 2001, Gorillaz played their first show at the Scala in London before embarking on a UK tour later that summer, with one date in Paris and two in Japan. During this tour the live band played behind a giant projector screen which covered the whole stage, on which was projected various visuals and images created by Hewlett. After taking a short break over the holidays, the tour resumed with a North American leg in February 2002.

During 1–5 November 2005, Gorillaz played a five night residency at the Manchester Opera House in Manchester, England. The event was filmed by an EMI film crew for a DVD release, Demon Days Live, in late March 2006. It was later announced that an American version of the event would take place from 2 to 6 April 2006 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Within an hour of release tickets were sold out. The show of 6 April was filmed for a live webcast at MSN Video. Palladia (then known as MHD) also broadcast an Apollo Theater show in HDTV on 31 December 2006. In March 2010, Gorillaz began a short six date tour as "rehearsal" shows for their headlining slot at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The shows were open exclusively to Gorillaz Sub Division fan club members and featured no visuals whatsoever. These performances were the band's first public performances in four years. Gorillaz headlined the final night of the Coachella Festival on 18 April 2010 as their first proper, full show of Phase 3. On 27 April they were the main guests on Later... with Jools Holland on the BBC. In addition, Gorillaz played a two-night residency at London's Camden Roundhouse (29 and 30 April 2010). Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash performed guitar and bass respectively with the band and more than once in the evening chords from the Clash song "Guns of Brixton" were heard as a subtle reference to their presence.

Gorillaz kicked off their first ever world tour in October 2010, with some preceding festival dates in the Summer, such as at the Byblos Festival in Lebanon, the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the Glastonbury Festival in England and one show at the Citadel of Damascus in Syria. The Escape to Plastic Beach Tour took them across North America in October, Europe in November, and finally through Australia, New Zealand, and with one date in Hong Kong in December. During the final show of the tour at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand on 21 December 2010, Albarn announced that it would be their final show with the Plastic Beach line up.

Band members
Actual members
 * Damon Albarn – vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, melodica (1998–present)
 * Jamie Hewlett – illustration, visuals, FX (1998–present)

Current live members
 * Mike Smith – keyboards (1998–present)
 * Jeff Wootton – lead guitar (2010–present)
 * Seye Adelekan – bass guitar (2017–present)
 * Jesse Hackett – keyboards (2010–present)
 * Gabriel Wallace – drums, percussion (2010–present)
 * Karl Vanden Bossche – drums, percussion (2005–2006, 2017–present)

Former live members
 * Simon Katz – lead guitar (1998–2002)
 * Junior Dan – bass guitar (1998–2002)
 * William Lyonell – rhythm guitar (1998–2002)
 * Cass Browne – drums, percussion (1998–2010)
 * Roberto Occhipinti – bass guitar (2002)
 * Simon Jones – rhythm guitar (2005–2006)
 * Morgan Nicholls – bass guitar (2005–2006)
 * Simon Tong – lead guitar (2005–2010)
 * Mick Jones – rhythm guitar (2010)
 * Paul Simonon – bass guitar (2010)

Virtual members
 * Murdoc – bass guitar, drum machine (1998–present)
 * 2-D – vocals, keyboards, piano, melodica, acoustic guitar (1998–present)
 * Russel – drums, percussion (1998–2006, 2012–present)
 * Noodle – guitars, keyboards, vocals (1998–2006, 2010–present)

Former virtual members
 * Paula Cracker – guitars (1998)
 * Del Tha Ghost Rapper – rapping (1998–2003)
 * Cyborg Noodle – guitars, keyboards (2009–2010)

Timeline

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Gorillaz (2001)
 * Demon Days (2005)
 * Plastic Beach (2010)
 * The Fall (2011)
 * Humanz (2017)

Tours

 * Gorillaz Live (2001–02)
 * Demon Days Live (2005–06)
 * Escape to Plastic Beach Tour (2010)
 * Humanz Tour (2017)