Music Matters #2: Gorillaz-Gorillaz

Blur frontman Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett first met way back in 1990. Hewlett had been asked by Blur guitarist Graham Coxon to interview the band for Deadline Magazine, who published Hewlett’s cult comic creation Tank Girl.

Hewlett didn’t like Albarn initially, referring to him as ‘a wanker’, but in 1997 the pair became flatmates following Hewlett’s break-up with Jane Oliver, and Albarn’s imploding relationship with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann.

It was during this time that the pair came up with Gorillaz while watching MTV, “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 virtual band, a term first coined with Gorillaz, consisted of four fictional members: 2-D (voacls, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass), Noodle (guitar, keyboards) and Russell Hobbs (drums, Percussion), all with their own intricate backstories. The band even have their own autobiography called Rise of the Ogre. Russell, at least in this early edition, also has the soul of a dead rapper living in his head, it’s later stated he can channel the spirit of numerous dead rappers.

While Albarn has always been the lead musician and singing voice of 2-D, the group have featured near countless collaborations and contributions from other artists. Noodle for instance has been voiced by Japanese actress Haruka Kuroda, Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth, and Cibo Matto singer Miho Hatori, and while Russell was originally only possessed by Del the Ghost Rapper a.k.a. American rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, other rappers have included Da La Soul, Mos Def, Roots Manuva, and Snoop Dogg.

Gorillaz debut…Gorillaz was released in 2001 reaching number three in the UK chart and number fourteen in America, and producing four singles 19-2000, Tomorrow Comes Today, Clint Eastwood, and Rock the House, the latter two featuring Del the Funky Homosapien. A video for a fifth, 5/4, was made but not released as a single, eventually appearing on the DVD Phase One: Celebrity Take Down.

Some songs like Clint Eastwood have been worked and reworked several times. The original version of the song featured Brit hip-hop group Phi Life Cypher, but were replaced by Del on the album version, the Phi Life Cypher version later appearing on collection album G Sides.

During the tour for second album Demon Days a third version of Clint Eastwood was recorded featuring Da La Soul and Bootie Brown, later released as part of the Dare single. Version four was written with British rapper Tinie Tempah, but when he was unable to make all dates of the Escape to Plastic Beach, a iftth version with grime MCs Kano & Bashy was created.

Snoop Dogg performed rapping duties on the song during Gorillaz set at the 2010 Glastonbury festival, and a seventh version with all new verses was performed with Eslam Jawaad during the Asian dates of the Plastic Beach tour. Unfortunately these other alternative versions have never been recorded/released.

Are you a fan of Gorillaz? Is their debut their best album? What’s their best collaboration? Let me know in the comments below.