Jungle VIPs
Hooker, February 2006
Oooh yeah...Take a moment to admire Murdoc Nicalls, the infamous bassplayer of Gorillaz. A man with dark charm and a devastating ‘ladykilling’ smile. With his thick mop of greasy black hair, green teeth and flaky, yellowing skin his boyfriend material may not be obvious, but that's where lesser bachelorettes would lose out. Underneath this knackered shell lies a heart throbbing with real passion!
I first met Murdoc in a Tapas Bar in Soho, where he grabbed my attention by flicking olives at me. We gazed into each other's eyes while he bored me shitless about his previous conquests and his ‘Grammy-nominated’ status. True, 2005 was very kind to this chap, with his ‘Gorillaz’ cohorts nicking up numerous accolades, worldwide, for their album ‘Demon Days.’ But there's more to this man than just a well-placed chart position.
For someone who turns forty this year, he’s got..er..a great body. It's well spindly. My curiosity has been tickled. How d’you do it? “Well” he burps “...I've been on a diet of speed and Jacky D since I was eight so I've never really eaten that much.” But surely a man of his fame and stature wouldn't need to advertise in Page Seven Fella “Well no... but I’m a collector see; an enthusiast and a connoisseur. I could never be satisfied with just one chick. I need to check ‘em all out.” Urgh! So far his conquests have included all of the Pussycat Dolls. half of Hollyoaks. Courtney Love (but don’t mention that), most of the Suicide Girls and he's even found time to ‘sling one up Gwen Stefani. When asked to describe his ideal lady he says, “I'm a leg man myself, the more the better...but I draw the line at...well...spiders.“ Swoon!
So ladies, grab him before the DNA tests come back and you too could be quids in! Are you the queen of hearts or this ‘King of Gorillaz’? This legendary swordsman also lists his other interests as ‘Satan worshipping, car-crashing, ashtray-stealing and horse-riding’. Yup, he’s a real ‘all-round international playboy’. And like a decrepit Bruce Wayne, this batman also comes with his own shabby Gothic hideaway; the notorious Kong Studios. Built on an Essex hilltop, Kong is a massive mansion-cum-recording studio complex that was recently featured on MTV Cribs. So he’s obviously got good taste too.
Although, predictably, like some kind of crazy-clichéd swashbuckling pirate, you could never tie him down, especially with Gorillaz planning a world tour for 2007. When you combine his jet-set lifestyle, his magical bass-playing and his wild sense of humour he really is an attractive package. And if you honestly are damaged enough to want to be his other half for twenty minutes, you can contact him at Gorillaz.com. As the night draws to a close and with his rancid breath reeking of absinthe and beer. I leave the last line to Murdoc:
“Ladies...an announcement. I am up for it. All the time.“
It's never advisable to get down and dirty with a gorilla, Bouncer or endangered species, it’s a perilous activity best left to a professional... or at the very least to the female population of Essex...
Not ones to be shy of the odd intrepid expedition though, (can't go back to Romford now), Hooker recently encountered some musical monkeys of King Kong stature. Foolhardy, we travelled deep into a ‘dense,’ ‘thick’ chart jungle harbouring the notable dangers of Rachel Stevens, the hazardous James Blunt and an extremely poisonous Liberty X. It was bleak in the mainstream undergrowth, slimy underfoot. But after what seemed an age hacking through mountains of shite and deadwood we eventually found, standing like sore thumbs out of the decaying blandness, the psychotic simians who had seized control of the bewildered forest. We survived to tell the tale, but we haven't been able to stop speaking about ‘Demon Days’ ever since.
Admittedly, it's a far cry from David Attenborough, But amongst the primitive single-cell organisms that inhabit the cesspool we so often ironically refer to as the ‘Top 40’, an unlikely breed of
Gorillaz is flourishing. After a short hiatus following the 2002 self-titled ‘Gorillaz’, Damon Albarn's and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon creations have come back with a meaner look, a devastating
new album and a much-needed mandate to shake up the status-quo. If Darwin's theory of “evolution to ensure survival of the fittest’ is correct, then the animated band’s darker, more musically advanced second coming is ‘virtual’ proof. This is the new-look Gorillaz’ pioneering anti-pop polemic and celebrity take-down, napalm-firing themselves to an unprecedented No.1 UK album and Singles chart double.
Here, in an exclusive up close and personal encounter with the great apes themselves, Hooker's monkeys hang out with synthesizer sympathizer 2D (keyboards, vocals), hip-hop horticulturalist Russel Hobbs (percussion), little miss ‘Manga’ Noodle (vocals) and ex-jailbird and band leader Murdoc Niccals (bass), all the while trying to steer clear of the many obvious monkey-pun banana skins (we wish). We find out just why they've got the whole world going absolutely apeshit for them.
It's said that when the Gorillaz first started out in 2000, they began with a manifesto that subsequently disappeared (not unlike when the Labour party arrived in 1997 come to think of it...). It set out Old Testament style the commandments of the band and where they wanted to go. They lost it. Still, satanist bassist and band leader Murdoc insists that the content of this castaways’ constitution has always been upheld. “The rules are set in stone and written on the back of a Harvester napkin. I wanted a band that would first of all be ‘my band’, that would ‘kill all the shit celebrities’ and ‘make an album so full and so good that everyone would recognise its world-shaking genius immediately.” He thinks he ‘stuck to most of them. Well, definitely the third one”. If you labelled him a cocky sod you'd probably have a point, only, on the basis of the wholesale reaction of the music media to the Gorillaz’ second long player, you'd probably find him a tad too modest
Since the release of the blistering Demon Days, the Gorillaz’ stock has soared to ear-popping altitudes. With 10 million albums under their belt and MTV Europe Best Pop Group crowns firmly stuck on their heads, critical acclaim has jetted in from almost everywhere. Add 5 Grammie nominations and the inevitable Annual Middle-Aged Hackneyed Music Journo award for being the latest band to "Crack AmericaTM” to an already bulging mantelpiece and you start to get an idea of how far up the tree the Gorillaz have climbed since the novelty charm of “Clint Eastwood’ first arrived on our shelves.
There’s no doubting the Gorillaz were always going to be the A-Team in Murdoc’s eyes, but for some band members all the successes of recent months have come as a pleasant, almost embarrassing surprise. For Noodle, the accolades are deserved because they are a band that actually stuck to its guns in being/doing something different. “Gorillaz is more about finding a way to create a group that kids will love and remember when growing up. By presenting ourselves in the way Gorillaz do, they're hearing dub, hip-hop, Cuban music in the mainstream charts. They're getting to hear sounds and artists that they wouldn't normally come across. They're hearing and seeing really good work that doesn't. patronise them. It’s great. So when they grow up they won't feel cheated that their childhood was full of... Westlife, or people simply preying on their innocence to make a quick buck...” Asked the same question, 2D says that the band's original aims were even simpler: “the objective's the same as it's always been...er...don't be rubbish.”
Gorillaz have certainly delivered when it comes this innovative pop premise. The only time the band have come even within a whiff of anything lately ‘rubbish’ was when they were forced to listen to Pete Doherty’s performance at Live 8 back in August. Murdoc was so incensed by the “well overrated” Babyshambles frontman’s performance of T Rex's “Children of the Revolution”
that he wanted to launch a “Make Doherty History” campaign, adding “I could probably get him to sign it too...for half a bag of pink whiz.” On the Pete ‘Shambles vocals, Murdoc explains "the
concert was all about raising awareness, but Peter looked like he was having trouble raising his own awareness. He looked wasted. With Africa we're talking about a nation battling through immense poverty and hardship, and he can't quite get it together to sing a song. When you look at what they’re faced with, it kind of makes his drama seem trivial. On that day he just seemed like an odd sort of image.”
It’s this kind of anti-pop action that explains why Gorillaz are appreciated. When Russel says in general conversation later, “I respect the guts of people who are willing to raise their head above a crowd and disagree in order to make things better,” he unwittingly describes the Gorillaz’ position In the UK music market. They're supposedly a manufactured, virtual band and yet they, more than anyone else on the scene - real, pixellated or surgically enhanced - are the ones directing much needed vitriol towards the music industry’s ‘chummy’ facade and Punch-and-Judy pin-ups.
It's a controversial position the Gorillaz revel in. Agent provocateurs to the bitter end, they've ruffled the feathers of pop music’s glitterati whilst spawning envy at the same time. Jamie Helwett best summed it up when he bellowed, “We're the best band in Europe and we’re not even real!’”Their seizure of the MTV Europe award got fellow nominee 50 Cent hot under the collar. He decreed the band shouldn’t even have been considered as they are four cartoon characters that “Don’t really exist”.
Though never one to Pass up a moment's publicity (remember his ‘beef’ with his mate The Game conveniently falling on the week of his album release) ‘Fiddy’s words have a large audience and in a way bring up a valid point. There are, if you look hard enough, limitations to what a virtual band can do - if you're a cartoon you cant do certain things like touch your audience, crowd-surf, handshake, spit or whatever. Does it matter? Noodle is under no illusions that this makes any difference whatsoever. “We touch people through music. Pink Floyd don't do any of the things you just mentioned either, and they’re huge.” Russel isn’t having any of it either, “If those are the things that constitute being in a band, or ‘touching people,’ then I guess we are in the wrong profession. Gorillaz are musicians, not delinquents. Live, we aim to move people, fill them with a love of music, not crush them and vomit on them. If I tried to crowd-surf? ...There’d be casualties!”
The big man’s got a point. Jump back to November 2005 and such criticisms seem alien against the shrieks of delight and amazement coming from a crowd witnessing a live performance rivalling even those gracing the past of the historic building they’re currently swinging in. At Manchester Opera House, this was the start of five very special days for the Gorillaz. They cemented not only their stature on the world stage with their MTV award but also their reputation as a live act to be reckoned with.
Performing the ‘trailblazer’ launch for the very first inaugural Manchester International Festival, the five day consecutive stint consisted of an extravagant no-holes-barred performance of Demon Days in its entirety. Guest collaborators, Shaun “where's the Whisky in my” Ryder, Bootie Brown from the Pharcyde, Ike Turner and Neneh Cherry were all out in full force, but it’s of special significance that even in such star-studded company, the reason why this particular night will be remembered is that this was the first time the Gorillaz were seen in the ‘flesh’ as it were.
The moment everyone had been waiting for kicked off with comedic aplomb. Two real life puppets of Murdoch and 2D emerged, chatting in 3D like Statler and Waldorf in the Muppets, arguing, moaning and generally misbehaving whilst throwing popcorn at the audience from the rafters. What followed was a pyrotechnical masterclass with a human circus of 87 musicians, singers and performers arriving and departing over an hour. It was unalloyed animal magnetism when the curtain lifted and we saw the Gorillaz for the very first time. At least 25 people were crammed onto the stage, complete with a 14-piece string section and a dazzling video montage projected onto the back screen. The unmistakable figure of Damon Albarn sat centre-stage behind a piano encased in a silhouette, and the incredibly ambitious task of recreating an entire album began. The sound was awesome - whether it was the string section on the opening “Last Living Souls,” or the children's choir on “Dirty Harry,” not since the days when the violin rather than the Star Wars special effects unit was the weapon of choice had the Opera House swayed to such eclectic philharmonic heights.
The success of the show was well documented: reports on Channel 4 News, rave reviews from every man and his dog...Noodle is adamant that every single person played their part that day, “The key to it’s success is down to one thing....the will of so many people to make it happen. On paper every aspect of it looks impossible, to get all those people, the kids’ choirs, Ike Turner, Gospel choirs, the musicians and strings, it could have gone so wrong. But on the day....it worked. The planning for that operation was military...you’re looking at maybe 7 or 8 months work prior to that day.”
If there's one thing that really sticks out from the show it's that you can't really call the Gorillaz a ‘band’ anymore, not in the conventional sense anyway. Rather, a ‘collective’ seems more appropriate when describing the many artists, musicians, rappers, puppeteers, visual specialists etc it takes to put on a spectacle like Manchester. That the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ is a philosophy Russel wholly agrees with. "The great thing about that day,” he beams, “was that each and every performer involved was so excited and enthusiastic towards the whole thing. Just really good will. The shows were bigger than any single personality so it just removed the whole ego side of it and let the occasion and the music come through.”
By ‘ego’ one doesn’t have to try too hard in presuming he may be referring to the undeniable aura/spectre (delete as applicable) of ‘celebrity’ that has shrouded the Gorillaz ever since their conception. Originally, any mention of the band would inevitably lead to talk of one Damon Albarn - as if the two were some kind of Blurred half-man half-monkey Siamese twin - often masking the music itself. Having Britpop royalty fronting the band made sense when the Gorillaz were debutants, but now you get the impression that the band are eager to shed their celebrity shackles and let the music speak for itself.
“Damon has always been a friend and a mentor of Gorillaz, both musically and personally,” explains Noodle, almost postmortem-like. “He also took the role as a part time spokesman for the band. He’s been really supportive and creative during the making of Demon Days, in a position that is probably most easily described as a producer.”
If the past tense in Noodle’s reference to the Blur frontman shows the band wanting to move away from any kind of focus on one individual, it seems the feeling from its most famous member is mutual. Anxious not to steal the well-deserved limelight from the Gorillaz collective, Damon Albarn himself has recently insisted he is to take a “back seat” from the band. It’s a move welcomed especially by Murdoc, who fires a parting shot, adding, “Sometimes he (Damon Albarn) oversteps the mark and makes out he does a whole lot more than he does. See, it's nice to have him around, but don't overstay your welcome, mate.”
That what many people initially called his side-project from Blur might now be regarded as the best thing Damon Albarn’s ever been involved with is perhaps the finest accolade for the band and chart-topping album ‘Demon Days.’ If debut Gorillaz worked well on the sideswipe satire of being the “ultimate manufactured band,’ their follow-up is the battle-hardened sound of the foursome coming of age. Arguably one of the most enjoyable albums of 2005, ‘Demon Days is the Gorillaz’ Opus Dei of clever pop shenanigans and joyous-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink- experimentation that as said, never once seeks to extol the virtues of one individual over the overwhelming talent of the collective. Inventive yet unashamedly catchy, socially conscious yet
instant throwaway fun, the accessible and credible nature of Gorillaz’ tunes have that rare je ne sais quoi usually only advertised by American burger joints and Amsterdam sex shops - “there’s something for everyone.”
“That’s the thing about Gorillaz,” Russel muses on the band’s direction, “our influences span the globe and cross cultures, generations and take in all styles.” When prompted, their answer
sounds like a who’s who of every influential band over the past five decades. Ennio Morricone, Prince, Talking Heads, Can, Kraftwerk and Robert Johnson party on with Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul and Funkadelic in Russel’s world, while Noodle expresses a love for early Bon Jovi, Dr Dre and The Fall. For Murdoc it’s Ozzy all the way, “Black Sabbath. That’s it for me. One band, it’s all I need.”
Listening closely, the sound of the band is nomadic but with a direction and a purpose. Picking up inspiration from everywhere, feeling free to experiment - no sound is too familiar to use, no beat is too abstract to leave out. This is why at Manchester you had the unlikely sight of kids going mental alongside all the proper Muso’s who in turn were going even more bananas. It’s a type of plurality often only seen through sore eyes.
“You've just answered your own question, sonny” Murdoc educates - correctly of course - on the subject of the Gorillaz seeming to have no one set-type of follower. “What we have in common is a mutual love of music... Our music to be precise.” Russel joins in, “The people who get Gorillaz range from people into animation, the cross-pollination of sound, the integrity behind the project...a million reasons. Some of the real music lovers can identify with the choices of collaborators and the references in the sounds we choose, while a lot of kids get it on a very pure level. They like the characters, the videos and the sense of joy, fun in what we do.”
Rather poetically, it's Noodle who perhaps says it best when she puts Gorillaz' charm down to the simplest detail. “I like to think that we appeal to people of all ages and climates, people who just a have a...life in their soul,” she smiles. It's a nice note to close our encounter, but before we escape from the jungle we wonder, with world domination already on the menu, what exactly can we expect next year from the Guiness Book of Records' “Most Successful Virtual Band”?
Well, quite a lot actually. Planning to wow us with a spectacular world tour in 2007, the band are preparing to up the ante on the tantalising tech-wizardry first showcased at Manchester. Going all Red Dwarf on us, Gorillaz are looking at using a Victorian smoke-screen technique known as ‘Pepper's Ghost’ to project ‘holographic' images of themselves, giving them a realistic on-stage feel and presumably, immunity from the fondly thrown bottles of urine so many bands taking up the ‘live performance’ mantle have endured over time.
Reports from the Manchester Festival are also full of Eastern promise, with rumours suggesting that the band is about to embark on a project with traditional Chinese musicians. It sounds exactly like the ambitious production the Gorillaz are famed for, although they're remaining pretty tight-lipped about it. “We could tell you more, but then we'd have to smash your tape recorder up,” says Murdoc, unceremoniously drawing attention to Hooker's shameless shortcomings in the 21stC technology department. “It’s all ‘Top Secret’ I'm afraid old chum, any info we could give out would be on a ‘need to know’ basis and...you don’t need to know.”
So it’s all very hush-hush, but who would bet against an Oriental ‘Year of the Monkey’ being another fortune cookie for a band for whom Lady Luck can do no wrong. Be they Chinese whispers or shouts from the rooftop, it seems mankind the world-over is talking the language of the Gorilla... ‘The Planet of the Apes,’ it seems, was not so far-fetched after all.
INTERVIEW BY RICHARD PRICE
“Demon Days” is available now on Parlophone
I first met Murdoc in a Tapas Bar in Soho, where he grabbed my attention by flicking olives at me. We gazed into each other's eyes while he bored me shitless about his previous conquests and his ‘Grammy-nominated’ status. True, 2005 was very kind to this chap, with his ‘Gorillaz’ cohorts nicking up numerous accolades, worldwide, for their album ‘Demon Days.’ But there's more to this man than just a well-placed chart position.
For someone who turns forty this year, he’s got..er..a great body. It's well spindly. My curiosity has been tickled. How d’you do it? “Well” he burps “...I've been on a diet of speed and Jacky D since I was eight so I've never really eaten that much.” But surely a man of his fame and stature wouldn't need to advertise in Page Seven Fella “Well no... but I’m a collector see; an enthusiast and a connoisseur. I could never be satisfied with just one chick. I need to check ‘em all out.” Urgh! So far his conquests have included all of the Pussycat Dolls. half of Hollyoaks. Courtney Love (but don’t mention that), most of the Suicide Girls and he's even found time to ‘sling one up Gwen Stefani. When asked to describe his ideal lady he says, “I'm a leg man myself, the more the better...but I draw the line at...well...spiders.“ Swoon!
So ladies, grab him before the DNA tests come back and you too could be quids in! Are you the queen of hearts or this ‘King of Gorillaz’? This legendary swordsman also lists his other interests as ‘Satan worshipping, car-crashing, ashtray-stealing and horse-riding’. Yup, he’s a real ‘all-round international playboy’. And like a decrepit Bruce Wayne, this batman also comes with his own shabby Gothic hideaway; the notorious Kong Studios. Built on an Essex hilltop, Kong is a massive mansion-cum-recording studio complex that was recently featured on MTV Cribs. So he’s obviously got good taste too.
Although, predictably, like some kind of crazy-clichéd swashbuckling pirate, you could never tie him down, especially with Gorillaz planning a world tour for 2007. When you combine his jet-set lifestyle, his magical bass-playing and his wild sense of humour he really is an attractive package. And if you honestly are damaged enough to want to be his other half for twenty minutes, you can contact him at Gorillaz.com. As the night draws to a close and with his rancid breath reeking of absinthe and beer. I leave the last line to Murdoc:
“Ladies...an announcement. I am up for it. All the time.“
It's never advisable to get down and dirty with a gorilla, Bouncer or endangered species, it’s a perilous activity best left to a professional... or at the very least to the female population of Essex...
Not ones to be shy of the odd intrepid expedition though, (can't go back to Romford now), Hooker recently encountered some musical monkeys of King Kong stature. Foolhardy, we travelled deep into a ‘dense,’ ‘thick’ chart jungle harbouring the notable dangers of Rachel Stevens, the hazardous James Blunt and an extremely poisonous Liberty X. It was bleak in the mainstream undergrowth, slimy underfoot. But after what seemed an age hacking through mountains of shite and deadwood we eventually found, standing like sore thumbs out of the decaying blandness, the psychotic simians who had seized control of the bewildered forest. We survived to tell the tale, but we haven't been able to stop speaking about ‘Demon Days’ ever since.
Admittedly, it's a far cry from David Attenborough, But amongst the primitive single-cell organisms that inhabit the cesspool we so often ironically refer to as the ‘Top 40’, an unlikely breed of
Gorillaz is flourishing. After a short hiatus following the 2002 self-titled ‘Gorillaz’, Damon Albarn's and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon creations have come back with a meaner look, a devastating
new album and a much-needed mandate to shake up the status-quo. If Darwin's theory of “evolution to ensure survival of the fittest’ is correct, then the animated band’s darker, more musically advanced second coming is ‘virtual’ proof. This is the new-look Gorillaz’ pioneering anti-pop polemic and celebrity take-down, napalm-firing themselves to an unprecedented No.1 UK album and Singles chart double.
Here, in an exclusive up close and personal encounter with the great apes themselves, Hooker's monkeys hang out with synthesizer sympathizer 2D (keyboards, vocals), hip-hop horticulturalist Russel Hobbs (percussion), little miss ‘Manga’ Noodle (vocals) and ex-jailbird and band leader Murdoc Niccals (bass), all the while trying to steer clear of the many obvious monkey-pun banana skins (we wish). We find out just why they've got the whole world going absolutely apeshit for them.
It's said that when the Gorillaz first started out in 2000, they began with a manifesto that subsequently disappeared (not unlike when the Labour party arrived in 1997 come to think of it...). It set out Old Testament style the commandments of the band and where they wanted to go. They lost it. Still, satanist bassist and band leader Murdoc insists that the content of this castaways’ constitution has always been upheld. “The rules are set in stone and written on the back of a Harvester napkin. I wanted a band that would first of all be ‘my band’, that would ‘kill all the shit celebrities’ and ‘make an album so full and so good that everyone would recognise its world-shaking genius immediately.” He thinks he ‘stuck to most of them. Well, definitely the third one”. If you labelled him a cocky sod you'd probably have a point, only, on the basis of the wholesale reaction of the music media to the Gorillaz’ second long player, you'd probably find him a tad too modest
Since the release of the blistering Demon Days, the Gorillaz’ stock has soared to ear-popping altitudes. With 10 million albums under their belt and MTV Europe Best Pop Group crowns firmly stuck on their heads, critical acclaim has jetted in from almost everywhere. Add 5 Grammie nominations and the inevitable Annual Middle-Aged Hackneyed Music Journo award for being the latest band to "Crack AmericaTM” to an already bulging mantelpiece and you start to get an idea of how far up the tree the Gorillaz have climbed since the novelty charm of “Clint Eastwood’ first arrived on our shelves.
There’s no doubting the Gorillaz were always going to be the A-Team in Murdoc’s eyes, but for some band members all the successes of recent months have come as a pleasant, almost embarrassing surprise. For Noodle, the accolades are deserved because they are a band that actually stuck to its guns in being/doing something different. “Gorillaz is more about finding a way to create a group that kids will love and remember when growing up. By presenting ourselves in the way Gorillaz do, they're hearing dub, hip-hop, Cuban music in the mainstream charts. They're getting to hear sounds and artists that they wouldn't normally come across. They're hearing and seeing really good work that doesn't. patronise them. It’s great. So when they grow up they won't feel cheated that their childhood was full of... Westlife, or people simply preying on their innocence to make a quick buck...” Asked the same question, 2D says that the band's original aims were even simpler: “the objective's the same as it's always been...er...don't be rubbish.”
Gorillaz have certainly delivered when it comes this innovative pop premise. The only time the band have come even within a whiff of anything lately ‘rubbish’ was when they were forced to listen to Pete Doherty’s performance at Live 8 back in August. Murdoc was so incensed by the “well overrated” Babyshambles frontman’s performance of T Rex's “Children of the Revolution”
that he wanted to launch a “Make Doherty History” campaign, adding “I could probably get him to sign it too...for half a bag of pink whiz.” On the Pete ‘Shambles vocals, Murdoc explains "the
concert was all about raising awareness, but Peter looked like he was having trouble raising his own awareness. He looked wasted. With Africa we're talking about a nation battling through immense poverty and hardship, and he can't quite get it together to sing a song. When you look at what they’re faced with, it kind of makes his drama seem trivial. On that day he just seemed like an odd sort of image.”
It’s this kind of anti-pop action that explains why Gorillaz are appreciated. When Russel says in general conversation later, “I respect the guts of people who are willing to raise their head above a crowd and disagree in order to make things better,” he unwittingly describes the Gorillaz’ position In the UK music market. They're supposedly a manufactured, virtual band and yet they, more than anyone else on the scene - real, pixellated or surgically enhanced - are the ones directing much needed vitriol towards the music industry’s ‘chummy’ facade and Punch-and-Judy pin-ups.
It's a controversial position the Gorillaz revel in. Agent provocateurs to the bitter end, they've ruffled the feathers of pop music’s glitterati whilst spawning envy at the same time. Jamie Helwett best summed it up when he bellowed, “We're the best band in Europe and we’re not even real!’”Their seizure of the MTV Europe award got fellow nominee 50 Cent hot under the collar. He decreed the band shouldn’t even have been considered as they are four cartoon characters that “Don’t really exist”.
Though never one to Pass up a moment's publicity (remember his ‘beef’ with his mate The Game conveniently falling on the week of his album release) ‘Fiddy’s words have a large audience and in a way bring up a valid point. There are, if you look hard enough, limitations to what a virtual band can do - if you're a cartoon you cant do certain things like touch your audience, crowd-surf, handshake, spit or whatever. Does it matter? Noodle is under no illusions that this makes any difference whatsoever. “We touch people through music. Pink Floyd don't do any of the things you just mentioned either, and they’re huge.” Russel isn’t having any of it either, “If those are the things that constitute being in a band, or ‘touching people,’ then I guess we are in the wrong profession. Gorillaz are musicians, not delinquents. Live, we aim to move people, fill them with a love of music, not crush them and vomit on them. If I tried to crowd-surf? ...There’d be casualties!”
The big man’s got a point. Jump back to November 2005 and such criticisms seem alien against the shrieks of delight and amazement coming from a crowd witnessing a live performance rivalling even those gracing the past of the historic building they’re currently swinging in. At Manchester Opera House, this was the start of five very special days for the Gorillaz. They cemented not only their stature on the world stage with their MTV award but also their reputation as a live act to be reckoned with.
Performing the ‘trailblazer’ launch for the very first inaugural Manchester International Festival, the five day consecutive stint consisted of an extravagant no-holes-barred performance of Demon Days in its entirety. Guest collaborators, Shaun “where's the Whisky in my” Ryder, Bootie Brown from the Pharcyde, Ike Turner and Neneh Cherry were all out in full force, but it’s of special significance that even in such star-studded company, the reason why this particular night will be remembered is that this was the first time the Gorillaz were seen in the ‘flesh’ as it were.
The moment everyone had been waiting for kicked off with comedic aplomb. Two real life puppets of Murdoch and 2D emerged, chatting in 3D like Statler and Waldorf in the Muppets, arguing, moaning and generally misbehaving whilst throwing popcorn at the audience from the rafters. What followed was a pyrotechnical masterclass with a human circus of 87 musicians, singers and performers arriving and departing over an hour. It was unalloyed animal magnetism when the curtain lifted and we saw the Gorillaz for the very first time. At least 25 people were crammed onto the stage, complete with a 14-piece string section and a dazzling video montage projected onto the back screen. The unmistakable figure of Damon Albarn sat centre-stage behind a piano encased in a silhouette, and the incredibly ambitious task of recreating an entire album began. The sound was awesome - whether it was the string section on the opening “Last Living Souls,” or the children's choir on “Dirty Harry,” not since the days when the violin rather than the Star Wars special effects unit was the weapon of choice had the Opera House swayed to such eclectic philharmonic heights.
The success of the show was well documented: reports on Channel 4 News, rave reviews from every man and his dog...Noodle is adamant that every single person played their part that day, “The key to it’s success is down to one thing....the will of so many people to make it happen. On paper every aspect of it looks impossible, to get all those people, the kids’ choirs, Ike Turner, Gospel choirs, the musicians and strings, it could have gone so wrong. But on the day....it worked. The planning for that operation was military...you’re looking at maybe 7 or 8 months work prior to that day.”
If there's one thing that really sticks out from the show it's that you can't really call the Gorillaz a ‘band’ anymore, not in the conventional sense anyway. Rather, a ‘collective’ seems more appropriate when describing the many artists, musicians, rappers, puppeteers, visual specialists etc it takes to put on a spectacle like Manchester. That the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ is a philosophy Russel wholly agrees with. "The great thing about that day,” he beams, “was that each and every performer involved was so excited and enthusiastic towards the whole thing. Just really good will. The shows were bigger than any single personality so it just removed the whole ego side of it and let the occasion and the music come through.”
By ‘ego’ one doesn’t have to try too hard in presuming he may be referring to the undeniable aura/spectre (delete as applicable) of ‘celebrity’ that has shrouded the Gorillaz ever since their conception. Originally, any mention of the band would inevitably lead to talk of one Damon Albarn - as if the two were some kind of Blurred half-man half-monkey Siamese twin - often masking the music itself. Having Britpop royalty fronting the band made sense when the Gorillaz were debutants, but now you get the impression that the band are eager to shed their celebrity shackles and let the music speak for itself.
“Damon has always been a friend and a mentor of Gorillaz, both musically and personally,” explains Noodle, almost postmortem-like. “He also took the role as a part time spokesman for the band. He’s been really supportive and creative during the making of Demon Days, in a position that is probably most easily described as a producer.”
If the past tense in Noodle’s reference to the Blur frontman shows the band wanting to move away from any kind of focus on one individual, it seems the feeling from its most famous member is mutual. Anxious not to steal the well-deserved limelight from the Gorillaz collective, Damon Albarn himself has recently insisted he is to take a “back seat” from the band. It’s a move welcomed especially by Murdoc, who fires a parting shot, adding, “Sometimes he (Damon Albarn) oversteps the mark and makes out he does a whole lot more than he does. See, it's nice to have him around, but don't overstay your welcome, mate.”
That what many people initially called his side-project from Blur might now be regarded as the best thing Damon Albarn’s ever been involved with is perhaps the finest accolade for the band and chart-topping album ‘Demon Days.’ If debut Gorillaz worked well on the sideswipe satire of being the “ultimate manufactured band,’ their follow-up is the battle-hardened sound of the foursome coming of age. Arguably one of the most enjoyable albums of 2005, ‘Demon Days is the Gorillaz’ Opus Dei of clever pop shenanigans and joyous-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink- experimentation that as said, never once seeks to extol the virtues of one individual over the overwhelming talent of the collective. Inventive yet unashamedly catchy, socially conscious yet
instant throwaway fun, the accessible and credible nature of Gorillaz’ tunes have that rare je ne sais quoi usually only advertised by American burger joints and Amsterdam sex shops - “there’s something for everyone.”
“That’s the thing about Gorillaz,” Russel muses on the band’s direction, “our influences span the globe and cross cultures, generations and take in all styles.” When prompted, their answer
sounds like a who’s who of every influential band over the past five decades. Ennio Morricone, Prince, Talking Heads, Can, Kraftwerk and Robert Johnson party on with Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul and Funkadelic in Russel’s world, while Noodle expresses a love for early Bon Jovi, Dr Dre and The Fall. For Murdoc it’s Ozzy all the way, “Black Sabbath. That’s it for me. One band, it’s all I need.”
Listening closely, the sound of the band is nomadic but with a direction and a purpose. Picking up inspiration from everywhere, feeling free to experiment - no sound is too familiar to use, no beat is too abstract to leave out. This is why at Manchester you had the unlikely sight of kids going mental alongside all the proper Muso’s who in turn were going even more bananas. It’s a type of plurality often only seen through sore eyes.
“You've just answered your own question, sonny” Murdoc educates - correctly of course - on the subject of the Gorillaz seeming to have no one set-type of follower. “What we have in common is a mutual love of music... Our music to be precise.” Russel joins in, “The people who get Gorillaz range from people into animation, the cross-pollination of sound, the integrity behind the project...a million reasons. Some of the real music lovers can identify with the choices of collaborators and the references in the sounds we choose, while a lot of kids get it on a very pure level. They like the characters, the videos and the sense of joy, fun in what we do.”
Rather poetically, it's Noodle who perhaps says it best when she puts Gorillaz' charm down to the simplest detail. “I like to think that we appeal to people of all ages and climates, people who just a have a...life in their soul,” she smiles. It's a nice note to close our encounter, but before we escape from the jungle we wonder, with world domination already on the menu, what exactly can we expect next year from the Guiness Book of Records' “Most Successful Virtual Band”?
Well, quite a lot actually. Planning to wow us with a spectacular world tour in 2007, the band are preparing to up the ante on the tantalising tech-wizardry first showcased at Manchester. Going all Red Dwarf on us, Gorillaz are looking at using a Victorian smoke-screen technique known as ‘Pepper's Ghost’ to project ‘holographic' images of themselves, giving them a realistic on-stage feel and presumably, immunity from the fondly thrown bottles of urine so many bands taking up the ‘live performance’ mantle have endured over time.
Reports from the Manchester Festival are also full of Eastern promise, with rumours suggesting that the band is about to embark on a project with traditional Chinese musicians. It sounds exactly like the ambitious production the Gorillaz are famed for, although they're remaining pretty tight-lipped about it. “We could tell you more, but then we'd have to smash your tape recorder up,” says Murdoc, unceremoniously drawing attention to Hooker's shameless shortcomings in the 21stC technology department. “It’s all ‘Top Secret’ I'm afraid old chum, any info we could give out would be on a ‘need to know’ basis and...you don’t need to know.”
So it’s all very hush-hush, but who would bet against an Oriental ‘Year of the Monkey’ being another fortune cookie for a band for whom Lady Luck can do no wrong. Be they Chinese whispers or shouts from the rooftop, it seems mankind the world-over is talking the language of the Gorilla... ‘The Planet of the Apes,’ it seems, was not so far-fetched after all.
INTERVIEW BY RICHARD PRICE
“Demon Days” is available now on Parlophone