Gorillaz
Formed in 1998 by Blur’s
Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz are a ‘virtual band’
comprising four fictional band members. They have so far released three albums,
and as a collaborative act have worked with a diverse range of artists over the
years, including Roots Manuva, Neneh Cherry, Snoop Dogg, Loud Reed, Mos Def,
and the actor Dennis Hopper. Fittingly, the musical content is an eclectic mix
of different genres, such as hip hop, pop, electronica and alternative rock.
The band released their eponymous debut LP in 2001, selling over seven million copies to date, and producing four single releases in ‘Clint Eastwood’, ‘19-2000’, ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’, and ‘Rock the House’. They followed this up in 2002 with the release of the ‘Phase One: Celebrity Take Down’ DVD, a collection of various promos, videos, and a documentary. During this time, Hewlett and Albarn were also mulling over the prospect of a movie featuring the band. However, after several unsuccessful meetings with studio representatives, they shelved the idea with the intention of funding and producing a movie themselves in the future.
2005 brought the release of the band’s second album, ‘Demon Days’, which entered the UK album chart at number one, and has so far sold over eight million copies. Interest in the album was generated in late 2004 through the use of a guerrilla marketing campaign, channelled through the website www.rejectfalseicons.com. The site encouraged fans to place ‘Reject False Icons’ stickers anywhere they thought appropriate, and then upload photos of their work onto the site. The flagship single of the album, ‘Feel Good Inc’, made it to number two in the UK singles chart, remaining in the top ten for eight consecutive weeks. The following single, ‘DARE’, gave the band their first UK number one on its release in August 2005.
After the release of the ‘Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades’ DVD in October 2006, alongside an illustrated ‘autobiography’ called ‘Rise of the Ogre’, Hewlett and Albarn began to revisit the idea of a Gorillaz film. Intending to produce the movie themselves, the duo were reported to have been collaborating with both Harvey Weinstein and Terry Gilliam, with the movie’s soundtrack intended to be the Gorillaz’ third album. However, the project was again put on the back-burner in late 2007, with Hewlett saying that ‘we didn’t think that we’re in a position to make the kind of movie we want to make’. Instead, the pair began work on a new Gorillaz project, which eventually became the band’s third album, ‘Plastic Beach’, released in March 2010. The album debuted at number two on both the UK albums chart and the US Billboard 200 chart, and received an overwhelmingly positive critical response, acclaimed as ‘a new benchmark for collaborative music’ by the BBC Music website. Not bad a bad effort to date for four cartoon musicians!
