Basslines & Boardrides

In 1998 Blur frontman Damon Albarn sought a change of pace, Blur had dominated the indie music industry all throughout the 90’s but while lounging on his couch watching MTV with his roommate, comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, he realized something. Every band on that tv was a parade of puppets the music industry had produced, manufactured bands with no soul. So, they said if the world wants puppets let’s make them worth watching. With a passion to rebel against stale manufactured music Damon and Jamie came together to create just that, a manufactured virtual band made up entirely of animated characters.

From there Gorillaz was born. The band is made up of four members; 2-D who handles vocals, keyboard, and rhythm guitar, Murdoc the bassist, Noodle the lead guitarist, and Russel the drummer. While the band remained fully virtual the music was driven by Damon and the band was animated by Jamie. In 2001 their self-titled debut album took the world by storm. The album climbed to #3 on the UK album charts and #14 on the US billboard thanks to their hit single “Clint Eastwood”.  Since then the Gorillaz have been one of the most influential bands of the 21^st century, with their latest album “The Mountain” released on February 27 of this year.

As the music evolved so did the fictional bandmembers, Albarn and Hewlett have masterfully crafted a deep story within the music videos, art, songs, and other Gorillaz media. They have intracity created a story for each of the four band members, following their complex lives that made them the band we know to be the Gorillaz. Please note the following is all fictional backstories made by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the following events are not real.

Gorillaz begins in the slums of London on June 6, 1966, with the birth of Murdo Niccals, the green-skinned, “unpleasant villain” founder of the Gorillaz. Raised by a drunk, abusive father, he suffers a traumatic childhood, leading him to seek out fame.  Murdoc supposably sold his soul to the devil for a bass guitar call “El Diablo” but was also reported to be a “pathological liar” by Damon so it was not confirmed if his “backstory” is true. Soon after Murdoc sought out a band.

The blue-haired keyboard-enthusiast Stuart Pot was never interested in pursuing music. He found himself working at Uncle Norm’s Organ Emporium on August 15, 1977, when Murdoc’s Vauxhall Astra flew though the shops window, shattering it and fracturing his eye. After Murdoc was charged with 30,000 hours of community service and 10 hours of caring for the injured Stu-Pot, Stuart was launched out of his windshield at 90 miles per hour while Murdoc did donuts in an empty parking lot causing damage to his other eyes. After that Murdoc knew Stuart was to be his lead singer and nicknamed him 2-D because of the two dents in his head from the incident.

Not long after Murdoc found (or in other words kidnapped) their drummer, Russel Hobbs. Russel is a native New Yorker from Brooklyn with a deep love for hip-hop. When he was younger, he witnessed his best friend get shot in a drive by shooting. The violent incident led to the spirit of Russel’s dead friend being syphoned into his head (leading fans to believe this is where the spirit from the Clint Eastwood music video came from) After many traumatic events Russel’s parents sent him to the UK in an attempt to keep him safe. Murdo eventually found him and took him to Kong Studios. Russel said the music was good enough to make him stay.

The band was still missing a guitarist. At first, they went with Paula Craker, 2-D’s girlfriend at the time but after she cheated on 2-D with Murdoc she was out of the band. Still down a guitarist Murdoc put out a flyer in NME magazine that read “Global phenomenon seeks guitarist for world domination-no hippies.” Not long after a FedEx box arrived at Kong Studios and out jumped 10-year-old noodle. She immediately played a guitar riff, ending it by saying “Noodle”. The band concluded she suffered from amnesia seeing as she couldn’t remember her name or where she had come from, thus she was deemed Noodle and made the lead guitarist. From there the Gorillaz were born.

The band is not short of crazy fictional stories made up by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett but that basically sums up the start of the Gorillaz, if you ever want me to cover more of the fictional bands ridiculous lore just Email or DM me and let me know requests are always open.

As always.

Bass in my veins, salt in my hair, grip tape on my soul.

-C