1 - The Phase One Live Concerts

The Gorillaz live shows are perhaps the most impressive realisation of Albarn and Hewlett's vision. Who would have thought that a fictional band could play live?

The problem was solved for the Phase One live dates (march 2001 - July 2002) by having a full live band (guitars, singer, backing singer, drums, bass, keyboard, turntables, rappers - to see the identities of the real musicians, visit the creator biography section) perform behind a screen which covered the whole front of the stage of the concert venue. On the screen were projected various animations and flash videos (they were more abstract animations than actual representations of the fictional band playing - in fact the fictional band in interviews commented that they performed behind a screen), and occasionally light was shone strongly at the screen so the silhouettes of the real life players could be seen. In addition to the music, the Gorillaz themselves spoke to the audience. This was done in two ways - 'Noodle' and 'Russel' spoke through actors live at almost every gig (and on at least one occasion, 2D and Murdoc also spoke live, see below) but at at least one gig recorded dialogue was also played through the speakers. The live show continually evolved in subtle ways, and the changes are documented below:-

London Scala Show (first show March 2001): Only Noodle and Russel spoke live, and clips from the Apex Tapes were also played between songs to give the impression that 2D and Murdoc were also behind the screen. The stage setup was one basic screen (this would remain unchanged until the US tour). After this intial date, playing of the Apex Tapes was dropped. Also at the end of this show, Ed Case and Sweetie Irie performed the Ed Case Refix of Clint Eastwood on a balcony.

London Forum Show (September 2001): The Gorillaz live show had remained unchanged (apart from minor setlist changes) from the second gig. For this show however, Murdoc and 2D also spoke live. This may have been the only live gig that Murdoc spoke at.

December 2001 shows: For these shows (just two, Bristol Academy and Fabric, London) the live visuals were altered to include images of the Afghanistan war. The mood was more sombre and no characters spoke live to the fans.

North American Tour: The live stage set up was changed for this tour to accomodate two screens over the stage. On to the upper screen, much the same animations were projected as had been on dates thus far. On the lower screen phrases and written interview snippets were projected, and a strong light shone much more of the time than had been the case on the previous tour dates, so the band's silhouettes were seen more often. Also two Gorilla Bites (short animated videos) were projected onto the screen with accompanying audio during gaps between certain tracks. For the New York show only, the rap group D-12 performed the song '911' in front of the screens as a second encore.

Isle Of MTV (last Phase One live show): Same general set-up as the North American tour, though some more visuals were done for the lower screen.

2 - Award Show Appearances

The Gorillaz also made 'live appearances' at two award shows - The Brit Awards 2002 and The Golden Music Awards in Taiwan. The set-up for these was largely the same, although The Brit Awards additionally featured huge blocks at the side of the stage in which dancers did a dance routine. The set-up that was common to the two appearances was as follows:- there were four large screens on stage, each on to each was projected an image of one of the band members, as a 3d model. The band members on the screens performed the whole song (Clint Eastwood) to a pre-recorded backing musical track. Rappers did the raps on stage moving around the screens.

Return to Gorillaz in the Media Index Return to Biography Index