Gorillaz World Tour To Kick Off October 3 In North America

GORILLAZ — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

GORILLAZ WORLD TOUR TO KICK OFF OCTOBER 3 IN NORTH AMERICA

THREE MONTH “ESCAPE TO PLASTIC BEACH” GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO INCLUDE FIRST EVER MADISON SQUARE GARDEN HEADLINE

Plastic Beach #1 in NPR’s Mid-Year Best Music of 2010 So Far Listeners’ Poll

New and Exclusive Video Material Live Now at Gorillaz Official Hulu Channel

With blown minds still reeling from a record-breaking one-off headline appearance at this year's Coachella festival, Gorillaz have confirmed that their worldwide "Escape To Plastic Beach" tour will begin in North America with a 20 date stretch commencing October 3 at Montreal's Bell Centre and including the band's first ever performance at Madison Square Garden on October 8.

Gorillaz fanclub, the Sub-Division, will benefit from a 48 hour pre-sale ahead of tickets going on general sale. To join Sub-Division go to www.gorillaz.com/subdivision. Get a sneak peak of the Gorillaz live experience here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Kf1LtDQxE.

The U.S. and Canada dates, full details of which will be announced shortly, will be followed by a series of 10 shows across Europe and the UK, including a two-night stand at London's O2 arena, as well as seven shows across Australia and Asia.

Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's new live experience encompassing material from all three multi-platinum Gorillaz albums played its first ever show at this April's Coachella festival, absolutely slaying a crowd of 70,000 in the final headline slot of the weekend. Featuring Albarn, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, Bobby Womack, Little Dragon, Bootie Brown, UK Hip Hop stars Kano and Bashy and others as well as video animation, artwork, film and stage design by Hewlett, Gorillaz have since played in front of more than 400,000 fans headlining Glastonbury, Roskilde in Denmark and Benicassim Festival in Spain and will soon become the first Western band of their magnitude to play in Syria when they play the ancient Citadel in Damascus on July 25th following a headline slot at Byblos Festival, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Universal raves for the current Gorillaz live band have included the following:

"The guest appearances from Bobby Womack, De La Soul, the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, and more were all real. Not that Albarn really needed any help commanding attention. He sang with real soul and exhibited boundless energy... This, ladies and gentlemen, was pop spectacle done right."—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"The evolving band-art project -- that originally began as a partnership between Blur's Damon Albarn and comics artist Jamie Hewlett -- was at its most expansive at Coachella. Albarn acted as a composer and a conjurer, directing a mini symphony and waving his arms to inspire flashes of synthesized and electronic sounds. The Gorillaz -- aided by Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, anchors of what was once one of England's most ambitious bands, the Clash -- were, in many ways, the most perfect of Coachella bands."—LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Gorillaz, the multi-media music project helmed by former Blur front man Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett, is the most intriguing, and perhaps one of the most important, music groups to emerge from the '00s. Nowhere was that more obvious than Sunday night at Coachella, when Gorillaz sucked the crowd from virtually every other portion of Empire Polo Field for a rousing conclusion to the festival."—LA WEEKLY

On the heels of the recently released third Gorillaz album Plastic Beach being voted #1 album of 2010 thus far in NPR's listeners poll, and first single/video "Stylo" setting the record for the most successful YouTube Music Tuesday premiere ever, Gorillaz have followed up with an epic clip for "On Melancholy Hill." The narrative reveals the whereabouts of Gorillaz guitar slinger Noodle, making her first appearance since her apparent demise in the "El Manana" video that capped the 2005-2006 Demon Days campaign, and drummer Russel Hobbs, returning from MIA status transformed into a giant. "On Melancholy Hill" also picks up immediately following the conclusion of the white knuckle chase captured in "Stylo," with Noodle's Cyborg doppelganger, Murdoc and vocalist 2D headed to Plastic Beach by way of an undersea odyssey featuring cameos from Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Simonon and Jones, De La Soul and more. The full back story of the various Gorillaz misadventures filling the gap between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, the discovery of Point Nemo and construction of Murdoc's new HQ, the formation of the current Gorillaz live band and more are chronicled in Journey To Plastic Beach: http://www.hulu.com/watch/158164/gorillaz-journey-to-plastic-beach#s-p1-sr-i0. Journey To Plastic Beach recently debuted alongside "Feel Good Inc.," "DARE," "Clint Eastwood" and other visual essentials from the extensive Gorillaz videography at the band's recently christened Hulu channel at http://www.hulu.com/gorillaz

Plastic Beach was released March 9 in the U.S. on EMI's Virgin Records. It immediately set two career landmarks, selling more than 112,000 copies in its first week and entering the U.S. album chart at #2. Both career highs, the sales number and chart position bested those of 2005's double-platinum Demon Days, which sold 107,000 in its debut week, entering the chart at #6.

Gorillaz a/k/a Murdoc Niccals, 2D, Noodle and Russell Hobbs were co-created by Albarn and Hewlett over ten years ago, and unleashed on the world with their self-titled 2001 debut album, which has sold nearly two million copies in the U.S. The band's 2005 follow up, Demon Days, featured the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal Grammy winner "Feel Good Inc." and sold in excess of two million copies in America.

For further developments in the ongoing Gorillaz saga, check back hourly at the all new http://gorillaz.com, follow the band's own Murdoc Niccals at www.twitter.com/murdocgorillaz, or check out the Gorillaz YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gorillaz

Gorillaz' PLASTIC BEACH Released Today; "Stylo" Is Most Successful Premiere In YouTube History

GORILLAZ — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

GORILLAZ’ PLASTIC BEACH RELEASED TODAY

EXCLUSIVE BONUS FEATURES GALORE ON
iTUNES LP AND DELUXE EXPERIENCE EDITION

“STYLO” SETS RECORD AS MOST SUCCESSFUL
MUSIC VIDEO PREMIERE IN YOUTUBE HISTORY

“…some of the most forward-looking music you’ll hear this or any other year… Plastic Beach is more than the sum of its big-name parts.”
—Q

“From the Thriller-infused electro-funk of "Stylo" to the bubbly grooves of "Superfast Jellyfish" and "Some Kind of Nature," there's something for everyone, and often in the same song… Plastic Beach exudes fun.”
—NPR Music

“Gorillaz’s third excellent album in a row”
—Rolling Stone

"[Gorillaz] has returned, once again gilding their four-character core with a delightfully random roster of guest stars... its songs sound like dispatches from a crew of hip-kid astronauts, unmoored in some space-dust ether... they do it with style."
—Entertainment Weekly

"Befitting an album about an ocean, the collection gains momentum via the song-to-song ebb and flow... It works both as a conceptual piece and also as a collection of danceable pop... for a bunch of cartoon characters, it does feel especially alive and human."
—Stereogum

Gorillaz’ third album, the already globally acclaimed Plastic Beach, is released today in the U.S. on EMI’s Virgin Records.

The physical and digital deluxe editions of Plastic Beach promise to surpass anything previously hatched from the Gorillaz imaginarium: The iTunes LP version of Plastic Beach includes the record-breaking “Stylo” video and a Making of “Stylo” documentary; a video collection of Gorillaz animation, Plastic Beach trailers and six exclusive films set to album tracks; a still gallery featuring original Gorillaz art and images exclusive to iTunes; a Gorillaz interactive game; and an Online Extras section providing access to Gorillaz live concert performances and additional exclusives. The iTunes deluxe edition of the record also features the bonus tracks “Pirate’s Progress: and “Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons.”

The physical “Experience Edition” of Plastic Beach includes such bonuses as a Making of Plastic Beach DVD, ability to stream live Gorillaz performances, and a special access card unlocking a world of exclusive and interactive online content to be revealed over time.

Having already been hailed with a 4-star Rolling Stone review and an Entertainment Weekly “Must List” plug, Plastic Beach’s first single, “Stylo,” was unveiled in its video incarnation Tuesday March 2 on YouTube. The “Stylo” world premiere instantly became the most successful official music video premiere in YouTube Music Tuesday history, generating over 900,000 views in its first 24 hours, since breezing past the million view mark and surpassing previous record holders U2 and Weezer. The “Stylo” video can also be seen on VH1, MTV, MTV2, MTVU, Logo, and Fuse.

Elsewhere, the NPR Music Exclusive First Listen for Plastic Beach was the #1 most popular story on NPR.org in its first 24 hours.

Plastic Beach is the first Gorillaz album produced entirely by Damon Albarn and features a roster of guest stars including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed, The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, The National Orchestra for Arabic Music and many more. Gorillaz a/k/a Murdoc Niccals, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs were co-created by Albarn and visual artist Jamie Hewlett over ten years ago, and unleashed on the world with their self-titled 2001 debut album, which has sold nearly two million copies in the U.S. The band’s 2005 follow up, Demon Days, featured the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal Grammy-winner “Feel Good Inc.” and sold in excess of two million copies in America. Gorillaz will headline the April 18 final day of this year’s Coachella festival in Indio CA, which will be the first live Gorillaz experience in the States since the Demon Days Live sold out five-night run that took place in April 2006 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater.

For further developments in the ongoing Gorillaz saga, check back hourly at the all new http://gorillaz.com/, follow the band’s own Murdoc Niccals at www.twitter.com/murdocgorillaz, or check out the Gorillaz YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gorillaz.

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Gorillaz World Tour To Kick Off October 3 In North America

Gorillaz' PLASTIC BEACH Released Today; "Stylo" Is Most Successful Premiere In YouTube History