24th June 2010
Gorillaz Pre-Glastonbury Rehearsal
Black Island Studios, London
(Article written for Relapse Media)
On Thursday 24th June, as the rest of London sweltered in the heat, a small crowd gathered in the cool depths of studio six at Black Island
Studios. Forty lucky *Sub Divisioners and their guests were invited to watch the Gorillaz pre-Glastonbury rehearsal.
Standing in the shadows of the 90-50ft warehouse, guests mingled with band members including Gorillaz cartoonist Jamie Hewlett.
The early afternoon kick-off saw the Gorillaz unmasked and not hiding behind their cartoon persona’s. Albarn (Blur), Simonon and Jones (The Clash) and a star studded line-up took guests through the live rehearsal, performing songs from all 3 albums (Gorillaz, Demon Days and Plastic Beach) delivering an optimum performance.
Set-list as follows:
Orchestral Introduction
Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach
Last Living Souls
Kids With Guns
O Green World
Stylo
On Melancholy Hill
Rhinestone Eyes
Broken
Empire Ants
Dirty Harry
White Flag
Superfast Jellyfish
Dare
Glitter Freeze
Some Kind Of Nature
El Mañana
Cloud Of Unknowing
Pirate Jet
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head
To Binge
Feel Good Inc
Clint Eastwood
Accompanying the Gorillaz were The Syrian National Orchestra, Rock Legend Lou Reed delivered a fabulous performance of Some Kind of Nature, two of Manchester’s own, Mark E Smith (Glitter Freeze) and
Shaun Ryder (Dare) made guest appearances. Bobby Womack (Cloud of Unknowing and Stylo), two of De La Soul (Feel Good) and Rosie Wilson also took to the stage. Guests were left wondering if Snoop Dogg would be make appearance, which, unfortunately, he didn’t, and neither did Little Dragon. Albarn put his arm out to gesture to the missing singer during what would have been her performance.
Melancholy Hill's video premièred live for the first time and later an extended version of Pirate Jet was performed live where at this point Albarn asked where the words were for the Karaoke. He then invited the audience to sing-along to the rather stirring visuals of dying fish affected by discarded rubbish, plastic waste and pollution.
The accompanying video for Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head showed a selection of clips from Dennis Hopper’s film 'Easy Rider' (1969), which brought Hopper, Fonda and Southern a best screen play Oscar
nomination. Sadly Hopper died of cancer on 29th May 2010. A black and white photo of him aired towards the end of the song.
Over an hour into the performance Albarn suggested a five minute break which allowed guests to mingle with band members.
Gorillaz belted out a fabulous rendition of Clint Eastwood before coming to a close.
As the roadies packed up the equipment ready to cart off to Glastonbury, some guests hung back to collect autographs and chat to the production team.
Just before the doors were finally closed, Albarn appeared on his bicycle, signed some autographs and chatted to fans stating that he was going to get an early night. Then he simply just cycled off into
London.
Just another ordinary day in the life of a Pop Genius.
Glastonbury was the Gorillaz only UK festival appearance, their performance being supported by massive audio-visual spectacular.
Albarn was reported to have said he’d had nightmares about ‘playing to an empty field.’ Personally, I think they did exceptionally well considering U2 pulled out at the very last minute.
I saw U2 perform a couple of years ago and they were good for their time, but the Gorillaz have something new to offer, they’re fresh, exciting and were triumphant in their headline performance at The early afternoon kick-off saw the Gorillaz unmasked and not hiding behind their cartoon persona’s. Albarn (Blur), Simonon and Jones (The Clash) and a star studded line-up took guests through the live rehearsal, performing songs from all 3 albums (Gorillaz, Demon Days and Plastic Beach) delivering an optimum performance.
Set-list as follows:
Orchestral Introduction
Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach
Last Living Souls
Kids With Guns
O Green World
Stylo
On Melancholy Hill
Rhinestone Eyes
Broken
Empire Ants
Dirty Harry
White Flag
Superfast Jellyfish
Dare
Glitter Freeze
Some Kind Of Nature
El Mañana
Cloud Of Unknowing
Pirate Jet
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head
To Binge
Feel Good Inc
Clint Eastwood
Accompanying the Gorillaz were The Syrian National Orchestra, Rock Legend Lou Reed delivered a fabulous performance of Some Kind of Nature, two of Manchester’s own, Mark E Smith (Glitter Freeze) and
Shaun Ryder (Dare) made guest appearances. Bobby Womack (Cloud of Unknowing and Stylo), two of De La Soul (Feel Good) and Rosie Wilson also took to the stage. Guests were left wondering if Snoop Dogg would be make appearance, which, unfortunately, he didn’t, and neither did Little Dragon. Albarn put his arm out to gesture to the missing singer during what would have been her performance.
Melancholy Hill's video premièred live for the first time and later an extended version of Pirate Jet was performed live where at this point Albarn asked where the words were for the Karaoke. He then invited the audience to sing-along to the rather stirring visuals of dying fish affected by discarded rubbish, plastic waste and pollution.
The accompanying video for Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head showed a selection of clips from Dennis Hopper’s film 'Easy Rider' (1969), which brought Hopper, Fonda and Southern a best screen play Oscar
nomination. Sadly Hopper died of cancer on 29th May 2010. A black and white photo of him aired towards the end of the song.
Over an hour into the performance Albarn suggested a five minute break which allowed guests to mingle with band members.
Gorillaz belted out a fabulous rendition of Clint Eastwood before coming to a close.
As the roadies packed up the equipment ready to cart off to Glastonbury, some guests hung back to collect autographs and chat to the production team.
Just before the doors were finally closed, Albarn appeared on his bicycle, signed some autographs and chatted to fans stating that he was going to get an early night. Then he simply just cycled off into
London.
Just another ordinary day in the life of a Pop Genius.
Glastonbury was the Gorillaz only UK festival appearance, their performance being supported by massive audio-visual spectacular.
Albarn was reported to have said he’d had nightmares about ‘playing to an empty field.’ Personally, I think they did exceptionally well considering U2 pulled out at the very last minute.
Glastonbury. The field certainly didn’t look empty to me.
Gorillaz are set to release the next Plastic Beach single “On Melancholy Hill” in a special download package on iTunes on July 26th 2010.
The package will include the single LP, the video and animatic “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” live show video featuring Snoop, Melancholy Hill remixes, plus the Stylo remix by Labrinth and Tinie Tempah.
A big thanks to Craig Duffy for his help and support.
©
Amanda J Window
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