Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. The band primarily consists of four animated members: 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs. Their fictional universe is presented in music videos, interviews and short cartoons.
Musician Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur, which Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewlett's comic strip Tank Girl. Hewlett initially thought Albarn was "arsey, a wanker;" and despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon's ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997. Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica.
The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV. Hewlett said, "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a virtual band, something that would be a comment on that." Albarn recalled the idea similarly, saying "This was the beginning of the sort of boy band explosion... and it just felt so manufactured. And we were like, well let's make a manufactured band but make it kind of interesting."The band originally identified themselves as "Gorilla" and the first song they recorded was "Ghost Train,"which was later released as a B-side on their single "Rock the House".
Gorillaz, unlike other fictional bands, were not created as a parody of a particular genre (GWAR, Dethklok), marketed to young children (Alvin and The Chipmunks), depictions of the people behind the band (Prozzak), or created for television (The Archies, Josie and The Pussycats, Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem). Instead, Gorillaz were originally created to be explored through the internet (a new medium at the time), and were intended for an older audience than the cartoon bands before them, while the quality of their actual musical output was usually more of an attraction to their fans than their existence as cartoon characters.
The bands that influence their music range from Massive Attack and The Specials, to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, to Daft Punk and Beck, while they are visually inspired by Hanna Barbera, Looney Tunes, Mad Magazine, Heavy Metal, 2000 AD, and many classic horror movies. They have said that The Simpsons was a big influence on Gorillaz for “the way that they invade popular culture and comment on it in a pretty organic way”. Today, Albarn says that Gorillaz was developed out of “a very morbid obsession with the end of the world”.
On August 15, 1997, when Stuart was 19, his life changed forever after hooligan Murdoc Niccals, age 31, purposefully crashed his Vauxhall Astra through the wall of Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium, where Stuart had been working.
It was an attempt to ram-raid it and steal the synths. Murdoc's bumper crashed into Stuart's face, landing him with an 8-ball fracture also known as 'hyphema', although he could still see through his injured eye. Murdoc was arrested and sentenced to carry out 30,000 hours (1,250 days) of community service as well as care for the incapacitated Stuart for 10 hours every week.
Noodle arrived at the doorstep of Kong Studios in 1998, in a FedEx crate. Once the crate was taken inside, Noodle sprung out of the box and performed a guitar solo (which 2-D described as being "brilliant" as well as sounding like "200 demons screaming in Arabic"). She ended her solo with a twenty-foot high karate kick and saying a few words in Japanese before bowing and saying the word "noodle." This earned her the name "Noodle" (her only currently known name) and a spot in the band as lead guitarist (replacing Paula Cracker).
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On August 15, 1997, Murdoc and a gang of criminals were on a crime spree in a stolen Vauxhall Astra. Their next target was Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium where Stuart Pot (AKA 2-D) was working. Murdoc launched the car through the shop window, crashing directly into Stuart's face, putting him into a coma and giving him an 8-ball fracture on his left eye. After the incident, Murdoc was arrested and was sentenced to 30,000 hours of community service and spending 10 hours a week caring for Stuart. One day while skidding his car around a car park in Nottingham, Murdoc accidentally sent Stuart flying through the windshield into a curb, giving Stuart a fracture on his right eye, yet waking him up from his coma. Impressed by Stuart's appearance, describing him as "a blue-haired, black-eyed god", Murdoc recruited him as the lead singer and keyboardist for his band and gave him the nickname 2-D for the two dents in his head.
One rainy night outside a 7-Eleven Store, Russel's companions were killed in a drive-by shooting by a gang of "gang bangers" driving a black Humvee. They were all wearing red hooded tops. One of them was wearing a black hood who Russel identified as The Grim Reaper. After the shooting, the spirits of Russel's friends came to reside in his body, the most prominent being Russel's best friend Del the Ghost Rapper. The process of possession permanently turned Russel's eyes milky white. After the drive-by shooting incident, Russel was sent to the UK for his own safety to live with his uncle in Belsize Park. He got a job working behind the counter at Big Rick Black's Record Shack in London's Soho area. That's when he first encountered Murdoc Niccals. While asking Russel for an obscure 50s record, Murdoc slipped a bag over Russel's head and forced him out of the shop. Russel was taken back to Kong Studios and was impressed with the music that Murdoc was working on, so he chose to stay.