Gorillaz (2001-2012)

Felt the need to post regarding virtual Britpop band Gorillaz demise. With co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett not seeing eye to eye at the moment, a pin has firmly been stuck in the whole cartoon band thing.

It's a sad thing because they've been with me throughout an important time of my life. Although I bang on about Madness, the Mondays, the Roses etc. they were all before my time. Oasis and Blur were closer but being young teenager when they were going head to head I couldn't get involved. So when hitting my peak in my late teens it was the Gorillaz who have been the background music taking me through the past decade, from invincible leary feck of an 18 year old to a settled 29 year old married dad. And the Gorillaz, like myself, have changed a lot over that time.

I first became aware of them, as everyone did, in 2001 with the thumping debut track 'Clint Eastwood'. Fuck knows where the title came from but the tune was banging. There we were freshi out of sixth form, on release for the weekend, a friday night starting off in the gloom of the Durham City Snooker Club - Cheap pints of Grolsch and bags of Seabrooks, a few frames, then off to chase the wanny. And then this song comes on. It's good. Bloody good. So we turn to the box to check out the accompanying video. But fucking hell these little cartoon men are singing it. What is this? This was the Gorillaz. (Strangely enough the next music vid after this was another animated one - Robbie Williams 'Let Love be Your Energy. We preferred the Gs).

The self titled album contained some great, albeit weirdly named, songs - classic pop tunes mixed with an angry edge, and also a hip-hop vibe provided by 'Del the ghost', counteracting 2D's melancholic voice. Bass provided by Stoke based sadist Murdoc, drums by big Russel and Japanese child Noodle played the other guitar. The perfect manufactured band.

By the time the massive 'Demon Days' came out in 2005 a few years had past. University education was coming to and end, and with it came a deep sorrow. I loved the lazy lifestyle and boozing it up with my pals from Leeds, Redcar and Sunderland. Now the end was nigh and it was time to grow up. Demon Days was like that too. Gorillaz had grown up. The album had a darker edge. It suited my mood. It was there as a chapter of my life was closed and a new one opened. Education gone, time to work. And whilst searching for work I bought Demon Days with the pennies gave to me by the DSS. It kept me going whilst on the dole for sixth months. The pick of the litter for me was 'Dare', mainly because Shaun Ryder was in it. My main memory about this LP was with being out with some old school pals on a student night in Lancaster, monged out of my brain and ad-libbing to Feel Good Inc. whilst trying to keep my guts down on the dance floor. Magic. When my passport to pleasure on the Rock and Roll was over and I finally got a job a few of the (swearwordless) songs were on the company's radio list. Along with this I met a girl...

And step forward to the third album half a decade later, Plastic Beach is unlike the two albums before it. Melancholic relaxed content electro. It almost isn't the Gorillaz. And to an extent it isn't. The cartoon holograms seen performing 'live' in 2005/06 have gone, it's now officially Albarn from Blur and 50% of the Clash in daft sailor hats. They'd changed. And I had too. 2010 and I'm happily married to said girl and expecting a child. He comes along and now I'm Plastic Beached. Content and reflective. I'm sat on Melancholy Hill. Now at 17 months old he loves the Gorillaz too. Bopping to 1999-2000.

But I can't help feeling a touch of sadness when I listen to the final single from Plazzy Beach, 'Doncamatic'. This is a reflective song with an underlying message. That it's finished. Daley sings the song, not Albarn, and it's about closing the book, someone stealing your face etc - something that has actually happened to the cartoon characters we love from the Gorillaz. And the most crushing lyric being that "we're all played out".

It's the end of them. It certainly isn't the end of me, but the me of 2001 and 2005 has certainly long gone. But I'm pleased the cartoony nuttiness of Gorillaz was with me providing the soundtrack to some of the most important and enjoyable times of my life...