Wednesday, January 3, 2007

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Review of the Gorillaz year - 2006
As we reach the end of 2006, here's a chance to look back over the last year in the world of Gorillaz! This is a month-by-month run-down of the top Gorillaz news stories of 2006!Enjoy
-GORILLAZ

January
Gorillaz began January with two awards nominations - 'Designer of the year' at the UK design awards for co-creator Jamie Hewlett for his Gorillaz work in 2005, and a brace of Brit Award nominations for the band - an NME award nomination would follow later in the month. Damon Albarn appeared at the Stop The Dams concert / one-day festival in Iceland on the 6th, performing one song 'Aluminium' with the Icelandic band Ghostigital - this song would later be reworked and record as 'Stop The Dams', seeing a release on the Kids With Guns / El Manana single. Second single from Demon Days DARE, which had been threatening to make a breakthrough in the US at the end of 2005, finally entered the Hot 100 in the USA, but only hung around the lower reaches of the chart for a few weeks there. Press highlights of the month came from the Gorillaz interview with Franz Ferdinand in the UK paper The Observer, and an interview with live bassplayer Morgan Nicholls in Bass Guitar magazine. The band also had the honour of having Feel Good Inc played as the first ever video to air on MTV's high definition show. In the third week of the month, Gorillaz' manager Chris Morrison spoke at a management conference saying that the Gorillaz proposed tour for '07/08 was pressing ahead, would cost £8 million, and there was a propsect of stadium shows.

February
In the first week of February, Gorillaz appeared in Q magazine's 'Cash For Questions' in a feature that showcased a lot of new artwork. An exclusive mix of single Dirty Harry was released in Australia and Murdoc found time for a pre-Grammy show chat with Ryan Seacrest. A Gorillaz-designed helmet appeared on ebay in air of charity Warchild on the 8th. On the 9th, Gorillaz opened the Grammy award ceremony with a performance with Madonna, and took home a Grammy (their first) for 'Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals' for Feel Good Inc. The performance however convinced Damon and Jamie that to put on a full holographic tour would be impossible; word got out to the press of this pretty quickly, however the Gorillaz publicists bizarrely issued a statement insisting a tour would go ahead. Subsequent interviews with the pair made it clear that the tour was definitely off, and no further official statement about the tour was ever forthcoming. Less than a week after the Grammys, the band performed Dirty Harry in an audiovisual spectacular at the Brit Awards, but failed to take home either gong for which they were nominated. Also in February, Jamie Hewlett made an appearance on the UK tv program The South Bank show, talking about anime's influence on Gorillaz. The band were lucky at their third awards ceremony of the month at the NME awards on the 23rd, taking home the award for musical innovation. Feature interviews with Jamie appeared in the Sunday Telegraph magazine and Hooker magazine in the UK. Meanwhile, changes were afoot at Kong Studios as Noodle started to pack her stuff into the flying Windmill that appeared tethered outside the building.




March
On 1st March a surprise announcement came that a second series of 'Demon Days Live' shows would take place, this time at the Apollo Theater in New York City (the Manchester concerts of the previous year were originally intended to be a one-off, but enthusiasm for a second set of performances had grown after how successful the first series had been). Various updates at Kong Studios with the windmill flying off prepared the way for the 'El Manana' video premiere on the 11th. An exhibition at London's Design Museum started, showcasing the work of the nominees for the year's UK Design Awards, including Jamie Hewlett - and it featured many rare sketches from Jamie. Feel Good Inc helped Gorillaz earn their fourth major award of the year when it was declared animated video of the year at the British Animation Awards on the 10th. On the 11th, the video to El Manana premiered on the Gorillaz website, and almost as soon as it had, cracks began to appear in Noodle's room (the cracks would grow larger over the coming weeks and months, eventually culminating, by the end of the year, in major damage to the entire Studios). DARE consolidated its moderate impact in the US with an appearance on popular compilation Now 21 in the US, and Gorillaz released a third edition of Demon Days in Japan; the 'Grammy Edition' featured a live bonus track, new cover art and a sticker sheet. Noodle gave a solo interview to UK teen girl mag Sugar in the fourth week of the month. The end of the month saw Demon Days certified Platinum in the US, marking two million copies shipped to retailers in that market. By the end of the year, the album's sales would also surpass 2 million in the USA. On the 31st, Gorillaz performed Dirty Harry on the popular Jonathan Ross chat show in the UK, using the same visuals as those used at the Brit Awards the previous month.

April
The Gorillaz entourage headed stateside for the Demon Days Live NYC residency on the 1st. From 2nd to 6th April they would perform at the Harlem Apollo to sellout crowds. Reviews night one | night two | night three | night four | night five . Notable, the onstage projections didn't work on the first night, and Dennis Hopper was present on the last two nights (all three members of De La Soul were in the house every night as well, in contrast to the Manchester shows of the previous year). Every night, a Murdoc Motorola commercial played before the start of the show, and the commercial would later be shown on television worldwide (Motorola had sponsored the shows). The final night was also video webcast online via the MSN website. Damon and Jamie were also called upon to do lots of press for the US media, including an interview with MTV news (in which Damon speculated that a third series of Demon Days Live shows might take place in Vegas, a comment which came to nothing), an interview with KISS FM, a legendary interview on Maxim radio, an interview with the LA Times and The Independent. In the wake of the shows came the news that Demon Days had gone 5 x platinum in the UK (1,500,000 units shipped to retailers) - it would go on to notch up sales of well over 1,600,000 copies in the UK by the end of the year, making it Gorillaz's best-selling album in the UK. Gorillaz' first mobile phone game 'GES' was released at the end of the first week of April. The fourth single from Demon Days, a double A-side, 'Kids With Guns / El Manana' was released on the 9th in the UK (and around the same time in Japan, Australia and mainland Europe), featuring new tracks. Tragically, on the 11th Gorillaz collaborator and D-12 member Proof was shot dead in Detroit, later in an official statement Gorillaz paid tribute to the slain rapper.

May
In the first week of May, Noodle featured in US teen mag Teen People's '25 Hottest Stars Under 25' list and as part of UK Music Week, Gorillaz were voted 8th greatest British music act. On the 9th, Gorillaz received the 'Artist of the Year' award at the 2006 Webby Awards (the most prestigious internet awards) and 2D and Murdoc made a short acceptance speech (and recorded a slightly longer press interview afterwards). Icon magainze in the UK featured an exclusive Gorillaz cover and feature interview with Jamie Hewlett this month, in which Jamie notably expressed that his desire for Gorillaz next (with the holographic tour now ruled out) was for them to make a movie, using British ideas and talent. Damon himself was not be outdone, with a Gorillaz cover and feature interview with him in the French magaizne Telerama. On the 23rd, it was announced that Jamie had indeed won the 2006 UK Designer Of The Year Award. This was followed up two days later with the announcement that Gorillaz had been named 'songwriters of the year' for the songs released in the past year, at the UK Ivor Novello songwriting awards. At the end of the month, Gorillaz won Best Dance Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. The band also contributed a picture to the 'Save The Human' exhibition that ran in London over the end of May and throughout June, at various venues.

June
A piece in Q magazine about the Gorillaz New York shows spark rumours in the press that Gorillaz were to make a movie with producer Harvey Weinstein. MTV broadcast a major documentary about the band online and in most countries around the world - "The Essentials : Gorillaz" was based mostly on an extensive interview conducted with Damon and Jamie during their stay in New York for the NYC shows, and archive material. Over the first weekend in June, Gorillaz fever came to the Hay literary festival in Wales, with a masterclass for child competition winners and a presentation about the making of the Gorillaz vidoes, all organised by Andrew Ruhemann, executive producer for Passion Pictures (makers of the Gorillaz promos). Murdoc's birthday on the 6th ended the countdown in the Hellhole on the Gorillaz website that had been going on a few weeks, with Murdoc rising out of the hole at midnight. The film footage shot from the final night of the Gorillaz Apollo shows was pro-edited into a concert film and premired at a Los Angeles film festival on the 9th. Press pick of the month was Damon's interview with Bulb magazine.

July
A clip of Gorillaz appearing in the Mexican soap opera 'Rebelde' (from earlier in the year) surfaced online in early July. A new Gorillaz summer clothing range was released, and details continued to emerge about Gorillaz' announced official biography, and, for the first time this month, their second compilation DVD.

August
A new line of Gorillaz figures was announced for the end of the year. Samuel L. Jackson was revealed as a Gorillaz fan, and Demon Days was voted the UK's 95th most favourite album, in a major poll. It was also revealed that Feel Good inc was to be part of a Polka on famous parodist Weird Al Yankovic's latest album.

September
Gorillaz picked up nominations for an mtvU award and the UK Live Music awards. The most inventive merchandise yet hit Gorillaz G-shop in the shape of Murdoc knickers. At the end of the month, Damon stated in an interview with Uncut magazine that preparations continued apace for the Gorillaz movie and that famous director Terry Gilliam was now involved.

October
Gorillaz picked up a US College Radio play award for Feel Good Inc at the start of October, and Murdoc wrote a letter to Q magazine to congratulate it on its 20th anniversary. The film 'Stormbreaker', out this month, featured Feel Good Inc prominently. The first colour scheme of the new Gorillaz figures went onsale on the 27th. Murdoc promoted the new figures in chats with Billboard and Kidrobot. Gorillaz took home awards at both the MTVu awards ceremony and the UK Live music awards (the latter show featured a lengthy video thankyou speech from Damon and Jamie which was later edited for television to a few seconds). Gorillaz book Rise Of The Ogre (in which this website Gorillaz-Unofficial picked up a mention was released worldwide at the end of the month, launched with a signing in London, UK. An exhibition of Gorillaz artwork prints over hoardings was launched on London's South Bank, where it would stay till February 2007. In rather humorous news, a news report at the end of the month revealed that the son of Liam Gallaher (a longstanding rival of Damon Albarn) was a big fan of Gorillaz.

November
The Gorillaz second compilation DVD 'Slowboat To Hades' was released at the start of the month. A second signing, this time on London's Oxford Street, was staged to promote Rise Of The Ogre. An exclusive interview with Jamie Hewlett conducted by Gorillaz-Unofficial more of Gorillaz plans for their proposed movie. The second colour scheme of the new Gorillaz figures was released. The US itunes shop released the first in a series of four digital EPs featuring audio and video tracks and digital booklets, each with a lead track from the Gorillaz four singles from Demon Days and collecting other tracks from previously released singles. The final EP, Feel Good Inc, would be released on 26 December and was the only one to contain a previously unreleased track 'Feel Good Inc (Noodle's Demo)'. Murdoc was drafted in to promote Rise Of The Ogre on Amazon.com and Guardian Unlimited and Yahoo Espanol.

December
Gorillaz were featured in a limited way (with the figures as competition prizes and ripped screenprints hanging up) in the annual Santa's Ghetto exhibition in London, UK. It was announced that Rise Of The Ogre would be getting an accompanying audiobook release released initially via iTunes and split into single-length tracks, with one track released per week. Good news came on the 12th in the form of a Grammy nomination for Demon Days Live for best longform video. Jamie Hewlett appeared on the Culture Show in the UK to talk about his influences when creating Gorillaz with film critic Mark Kermode. A fun audio interview with Murdoc and 2D was conducted via a podcast from The Times UK newspaper. A new Pressie Stacker game and digital Advent calendar provided festive cheer on the Gorillaz official website, and those lucky enough to have MTV's high definition station MHD in the US, could watch the Gorillaz Demon Days Live NYC concert film on the 31st, to see in the new year with a Gorillaz-sounding bang.


2006 releases
Kids With Guns / El Manana
Demon Days Live
Phase Two : Slowboat To Hades
Rise Of The Ogre
The US iTunes digital EPs


Coming in 2007...
The Grammys... Gorillaz are up for an award. Will they win? Tune into the Tv coverage in February to find out.
More updates on the band's website Kong Studios, details to be confirmed
More updates on the progress of the Gorillaz movie

"I would love to thank everyone for your support!2006 has been a awesome year an hopefully so will 2007!Thank you so much everyone!Every good band is destroyed by their success.Cartoon bands are no exception."
-Noodle

"...thanks fo the support guys...we really appreciate it!"
2D

"uhhhhh thank you for buying our albums,clothes,ect.....yeah thanks.IM KING OF GORILLAZ AND KING OF THE WORLD.HAIL SATAN!"
+Murdoc+

"Thank you so much everyone!Like Noodle said,2006 was a very great year for Gorillaz.We know 2007 will be even better!Much thanks"
Russ

Gorillaz:"May a legacy live on"


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