IN June, Damon Albarn became the first man to headline Glastonbury two years running – fronting two different bands.
In 2009 it was the reunion of Blur, with the original line-up sharing the stage after years of discontent and taking care of unfinished business in a very public manner.
This year it was the band Albarn formed as a side-project, the cartoon heroes Gorillaz.
While they were originally a post-modern construct hidden behind animated videos and fictional characters, they have evolved into a touring act.
Gone are the screens the band once played behind while animations were projected on to them. Gone, too, is the attempt at playing alongside holograms – the depth and frequency of Gorillaz’ bass sounds caused technical mayhem.
Now a core group – featuring half of the Clash in Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, as well as Albarn – bring the cartoon band’s three albums to life while huge screens show purpose-made visuals based around Gorillaz’ latest album, Plastic Beach.
“It’s a strong band,” Albarn says. “When Paul said he wanted to go on tour it changed the whole thing for me. Then Mick said he was up for it. From that point, with the core band having such an identity, it was impossible to keep it so in the background as we had on previous outings.”
Gorillaz have become the festival band du jour, headlining Coachella in the US, Roskilde in Denmark and Benicassim in Spain, as well as Glastonbury. And they’ll bring the show to Australia this summer.
It will be Albarn’s first visit Down Under since Blur toured in 1997. “I got a bit distracted with Africa and the Middle East,” he says. “I’m excited to come back.”
However, after Glastonbury, where a parade of guest vocalists from the Gorillaz albums – including Lou Reed, Shaun Ryder and Bobby Womack – joined them onstage, Albarn admitted that, in hindsight, the show was missing the human element.
“It was simply that I presumed the audience would know all the people who were walking onstage, so I didn’t think it necessary to introduce them,” he explains. “It turns out they didn’t know who Lou Reed or Bobby Womack or anyone was. It was understandable that I would presume that. But it’s funny how these things catch you unaware sometimes. Since that I’ve put more of my natural frontman schtick into the mix, and that whole problem disappeared immediately.
“I was very proud of Glastonbury. To have the ability to headline two years in a row, with two different bands, is something I’m really chuffed about. I learnt something that night. It shows you never stop learning.”
Indeed, Albarn says getting back onstage with Blur – something he thought would never happen – has directly influenced Gorillaz.
“I’ve found my mojo again, for performing and being a frontman,” he says. “I’d hung up my boots, really. But they’re on again now. I do enjoy it. I’ve stepped up again, really.
“My experience last summer with Blur was a very positive one. I’m very lucky to have so many different things I’m involved in at once. This is the longest stint of touring I’ll have done. Three months is a long time.
“My daughter is more grown up now, but the idea of just turning into an endlessly globetrotting performer is not really what I want to do. But doing it for this amount of time will be fun.”
Much of that fun clearly stems from the musicians backing him onstage. Albarn admits to having moments where he turns around and realises he is playing with two of his biggest musical inspirations in Simonon (also part of another Albarn musical project, The Good, the Bad and the Queen) and Jones (whose post-Clash band Big Audio Dynamite, along with Massive Attack, helped form the blueprint for Gorillaz).
“When they’re really on fire, those two, they’ve got a great dynamic onstage,” Albarn says. “They really interact with each other. It’s incredible.”
On the other hand, touring with a revolving door of vocalists poses logistical problems. De La Soul, Womack, Hypnotic Brass, the Syrian National Orchestra of Arabic Music, Bootie Brown, Little Dragon and Rosie Wilson are among those locked down for Australia, with more still to be confirmed.
“It’s quite difficult when it’s a huge crowd to come on and do one song and keep the momentum going,” Albarn says of the guest singers.
“And we’ve got a few old people . . . I can’t quite believe I’ve got Bobby Womack touring, but he’s really enjoying it.”
Then there are the reports of a million-dollar price tag to get the entire project to Australia.
“It’s not easy and it’s not cheap to tour this band,” Albarn admits. “We’ve just come back from Syria where we played the first Western band gig ever. That was quite a challenge. Not only getting the equipment into Damascus, but the politics.
“But it was an unbelievable experience. Although it is expensive and difficult for Gorillaz to tour, the rewards are enormous spiritually.”
The Gorillaz tour isn’t the only thing consuming Albarn musically this year. He’s set up a mobile recording studio to make a new Womack album while the veteran soul singer is travelling the world on Gorillaz duties (he was the unmis takable voice of hit single Stylo).
In January, Albarn will start intensive work on his first opera (“It opens in June. I don’t want to talk about it actually. It makes me stressed to think about that”), and he’s also contemplating releasing some of the two albums’ worth of material left over from the Plastic Beach sessions.
“I’m not sure what I’ll do with them,” he says. “Once I’ve done something I usually like to move on. I might put it out later this year. If anyone is interested, they can have it for nothing. It’s not something I’m going to get too precious about.”
He confirms that both Bee Gee Barry Gibb and Sex Pistol John Lydon were approached to sing with Gorillaz on Plastic Beach, again demonstrating the project’s musical scope.
“Barry Gibb allegedly got into the studio to do his part and developed an ear infection. And Lydon was just like, ’F*** off’, as you’d expect,” Albarn says. “You can’t expect everybody to be into it. I’m amazed at our success rate, anyway. I’m very laid-back about it. It’s lovely when people respond positively, but it’s to be expected when some people just don’t.”
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