 |
  |
Latest News | Biography | Interview Discography | Multimedia | Tour | Shop Community | Competitions | Gorillaz.com | Home |
|
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
|
Ceri Levy's documentary Bananaz is now out on DVD! Snap it up and let us know how you like it! Pop down the shops to pick one up, and another for your friends, and another for your enemies, and if they're all out, click one of these: . Order Bananaz Worldwide! (19/5) For those of you fans living outside the UK, we've got some handy links here where you can get your hands on the new Bananaz DVD: Australia: JB Hifi Online More countries on the way! . Get Downloads & Pre-Order Bananaz Now (14/5) In case you haven't seen yet, the Bananaz team have fired off a huge collection of downloadable goodies for your desktop. Why do work when you can watch the Bananaz screensaver? Check them out here. Additionally, Bananaz is released on DVD from 1st June. Pre-order now from your preferred retailer: . Gorillaz Storm Babelgum, Murdoc Takes Credit? (29/4) Fans.Gorillaz.Com popped down to the Babelgum Tribeca film festival party this week where, we are happy to report, Bananaz was all the rage! Ceri Levy's documentary has been taking the site by storm over the last week, with record streams coming in for the film. Of course, surely this success is no doubt due to one Murdoc Niccals, who in a dispute with Ceri over on bananazfilm.com recently revealed "missing" Betamax footage from the film. This extra is worth a look - so pop on over to the Bananazfilm.com Blog and check it out! . At long last, Gorillaz fans, the brilliant behind the scenes documentary Bananaz is now available for you to watch online, for free! Simply head on over to www.babelgum.com/gorillazgobananaz to watch the film now, or download the Babelgum app for your iPhone or iPod touch to take Bananaz on the go! . Babelgum and Ceri Levy have hooked up to offer Gorillaz fans some "very rare and exclusive prizes" in a new video contest. Fancy your chances in the UGC stakes, read on: When director Ceri Levy hooked up with Babelgum's music editor over at the Banana Growers Club last week, they concocted a cunning plan to get YOU going Bananaz in support of the forthcoming Gorillaz documentary, 'Bananaz'. We will be launching a new video competition and there are hardly any rules. Show us your interpretation of 'going Bananaz' in 30-60 seconds; no Gorillaz imagery or Gorillaz music is allowable, and it has to be suitable for PG13 apart from that go wild; comedy, horror, melodrama and music hall all welcome. The top three silliest/funniest/most creative entries will win some very rare and exclusive Bananaz prizes, not to mention unlimited kudos from your fellow filmmakers. Click over to the Bananaz Competition page here to enter! . Well it was only a matter of time, and now it's well and truly kicked off over on the Bananazfilm.com blogs. Murdoc has lashed out at Bananaz director Ceri Levy, branding him a 'tosser' and leaving quite the nasty answerphone message to boot. Murdoc - who is also twittering @murdocgorillaz - claims that the Gorillaz documentary is inauthentic, much to the chagrin of the esteemed Mr. Levy. Meanwhile, in an attempt to right the wrongs, Murdoc has offered Ceri some exclusive, prime footage not included in the film in a last ditch attempt to legitimise it. What will the footage be? Stay tuned to the Bananazfilm.com blogs... ... and while you're waiting to find out, why not have a go at the two new games, Banana Cannon and Head Pong on Bananafilm.com - click here to play! . Bananaz and Apple in the LDN (30/3) Fresh off the back of the successful trip to the Apple store in NYC, Ceri Levy brings the Bananaz roadshow to Apple's Regent Street store in the heart of London's W1 for a screening this Thursday, 2nd April at 6.30pm. Once more, Ceri takes the stage for Q&A with fans and the film's launch partner Babelgum will be on hand to talk all about their great platform. Talking of Babelgum, all Gorillaz fans will want to check out their most excellent Gorillaz microsite at www.babelgum.com/gorillazgobananaz to view all sorts of great Gorillaz videos online and on iPhone/iPod Touch. . For those of you who can't make it to the screening tomorrow at the Apple Store in NYC, fear not! Bananaz has announced a partnership with Babelgum.com to premiere the film, streaming online from the 20th April! Babelgum.com will also launch a Gorillaz channel, featuring live concerts, videos, two new games, a fan competition and exclusive Bananaz clips along with its four-week exclusive screening presentation of the film. Subsequently, Bananaz has partnered with long-time label EMI to release the film threatrically as well as on DVD later this spring. Bananaz is an un-sanitised, free-wheeling documentary film, taking down the virtual walls of Gorillaz in an intimate, honest and often hilarious account of the working relationship between Gorillaz' longtime co-collaborators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and their extraordinary creative process. . Ceri Levy's brilliant Gorillaz documentary Bananaz will receive a super exclusive screening at the Apple store in SoHo, NYC on Tuesday 24th March at 6.30pm. Ceri will be in attendance and will be answering questions from the audience, as well as discussing the innovative distribution plans for the film. Bananaz tells as complete a story as you will find about Gorillaz to date, and it was filmed over 2000-2006 by Levy himself. Stay tuned as we will be able to reveal further exciting news about the release of this film next week! And in the meantime to whet your appetite, why not head over to the Q&A section to read our interview with Ceri from last summer. . Murdoc Speaks Out On Damon, Demos (14/1) As anticipated, there seems to be a bit of a stir about why exactly The Good, The Blur & The Queen frontman Damon Albarn is waltzing into Radio 1 with some of the new Gorillaz demos later on today, and when we asked Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals what was going on, he had this to say: "Let's try and clear this up. As far as I can work out, I, Murdoc Niccals, the Gorillaz musical auteur, have been requested by the BBC to take over Zane Lowe's radio show this Wednesday between 7-9pm. Sounds simple. They want 'the guy who wrote all those Gorillaz tunes.' "But now apparently 'Damon Albarn,' is hosting this farce and he's going to be playing some of the new Gorillaz demos, and 'would I like to maybe put in an appearance, say hello, kind of thing.' "Surely, some kind of admin mistake. So yeah, folks, I'll put in an appearance this Wednesday, for sure. Let's find out who's hosting who, exactly." . New Gorillaz Demos on R1 (11/1) Following much speculation, we can confirm that Gorillaz' long time musical guidance counselor Damon Albarn will be making an on-air appearance on Radio 1, this upcoming Wednesday 14th January, between 7-9pm GMT. The band has graciously given Damon the go-ahead to premiere some demos from the new record on air. It has also been hotly rumoured that Murdoc Niccals himself will make a special appearance. While this story has been retracted from much of the media, we recommend you check out this post from our friends at Gorillaz-Unofficial who have retained the start to finish coverage since the whispers began! Be sure to tune in at bbc.co.uk/radio1 this Wednesday, and be sure to chime in with your thoughts on the new tunes on the Forums! . Hail Santa, Hail Myspace! (25/12) Hello Fansite friends, a happy merry and a merry happy to you all - and don't forget a big Hail Santa! We've a nice bit of news as we've just read from the folks over at Music News Net that Gorillaz are top of the pops in terms of Myspace UK's most popular artists for 2008! With nearly 700,000 of you now signed up as friends with the fabulous Gorillaz Myspace, it can only mean the excitement and anticipation is rising ahead of the much rumoured Gorillaz LP3. Which begs the question, Gorillaz fans: which guest stars would you like to see on a new Gorillaz album? Leave your picks in the comments below. . Hello all. The fansite is back! Apologies for the last few weeks of shutdown as the fansite migrated to a new set of servers. But we're back on line and with some exciting new plans for 2009. And we want you to be part of those plans. As we get ready to celebrate 8 years since the release of the first Gorillaz album in 2009, we want to know what you'd like to see on the fansite, and on Gorillaz.com as well! Here's a chance for you to contribute - leave your message in the comments section of this post. . If you're itching to play with some cool new online toys featuring fantastic Jamie Hewlett art, you might want to check out the new applications over on the Monkey: Journey to the West site. Currently, you can play with the following applications and games: Monkey Bee single cover puzzle: click here. The Om Box - Chant box that lets you stream loops of Monkey chants: click here. Which Monkey Character are you? A quiz you can fill out to show your friends which one of the various Monkey characters you are most like: click here. . Get Monkey Tickets, Get The Album (28/9) Hopefully you've all had some time to soak in that statement from Murdoc just below, and if the new Monkey record tickles your fancy as well - which it should! - then those of you in America can now get it in all good record shops. Click here for Amazon, and click here for iTunes. For those of you in London, you'll want to see the amazing performance of Monkey: Journey to the West over 24 dates this autumn. Click here for all of the ticket info from Ticketmaster. . Gorillaz stalwart Murdoc Niccals has emerged to give us this exclusive view on the new Monkey: Journey to the West opera and album (see below for more details) release! Right, Ok. Listen Gorillaz fans. I've had a pretty testy couple of months. Credit crunch, house prices collapsing…. I can't seem to shift this enormous deserted 'Kong Studios' building that me and those other gonks have occupied for the last 8 years. And also I've only just got back from this whole 'tracking Noodle down in the Underworld, and rescuing her from an eternal existence in the jaws of a 50ft soul-eating demon from Hades' epic-type-jaunt, as what was posted in my last Bookface geek-fest thing... That was pretty hairy, but it's all safe now, all good. I'd love to tell you lot about it but, as usual I've got myself all tangled up with some turgid movie dudes who say, “Y'know keep schtum, we'll sell the whole story to Schpeilburg”. Probably all rubbish again but let's see. Anyway aside from all that. Why am I back here today? Well as I said, So, I just re-surfaced from Hell, dusted all off all the burning coal, entrails, smoke, liver and sulphur from my cape and what do I find on my mantelpiece? A big, gaudy envelope with this inside: Well, right, me and opera go together like Kylie and arse cheeks, so I thought OK. 'Could be good. Let's check it out...' I'm always open to new ideas. I actually saw a very vivid performance of Wagner's 'Ring Cycle' recently, but that was a part of a triple-bill including a showing of “My Big Fat Greek Orgy”, and also “Raiders of the Lost Arse” so I'm not sure any of them were strictly 'Opera', by the conventional definitions of the term. But the singing was pretty fantastic. And the aria in the middle brought tears to my eyes. And a strange swelling down below... So anyway, I'm staring at this invite when I notice this wonderful little tell-tale sign scribbled in crayon at the bottom…. Ooohh…Tasty! Sounds like fighting talk to me. Now, you know I'm fond of a bottle of Rhohypnol or two, but you'd think even I would remember putting together a 2-hour marathon bonanza spectacular sung in Mandarin, featuring acrobats, martial arts, plate-spinners, Chinese musicians, jugglers, fully 'coloured-in' animation, jaw-dropping aerial wire-work and that fucking idiot Mike Smith in the orchestra pit. 'From the creators of Gorillaz!?!' I didn't create this! So it's sounded to me like the insidious and relentless credit-stealing work of that bilious, double act, 'Albarn and Hewlett' once more. Either that or Ronnie Barker had been raiding the dressing up box again... I had to check this out... So, right, I knock back a couple of purple hearts, zipped up my Cubans and hailed a black cab over to this 'groundbreaking extravaganza, 'from the creators of Gorillaz.' Let's meet my 'makers' next venture, huh? I got to the Opera House and kinda shoved my way through a whole load of those dusty old opera folk, grabbed a big can of Sprite and then took my place on my plush velvet chair, awaiting the unveiling of this fantastic display of arts and crafts. 3 years in the making? Better be good then... What I then witnessed, well, was just gob-smacking... So here's the good news: Monkey: Journey to The West is incredible! It's incredible!!! I was a bit half-cut when I went to see this thing, but there's people FLYING all over the place. It's unbelievable! I got the fright of my bleedin' life. Actual... 'FLYING'... 'PEOPLE!' I almost dropped my drink down this old geezer' back in front of me! And the music's the strangest thing I've ever heard. It's sung in this weird language. It's called 'Chine Neese', and it's wonderful. I mean, obviously it would be better if it was sung by say, Jello Biafra from The Dead Kennedys, but you do have to hear this stuff to believe it. It's all over the place! This production is just bursting full of delights, and I'm a notoriously hard man to please. What are some of the highlights? Well, let's see... I don't want to ruin it but halfway through this fucking enormous hand comes out. Pow! Kinda, crushes Monkey underneath his big, podgy, godlike palm. Frightened the life out of me! My mind had wandered off momentarily at that point. For some reason I was thinking about pints of Strongbow and Girls Aloud, then... Wow! Thwaaappp!! 'Great Big Hand.'... Crazy stuff! And there's more. The gymnastic displays are amazing! The stamina of this Monkey actor is incredible, almost up to my kinda standard. He's fighting, singing, flying…non-stop. I must find out where he gets his energy from... Can I surprise you, kids? I like opera. Really. I've always liked opera, especially the intervals... Kurt Weill's 'Three-penny Opera', 'Porgy and Bess' by Gershwin. 'The Rake's Progress' by Stravinsky's not half bad too. Anything by Puccini, Verdi or the fat one out of Take That. Gilbert & Sullivan's “Mikado”'s always gonna work for me. Then you've got dear old Wagner's “Ride of the Valkyries”. Great stuff... But this 'Monkey King' thing's different. Very different. Uuurrrrpppp!!.....It's not even strictly an opera, it takes on a whole load of elements; musical, cabaret, animations, circus skills, some clown action... and more. It's whole new bag all together... Anyway, about halfway through I got a strange tingly feeling all over me…It might have been the medication I've been on or even or that cheeky toot of 'Mum and Dad' I had before the start, but... but... mmm... but then it hit me... I knew why this seemed so familiar. Monkey King IS a Chinese version of Gorillaz!!! I'm watching this awesome display unfold when it hit me like a 200-ton weight upon my pretty bonce. This is a circus-musical, animated operatic performance blah, blah blah… in which the stars are… a Chinese doppelganger-troupe based on none other than my own platinum selling band Gorillaz! The bloody cheek of it!! Think about it, right. There's the fat, stupid one on drums Pigsy. He's the spit of Russel, never more than three feet from a bucket of chicken. Just a loafer really. Then you've got Tripitaka, who's basically Gorillaz' very own Noodle... Softly spoken, young, gentle and full of 'spiritual enlightenment', all that old rubbish. You've got Sandy, who's just a vacuous plank, doesn't seem very integral to the plot at all as far as I can see, much like our singer 2D and then to top it all off, and this is the real sucker punch…. Monkey is ME!! The main character, the star, is a cheeky, ball-scratching loon; a genius with maybe a slight touch of arrogance, well-dressed, handsome and someone who believes he's the king of the whole universe. Through his courage, skill, strength and charisma he leads the four of them around the world and ultimately to their very own salvation and spiritual enlightenment. It's his leadership ultimately provides them with immortality and the keys to the world... Sounds familiar, doesn't it?!! IT'S A CHINESE VERSION OF MEEE!!!! That shook me up something proper, I can tell you. I almost spilled my Royal Opera House popcorn... I considered suing China for copyright infringement, when I realised that Monkey King is a 16th Century Chinese text, so possibly they could claim they came first, but still…It's a rip off of me and Gorillaz. Deffo. Being an adult though, I decided for the sake of my own sanity to overlook the obvious comparisons, and the rather surreal supposition that I might just be watching a Chinese extension of myself steal my own thunder in front of my eyes... So once I calmed down, I got a chance to really soak in the whole glamorous, ambitious production. To really take on board what I was experiencing... And truly, it is a joy to behold, a feast for the eyes and a banquet for the soul. The whole show climaxes with the familiar foursome finally arriving in Paradise. This big Buddha bloke rewards the diligence and courage of the four heroes by elevating them into honourable and respected positions, “from lowly mortals into an almost mythic state”. Quite impressive. Basically what I did for the other members of Gorillaz. So what's my 'Murdoc Niccals' great, big verdict?? It's a breath-taking piece of work, and for me that's really saying something. SO. Bottom line is this folks. If you like Gorillaz, (and who doesn't?), your going to LOVE this. I mean, yes, it should have been me as the main character, but still. Not bad at all... Actually, in reality though I've got to admit, in my heart of heart, the real reason I like opera is more to do with the fact that I can swan about in capes, waving my walking cane, while being slightly vacant on a heady 'Brompton's cocktail' of opium, laudanum, absinthe and port. Now a narrative thrills me, but the high pitched voices give me nothing but back-ache, so normally I wear headphones... Right. That's that one finished. So gotta dash, folks. 'Chinese-Western, cross-cultural multi-genre, mash-ups' are all well and good in their place, but I've just recorded an entire episode of 'Girls Aloud: Exposed' on Sky plus and, see, that type of programme is always gonna come first in my book. Oh yeah. One other thing. This thing's got a website. www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com If you listened to a word I just said, you'll check it out... 'Almost as good as Gorillaz…' Ciao for now... . Monkey: Journey to the West - OUT NOW (18/8) Monkey: Journey to the West, the new album from Gorillaz collaborators Damon Albarn (music) and Jamie Hewlett (visuals) is released today in the UK via XL recordings. Click here to buy it from Amazon. Press release as follows: Created by the GORILLAZ team of Albarn and Hewlett, JOURNEY TO THE WEST is performed by an assortment of European and Chinese musicians and singers and was produced by Albarn. The album's packaging does likewise, moving beyond the stunning design of the opera MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST and exploring to the fullest its characters, storylines, themes and inspirations. MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST, the opera upon which the album is based, makes its London Premiere July 23 at the Royal Opera House. A singular and unique fusion of traditional mandarin opera/folklore and modern audiovisual interpretation, MONKEY... is the result of director Chen Shi-Zheng having enlisted GORILLAZ masterminds Albarn and Hewlett to provide unique, modern musical and visual interpretations of the themes and characters of this most beloved work of Chinese folklore. The live production utilizes nearly 40 Chinese circus acrobats, martial artists and singers from China and an orchestra of Western and traditional Chinese instruments. MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST is performed in Mandarin with subtitles, its storyline chronicling the Monkey King's journey to enlightenment as it takes him undersea, to decadent banquets in heaven, through encounters with Spider Maidens and Skeleton Demons, and eventually to paradise. The album, which was recorded in London and Beijing over the last year, follows this narrative, opening with "Monkey's World," proceeding to a "Heavenly Peach Banquet," enduring a "Battle In Heaven," encountering "The White Skeleton Demon" and so on, all the way through to the finale' of "Disappearing Volcano." The album runs 50 minutes and consists of 22 instrumental and vocal tracks. The full track listing is: Standard digital and physical formats have been licensed to XL Recordings for world-wide release. A box set edition containing vinyl and artwork has been created by Vinyl Factory Ltd, and will be available from www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com. . Fansite Q & A: Ceri Levy (17/6) We were recently afforded the opportunity to have a chat with Ceri Levy, the man behind the lens of the excellent new Gorillaz documentary Bananaz. Head on over to the Q & A section to have a look. Think you can do better? Email bananazquestions@gmail.com to put your own question to Ceri - he'll answer the best ones this weekend at the Edinburgh Film Festival! NB: We have received lots of questions asking if there will be a DVD release! Rest assured we will ask. Other questions much appreciated! |
|||||
|
News Archive: |
|||||