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Info on Monkey in the States (2/5) A brand new press release is in concerning Gorillaz collaborators Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett's opera MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST making its Stateside debut. Check it out... Following sold-out runs in Manchester and Paris, Director Chen Shi-Zheng and GORILLAZ masterminds Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's adaptation of MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST will make its Stateside debut with a May 22 preview performance followed by 17 shows staged May 23 -June 8 all at the 2008 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST was first staged June 28, 2007 in the UK at the inaugural Manchester International Festival, whose director Alex Poots suggested that world-renowned theatre, opera and film director Shi-Zheng enlist GORILLAZ co-creators 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 result is a new opera for the 21st century based on an ancient Chinese legend reworked as a dazzling spectacle involving nearly 40 Chinese circus acrobats, martial artists and singers from China with an orchestra of Western and traditional Chinese instruments. Developed in Beijing, Paris, Berlin and London the show has had sell-out runs in Manchester and Paris. 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. Hewlett's renditions of MONKEY's cacophony of characters combine with Albarn's debut opera score's deft integration of western and traditional Chinese instrumentation to create a wholly engrossing new universe that reinvents a legend with a thrilling combination of music and action. Chen Shi-Zheng's previous credits range from Chinese opera and theatre to the Hollywood movie Dark Matter (starring Meryl Streep). Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are the co-creators of award-winning virtual band Gorillaz, whose two albums Gorillaz and Demon Days have amassed global sales of over 10 million, the latter of which spawned the Demon Days Live extravaganza, a tribute to the animated group featuring guest performers ranging from Dennis Hopper to the late Ike Turner, performed a total of five times each at the Manchester Opera House and New York City's Apollo Theater. Spoleto Festival USA has firmly established itself as one of the world's major arts festivals since its inception in 1977. For 17 days and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston, South Carolina's historic theatres, churches and outdoor spaces with over 100 performances by renowned artists and emerging performers in disciplines ranging from opera, theater, music theater, dance, and chamber, symphonic, choral and jazz music, as well as the visual arts. For more information, please visit www.spoletousa.org. . Soldier Gorillaz Collaborate With Martina (24/4) Gorillaz' next appearance will come in the form of another collaboration with Martina Topley-Bird and Roots Manuva. For those fans who liked All Alone from the Demon Days album, get ready to hear "Soldier Boy," which will appear as a b-side on the new Martina Topley-Bird single Poison, out May 5th. . Bananaz, the long awaited Gorillaz documentary from Ceri Levy, will show at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this month. As part of Spotlight Premieres, this will be the first US screening of Bananaz. Bananaz will be screened at the Paramount Theatre at 713 Congress Avenue in Austin on the following dates: Wednesday 12 March - 1.30pm . Bananaz Winner + Africa Express (16/2) First of all congrats to Gorillaz fan Leonora Lorena who won our competition and enjoyed the Bananaz premiere in Berlin this week, spying such Gorillaz co-conspirators as Jamie Hewlett, Damon Albarn and Ceri Levy. For more information about the Bananaz film, check out www.bananazfilm.com! Talking of Murdoc's arch-studio rival, Damon Albarn's much lauded collaborative stage show Africa Express will be coming to Liverpool (scene of Gorillaz' triumph at Creamfields 2001) on 6th March at the Olympia. Want more info? Check out this flyer! . More info here on Monkey at the British Museum: Admission to the Museum is free all day on Saturday 9th February except the Monkey Suite which is a free ticketed event. Tickets for the Monkey suite will be available on Turn up, get those tickets and check it out! . MEGA EXCLUSIVE CONTEST: Go Bananaz In Berlin (3/2) Attention Gorillaz fans! We have two (2) tickets to give away for the premiere of Ceri Levy's brilliant new Gorillaz documentary Bananaz at the Berlin Film Festival on 13th February. You and a lucky friend could be going to the premiere! To enter this contest, you MUST have your own way of getting to the world premiere in Berlin. Transportation and accomodation will not be provided. Sound good? Of course it does. Now here's the tricky bit: tell us your favourite Gorillaz memory or story via email at bananazcontest@gmail.com. Put "I want to go Bananaz" in the subject line and the best story will win the tickets. If you're our lucky winner, we'll contact you this week and the announce your triumph on this very page! Again, you MUST be able to provide your own transportation and accomodation to be able to win this contest! Good luck! . Monkey Comes to America (31/1) Hot off the heels of the latest announcements in Germany and England, we can confirm that Monkey: Journey to the West will now be coming Stateside! The opera will run for an epic 17 dates as part of the annual Spoleto Festival in Charleson, SC this May and June. For more info and to buy tickets, click here. Dates and times as follows: Thu May 22 8:00 pm . The excellent new behind the scenes Gorillaz documentary Bananaz gets its debut in February as part of the 58th annual Berlin Film Festival. As previously announced, this work has been years of the making, and the man behind the lens, Ceri Levy, will unveil his findings into the deep, dark world of Kong on the following dates in Germany's capital: BANANAZ SCREENINGS Market Screenings: Festival panorama: . Monkey In The Year of the Rat (29/1) The kind folks at the British Museum are having a great big celebration to usher in the Chinese New Year. You can celebrate the Year of the Rat the right way - with Monkey! Check out this press release they sent us: On Saturday 9th February the British Museum will host a special day of celebration for Chinese New Year. To welcome in the Year of the Rat, the Museum will present a spectacular programme of performance, displays, workshops, story telling, and more. The centrepiece of the day is a first for London, as the Museum presents Monkey Suite - chamber music and visual excerpts taken from the groundbreaking contemporary opera Monkey: Journey to the West. Monkey: Journey to the West is based on the 16th century Chinese classic tales of the Monkey King, retold for a modern audience. The original production premiered to critical acclaim at the Manchester International Festival in June last year, the work was composed by Damon Albarn, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, with visual concept, design and animation by Jamie Hewlett. In addition to the performance, visitors will be able to follow an intriguing international trail of original Chinese Zodiac lanterns, also designed by Jamie Hewlett especially for the event and drawing inspiration from the Museum's collection of objects from around the world. Travel the world through these objects and learn how to write and say Happy New Year! in Chinese. There will also be exciting performances of Chinese folk tales by the Beijing Bailing Shadow Puppet Troupe and RDFZ Dance Troupe and opportunities to try your hand at painting, making terracotta warriors and lanterns. Other activities include screenings of classic silent films, storytelling and gallery talks in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Guest speakers include author Jung Chang, artist Antony Gormley OBE, broadcaster and historian Dan Snow, actor Hugh Quarshie and author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo. Throughout the day, there will be delicious Chinese-themed food available from the museums cafes, Chinese food stalls around the Great Court and Chinese tea and beer appreciation. APPRECIATION The exhibition The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army will also have extended opening hours (tickets subject to availability - admission charge applies). . As many Gorillaz fans will be aware, longtime Gorillaz stylist and photo consultant Jamie Hewlett has dabbled in other art projects over the years, so it's no surprise that while the band has gone AWOL, he looks set to score a hit on BBC3 with the upcoming pilot for Phoo Action. No word yet as to whether a full series will be commissioned, but if you'd like some more info on the project, check out this piece from SFX. . More Facebook Gorillaz Toys (22/1) If you haven't added the Gorillaz cookie game on Facebook... what are you doing!? Try and eat as many cookies as possible in the Facebook version of the GES classic. While you're at it, become a fan of the band if you haven't yet! Russel's Cookie Game Application: click here. Gorillaz on Facebook: click here. . We are saddened to announce the passing of Gorillaz contributor and music legend Ike Turner. While Gorillaz fans will of course know Ike from his stellar contribution to "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" from Demon Days and also his superstar performances at the Demon Days live shows in Manchester and New York, the greater community also recognised Ike as a Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer whose indelible stamp on the music industry spanned several genres. He was 76. For more information on Ike Turner's life, check out his personal website. . Gorillaz Wiki Goes Live! (12/12) Gorillaz now have their own wiki community! You too can take part in the fun by getting yourself interactive in the community at gorillaz.wetpaint.com. The wiki will only improve with contributions from its users - a wiki is one of the few fully interactive websites on the net. So sign up and get adding content and your images and stories of the band! Please be advised as ever that all wiki posts are unofficial news, and that gorillaz.com and fans.gorillaz.com are the top sources on the net for full, officially confirmed Gorillaz info. Not sure what a wiki is? Click here for more information. . The long wait for a new Gorillaz release is over: D-Sides is officially out now! The 2-disc set of rarities, unreleased tracks and remixes is full of amazing goodies and if you forgot what exactly this entails, you should click here - and if you forgot what the deluxe package looks like, you should click here. And if you want to buy it click here for your Amazon site of preference: US | UK. And if you're looking for some reading material, check out that transcript from Murdoc's facebook chat over on the Q & A page. . Murdoc's Facebook Chat, Ogre Paperback & Pazuzu (8/11) To celebrate the US paperback release of Rise of the Ogre, Murdoc will be taking part in a Facebook chat today right on his very own Facebook profile! Are you friends with Murdoc? No? WHY NOT!? Click here and befriend him right this instant! The chat will take place at 5pm GMT/12pm EST/9am PST. In other news, in anticipation for the D-Sides release, check out this info on D-Sides cover star Pazuzu: In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, the god Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought. Although Pazuzu, himself, is an evil spirit, he drives away other evil spirits, thus protecting humans against plagues and misfortunes. At the beginning of the book and film The Exorcist, when Father Merrin is at the site of an archaeological dig in Northern Iraq, the menacing sculpted figure is Pazuzu, whom he had battled in an exorcism several years earlier. When Merrin is later appointed to perform the exorcism on Regan, he suspects it is Pazuzu that possesses her. Pazuzu makes an appearance throughout Gorillaz story. His statue is in the Rockit video and on the front of the Slow Boat to Hades DVD. After the death and destruction of the last Gorillaz video (El Manana) and the apocalyptic visions of Demon Days, Pazuzu has found his way onto the cover of Gorillaz bsides album 'Dsides'. Finally, check out the cover of that new release of Rise of the Ogre, available in all good bookstores across America now:
. Murdoc on Facebook/Kong Studios Up For Grabs (1/11) Well the rumours appear to be true if this recently launched website is anything to go by: Kong Studios is up for sale? Gigantic Disused Haunted Studios In The Middle Of Nowhere, or GDHSMN for short, has a listing for the legendary home of our legendary heroes. Click here to make a bid - it'll have to be a mighty high offer judging by the bids on offer so far... In other news, Murdoc Niccals has decided in his latest mid-life crisis to create his very own Facebook page. Backed by our friends over at the NME, a campaign has been started to get Murdoc as many friends as possible. With the rest of the band off around the globe, Murdoc is providing your one chance to interact with the band in the lead up to the D-Sides release. Add Murdoc as your friend now! Finally, a happy 17th birthday to Noodle, wherever she may be, as her birthday was yesterday. . Screen International will be announcing today the release and debut of the Ceri Levy film Bananaz. The definitive Gorillaz documentary, Bananaz is the product of seven years and hundreds of hours of film as Levy followed the band and their friends Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn through a whirlwind of successes. More info as it comes in this highly exciting development in the world of Gorillaz. . D-Sides Deluxe Preview (20/10) Have a look at this exclusive image of the contents of the D-Sides deluxe package below! In one of Gorillaz most spectacular packages yet, there are plenty of goodies to be had with this 2-disc set. In addition to fantastic new images from longtime Gorillaz friend and collaborator Jamie Hewlett, the amazing box also features a patch and more new stickers! Also note that the release date of D-Sides has been amended to 19th November in the UK and 20th November in the USA.
. Gorillaz return from the wilderness on in November with their second collection of b-sides, unreleased tracks, remixes and rarities. Titled D-Sides, the rumoured collection will be released via Parlophone in the UK on 19th November and in the US via Virgin a day later. The album will be released as 2-CD standard and deluxe editions, the highlight of which undoubtedly is a reworked version of live favourite "Hong Kong." Artwork and tracklisting as below:
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