In 1990, musician Damon Albarn met comic creator Jamie Hewlett. The two were watching MTV and Hewett said, “If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a virtual band, something that would be a comment on that.” and then came the idea for Gorillaz. Originally, the band identified themselves as “Gorilla” and the first song they recorded was called “Ghost Train.” The musicians that partook in Gorillaz’ first incarnation included, Albarn, Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala. The band's first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released on the 27th of November, 2000. The band's first single was "Clint Eastwood" and was released on the 5th of March, 2001.
Satanist hoodlum Murdoc Niccals, who would soon become the Gorillaz bass player, attempted to ram-raid the Organ Emporium at which Stu-Pot (the future lead singer and keyboardist) worked at in order to get the synth equipment to create a successful musical group. He drove the burglary car straight into Stu-Pot’s noggin. Naturally, this left him in a catatonic state with a permanent dent in his head. Later on, Murdoc drove a car into the other side of his head (trying to impress a woman, naturally) which took Stu-Pot out of the catatonic state and 2 dents in his head. Now, with only his non-seeing balls and mental damages, Stu-Pot, keyboardist and vocalist, was redubbed as 2-D for the matching pair of dents in his head.
Murdoc acquired the property of Kong Studios, a sprawling haunted studio with a rather shady history, situated atop a hill in the midst of a run-down cemetery and landfill in Districtshire, Essex. Murdoc then found a drummer for the group in a Soho record store: African-American expatriate Russel Hobbs, who had incredible musical prowess in percussion, rap, and hip-hop as well as a disturbing side-effect (from his demonic youth): his eyes glowed an eerie white.
They placed an advertisement in NME and a FedEx freight container from Japan was delivered to their doorstep that very same day. A mysterious amnesiac 8-year-old wielding a Gibson Les Paul came out and made an incomprehensible introduction in Japanese before she tore into a "riff to end all riffs" which ended with an impressive karate kick to the air. She then spoke a single word in English to the stunned boys, which became her moniker: "Noodle". After the band was finally assembled, they changed their name to Gorillaz. Their first song was called "Ghost Train" and was recorded at Kong Studios.
Gorillaz played their first show at the Camden Brownhouse which ended prematurely due to a riot during their song “Punk”. EMI A&R man Whiffy Smiffy discharged several rounds from a shotgun to disperse the crowd enough to make his way to the stage and quickly signed them to the label. Gorillaz released their first collection of music on the “Tomorrow Come Today” EP in November 2000. Their first full-length debut album, “Gorillaz” was released on March 26th, 2001. During its release, the album spawned four singles; “Clint Eastwood,” “19-2000,” “Rock the House,” and “Tomorrow Comes Today”.
