2-D

Stuart Pot (also known as 2-D, Stu-Pot, Face-Ache or Pot) is the lead vocalist and keyboardist of Gorillaz.

Background

2-D was born on May 23, 1978, to David and Rachel Pot. His real name is Stuart Pot (his last name was often thought to be Tusspot, though his father changed his name to "Pot" shortly before Stuart was born to avoid him from getting bullied at school), but is often shortened to Stu-Pot. He was born in Crawley, England and was being educated at St. Wilfred's School (the same school that educated the members of The Cure). His father, David Tusspot, worked as a mechanic and owner of the Tusspot's Fairground. His mother, Rachel Tusspot, was a nurse who supplied Stuart with headache pills from his tree accident. While Stuart wasn't a very intelligent boy (indeed, he was often described as "a bit thick"), he was known as a kind person and had a general love of music. His parents recall a little ten-year-old Stuart bouncing around in his room listening to The Clash, Augustus Pablo, The Human League (his favorite band) and many other musicians of the sort. He hit his head when falling from a tree at the age of eleven, causing all of his hair to fall out. When it came back it was a deep 'azure blue'.

On August 15, 1997, when he was 19, the drama in his life began, as hooligan Murdoc Niccals, age 31, purposefully crashed his Vauxhall Astra through the wall of Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium, where Stuart had been working, in an attempt to ram-raid it and steal the synths. Murdoc's bumper crashed into Stuart's face^[1], landing him with an 8-ball fracture also known as 'hyphema', although he could still see through his injured eye. Murdoc was arrested and sentenced to carry out 30,000 hours (1,250 days) of community service as well as care for the vegetablized Stuart for 10 hours every week.

One year later, in a poor attempt to impress some women, Murdoc performed a 360 in a Tesco car park in Nottingham with his vehicle. This sent Stuart crashing through the windscreen, hitting his head on the curb, fracturing his other eye. When Stuart awoke after sliding through the cement for about a mile, he turned to look at Murdoc. This was the moment when Murdoc knew he had his front man. "A blue-haired, black-eyed god", Murdoc recalls. Murdoc nicknamed Stuart '2-D', which stands for the "Two Dents" in his head. Rather amusingly, Stuart adored his new nickname, dropping the use of his birth name completely and even signing formal letters with the first name "Two" and surname "D". 2-D would appear to have a chronic history of violent blows to the head, coupled with a complete lack of natural intelligence. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett commented on this, saying that he has a blank sheet of paper where a brain should be. Despite this, he serves as Gorillaz's lead vocalist.

2-D is the very first member that Damon and Jamie came up with for Gorillaz, despite sometimes saying it was Murdoc. He was loosely based on Stuart 'Stu' Lowbridge, a longtime friend of both Damon and Jamie's who has worked as Damon's stage engineer and live music co-ordinator for all of his projects since the beginnings of Blur.  Originally, auditions were held to find a singing voice for 2-D, with one serious final contender being Rob Gallagher AKA Earl Zinger.  However, Damon quickly realized that was not the way he wanted Gorillaz to work, and that the proper way to do it is to sing as 2-D himself, and instead use collaborators and guests, rather than have another singer be 2-D.

Gorillaz Phase 1: 1998-2002

In 1998, 2-D and Murdoc moved into Kong Studios and assembled Russel Hobbs to join them. 2-D's girlfriend, Paula Cracker, was originally the group's first guitar player but was soon fired after Russel caught her giving Murdoc a blowjob in the studio toilets. 2-D was upset about this and he and Paula broke up. Later, 2-D began dating Rachel Stevens, a former member of S-Club 7 and invited her to the band's first gig at the Camden Brownhouse.

After Gorillaz attended the record label signing party, Rachel broke up with 2-D the next day, after Murdoc spent most of the evening hitting on her to get her attention.

After Gorillaz played their last gig at the Isle of MTV in Portugal, Gorillaz moved to Los Angeles to write a film and tension began to grow between the band members. After suggesting many crazy ideas for the film, Murdoc snapped and attacked 2-D, almost choking him. Luckily, Russel saved him, but after that fight, the band split up.

Post-Phase 1 to Pre-Phase 2: 2002-2004

During the Gorillaz hiatus, 2-D stayed in Los Angeles. He spent a couple of nights at Britt Ekland's flat, but he left because of her habit of running around naked, banging on the walls and never getting any sleep. 2-D finally left L.A to work on his father's funfair in Eastbourne. He used to collect money for a ride called 'The Switchback Ride', and there he met Shane Lynch, a former member of Boyzone, and they became good friends. By the time they met, 2-D adopted a teddy boy style and used to stroll the city along with Shane. 2-D didn't really think about Gorillaz until a couple years later, when he received a text message from Noodle and, with that, he decided to return to Kong with fully restored confidence after he realized he was responsible for the Gorillaz’ success.

Gorillaz Phase 2: 2005-2007

After the El Mañana conspiracy, 2-D and Russel were frantic about Noodle's supposed death. Although it was a hoax, the band went separate ways but not for long. 2-D was, according to Murdoc, "...poncing off somewhere. He's probably gonna try and become an actor or a model or whatever..." 

According to an official mail-out from October 31, 2007, Murdoc says that "2-D is away on a vacation at a Jamaican beach." On November 13, however, the D-Sides text in the G-Shop stated that 2-D was currently completing a law degree.

2-D returned to the band during the events of 'Plastic Beach'.

Gorillaz Phase 3: 2008-2012

Murdoc had revealed that he had kidnapped 2-D and was holding him against his will on Plastic Beach, enlisting 2-D's vocal talents for use on the third Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. It was revealed through various media on the trailer in which this kidnapping was revealed that 2-D was in a small flat in Beirut at the time, for reasons which are still unknown. On the Gorillaz website, it was stated by 2-D, in the Plastic Beach adventure game, that Murdoc had "kindly" gassed 2-D and shipped him to Plastic Beach, where he was being forced to sing for his new demos. His room was located on floor B2, and when you enter his room he would be found trembling on his bed. When you would talk to him he would ask who you are and that he didn't think anyone else was on the island. He stated that Murdoc has been gassing various people and forcing them to be on the album.

Throughout an interview, Gorillaz - iTunes Session, 2-D deliberately insults Murdoc just to spite him for the horrible things he has done to him, and physically attacked him when Murdoc brought up the Paula Cracker incident, which is obviously a sore subject for 2-D.

I only really joined the band to make music, and now, I'm being held captive by a bastard bass player in an underwater submarine, being attacked by sodding pirates who are trying to take over this rotten piece of broken plastic in the ocean that Gorillaz call 'home'. All this, just to make a video. It's making me want to die!^[2]

During the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour, 2-D wrote his Gorillaz album The Fall which, apparently Murdoc knew nothing about. A new character also appeared on Plastic Beach. His name being Big Rick, who owned a record shop on the beach. It had been reported that the shop (previously locked) would open in time for The Fall's release.

During the special XFM radio show to promote the Gorillaz's The Singles Collection 2001-2011 on the 27th of November 2011, Murdoc said that the last he'd seen of 2-D was when the whale Massive Dick bit a chunk out of the island. This included 2-D's room which he was in at the time ("Rhinestone Eyes" Storyboard Video) and thus he was presumed to have been eaten alive.

It was later shown that 2-D was living with Murdoc, Russel and Noodle at 212 Wobble Street, London in the "DoYaThing" music video.

Gorillaz Phase 4: 2016-2017

After the events of Plastic Beach, 2-D was eaten by a Great White Whale named Massive Dick and presumed dead. After years of consuming trash, the whale ultimately died from its diet and washed ashore.

Stranded on a deserted island, 2-D was forced to eat the whale's rotting blubber to survive. Worth noting, 2-D had a perpetual fear of whales up until this experience, but now appears to have overcome it thanks to growing an emotional attachment to Massive. Months later, 2-D spotted a plane flying over the island. Unfortunately, the plane did not see him. 23 minutes later, he was in the middle of a beach party. It was later discovered that 2-D was in fact not lost at sea but, on the island of Guadalupe.

In Heathrow, United Kingdom, a man approached 2-D and offered to drive him to West London to reunite with Murdoc and the rest of the band. After multiple failed attempts of persuasion from the man, 2-D agreed to reunite with his captor in West London to work on the band's next album.

Gorillaz Phase 5: 2018-Present

Following the incarceration of Murdoc, 2-D became the defacto (Temporary) leader of the band with Ace of the Gangreen Gang temporarily taking Murdoc's place as the band's bassist. With Murdoc holding 2-D both figuratively and literally, 2-D's confidence in his own abilities grew substantially enough that he went on to release his own album, The Now Now.

Physical Appearance

2-D has big hands and long fingers. He is tall and thin, standing at 6'2", and has black eyes. The reason it looks like this is because of his 8-ball fracture when the iris of the eye filled with blood also called a hyphema. In rare occasions, since Phase 3, his eyes would turn white. He has naturally blue hair resulting from when he fell out of a tree at age eleven, causing all his hair to fall out and grow back a deep azure blue. His original hair color used to be brown.

Like Noodle, 2-D's looks have evolved heavily throughout Phases 1 to 5. In Phase 1, 2-D is seen with very geometric, and almost purple hair at times, unlike in Phase 2, where his hair has seemed to gain a more realistic, lined tone and turned to an almost teal color. In Phase 3, 2-D is seen with much more realistic hair, larger eyes, and more tanned skin. In Phase 4 2-D's hair becomes a dark blue, his nose shape changes and his eyes become more oval. He also has one of his front teeth back and has started painting his nails. Further, his shape in Phase 1 was almost ruler-straight; in Phase 2 and onward, he seemed to gain some tone and shape and wrinkles, giving him more of a 'hippy' look, compared to his Phase 1 appearance. 2-D's speaking and singing voice have also deepened from Phases 1 to 4.

Despite missing a front tooth, 2-D can sing clearly. His speech, while still mainly clear, has a definite Cockney (or thereabouts) accent: he says "summfink" instead of "something", and "fing" instead of "thing." 2-D is considered the 'pretty boy' and frontman of Gorillaz.

Trivia

• 2-D has an irrational fear of whales.
• 2-D's top 3 favorite musical artists are The Human League, The Clash, and Augustus Pablo.
• 2-D's father being an owner of a fairground is perhaps a reference to Damon Albarn's father Keith Albarn, who was also a designer for Ekistikit, an attraction at the amusement park for Margate Dreamland in Kent, England that was the world's first psychedelic Fun Palace.^[3]
  • Gorillaz would go on to launch their first ever Demon Dayz Festival in Dreamland, the same amusement park that Albarn's father built his attraction for.^[4]
• According to a page in the Gorillaz autobiograpahy Rise of The Ogre, 2-D found out about his father's original surname Tusspot through the Gorillaz fan website Gorillaz-Unofficial.
• 2-D was the first member that Damon & Jamie created for Gorillaz, even though they've sometimes said it was Murdoc.^[5]
• 2-D is loosely based on Stuart Lowbridge, a friend of Damon and Jamie's who has worked with Damon as a stage engineer since the start of Blur.^[6]
• Gorillaz originally held auditions to find a singing voice for 2-D, with Earl Zinger being a serious contender for the role at one point. However, in the end, Albarn decided to sing the songs himself and feature other artists instead, rather than have someone else be 2-D.^[7]
• 2-D was originally going to have a conversation with Ace at the beginning of the music video for Tranz.
• In Sleeping Powder's music video, Damon is the one who is wearing the motion capture bodysuit for 2-D, as confirmed by Damon himself.^[8] 
• 2-D's new voice actor, Kevin Bishop, is best known for his role as Muppet Treasure Island's main character Jim Hawkins and Sam Spalding on Grange Hill.^[9]
• The Now Now has been described by Damon Albarn as being 'from the perspective of 2-D', often mentioning the impact 2-D's storyline of being temporarily free from Murdoc had on the creative process for the album, saying that the idea behind The Now Now was to do an album purely about the cartoon characters.^[10][11][12]
• In the visual for Gorillaz' Brit Awards performance of Dirty Harry, 2-D is wearing a shirt of the album cover for Danger Mouse & MF Doom's Adult Swim-themed project Danger Doom.
• 2-D's speaking voice was originally inspired by the voices of figures such as Joe Pasquale, David Beckham, and Norman Wisdon.^[13]

Gallery

Sources

1. ↑ "About 2D". Electronic Beats. Retrieved March 24th, 2017.
2. ↑ "Gorillaz' Interview with 2-D & Murdoc (iTunes Session) - Part 3/3 (2:03)". YouTube. Retrieved March 24th, 2017.
3. ↑ http://eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com/2014/05/when-dreamland-was-turner.html
4. ↑ https://www.silentradio.co.uk/03/08/new-festival-alert-demon-dayz-launching-10th-june-2017-at-dreamland-margate-with-gorillaz-headlining/
5. ↑ https://gorillaz-news.livejournal.com/189176.html
6. ↑ https://youtu.be/z9Z9KAJGlh8?t=97
7. ↑ https://imgur.com/y4EuVq6
8. ↑ https://vimeo.com/222655647
9. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0084107/
10. ↑ https://youtu.be/YRtzjriLF6Q?t=205
11. ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2018/08/24/641265349/gorillaz-on-world-cafe
12. ↑ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6653051/gorillazs-damon-albarn-new-album-the-now-now/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170131002744/http://www.gorillaz-unofficial.com/news/index.htm