Noodle on her floating island appears out from the clouds.
The Flying Windmill Island, was a windmill featured in Phase Two as probably one of the key elements of the phase, as seen in the Feel Good Inc. video, El Mañana video, Spitting Out The Demons visuals and in the On The Island G-Bite. Noodle is seen sitting on it and playing her acoustic guitar. It was stated to be "the last place where the greatest guitar player was, before death" by Murdoc Niccals.
Background[]
Feel Good Inc. (May 2005)[]
The Gorillaz flying windmill was first made during the making of the Feel Good Inc. Video, both Noodle and director Jamie Hewlett agreed that it captured the sense and meaning of the song. The Windmill was made of wood blanks put together to support its flight in the air. In the Feel Good Inc. video, the windmill island is seen in choruses as 2-D sings "Windmill windmill for the land". Noodle can be seen playing her acoustic guitar, on the second chorus, sitting on the windmill, and mouthing the lyrics. The windmill and Noodle's presence in the video were to project the image that 2-D is trapped in the Feel Good Inc. tower and that Noodle is free. The windmill can be seen being chased by unarmored helicopters, in the first chorus and then when it disappears at the end of the video. According to Murdoc, someone had graffiti on the side of the windmill so only specific shots could be used.
Throughout Phase 2 & Demon Detour (May 2005 - March 2006)[]
The windmill could then be seen outside Kong Studios on Gorillaz.com where it was attached to the front steps of the studio. In June of 2005, Gorillaz embarked on a virtual tour called the Demon Detour. When they had been attacked by gunshots, the band soon found it was Jimmy Manson. Jimmy Manson had auditioned in the early days of Gorillaz but got put down after Noodle joined. Somehow he became the band's label stateside during the tour. Jimmy had since held grudges for the band, and would soon approach Murdoc with a plan to kill off Gorillaz and cash in on their success. Murdoc and Jimmy planned to bring back the windmill island and helicopters from the Feel Good Inc video Noodle was to be killed during the shoot and the band would be too distracted about the fake bullets coming from the helicopters. When Murdoc told the band about his plan for the new El Mañana music video, the band felt skeptical but eventually caved in.
El Mañana (April 2006)[]
Then after having released the video for DARE, Dirty Harry and Kids With Guns, it was time for Gorillaz to leave the scene again in 2006. Gorillaz then bought back the windmill island from storage one last time. Then in 2006, the windmill could be seen flying away from Kong Studios, on Gorillaz.com, presumably to the El Mañana set. In the video, Noodle can be seen sitting peacefully before two armoured helicopters emerge and begin firing upon the island. The windmill then plunges into a canyon before one of the helicopters is seen dropping a bomb onto the island's remains. Fortunately, Noodle managed an escape by jumping off the windmill in time. It later transpired that Murdoc betrayed and killed off Jimmy locking him in the tower, with no weapons making him illegible to kill Noodle. The helicopters then transpired to be The Black Clouds and the helicopters from the Feel Good Inc. video showed up after the shoot claiming to have been caught in some bad weather.
Post-Phase 2[]
The Island was rarely brought up throughout Phase Three and was implied to have been destroyed following the music video. This was, however, before the island made its reappearance at the end of the DoYaThing music video, in a partially repaired state hooked up on top of the band's home at the time, supposedly being brought back by Passion Pictures following the band's return from Plastic Beach. But since this, The windmill is yet to make another appearance.
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