Journey To Plastic Beach is a promo video by Gorillaz summarising the lore of Phase 3 and the events surrounding the recording of their third studio album, Plastic Beach. It was released on 25 June 2010 in promotion for the then-upcoming Escape To Plastic Beach World Tour.
Summary[]
Murdoc Niccals, bassist and founder of Gorillaz, summarizes the first half of phase 3 where he tells the events that began at the end of 2009: the creation of the band's third studio album and the gigantic structure in the middle of the sea: Plastic Beach. In this video, there are several shorts related to Plastic Beach that served as an advertisement for the album, in addition to the music videos of Stylo and On Melancholy Hill and connecting them with the events that took place since the El MaƱana incident.
Phil Cornwell also provides the voice of Murdoc for this video.
Transcript[]
Murdoc: Hello, world!! It's me, Murdoc Niccals! YEAH! So, kids, have you missed me? Who wouldn't, eh? It's been a long time for all of us, hasn't it, eh? But now, I'M BACK!!! Well... I instigated my own disappearance. Paying off your debts would be a tedious way to spend your illegally gotten gains, yeah.
Well, I, uh, needed somewhere isolated, the people were huntin' me down, the Black Clouds were on my trail. They were cheesed off about all the dud weapons and useless shooters I'd stiff 'em with. None of the weapons worked and they must have got their hands on a new batch, because the next thing I know is they track me down and then bullets everywhere! So I needed somewhere, something unique. So I just, you know, scouted the globe, zipping around all over the place. I searched on maps, visited secret locations until finally, I found it. I knew I'd struck gold. The perfect plastic palace, Point Nemo, No Man's Land. The place furthest from any other landmass on the planet. No one would dream looking for me there, would they? You can make as much noise as you want.
It was, yeah, basically just a giant piece of rotten plastic in the middle of nowhere. The funny thing was that it looked idyllic from far away through the binoculars, like a- a floating paradise, but once you got closer, you can see it was just a landfill. I painted the whole thing bright pink and just, you know, gone on with it. My own Plastic Beach. Tadaaaa! The first thing I did was build the big Tracy Island-type Playboy mansion right on the top of this Plastic Beach. It's just a towering, monstrous building. It's, you know, basically, it houses everything from my new HQ to my state-of-the-art recording studio.
It's got everything from lavish boudoirs to, uh, glass bottom basement rooms, secret rooms, lighthouse towers. Plastic Beach is "fantastish". When I first got there, I just wandered up and down kicking the landscape. Initially I just started, uh, twangin' away on my bass, alone. Then, some of it started making sense unfortunately. So, you know, bit by bit, demo by demo, I started carving out the Plastic Beach record. And When I had the foundations nice and solid and sonically knew which way I was pointing the ship I realized I had to put Gorillaz back together, it just seemed right!
And I wanted to start with Noodle. Noodle is my greatest asset. She's a outstanding guitarist, looks great, and a brilliant songwriter. Now, I- I- I went back to the place where I last seen her back in 2006, the scene of the El MaƱana video. The crash site. However, there's nothing left. I did what I could. I- I scraped up some of Noodle's DNA samples from the wreckage and got to work building a cyborg version of 'er. It ain't the real Noodle, obviously, but i- it, you know, it's close enough for jazz. And she's my, uh, my own personal, gunslinging, guitar playing, bodyguard. She can shoot bullets right out of her mouth, you know! What other band can state claim to something like that, uh?
I pretty much done what I needed to on Plastic Beach, but I was still missing that magic vocal touch. So it was time to bring in the larynx, the voice. I tracked 2-D down. He wanted no part of a third Gorillaz campaign. Pfft! So, I just gassed him out cold, shipped him over to Plastic Beach, and installed him in the room downstairs. You can get away with ditching LOTS of aspects of a band: skipping parts, putting it down to experimentation, but you CAN'T switch the singer.
And Russel, well, as you know, he's had his big, baaaaad breakdown, um, seen demons shooting out of the speakers. I get that every day, don't know what he's complaining about. He ended up living in Ike Turner's basement, which I thought was a euphemism for something else! Yeah? Should we hear a little of the record now? My- My throat's getting very dry.
[The music video for Stylo plays]
Ooh! Now there's a plot twist I haven't seen coming. What's the chances of that?
I've got some fantastically exciting news. Some groundbreaking info of what we, Gorillaz, are up to next! I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say it's live, and tickets are available. Yes!
After not being able to make it to Coachella, and then missing out on the Roundhouse shows, I tell you, buddy, there's no way I am missing out again. Myself, 2-D, and our Cyborg Noodle went off to the O2 arena the other day, to do a little spot of rehearsing, in, you know, the actual venue. Only to be confronted by that sodding Gorillaz live band again! You know the one with Damon Albarn in it? And half of The Clash! 50% of The Clash, yeah? Then, then, this time, right, they actually stopped us getting to the stage! T-then the O2, you know what they've done? they've gone and used the footage to advertise the gigs!
The Gorillaz ain't just Damon Albarn and his gang of hapless goons. It's us! And it'll be curtains for anyone who stops us, right? Russel'll probably be back by then too, I'm sure that'll sort them out. But, you know, I've noticed this mysterious brown dome way, way off in the distance, and it seems to be inching closer and closer to the island. Still, probably nothing, eh? Chances of that dome turning out to be Russel's big, bald head is ridiculous, isn't it? And I've got a funny feeling that I haven't heard the last from the real Noodle. Who knows how this'll all pan out? I don't know.
[The music video for On Melancholy Hill plays]