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“Well, I'm building a highway back...”
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This is the second part of the We Are Ten Radio Show hosted by Murdoc. It was released on 5 December 2011 on SpotifyW.
Transcript[]
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (1)[]
(911 (Live in NYC) plays)
Yeahhhhh, mmmmm, indeed. That was Gorillaz Live in New York City at the Hammerstein Ballroom with D12 and Terry Hall there back in 2002. Something special there. That’s what we call an exclusive, yeah? I’m gonna play something else now. (Bag rustling) Uh, where has it gone? (Boxes fall) Oh yeah, here it is! "Something Else" by young and up-and-coming bass player by the name of Sydney Vicious and he sounds like this.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (2)[]
(Audience applause, snippet of the The X Factor intro plays)
(Murdoc is speaking in a mic, as if he were a judge)
Okay, okay, yeah, very, very good. Oh, okay, can I tell you, Sydney, where I'm at? This has been an awful audition for you and for us. (audience laughter) I mean, you've turned up drunk, topless, and with a massive heroin habit. You've been spitting at the audience and you've carved the words "I need a fix" into your chest. (audience laughter) I mean, really, I've no idea where I'd place you after this competition. (audience laughter) But, you know, I have to say, I have to say, there is something about you, Sydney. Something that I think we can work with. You may be the very thing we're looking for. (applause) It's a yes from me, you've got four yeses. Sid, you're through to the next round.
(Record scratch) Right, have I played this before? Oh, don't know, don't care really. Here's CSS with "Alala". It's a song about wanting chicken and having it, really.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (3)[]
So, what happened next with Gorillaz, a whole bunch of stuff. First album was massive, we played some gigs, made some videos, then we quit England, all moved to L.A., tried to make a film which backfired. I went to Mexico and then got banged up for a crime I didn't commit. Arrested and thrown in jail. Russel went crazy and ended up living in Ike Turner's basement. 2D went back to living in Eastbourne on his dad's fairground like a wally. Started building monster trucks with Shane Lynch from Boyzone, I mean, Christ. And Noodle, she went back to Japan to discover the truth about her past. Her past as part of a junior militia fighting squad, deadly.
Turns out she'd had her memory wiped and been sent back to England for her own safety back in 2000. That's when she got sent to us in the FedEx crate when we were first looking for a guitarist, that's how she joined the band. Anyway, bit by bit, after the big Gorillaz break in 2003, slowly we got back together. Noodle went back to Kong Studios and started demoing, I broke out of jail in Mexico, grabbed some tequila and headed home too. And Russel went, when he wasn't being exorcised or eating bags of hair. He made his way back to Kong too.
You know, we started to put it all back together, see if we had it in us to be more than a novelty act, a one ginormous hit wonder. So, we start playing together and soon the old magic starts to flow, you can hear it here. This is the first track we put together after starting all over again. We aired this online, a track called "Rockit" and, uh, you know, sounds like this.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (4)[]
That's what that one sounded like, bit in dury really. In fact, we almost called the second album "We Are The Dury", but, but Noodle went for "Demon Days" instead. That's how she felt, I guess. The world was in a precarious balance, leaning too much into the state of night. God, this is turning into therapy session here. I need something to make it all go faster! Ugh! Here's Wendy Carlos with something from A Clockwork Orange. This is the music I normally listen to if I'm out jogging or pillaging or even if I'm just having a quick rummage around my shorts. This one's guaranteed to get my plums in a whirl. This is Walter Carlos with Rossini's "William Tell Overture". Eins, zwei, drei, vier!
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (5)[]
Oh, that's better! Oh, What's next? Feel Good Inc.! Ah! The song that launched a million iPods. Shall I tell y'all how this one came about? We wrote this song for Steve Jobs, bless his soul. He was having trouble shifting his portable digital song playing device, so he asked me if I had any ideas. I said, "First off, Steve", right? "Call it an iPod, it's snappier." And also, right, I said, "Sometimes it's good to do an advert letting people know that the product's for sale and sometimes it's good to play a song in the advert by a cool band that people like." He said, "Oh, can you think of anyone?" I said, "Wait there, Steve, I'll be back in five minutes" and I went off and I wrote this. Then on the way back, I saw all three members of De La Soul crammed into a phone box, so I said, "You lot, stop mucking about and come and sing on this track I've just written" and that worked out very well too. This is "Feel Good Inc" by me, Gorillaz, as seen on the iPod adverts from 2005. Mmm!
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (6)[]
Lana Del Rey recently described herself as a gangster Nancy Sinatra. I'd love to play "Video Games" because that's a lovely, lovely song, but I thought I'd play something from the original Lana Del Rey, just in case no one knew what she sounded like. Here's Nancy Sinatra with Lee Hazelwood and a track called "Sand". And you know, in a funny way... Jesus is a bit like sand, isn't he?
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (7)[]
(Phone rings) Hang on, the phone's ringing. Oh, I'm not gonna answer it. It's probably someone trying to sell me something. Let it go to answerphone. (ringing stops, Murdoc’s answerphone message plays)
Hi there, this is Murdoc Niccals. I'm not at home right now, but if you leave a message, I'll get back to you as soon as I'm, I’m… I'm tired. (Sheep baahs) Get off! (Beep)
Bobby Womack: Okay, I want to tell you-
Murdoc: Shush! Bobby Womack!
Bobby: First I'd like to say, Gorillaz, you deserve all of it, because money can’t buy it, you know, but the audience can feel you and you feel the audience, and that's what your interest is in. So, that's why I'm in the band and I thank you Gorillaz. (Beep)
Murdoc: Why, thank you too, that's a lovely thing to say. Oh, look, look, there's another one, who's this? Oh, that's, oh, that's, um, Tinie Tempah’s number, It's Tinie Tempah. What's cooking, Mr. Tempah?
Tinie Tempah: Guys, girls, aliens, humans, sea creatures, whatever is actually in the Gorillaz, I just want to say happy birthday, happy tenth year anniversary. You guys have been around literally since I was 13, Imagine that. So, um, yeah, I just wanted to wish you, you know, all the rest of the success in the world and say congratulations for having such an amazing run. It's been incredible, and I cannot wait to see what you guys come up with next. Happy birthday, guys. (Beep)
Murdoc: Oh, you're making me feel so old, though he's only 15 now... So, oh! Oh look! it's Neneh Cherry.
Neneh Cherry: I- I am here to wish the wonderful Gorillaz happy birthday. Ten years, not bad. (in a singsong voice) Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you! (Beep)
Daley: Noodle, 2D, Russel, Murdoc, Happy birthday. (Beep)
Murdoc: And that's from Daley, the singer on our Doncamatic release from last year.
[You have 32 more messages. Message received, Thursd-] (Beep) F-(beep) it. Well, listen to those later. All this praise, it's-, it's making me so nostalgic. (Murdoc opens can) Right, okay, quick gulp on the old rum. This is the stuff that lubricates the larynx. (Takes a sip) Alright, on with the show.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (8)[]
Okay, next up is Dirty Harry. I always loved this song. A big single for us and another one off our new We Are Ten Gorillaz Singles Collection. It's funny, this started out as a late-night demo at 2D and that Damon Albarn did. It's something they did together after one of the US gigs that Blur did it in 2003 and ended up morphing into a Gorillaz song for Demon Days. Damon released it first on the album Democrazy, but it ended up in my band, Gorillaz, sounding a lot better I might add.
Ah, that's it, that Damon Albarn gets about a bit, doesn't he? He loves a good rigorous collaboration. I mean, I opened up my cereal this morning and there he was, collaborating with my cornflakes. Although, I must admit, it did sound good if a bit, well, reflective and melancholic in places, good bass line there. Here's Fat's Domino with... no, no, hang on. Here's Damon Albarn and 2D with I Need A Gun. Have a listen to this because you can hear them kind of trading both the lead and the backing vocals. They sound very similar in places, don't they?
(I Need A Gun plays)
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (9)[]
And that actually became a Gorillaz single, big one too. I remember making the video for this single, out in the desert with Bootie Brown from The Pharcyde who did the rap on this. We filmed it in the desert in Namibia in Africa. We’d hired some armoured personnel carrier from the Namibian army for the shoot, but then the day before we started filming the video, they pulled out and said we couldn’t use the trucks! So, we had no truck for the shoot. Then that night, us and the film crew had a big drinker, you know a little party to get to know each other. But then I drank, oh I don’t know, maybe three gallons of this snake beer. I Felt awful. I was on my hands and knees trying to find a sand dune to go and sleep under. That’s when I saw this Red Cross truck parked up. I thought "If no one’s in it, I'm gonna sleep in that. And if there is someone in it, I- I want them to take me to the hospital right away 'cause I think I'm dying."
So, I crawl into it and suddenly, there’s all these army blokes around. Massive geezers with great big shooters, and they’re banging on the side of the truck, waving their guns at me at all tides and I thought "oh, sod this for a game of soldiers." Bent down, hotwired the truck and then drove out of there. They were all shooting at me, bullets flying everywhere. I was just laughing and beeping the horn, I couldn’t give a- (monkey noises). So I headed to the video shoot and arrived just at daybreak and the whole crew are like "Wow! Great truck, just what we needed." I- I told the crew I'd hired it off some local stunt car shop and figured if the army did catch up with me I'd, just, you know, name the director, which was Jamie Hewlett, heh. Funny thing is, after all that, I felt great again. So i just cracked another snake beer, got into me jumpers and started filming what became another award winning Gorillaz video, good stuff. Here’s Gorillaz, my band, with "Dirty Harry". Mmmm!
(Dirty Harry plays)
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 2 (10)[]
That was the Rolling Stones there with, um, "Backstreet Girl". And this is me Murdoc Niccals from Gorillaz, talking about our illustrious Gorillaz-shaped career to date. And we're up to about, ohh, Demon Days period if you've joined us late. Demon Days being our second album which I think outsold Thriller if I recall correctly. So how did the hook-up with Shaun Ryder happen?
Right, so here's the thing: One time, right, I was hallucinating and it sounded quite potent, I didn't buy it, and the images are like coming thick and fast and vivid into my cerebral cortex, you know. That's the sheet of neural tissue, the outermost layer to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain, yeah. Anyway, that's all going on, and I visualized Sean Ryder, the singer from Happy Mondays, but what I saw was my hallucination was of him, Sean, hallucinating and visualizing me, right? I was watching him seeing me, an actual apparition of my good self. Looked just like me too, I thought. "Yes, this is odd, but while I'm here, it'd be a shame to waste the opportunity, you know." I always love the Happy Mondays and Black Grapes, so we ended up putting this track together, which became DARE, which became our first UK number one single. Big hit! Massive ringtone! Not dabber off the top spot too.
You see, a career like this is really only for either the brave or the mental, and I'm both, so that's worked out fine. Here's a bit of the DFA remix of DARE, which I thought was one of the greatest takes on one of our tracks. "DARE" by Gorillaz with Sean Ryder next.