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“Well, I'm building a highway back...”
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This is the third and final part of the We Are Ten Radio Show hosted by Murdoc. It was released on 13 December 2011 on SpotifyW.
Transcript[]
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (1)[]
(Snippet of DARE (DFA Remix) plays, continues in back while Murdoc is talking)
So I guess that was the second album done and dusted, Demon Days was all finished up. We did one more single off there, El Mañana, which featured maybe our finest video to date. The one in which the inflatable island from Feel Good Inc. got all shot up and blown out of the sky, Noodle that's actually been shot up with it. High drama indeed, it's a spectacular image, really! I'd go check it out online if you haven't seen it. I think it's the only time I've definitely actually got away with murder, and it was all on film.
Anyway, we hadn't really toured the album. Played a little run of concerts at a tiny dive club called, what was it now, the Manchester Opera House, And brought with us a few of the guests in showbiz personalities we'd had on the record, you know? Roots Manuva, Martina Topley-Bird, Ike, um, Ike-y old Turner, the De La Souls, that Shaun Ryder, five-star lineup. And that went so well, we played a five-night run at New York's legendary Harlem Apollo in April 2006 to sign off on it. We had all the guests again there but were joined also by Mr. Dennis Hopper, which gave the evening an extra wow factor. A star-studded gala event indeed. And a phantasmagoria of sounds, colours, and assaults on the senses. We brought the house down almost literally. I think my bass was on 13 that night, the roof almost caved in.
But once the door slammed shut on Gorillaz that evening, for me, that was it. I was sick of the sight and smell of the whole band. I just wanted to have a lost weekend. Somehow I managed to string it out for about three years, that's when the real trouble started. It's amazing what fun you can get up to with The Coot's credit card and a great big bottle of absinthe. Here's um, Eugene McGinnis's new single, "Lion", it's out on December the fifth I believe. Put this in your tank and smoke it.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (2)[]
So that was it, freedom. I remember burning down our old studio at one point, Kong Studios. I needed a big stack of cash and that seemed like the fastest way of getting me hands on it. I just torched the place and cashed in on the insurance big time. I remember the date I did it too, 25th of July 2008. That was the date of Jamie Hewlett's and Damon Albarn's Monkey King opera at the Royal Opera House, I remember it well. After I burnt the place down, I then went to their opera and used the whole jawn as like an alibi. I kicked the backs off seats and shouted really loudly to make sure everyone saw me in full flow.
I blamed the fire on some local kids, and they got banged up actually. I used the money to set up somewhere brand-new, somewhere really amazing, and then started what would become the most amazing part of my- of Gorillaz' career. Plastic Beach, The ultimate Gorillaz album. Even now, you know, that sends a shiver down my spine. But before I go into all that, here's a quick word from our sponsor.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (3)[]
(pig snorting) Get off! GET OFF! Shush! That was "Superfast Jellyfish" from Plastic Beach by, um, oh, um, that's by Gorillaz! My band! And also, I think that was one of the first tracks I wrote for Plastic Beach.
(Orchestral Intro plays in the background)
Plastic Beach, what an album. So, I burnt down Kong, skipped the country, and set up my brand-new studio. Built a fantastic new HQ on top of the floating landmass of garbage I'd found in the middle of the ocean. Took me ages to find that place, but I- I- I needed a secret location, somewhere not even Google could find me. Had a whole bunch of goons on my tail, really nasty times. You know, murderers and assassins and the like, All of 'em tryna do me in!
So, I just needed to get my head down, you know, somewhere off the radar for a while. It was just a giant piece of rotten plastic in the middle of nowhere. Funny thing was that it looked idyllic from far away through the binoculars, a floating paradise. But once you got closer, you could see it was just landfill, grease, garbage, destruction, rusty old pipes and dumped bits of plastic, that didn't bother me though. I painted the whole thing bright pink and got on with it. I thought it was bliss. The solitude, the peace. When I first got there, I just wandered up and down, kicking the landscape, Looking out into the night sky, playing with the echoes And marbling at the enormity of the universe, you know. You wouldn't believe the view of the stars from out there, just amazing.
Anyway, I didn't need a studio at first. Initially I just started twanging away on Logic really alone. Me, my bass and a crate of rum sat on the beach just wobbling along to my spongy dub rhythms and recording it straight onto my laptop, you know? Happy days, eh? And that's probably when I came up with that Superfast track. Bit by bit again, I started sketching out tracks and demos. I thought this, this would be the album, the really big one. I would take little portraits, musical snapshots of the whole world and assemble them together into one cohesive, vibrant vision, the nutty one from the inside of my head. And that album would be Plastic Beach. It would be epic in its ambition, historical in its depth, breadth and focus. Plastic Beach would be a microcosm of the entire globe. And I thought, where better to start than one of the oldest civilizations known to man? First stop, Syria.
This is "White Flag" featuring Bashy and Kano from the UK And The National Orchestra For Arabic Music. A grimy wind blowing dancehall music over Arabic orchestras. Now that's not the type of thing you hear every day on Top of the Pops now, is it? White Flag by me, Gorillaz. Move along inside the bus.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (4)[]
Hi. Me, Murdoc, Gorillaz. Sooo yeah, that was my Plastic Beach album. Again, another all-star lineup: Snoop Doggy Dogg, half The Clash, Mos Def came in for Stylo and Sweepstakes, My dear friend Bobby Womack too, Lou Reed, Little Dragon, Mark E. Smith from The Fall, Griff from the Super Furry Animals, just got silly really. I had half the history of music on that record.
We actually had John Lennon on it at one point floating in from across the ether. I- I thought that was a bit far-fetched even by my standards So I chose to knock that one off. But you know, I wanna clear this up: Plastic Beach, It wasn't a green record, it was a soundtrack for a Plastic Beach. Little snapshots of many, many places around the world stuck together on a billboard so you can see how they all fit, you know how they all work together. It's not a judgment on the world, It's just a picture. It's a four-dimensional postcard. Actually, let's play this. This is one of my favourite cuts off the Plastic Beach album. This is "Empire Ants" featuring Little Dragon.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (5)[]
Oh, that’s just gorgeous. That’s, uh, Lykke Li there with "Sadness is a blessing", which in many ways is, isn't it. Um, I need to run 'round the corner and pick up some, uh, some milk. Hang on, not milk, something else. Look, I’m off for a moment. Here’s a track from Wingless Angels. Bunch of Jamaican Rasta musicians, which is a project my dad, Keith Richards, uh, put together with Justin Hines and recorded in Jamaica in the 90´s. Gorgeous smokey textures in this. This is called "No Dark There", Wingless Angels.
("No Dark There" by Wingless Angels plays)
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (6)[]
Can we get André on the phone? Or the other collaborator, uh? Oh, back on, right. Time to wake up a bit. Here is Napalm Death with "You Suffer".
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (7)[]
Thanks for that, all better now. So, I've just realized I've left the car on a meter, so I'm gonna have to wrap this little radio show up, I think.
(Snippet of Crashing Down plays)
That's gorgeous, That'll be great when it's finished, hmm. That was the track we used in the Russel ident last year. When someone sent in some footage that they'd found of our big drummer Russel jumping into the sea. I thought at first when I saw it that he'd lost his marbles again, was doing a Regi Perrin, you know. Basically throwing himself into the murky deep. But then it turns out he was on his way over to Plastic Beach. Maybe he just got the hump because I'd been using drum machines to make the record instead of getting him to do it. Thing is, right, I had no idea where he was and I needed to get going, So that's how it all ended up the way it did.
Anyway, by the time he turned up at Plastic Beach, Christ, the size of him was unbelievable. He'd swallowed all this poisonous fish on the way over. All the radioactive polluted fish and the- the stuff had just... mutated him. So he grew into some kind of F-(opens a can) ing giant. Anyway, I think this is the track we used when we posted that footage of Russ online. "Crashing Down" by me, Gorillaz. I was thinking about this the other day, about the end of the world and the apocalypse and all that. I was thinking, what do you think is going to be the soundtrack, you know, when the world, The universe and all it contains implodes? The grand finale, God's final bow, the exit. Do you know what I think it'll be? Herb Alpert with "Spanish Flea"
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (8)[]
Oh, um, hang on. Let me, uh, just do, hmm. (Murdoc snorts a line of coke) OH, that's better! THAT’S STRONG! Oh, feel great now.
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (9)[]
So, that was it! The Gorillaz Live Band hijacked my stage last year on their Plastic Beach World Tour. And that's probably when things started to go wrong inside my head. As I, Murdoc Niccals, was forced to endure a torturous tour locked in the dressing room night after night. I got back off tour around Christmas and by the time we returned to Plastic Beach, the place was chaos, a fully blown warzone. My island in ruins. My HQ and recording studio bombed to smithereens. So, as per my usual tricks, I just got the hell out of there using espionage and ingenuity and rum.
With the island under attack 2D was still down in the underwater glass-bottomed room that he'd lived in on the island. I thought it was the best way to keep him, there, 'cause he had a crippling fear of whales. Cetaphobia, it's called, nice. Anyway, the last thing I saw of him was- well, last I heard is that whale I'd hired to patrol the island underwater, right? That whale took a sodding great lump out the side of the island, swallowing 2D hole in half his room in the process. Russel beat the whale up, grabbed him by his whale tail, and literally chucked him halfway across the ocean. That was it, gone. Gone in 60 seconds. No more 2D, woosh!
So, anyway, with all this blood and fire and bullets and bombs raining down on me, and The Boogieman coming for my soul, you know, it's- it's- heavy, too heavy. So, I made it look like I'd offed myself in the bunker, and just got the hell out of there. Then I just packed up my plastic bags and precious sh-t and rode away under the silvery moon. The waves gently lapping at the side of the boat and for weeks I rode, ate, read, drank. It was actually very calm, really.
(Wind starts, M raises his voice to talk over it)
Well until the storm hit, my boat got whisked up in a typhoon. I was thrown thousands of miles. Then the storm broke. Next thing, I hit dry land with a bump. Actually, you know what? I've got to go for a tinkle now. Listen, have a little break, and then I'll come back to all about this in a minute. Here's Little Dragon who toured with us all last year, with a song about a little man.
(All wind sounds stop, he stops shouting)
Here's Little Dragon with "Little Man"
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (10)[]
(Start of "Sao Ban Pok Pab" by Panom Nopporn plays)
(Murdoc starts reading what is most likely The Book of M.A.N.)
Mmm, chapter 14, in which the courageous and gallant Master Murdoc Niccals sails around the world and ends up in Siam. Then gets kidnapped and gets taken to the outer Mongol terrain. Becomes a courtier in the Russian palace of Smirnoff, invents a famous vodka recipe, P.A. Smirnoff son Vladimir, after escaping Russia and the Bolsheviks and is forced to marry the Czar’s daughter, the beautiful one with the fantastic knockers.
(Song continues)
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (11)[]
Oh, I don't know, where was I? It's a long story, this. Anyway, yeah, uh, after I escaped Plastic Beach I got into all kinds of trouble, you know. Most of which I just can't repeat here. I'm sure it'll all come out sooner or later. That's the way the world is now, isn't it? You can't even throttle someone with your bare hands without it ending up in Facebook or whatever that thing's called. Uh, I got caught up in a duel in which I shot a man dead with a pistol. Uh, I lost the top part of my ear in the Malay. Got trapped, uh, inside a glass bottle in an underwater cave. Fought a shark, uh, which I learnt how to do in um, underwater fighting school.
So, I've kept myself busy really, and eventually, eventually, I wound up here in Hawaii. I think it's, well you know, gorgeous island really, just gorgeous. Only paid two grand for it. Fantastic weather, wonderful company, the girls, the drinks. It's everything that Plastic Beach shouldn't be. I'm happy now! (chuckle) Really happy...
These are the rewards of a life lived at the top. The high octane white knuckle rider Gorillaz has taken a pause, While in my dotage I get time to reflect on my glorious career And plan my future mistakes. So, uh, are we closing the book on Gorillaz? I wouldn't close the book on anything. And in essence, you know, for me, it's just music making, whatever it is. I don't have to be doing that at the moment. What's happening whenever it's happening is what I'm into. So, simply, I'm not closing the book on it, I'm putting a bookmark in the book. I've put the book down, and I'm probably reading another one at the moment. I think this one's called RazzleW, issue 257. Looking to the future, I don't have many ambitions left, but, you know, I'd really like to do something with someone like, say, Outkast, you know that would be an idea. Or at least some of the members of their team. That'll be fun, don't you think, eh, listeners?
Gorillaz Are Ten - Spotify Radio Show 3 (12)[]
So, there you go. You’ve been listening to me, Murdoc Niccals, bass player, dream chief, mastermind and boss of Gorillaz, hosting a very special one-off radio show for you all, to celebrate ten years of Gorillaz, my band! Ten years old, what an incredible... journey. What a way we’ve came, yeah? From the Camden Brownhouse in 1998 to headlining Glastonbury last year. We took that sound and sailed it 'round the world. Played The Grammys with Madonna just in a nappy and a bus drivers hat. Me, not her. Then Madison Square Garden, yeh. Recording with Dennis Hopper, Ike Turner, Bobby Womack, Snoop, Lou Reed, the D12, Ibrahim Ferrer, (?). I mean, I only started this band as a joke really. I thought, you know, if we can headline The Withered Hand in Stoke, I might be able to pull a bird or two. Now look, incredible!
And the bullet points of that journey, the singles, are all collected now, forever, on one album, out now. Gorillaz, The Singles, 2001 to 2011. What a package, even if I do say so myself. But what now?
Mmm, what now… Here I am, Piña Colada in hand, as the ether roll in warm and sticky and rich over he bay. I feel the calling of another lamp, another magic bottle to find myself corked up in for a millennia. The Gorillaz spirits are returning to the jar folks. You did have your chance. But for me, right now, I'll just mix myself up another (?) cocktail. (drinks) Ahh, mmm.
There’s a lovely warm tide lapping against my soul. You know I'm drifting off, drifting off… The un-civil war in my head is retreating. Warm comforting clouds are drifting over my soul. Gorillaz, I do hope you enjoy the show. And who knows, eh kiddie-winks, if you rub the lamp in just the right way, maybe, MAYBE on day we’ll reappear to light up your world all over again; to show you a small glimpse of what the future may hold.
You’ve been a wonderful audience and thanks so much for watching. What a ride… (Murdoc takes a breath) You’ve been listening to me, Murdoc Niccals from Gorillaz, talking about me, Murdoc Niccals, from Gorillaz, about my band, Gorillaz. And to play us out, here’s Scott Walker with "The War is Over". Night-night. Bye-bye.
("The War is Over" by Scott Walker plays)