Gorillaz, a virtual band thought up by Blur mastermind Damon Albarn, have been going for almost three decades and fans are beginning to theorise what their name means
Gorillaz fans think they’ve debunked the band’s unusual name.
The virtual band was dreamt up by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, features four made-up characters: 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs, and Noodle. Gorillaz have been around since 1998 and are known for their smash hits Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc, DARE, Tomorrow Comes Today, and On Melancholy Hill.
Some fans have been pondering the meaning behind their name and many theories have been circulating the internet. One Reddit user posted: “The name of the band Gorillaz is a pun because a group of gorillas is called a band,” while another fan wrote: “From what I’ve been told, the name “Gorillaz” comes from a comment Liam Gallagher of Oasis made.”
“Damon Albarn, the musical force behind Gorillaz, used to be/is in another band called Blur who were a major competitor with Oasis back in the 90s at the peak of Britpop. An interviewer compared the feud to the battle between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the 60s, and asked Liam whether Oasis were The Beatles or the Stones.”
“Liam responded: ‘We’re the Beatles and the Stones, and [Blur are] The f****** Monkees.’ Albarn apparently named his next group Gorillaz to poke fun at this comment.”
Other people are convinced that Gorillaz were named after Hewlett and Albarn’s birth year 1968, which was the year of the monkey.
Radio X has offered a different explanation: “The band originally identified themselves as ‘Gorilla’, which could be a play on the word ‘guerilla,’ coming from the words guerilla warfare – which is a term used to describe underhand and un-open warfare tactics. This makes sense when you consider we were never really meant to know who was behind the project.”
“Damon Albarn is now of course almost as synonymous with the hugely successful animated band as he is with Blur, but it wasn’t meant to be that way.”
Albarn told The Guardian back in 2017. “People weren’t meant to know it was me. Even now I think, during the gigs, I’m going to be able to go off, go backstage and make myself a drink and a hologram will take my place for a couple of songs.”
Hewlett has previously explained that the idea for a virtual band came to him after realising he was fed up of what was on his screen: “If you watch MTV for too long, it’s a bit like hell. There’s nothing of substance there, so we got this idea for a virtual band, something that would be a comment on that.”
Albarn added: “This was the beginning of the boy band sort of explosion and it just felt so manufactured, we were like: ‘Well let’s make a manufactured band but make it kind of interesting,” reports the Express.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
