Gorillaz have shared an official video of them playing their debut album in full at their ‘House Of Kong’ residency. Check it out below.
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The Damon Albarn-led band kicked off the first of four limited-capacity live shows at the Copper Box Arena in London last week (August 29) to mark their 25th anniversary. At the first show, they played their self-titled debut in full.
The show saw them play ‘Double Bass’ and ‘Ghost Train’ live for the first time ever, while ‘Starshine’, ‘Slow Country’, ‘Sound Check (Gravity)’, and ‘Man Research (Clapper)’ were performed for the first time since 2002.
Now, they’ve shared a full video of the performance. You can check it out below.
Elsewhere during their residency, Gorilla played ‘Demon Days’ and ‘Plastic Beach’ in full – the latter show also seeing them surprise audiences with ‘The Fall’ tracks ‘Phoner To Arizona’ and ‘California And The Slipping Of The Sun’ live for the first time ever during the encore.
The final night saw them debut a new album in its entirety, with featured artists including Black Thought, Omar Souleyman, Asha Puthli, Asha Bhosle, Sparks, Gruff Rhys, Kara Jackson, Yasiin Bey, Paul Simonon, IDLES‘ Joe Talbot, Johnny Marr, Ajay Prasanna, Trueno and Anoushka Shankar.
The London Arab Orchestra, Demon Strings, Chris Storr, James Copus and Matthew Gunner also served as featured musicians, while late artist’s acts like Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, De La Soul‘s Dave Jolicoeur, Tony Allen, Proof and the late Mark E Smith of The Fall are billed as Voices from Elsewhere.
It came after Albarn had been heavily hinting at a new album from the group. In March, he suggested that one would be arriving later in 2025. “I’m finishing a new Gorillaz album. One opera and one new Gorillaz album seems like enough for 2025,” he told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. “Unless someone accuses me of taking my foot off the gas!”
Hewlett then added fuel to the fire, writing in an Instagram comment: “Yes, the new album is coming out this year.”
In July, Albarn then revealed that he’s been “incredibly busy making music” – and said the “new Gorillaz record is in four languages”.
Then, ahead of the gigs, Albarn and Hewlett further hinted that the fourth one would include new music.
The four shows were part of the band’s ‘House Of Kong’ exhibition at the Copper Box. It ran from August 8 until Wednesday (September 3). The exhibition gallery offered fans a look behind the curtain of the virtual band’s headquarters, and provided insights into the journey they have had since sharing their 2000 debut single ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’, up until present day.
