Gorillaz seem to be teasing new music as they celebrate their 25th anniversary.
- READ MORE: Gorillaz – ‘Cracker Island’ review: conventional, but richly satisfying
In honour of the milestone, the band has launched ‘House of Kong’ – a new exhibition showing at London’s Copper Box, which offers fans a look behind the curtain of their headquarters – as well as four special live shows at the venue taking place across this month and the beginning of September.
In a new interview with Channel 4 News, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett gave some insight into the upcoming shows.
Speaking about the four concerts, Albarn said: “We’re playing first album, second album, and third album, and then the fourth one is a mystery.”
Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy then asked: “So might there be something new there?”, to which Damon responded: “There might. I mean, yes. In that sense, yeah,” while Hewlett mimed his throat being cut.
It’s not the first time this year that Albarn has hinted at a new album. 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.”
Last month, Albarn then revealed that he’s been “incredibly busy making music” – and said the “new Gorillaz record is in four languages”.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Albarn spoke out on what he has described as the “genocide” in Gaza, saying “we cannot deny the Palestinians their existence”.
The upcoming shows will see Albarn joined on stage by the full Gorillaz live band and backed by visuals by Hewlett. They’ll also see the band revisit iconic live shows from their early days, performing each record in full, in a limited-capacity setting.
Buy tickets here and check out a list of upcoming shows below.
Gorillaz’s live shows at Copper Box are:
AUGUST
29 – ‘Gorillaz’ (self-titled debut)
30 – ‘Demon Days’
SEPTEMBER
02 – ‘Plastic Beach’
03 – Mystery Show
Gorillaz’s last album, 2023’s ‘Cracker Island’, was given a four-star review by NME and described as “a consistently enjoyable record that shows why they remain relevant so far into their career.”
“A band that was once considered mucking about on the periphery of pop are now very much defining the present and inspiring the future. You could be doing much worse for album eight, eh?” it read.
