Gorillaz split?

Mon 7th Feb, 2011 in International News

Bad news comes in threes –first the White Stripes announced their split, then came the news of LCD Soundsystem’s funeral gig – now it looks as though we can add Gorillaz to the list of early 2011 breakups. (And that’s just talking international splits – locally we’ve already had splits from Perth’s Capital City and two Brisbane bands – Yves Klein Blue and Rocketsmiths)

British tabloid The People is reporting that Gorillaz have split after a “massive argument” between Damon Albarn and his Gorillaz collaborator, Jamie Hewlett which “basically ended things”. Although the article managed to misspell the name of the band in the headline – renaming them the Gorrillaz – it reports that the band’s recent world tour became “dogged with angry rows” and according to an unnamed ‘insider’ “it would take a lot for to get Jamie and Damon back together”. Hewlett is apparently frustrated by “time Albarn was giving to his many other projects”, while Albarn is “less than impressed with Jamie’s party lifestyle”.

There’s no official word from the band to confirm the report of an official split, but at the final show of the stunning “Plastic Beach” world tour in New Zealand, Albarn told the crowd that “For us, this is the last time… you know, we all hope and pray on this stage that all the people who work with us that we will get a chance to work together as a collective again but we may never do that again, so for us tonight is a very charged moment.”