Live review: Gorillaz – London, 02 Arena, 10/08/21

Everyone’s favourite animated band play host to the staff of the NHS with a free headline show at London’s O2

A humble thank you and tribute to the frontline workers, as well as a means of dusting off the cobwebs (this was the band’s first live show since last December), Gorillaz took the packed-out crowd on an immense, 32-song, career spanning adventure, complete with a slew of guests and dazzling stage production.

While you had your standard screens on either side of the stage focusing on the action, a third, much larger one, engulfed the background, bouncing hallucinatory visuals and re-workings of their iconic animated music videos directly at the audience. Shrouded in a veneer of darkness; the impressive live band, complete with two percussionists and approximately eight backing singers, conjured up expansive, tight-knit grooves, with a worldly, global trajectory.

Now, while Albarn and co have garnered quite a reputation for their collaborative projects and performances, tonight seemed epic even by their own standards. When you make the bold decision to bring out Robert Smith of The Cure for only the second song of the night (‘Strange Timez’), you’ve clearly got a number of aces up your proverbial sleeve.

Dropping several cuts from their latest project, ‘Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez’, helped to provide ample room for a bevvy of dynamic guests such as Slowthai (‘Momentary Bliss’), Peter Hook (‘Aries’), Leee John (‘The Lost Chord’) and EARTHGANG (‘Opium’), to name but a few.

Elsewhere, three new songs were played consecutively: ‘Meanwhile’ featuring Jelani Blackman, ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ featuring AJ Tracey and ‘De Ja Vu’ with Alicai Harvey.

Deeper cuts from the initial trilogy of albums, the self-titled debut, Demon Days and Plastic Beach, all received attention, with fan favourites such as ‘Last Living Souls’, ‘Kids With Guns’, ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’, ‘Every Planet We Reach Is Dead’ and ‘Rhinestone Eyes’ all delivered to rapturous reception.

With the big fans down on the floor, jumping and swaying, while the less familiar took to the stalls, a true testament to the lasting power of the most iconic Gorillaz singles came from the universal pandemonium that tracks like ‘On Melancholy Hill’, ‘Dirty Harry’, and ’19-2000’ inspired.

Happy Mondays hero Shaun Ryder appeared for ‘DARE’, which was its own danceathon, EARTHGANG returned for ‘Stylo’ (complete with Bruce Willis visuals), Posdnuos of De La Soul showed up for ‘Feel Good Inc.’, and arguably the highlight of the night, Little Simz who joined the proceedings earlier in the night for ‘Garage Palace’, made a return to switch out the absent Del The Funky Homosapien, with her own fire verses on ‘Clint Eastwood’.

The mammoth, nearly three-hour set was finally brought to a close with ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’ into ‘Demon Days’, just how their seminal sophomore accomplishment winds down on record.

A night for superfans and the unfamiliar alike, Damon Albarn and his cohorts truly used the Gorillaz project and his impressive array of networking contacts, to deliver a surreal dose of positive spectacle and escapism, as his way of saying thank you to those who deserve it most.

Zach Buggy