Gorillaz, live at the O2

A James Brown-style soul revue with rotating lead singers, full string and brass sections and comic book graphics sounded great on paper, but how would it pan out on stage?
That was the €64,000 question as the Escape From Plastic Beach incarnation of Gorillaz mob-handedly took to the boards at a near capacity O2. The fact that everybody was running around like greyhounds on speed meant it was impossible to do a totally accurate headcount, but at one point I’d swear there were at least 25 bodies helping to realise Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s not always entirely sane vision.
For the over-47s like me, it fair brought a tear to the eye seeing Mick Jones and Paul Simonon reunited on stage for the first time in eons, the latter looking as eminently shaggable – I say this in an entirely heterosexual way, you understand – as he was back in the Clash glory days.
There was also something pretty sexy about the opening salvo of ‘Orchestral Intro’ and ‘Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach’, which gave us our first sighting tonight of Chicago’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble who really should be superstars in their own right. Ditto Rosie Wilson, the London session singer absolutely nailed ‘19/2000’ and ‘Dare’.
Indeed, the only guest who failed to deliver was Mark E. Smith who’s in such an advance stage of befuddlement that he had to read the words to ‘Glitter Freeze’ from a piece of paper, and even then made a giant pig’s ear of it. Never one of life’s natural singers, Smith’s incoherent croak was in stark contrast to the wonderfully weathered soul stylings of Bobby Womack, a vision in black who stole the show with ‘Stylo’ and the celebratory encore version of ‘Demon Days’. The former was accompanied by a mini-desert car chase movie starring the almost as weathered Bruce Willis.
It was also a privilege to be in the company of De La Soul – note to knobhead blogger: how can they be “clichéd” when they helped fucking invent hip hop? – who may be a little broader of girth than they were in the ‘80s but still give the likes of ‘Superfast Jellyfish’ and ‘Feel Good Inc’ 110%, Brian.
Also giving it maximum sockage were De La Soul’s fellow old school-er Booty Brown; Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano whose deliciously understated ‘To Binge’ is another highlight; and the ringmaster himself, Damon Albarn, who was a little more, er, focused than when Irish audiences last saw him at Oxegen with Blur, who must be wondering if they’ll ever get their frontman back again.
The shit-eating grin on his face at the end spoke volumes – come December this is going to be on a lot of ‘Gig of the Year’ lists.