The virtual supergroup Gorillaz comprises four animated band members - 2D (alias: Stu-Pot) on vocals, keyboards; Murdoc Niccals (also spelt Nicalls) on bass ; Noodle on guitars, vocals ; Russel Hobbs on drums, percussion.

The band was created by Damon Albarn of Blur and Jamie Hewlett, the creator of Tank Girl.

Early history
Gorillaz formed as a band in April 1998. The first song they recorded was 'Ghost Train' (2000) and their first release was the EP 'Tomorrow Comes Today'. The band's first single, 'Clint Eastwood', was released on March 5, 2001. Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled 'Gorillaz' was released, producing four singles: 'Clint Eastwood', '19-2000', 'Rock the House' and 'Tomorrow Comes Today'. Each of the singles' videos contained humorous and often ridiculous storylines and imagery.

The end of the year brought the song '911', a collaboration between the Gorillaz and rap artists D12 (sans Eminem) and Terry Hall about the September 11, 2001 attacks. Meanwhile 'G-Sides', a compilation of the B-sides from the first three singles was released in Japan and quickly followed with international releases in early 2002.

Recent times
The first release off the new album 'Demon Days' was a white label 12" promotional single of the song 'Dirty Harry' featuring Bootie Brown and the San Fernandez Youth Chorus. The first proper single from the album was 'Feel Good Inc.', released as an EP in Japan and as a CD single in Europe and Australia. 'Feel Good Inc.' managed to reach No 2 in the UK Singles Chart the week it was released, being the band's highest ever positioned single. The single stayed in the top ten for eight consecutive weeks.

The third single off 'Demon Days' was'Dirty Harry', which had already been released as a promotional single. A fourth single off 'Demon Days' has been confirmed for release in early 2006, although the title of the record has not yet been revealed officially it has been reported by some to be 'El Manana'

Who’s in the band
There have been waves of speculation and controversy surrounding who is actually behind Gorillaz ever since 'Tomorrow Comes Today' was first released. The only permanent 'member' behind the music happens to be Albarn, while all artwork and music videos are created by Zombie Flesh Eaters (Hewlett's own company) and Passion Pictures (animators including 2000AD artist Rufus Dayglo).

There are several people who could be called 'Noodle', including Miho Hattori, who provided singing vocals for Noodle on the first album; Haruka Kuroda, an actress who provides Noodle's speaking voice; Rosie Wilson, who has sung as Noodle or Simon Katz, Simon Tong, or Damon Albarn himself, who have all played guitar for Gorillaz at some point.

Live performances
For the tours linked with the debut album, the physical band played behind a specially designed screen which covered the stage area. Videos, animatics and image collages were projected onto the audience side of the screen, while lights behind the screen lit up silhouettes of the physical band, creating a mix of the physical and animated.

For their first tour of the United States, two screens were used - one was simply the animatics, while the second, lower screen displayed the band's silhouettes along with various quotes from interviews.

At the 2005 MTV European Music Awards, Gorillaz performed live using technology allowing the cartoon band members to be projected onto the stage as 3-dimensional 'holograms'. This marked the first time that a band has used this kind of technology, and it is planned to be used in the Gorillaz 2007-2008 tour.

Gorillaz have also made plans for a huge world tour in 2007-2008 which would include the band members being holograms on stage. These shows are going to be pre-recorded and Damon Albarn has stated that he will not even be there when the performances happen.

For more about Gorillaz go to www.gorillaz.com