Review: Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

On Saturday evening, 60,000 people became one under the North London sky, descending on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to celebrate the definitive milestone of Gorillaz’s illustrious twenty-five-year journey, making for an incredible evening that brimmed with an abundance of very special guests.

Argentine rapper and singer Trueno kicks off the night in truly cinematic fashion. Stepping onto the stage in a hybrid Tottenham and Boca Juniors jersey, he instantly captivates the London crowd, effortlessly bridging the language barrier with his vibrant native sound. His opener, ‘Fuck el Police’ goes down a treat, with equally impressive visual production aiding perfectly.

Trueno looks right at home on this stage, despite performing to a non-native crowd, and London quickly adopts him as one of their own. As ‘Real Gangsta Love’ and ‘The Roof Is On Fire’ follow, the Argentine grows more commanding and confident with every track. Flanking the stage, two massive screens track his dynamic movements while displaying English subtitles, keeping the audience locked into every lyric and completely dismantling any language barrier. A great opening set.

Then Sparks, who feature on The Mountain on ‘The Happy Dictator’, offer up a poignant thirty-minute set, as personnel flood into the stadium ready for the Gorillaz 9pm start.

Damon and co take the stage and open with the title track from their new album The Mountain, accompanied by Anoushka Shankar, before support act Sparks return to the stage for ‘The Happy Dictator’.

The band weave into ‘Tranz’ from 2018’s The Now Now, before playing a selection of fan favourites including ‘Rhinestone Eyes’ and ’19-2000′. Echoes of “get the cool, get the cool shoeshine” zip around the stadium early on, which has everyone on their feet and dancing.

This point alone makes it evident this night is about to go down in history for the band, transcending as the biggest Gorillaz celebration there has been, dwarfing their individual album shows at the Copperbox Arena at the tail end of the last year. With a huge list of special guests already announced to join them, what is to come feels somewhat foreseeable, but no less special.

Popcaan arrives on stage for ‘Saturnz Bars’, before Asha Puthli, Black Thought, and Anoushka Shankar follow suit for ‘The Moon Cave’. Demon Days’ ‘El Mañana’ is met with exactly the reaction it warrants, stripping back the euphoria with a moment of introspection as Damon clutches his Shure radio microphone to ring out, “I saw that day, lost my mind…”

‘Empire Ants’ makes its tour debut with Yukimi on stage, before Moonchild Sanelly provides what I admittedly overhear someone behind me describe as serious “bad b energy” for ‘With Love to an Ex’.

After Johnny Marr performs ‘Casablanca’ with the band and Fatoumata Diawara comes out for ‘Désolé’, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) commands the stadium for ‘Stylo’ and ‘Damascus’. With the iconic ‘Stylo’ visuals flashing on the flanking screens, seeing such a nostalgic video paired with the live track is an undeniable highlight for many.

Drawing from their deep well of legendary collaborators, Gorillaz welcome Bootie Brown to the stage for ‘Dirty Harry’, timed just as that iconic staccato melody cuts through the air and the choir vocals begin to swell.

Little Simz takes the stage for ‘Garage Palace,’ before giving way to a real moment in the setlist, as Bashy, Kano, and the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music all join forces for ‘White Flag,’ a standout track from 2010’s Plastic Beach.

Johnny Marr returns to the stage to lend his iconic guitar work to ‘Plastic Beach’, right before Gorillaz deliver a stunning performance of ‘On Melancholy Hill’, enveloping the stadium in a wave of pure emotion and sentiment – a beautiful track no less.

Shaun Ryder strolls out ever so casually as the repetitive kick from the introduction of ‘DARE’ begins, missing the cues in what we can probably call the usual fashion now, with Roses Gabor illuminating on stage and coming to life at the start of “you’ve got to press it on you”.

Almost inevitably, it is the timeless anthems ‘Feel Good Inc’ and ‘Clint Eastwood’ that draw ecstatic responses, with the atmosphere electrified as sixty-thousand strong come together to belt out the iconic “ha, ha, ha, ha, ha” refrain.

“We all are one, under the sun”, beams a shy and taken aback Jamie Hewlett, brought to the front of the stage by Albarn to ensure he receives his flowers, before Damon ushers all of the night’s collaborators back out for a final bow.

Gorillaz are all about collaboration. All about joy, sadness, and tribulation. A discography so vast was deservedly due a night such as this, a real celebration for a special group of personnel who have gone above and beyond to create with integrity and authenticity.

Their unwavering dedication to this shared creative blueprint has, without a doubt, given the world a lot more love, euphoria and melancholy, not to mention an abundance of generational and timeless music. Gorillaz embody everything great about music, art and innovation, stretching from the multi-cultural cohesion that brings entirely different worlds together, to the innovative, illustrative creative genius led by Jamie Hewlett – and the Tottenham show is an ode to that.

It’s what a band should be right?