Gorillaz World Tour to Kick off October 3 in North America

LOS ANGELES, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of a mind blowing run of European festivals, Gorillaz have announced the complete tour routing for the North American leg of their highly anticipated world tour "Escape To Plastic Beach."  The North American tour will begin in Canada at Montreal's Bell Centre on October 3rd with a 19 date stretch winding up on November 3rd at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.  

Tickets go on sale to the public in select markets beginning August 6th at LiveNation.com.  Gorillaz fanclub, the Sub-Division, will benefit from a 48 hour exclusive pre-sale prior to tickets going on general sale. To join Sub-Division go to www.gorillaz.com/subdivision.

The U.S. and Canada dates, promoted by Live Nation, will be followed by a series of ten shows across Europe and the UK, as well as, seven shows across Australia and Asia.

Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's new live experience encompassing material from all three multi-platinum Gorillaz albums played its first ever show at this April's Coachella festival, absolutely slaying a crowd of 70,000 in the final headline slot of the weekend. Featuring Albarn, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, Bobby Womack, Little Dragon, Bootie Brown, UK Hip Hop stars Kano and Bashy and others as well as video animation, artwork, film and stage design by Hewlett, Gorillaz have since played in front of more than 400,000 fans headlining Glastonbury, Roskilde in Denmark and Benicassim Festival in Spain and will soon become the first Western band of their magnitude to play in Syria when they play the ancient Citadel in Damascus on July 25th following a headline slot at Byblos Festival, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Universal raves for the current Gorillaz live band have included the following:

"The guest appearances from Bobby Womack, De La Soul, the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, and more were all real. Not that Albarn really needed any help commanding attention. He sang with real soul and exhibited boundless energy... This, ladies and gentlemen, was pop spectacle done right."--ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"The evolving band-art project -- that originally began as a partnership between Blur's Damon Albarn and comics artist Jamie Hewlett -- was at its most expansive at Coachella. Albarn acted as a composer and a conjurer, directing a mini symphony and waving his arms to inspire flashes of synthesized and electronic sounds. The Gorillaz -- aided by Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, anchors of what was once one of England's most ambitious bands, the Clash -- were, in many ways, the most perfect of Coachella bands."--LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Gorillaz, the multi-media music project helmed by former Blur front man Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett, is the most intriguing, and perhaps one of the most important, music groups to emerge from the '00s. Nowhere was that more obvious than Sunday night at Coachella, when Gorillaz sucked the crowd from virtually every other portion of Empire Polo Field for a rousing conclusion to the festival."--LA WEEKLY

On the heels of the recently released third Gorillaz album Plastic Beach being  voted #1 album of 2010 thus far in NPR's listeners poll, and first single/video "Stylo" setting the record for the most successful YouTube Music Tuesday premiere ever, Gorillaz have followed up with an epic clip for "On Melancholy Hill." The narrative reveals the whereabouts of Gorillaz guitar slinger Noodle, making her first appearance since her apparent demise in the "El Manana" video that capped the 2005-2006 Demon Days campaign, and drummer Russel Hobbs, returning from MIA status transformed into a giant. "On Melancholy Hill" also picks up immediately following  the conclusion of the white knuckle chase captured in "Stylo," with Noodle's Cyborg doppelganger, Murdoc and vocalist 2D headed to Plastic Beach by way of an undersea odyssey featuring cameos from Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Simonon and Jones, De La Soul and more. The full back story of the various Gorillaz misadventures filling the gap between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, the discovery of Point Nemo and construction of Murdoc's new HQ, the formation of the current Gorillaz live band and more are chronicled in Journey To Plastic Beach http://www.hulu.com/watch/158164/gorillaz-journey-to-plastic-beach#s-p1-sr-i0. Journey To Plastic Beach recently debuted alongside "Feel Good Inc.," "DARE," "Clint Eastwood" and other visual essentials from the extensive Gorillaz videography at the band's recently christened Hulu channel at http://www.hulu.com/gorillaz

Plastic Beach was released March 9 in the U.S. on EMI's Virgin Records. It immediately set two career landmarks, selling more than 112,000 copies in its first week and entering the U.S. album chart at #2. Both career highs, the sales number and chart position bested those of 2005's double-platinum Demon Days, which sold 107,000 in its debut week, entering the chart at #6.

Gorillaz a/k/a Murdoc Niccals, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs were co-created by  Albarn and Hewlett over ten years ago, and unleashed on  the world with their self-titled 2001 debut album, which has sold nearly two  million copies in the U.S. The band's 2005 follow up, Demon Days, featured the  Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal Grammy winner "Feel Good Inc." and sold in excess of two million copies in America.

For further developments in the ongoing Gorillaz saga, check back hourly at the all new http://gorillaz.com, follow the  band's own Murdoc Niccals at www.twitter.com/murdocgorillaz, or check out the Gorillaz YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gorillaz

GORILLAZ

ESCAPE TO PLASTIC BEACH WORLD TOUR 2010

NORTH AMERICAN ITINERARY

Itinerary subject to change.

For complete tour and ticket information visit:   http://www.gorillaz.com

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: Gorillaz.com and LiveNation.com.  

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SOURCE Live Nation