Gorillaz played a mammoth show at Tottenham Hotspur’s last night (Saturday June 20), and brought out an impressive run of special guests including Johnny Marr, Little Simz, Shaun Ryder and more. Check out footage, photos and the full setlist below.
The night marked the first ever stadium show for the Damon Albarn-led collective, and followed on the heels of them releasing stirring and spiritual new album ‘The Mountain’ and playing a handful of UK arena shows earlier this year.
“You ready for some silliness?” the frontman asked, kicking off the headline set after support slots from Trueno and Sparks. The stacked 30-song setlist began with Anoushka Shankar joining for ‘The Mountain’ title track – having featured on the original recording – and Sparks returning to the stage for ‘The Happy Dictator’.
Tracks from Gorillaz’s earlier discography followed, with 2018’s ‘Tranz’, 2001’s ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’ and ‘19/2000’, and 2010’s ‘Rhinestone Eyes’ coming in thick and fast, before being followed by more songs from the latest album.
Popcaan took to the stage for a lively rendition of ‘Saturnz Barz’, before Black Thought, Asha Puthli and Anoushka Shankar joined Albarn for ‘The Moon Cave’, and both The Smiths turned solo legend Johnny Marr and The Clash’s Paul Simonon came out for ‘Casablanca’.
Marr and Simonon came out again later in the night for ‘Plastic Beach’, and other earlier fan favourites played on the night included ‘Empire Ants’, ‘El Mañana’, ‘Dirty Harry’, ‘On Melancholy Hill’, ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ‘Feel Good Inc’.
More special guests joined later on too, with Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) joining for both ‘Stylo’ and ‘Damascus’ alongside Omar Souleyman, Little Simz taking to the stage for ‘Garage Palace’, and Kano, Bashy and Lao performing ‘White Flag’.
One of the most moving moments of the gig came when Gorillaz played ‘The Shadowy Light’ in tribute to the late Bollywood icon Asha Bhosle, who featured on the original recording and died earlier this year, aged 92. Gruff Rhys helped perform the track, while Bhosle’s granddaughter Zanai joined to perform the late singer’s vocal parts.
Fans held up their phone torches throughout the rendition, and Zanai said afterwards that the moment was not only a way for fans to say farewell to the late Bollywood star, but the song itself – with themes of loss, acceptance and spirituality – felt like Asha’s way of saying goodbye to them.
While the tribute to Asha Bhosle was the most touching part of the night, the most intense moment undoubtedly came from Happy Mondays icon Shaun Ryder and Roses Gabor, who helped close out the show with huge hit ‘DARE’.
“Thank you so much for attending this mass gathering of multi-cultural, multi-generational music, we appreciate you,” Albarn told the crowd, also quipping that “the logistics are ridiculous for this band” when he embraced Ryder just before he left the stage.
Introducing his guests all back to the stage after final track ‘Clint Eastwood’, Albarn shared his gratitude for fans for showing up for one of the most memorable shows of Gorillaz’s career, and closed things out by saying: “We love you because we are you”.
Check out the full setlist and more footage from the show below.
Gorillaz’s Tottenham setlist was:
‘The Mountain’ (Anoushka Shankar)
‘The Happy Dictator’ (Sparks)
‘Tranz’
‘Tomorrow Comes Today’
’19/2000’
‘Rhinestone Eyes’
‘Saturnz Barz’ – (Popcaan)
‘The Moon Cave’ (Black Thought – Asha Puthli – Anoushka Shankar)
‘El Mañana’
‘Empire Ants’ – (Yukimi)
‘With Love to an Ex’ – (Moonchild Sanelly)
‘Casablanca’ (Paul Simonon – Johnny Marr)
‘Delirium’
‘Andromeda’
‘Desolé’ (Fatoumata Diawara)
‘Stylo’ (Yasiin Bey)
‘Damascus’ (Yasiin Bey – Omar Souleyman)
‘Dirty Harry’ (Bootie Brown)
‘Garage Palace’ (Little Simz)
‘White Flag’ – (Kano – Bashy – Lao)
‘The Shadowy Light’ (Gruff Rhys – Zanai Bhosle)
‘The Sad God’ (Black Thought – Anoushka Shankar)
‘Cloud of Unknowing’
‘Plastic Beach’ (Paul Simonon – Johnny Marr)
‘On Melancholy Hill’
‘Orange County’ (Kara Jackson – Anoushka Shankar)
‘The Manifesto’ – (Trueno)
‘DARE’ – (Shaun Ryder – Roses Gabor)
‘Feel Good INC’ (Pos – De La Soul)
‘Clint Eastwood’
Ahead of the colossal gig, Albarn – famously a Chelsea F.C. supporter – appeared on The Graham Norton Show to perform the single ‘Orange Country’, and jokingly refused to say the name of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the band were playing, simply referring to it as a “large music venue in North London”.
The show at Tottenham came shortly after Gorillaz played a huge set at Primavera Sound Barcelona, joining The Cure and Doja Cat on the bill, and before they head back out on the road for their first-ever India tour dates. Visit here for tickets to upcoming shows.
‘The Mountain’, written after both Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett lost their fathers, was given a four-star review from NME, which praised it for its ability to tackle heavy themes with a sense of elegance and intricacy. The review described it as “an album that celebrates the love you leave behind, the people you touch, the spirit of giving more than you take, how we’re all the same when it’s done.”