Gorillaz Starting 2026 At Their Peak

As I write this, it’s been about twelve hours since I was stood in the queue at BP Pulse Live, waiting to see one of the biggest bands in my life. And my goodness, Gorillaz did not disappoint. I’m now sat here, opening my phone every two minutes and rewatching all the videos I took from last night.

I remember tickets being released last September, and I was sat at my student radio station’s desk at fresher’s fair with my friend’s laptop, my iPad, and my phone all open with the presale queue. We had students coming up to ask about the station, and I actually had to just not speak to them because I was so determined to get these tickets! The presale link said that standing tickets were £85, which I thought was a bit steep, but I was happy to pay it: Gorillaz are a huge band, it was at an arena, and they do put on high-quality productions. But when I got to the checkout, with booking fees and whatnot, tickets came to over. One hundred. EACH. I can’t really complain though, can I? I still went… and I can definitely say I got my money’s worth.

I’ve learnt from last night that I need to start reading properly. On Gorillaz’s Instagram post, from when they announced the tour, at the very bottom it said “support from Sparks and Trueno.” So I was beyond excited to see Sparks, as I’m a huge fan of them, and every time they have come around to tour recently, I’ve missed out. It turns out that I was also going to miss out this time! I’ve reread the post today, and it says under the Tottenham Stadium show that Sparks were supporting them. So, my friend and I sat on the floor for two hours playing ‘Who am I?’ until the lights went down.

Supporting Gorillaz was in fact Omar Souleyman, a Syrian singer who produces a modernised version of Dabke, traditional folk-dance music commonly played in the middle east. It’s not a genre I was previously aware of, but it was quite refreshing to see something different! Souleyman isn’t particularly someone I would have gone out of my way to go and see, but he was in fact really good! The whole crowd were dancing, despite some people seeming quite confused. It was still a great atmosphere!

The set design was BEAUTFUL. Whilst we waited for the band to come on, orange curtains pulled across the back of the stage, and on the sides, although it took me a while to realise it was a screen that had the curtains on. It looked so real!

The opening number was The Mountain from their most recent album, and the screen behind them seemed to set the scene and the aesthetics of the album. We saw Noodle growing up walking through the jungle and meeting 2D, Murdoc, and Russel along the way. It was nice to hear everyone cheering for their favourite characters, and I love this era of animation style that we got to see.

Seeing Damon Albarn again was such a surreal experience. Before last night, I had always said that the best gig I’d ever been to was Blur’s warm-up show in Wolverhampton in May 2023, but now I will happily say that the best I’ve attended is Gorillaz. And I genuinely think that truly reflects Damon’s showmanship and how he is a performer. He was so engaging with the crowd, and every time I see him with Gorillaz, I am just blown away with how instrumentally talented he is. And the piano the band were using was the same one they used on Blur’s Ballad of Darren tour back in 2023, so I found it quite nostalgic too!

The second song they played was The Happy Dictator, and at this point, I knew that Sparks weren’t going to be on stage, so it was interesting to see how their parts of the song would be done: were the backing singers going to sing it? Was Damon going to sing it all? But instead, they projected the duo onto the screen and just play their parts from the single. And they did that for a lot of their songs that feature other artists, like with Asha Bhosle, who sings on The Shadowy Light, which is an absolutely beautiful song.

The friend I went with had also seen Gorillaz in Manchester the night before, and she said that they didn’t play Dare, which I think is crazy. She said a lot of people thought that, especially with the show being in Manchester, they would bring out Shaun Ryder, but instead they brought out IDLES’ Joe Talbot to sing The God of Lying. I thought that perhaps they would bring someone different out for Birmingham, but as an IDLES fan, I was spoilt with them bringing Talbot out again. He and Damon bounce off each other so well when performing- I wish the song would have lasted longer just to see them as a duo for longer! De La Soul’s Posdnuos came out to rap on Feel Good Inc. too, which was quite surreal. I think it’s incredible that Damon has collaborated with an endless number of renowned artists.

Hearing both The Shadowy Light and Damascus, which Omar Souleyman came back out to sing on, really made me appreciate how experimental The Mountain is as an album. I love the amount of collaborations on there and how it embraces multiculturalism so much. Dare I say that it is my favourite Gorillaz album to date?! Experiencing some of their hits live transported me back to being 14 years old, with my headphones on, and discovering Demon Days for the first time. But I’ve got one thing to complain about: we didn’t get Kids with Guns! But Manchester did the night before. I’m immensely jealous.

Overall, Gorillaz’s concert was something I’ve never experienced before, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. The band have created such a strong and tight-knit community of fans, and to see everyone come together in a huge arena was so heart-warming. Gorillaz have never produced a bad album, but I believe they’ve taken a huge step from Cracker Island to The Mountain, and I hope they carry on going this way in the next few years, because if so, we’ll be in for some huge treats.