While Damon Albarn is mainly known as a charismatic Britpop darling manning the helm of Blur, we’d argue that Albarn is actually the music world’s ultimate wingman. From cherrypicking the finest new voices to feature on-track to curating the African Express collective to share the most unique sounds from across the globe, he’s always keen to give other people a platform – and Gorillaz is the ultimate sign of that.
While Gorillaz’s unique blend of genre-spanning electro-art-pop is in a league of its own, it’s something Albarn is happy to detach his own ego from. Instead, tonight’s Rock For People headline set is about his cartoon alter ego, 2D – and every talented artist Albarn wants to shine a light on instead of soaking up the attention himself.
As the set kicks off with The Mountain, it perfectly sets the tone of the evening. Serving as the meditative title track from Gorillaz’s psychedelia-infused latest record, the opener bubbles with the Indian flavours that inspired the album – and he’s got the sound of bansuri flautist Ajay Prasanna’s playing wafting over the crowd like a spell. Albarn finally picks up his fuzzy-filtered microphone for the synth-sprinkled The Happy Dictator – but he remains humble, always quick to redirect attention to animated clips or welcome another collaborator onstage.
And the list of collaborators is immense. The God Of Lying sees Albarn welcoming out IDLE’s post-punk frontman Joe Talbot (rocking a very classy safari hat), who at one point gets down on his knees to serenade his collaborator. Then Albarn invites out fresher talent in the form of Kara Jackson, encouraging the 26-year-old to take centre stage for Orange County as he watches on like a proud dad.
Of course, the crowd is delighted at every turn. Whether it manic dance-pits during Delirium’s drug-trip haze or avid pogo-ing during the breezy funk of Andromeda, it’s a blessing. The party seems to spike during cuts like Damascus, with its fantastic meld of American rap and Arabic hip hop. Again, it’s a broad palette – and Albarn just grins, flashing his broken front tooth as he watches his multicultural tapestry unfold.
By the time things begin to round off, with the crowd howling back Feel Good Inc. and circling in a goofy pit for Clint Eastwood, Albarn seems thoroughly chuffed with himself. And rightly so; as he exclaims in shock at one point, “this is meant to be a rock festival!”, but his diverse, borderless world of sprawling dub, hip hop and electronica chaos can charm just about any rock or metalhead. That’s one hell of a badge of honour.
