Gorillaz have always seemed like an amusement park for Damon Albarn’s and Jamie Hewlett’s imaginations. So it’s fitting that the cartoon art-pop band headlined their own festival at Dreamland, Margate’s vintage fairground with its candy stripes, bumper cars and wooden rollercoaster.
Albarn envisioned the group’s latest album, Humanz, as a party for the apocalypse, and from the end of the world to the end of the pier, Albarn brings his transatlantic celebrity pals to the English coast. The sun blazes down on sunburned necks as teacups whirl and swords are swallowed. You can even visit the band’s Kong studios if you’re willing to queue for an hour.
The band’s Demon Dayz festival features a carousel of guests playing sets. De La Soul, consummate professionals in warming up a crowd, spend 95% of their performance testing how loud the crowd can shout “ho” before finishing with Me, Myself and I. Kano is also on crowd-pleasing form – and on brand for the seaside, with T-shirt Weather in the Manor’s lines about “ice cream vans, Screwballs, 99 Flake”.
This all leaves the stage set for Gorillaz. The sonically scattered nature of Humanz, which sounds as if you’re flicking through a playlist, works to Albarn’s advantage tonight. He has his very own jukebox, and over 27 songs they play hits, album tracks and unreleased songs.
It begins theatrically – 30-odd figures cloaked in black form a procession as they climb to the stage. The masks are dropped to reveal a smiling Albarn in fine fettle – he hugs his guests and holds that arms-aloft pose he’s perfected. As guests come and go, it is easy to think of Gorillaz as less a band and more a carnival of collaborators, with Albarn the musical polymath holding it all together.
There are people missing – there’s no Noel Gallagher or Grace Jones. And there are also absent friends – Stylo is dedicated to the late Bobby Womack. But that doesn’t stop the party. Graham Coxon, Danny Brown, Kelela and Albarn are unlikely but seductive partners on the sultry Submission, while the chemistry also fizzes between Kali Uchis and Albarn on She’s My Collar. Yet it remains Damon’s bruised croon on the beautifully melancholic Busted and Blue that gives you chills as the sun sets.
There is also time for the hits: DARE takes off, even with Shaun Ryder ambling off the stage too early. “Goodnight, God bless,” he says with a meek smile. “Can I fuck off now?” A rousing Feel Good Inc and stomping Clint Eastwood (with Kano and Little Simz taking on the verses), are a wonderful climax.
Inevitably, politics looms over the show. “It’s been a weird week. A real surprise, then an inevitable bullshit outcome,” says Albarn. But as the set finishes, Albarn smiles at the crowd and asks them to remember the following: “Unity, and through unity we find love.” There’s a feeling the apocalypse has been put off for another night at least.
