Gorillaz Have One Band Member

[bandtoband.com] http://bandtoband.com/index.php?Page=FAQ

Recently we received a submission concerning Gorillaz, a cartoon-based "virtual" band. Their first album appeared to have all sorts of great links to other bands through the following band members:

Damon Albarn (Blur)
Dan "The Automator" Nakamura (Handsome Boy Modelling School)
Miho Hattori (Cibo Matto)
Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads / Tom Tom Club)
Chris Frantz (Talking Heads / Tom Tom Club)
Eric San (aka "Kid Koala")
Teren Delvon Jones (aka "Del Tha Funkee Homosapien")

The research that I did revealed that the only two real "members" of the band are Jamie Hewlett, who doesn't play any instruments but does all the animation and artwork, and Damon Albarn. Albarn creates the music with a rotating cast of contributors for each album and Hewlett does the art.

There are a lot of sites out there that make it clear that the rest of the contributors are simply guests, but I think this site summarizes it best:

[en.wikipedia.org] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillaz

There have been waves of controversy surrounding who is actually behind Gorillaz ever since the first single was released. In the half-hour TV mockumentary entitled Charts Of Darkness, it was explicitly stated that Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett were behind the project; quoting Albarn, "There could be fifty [people] here, but there's two." Many fans have simply assumed that the guest artists in the liner notes (including Cibo Matto vocalist Miho Hatori and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien) complete the band. In actual fact, the only permanent member behind the music happens to be Damon Albarn. During the "hidden" credits to the DVD Phase One: Celebrity Take Down, it states the names of the creators, the voice talents and those responsible for performing live. The list of integral performers in the group changed drastically for the second album, with the exception of Damon Albarn himself. All artwork and promotional videos are created by Zombie Flesh Eaters (Hewlett's own company) and Passion Pictures.

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This interview with Albarn demonstrates how some of the contributors ended being part of the project:

[www.rollingstone.com] http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5931862

What were you looking for in people that you collaborated with on the album?

I got in the spirit of just going wherever my imagination took me with the music. The people that I ended up collaborating with were on an equally random journey. Tina Weymouth just turned up one day in Jamaica, knocked on the door of the studio, and said, "I heard outside this music which caught my interest." And then, with Dan [the Automator], I've done a lot of stuff, so I just rang him up and he came over. Right at the end came [Cuban singer] Ibrahim Ferrer. I just felt, "It's a real long shot, but I'm going to try to see if he'd be interested in being in the cartoon." And it really has been like that from the beginning: If you like the concept, you work really well with the people who are involved. And it's because it's never meant to be; there's no emphasis on a celebrity.

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And if none of that is convincing, check out this page:
[www.gorillaz-unofficial.com] http://www.gorillaz-unofficial.com/biography/realpeople.htm