Damon Albarn Might Retire Gorillaz After Tour

The end of Gorillaz? Maybe. Damon Albarn is considering retiring the Gorillaz gang when the band’s current world tour wraps up in New Zealand later this month.

“I couldn’t keep going at this size and pace,” Albarn explains to The Age newspaper.

Albarn is planning a “period of reflection and sobriety” to consider the cartoon band’s future.

It’s clear from Albarn’s comments that the massive tour has definitely been a wild, yet tiring ride for he and Gorillaz partner Jamie Hewlett.

“It’s been an unqualified success – bizarrely,” Albarn said.

“But as far as communicating an idea to an audience, who knows? We always think that when we get to a point where we’ve achieved something that it’s time to stop.”

Gorillaz, featuring  2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel — plus a live band -, have taken their ‘Escape To Plastic Beach’ show all over the globe, including headline performances at major festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella.

The tour, like their album Plastic Beach, has featured appearances from The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mark E Smith and Snoop Dogg.

Hewlett adds:

“This would be a wonderful point to leave Gorillaz; at the end of this tour, I think… This tour, with these people, is a one-off. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We’ll never repeat this.”

Nothing is written in stone, but Albarn does note that he and Hewlett will “see how we feel in January” post-tour before making any decisions about the future of Gorillaz.

It was just last month that we learned of a new Gorillaz album possibly due before Christmas – recorded by Albarn on his iPad no less. We’ll have to wait and see what becomes of the iPad album and whether or not it arrives from a band that has hung up their guitars and comic book characters.