The Good, The bad and The Damon

13 December 2006

The Good The Bad and The Queen

ONE of the highlights of 2006 and sure to be an even bigger one in 2007, was the unveiling of Damon Albarn's latest project, The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

Does the man never stop? Not content with being the lynchpin of Blur for more than 15 years and the brains behind platinum-selling cartoon dance kings Gorillaz, he also had time to head off to Africa and produce his own album, Mali Music.

His new band is a "supergroup of cool". For as well as Mr Albarn,The Good, The Bad and The Queen features punk legend and all round king of cool Paul Simonon from The Clash, the true talent behind The Verve in Simon Tong and top drums man from Fela Kuti, Tony Allen.

Damon and the gang played a series of shows around the country, including an acclaimed appearance at the Electric Proms at Camden's revamped Roundhouse.

Even more intimate was Tuesday's 300-only Christmas gig for their MySpace fans at the famous Wilton's Music Hall, Grace Alley, east London.

Those who didn't manage to get a ticket will be able to see the show via an exclusive video recording to be streamed at www.myspace.com/thelist from Monday.

Their eagerly awaited album will be released on January 22, preceded by second single, Kingdom of Doom, on January 15 and backed by a typically interesting series of dates, that takes in Southsea Pier, Leeds Irish Centre and Bethnal Green's legendary boxing venue, York Hall, on Friday, February 2.

Meanwhile, Gorillaz have branched out into the publishing world with the release of their scurrilous autobiography Rise of the Ogre, and have teamed up with Penguin books for the world's first audiobook singles, extracts from Rise of the Ogre read by actor Joss Ackland with music, effects and interjections from Gorillaz themselves. The singles are being exclusively through iTunes one track a week until Christmas, with all four available as a bumper bundle in the New Year.