Lou Reed joins Gorillaz for New York show

Gorillaz rolled out the hits and plenty of star guests last night (October 8) as they played to a packed house at New York’s world famous Madison Square Garden arena. The show is part of their very first American tour which is due to last until early November.

As reported during the week, the show featured a rare live appearance by Lou Reed who reprised his role on the ‘Plastic Beach’ album track ‘Some Kind Of Nature’. After some initial confusion as to whether Reed was ready to take the stage, the Poet Of New York finally arrived after a short delay and strapped on his guitar to play the song much to the delight of his hometown crowd.

Gorillaz mainman Damon Albarn was also visibly delighted and warmly embraced the former singer as he left the stage. Reed was also given a Murdoc-esque caricature for the night which was projected on the giant screen behind the band as they played.

The two hour long set also featured the likes of Mos Def adding vocals to ‘Stylo’ and ‘Sweepstakes’, Miho Hatori of Cabo Matto singing on ‘19/2000’, De La Soul rapping on ‘Feel Good Inc’ and Bobby Womack who guested on both ‘Stylo’ while adding his usual solo encore of ‘Cloud Of Unknowing’. The night also featured a rare on stage sighting of Albarn’s non-musical partner Jamie Hewlett who took a bow during the encore for his work on the band’s visuals and animation.

The set-list ran:
‘Orchestral Intro’
‘Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach’
‘19/2000’ (with Miho Hatori)
‘Last Living Souls’
‘Stylo’ (with Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
‘On Melancholy Hill’
‘Rhinestone Eyes’
‘Superfast Jellyfish’ (with De La Soul)
‘Tomorrow Comes Today’
‘Some Kind of Nature’ (with Lou Reed)
‘Empire Ants’ (with Little Dragon)
‘Dirty Harry’
‘El Manana’
‘White Flag’ (with The American Syrian Orchestra, Kano and Bashy)
‘DARE’ (with Rosie Wilson)
‘Glitter Freeze’
‘Sweepstakes’ (with Mos Def)
‘Plastic Beach’
Encore:
‘Cloud of Unknowing’ (with Bobby Womack)
‘Feel Good Inc.’ (with De La Soul)
‘Clint Eastwood’ (with Kano and Bashy)
‘Don't Get Lost In Heaven’
‘Demon Days’ (with Bobby Womack)

The tour resumes on Sunday October 10 at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey.