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May 30, 2023 · One Band, One Bus, Four Cities…” — and will see the virtual group — which consists of members 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs — traveling to Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago and...
Murdoc Faust Niccals (born Murdoc Alphonce Niccals) is the bassist for the band. He is voiced by Phil Cornwell and was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Murdoc is based on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Victor Frankenstein, and Creeper from Scooby-Doo.
- Overview
- Characterization
- Background
- Phase 1: 1998-2002
- Post-Phase 1 to Pre-Phase 2: 2002-2004
- Phase 2: 2004-2007
- Phase 3: 2008-2012
- Phase 4: 2016-2017
- Phase 5: 2018-2019
Murdoc Alphonce "Faust" Niccals is the official bass player, self-proclaimed leader and founder of Gorillaz.
Murdoc is based on The Rolling Stones guitaristW Keith RichardsW, Creeper from Scooby-DooW, Victor FrankensteinW and Morgan Nicholls, a friend of Jamie Hewlett and Gorillaz real-life bassist during Phase Two. He is also loosely based on Damon Albarn himself, with many of the events that happen to Murdoc and things that Murdoc says is loosely based on that of Albarn. "Damon is Murdoc, basically", Hewlett says, "When Damon has an adventure, it tends to happen to Murdoc too".
Murdoc's attire in each phase of the band draws its inspiration from Ozzy OsbourneW.
Murdoc Alphonse Niccals was born in Stoke-On-Trent on the 6th of June 1966. He was born in The Three Legged Dog (a pub) out the back by the wheelie bins, although it was rumored that his mother gave birth to him while still in residence at the Belphagor Sanatorium, a halfway house for "the sick, the needy and the incredibly bored".
As an infant, he was dumped on the doorstep of his father's house one night and was discovered by him as he was returning home from the pub.
Murdoc went on to have a very abusive childhood. It has been proposed that his many addictions and his sour attitude were a direct result of it. His father, Sebastian Jacob Niccals (or Jacob Sebastian Niccals, depending on who's asking), was a spiteful and drunk man who often verbally abused and exploited his sons.
During his childhood years, Murdoc attended Sodsworth Comprehensive School where he gained a reputation for his truancy, puerile pranks, ugliness, poor personal hygiene, and generally unruly behaviour. From the first day, he would frequently be found in the corridors during lessons and propping up walls outside of the classrooms, distracting the other pupils with "endless quacking noises and pointless, malicious humour". His form teacher, Mr Gravadlax, a man described by Murdoc as "turning up stinking of poppers", described Murdoc as "an appalling student" and "a stupid imbecile who often turned up smelling of whiskey". Although, even as a child, he had charisma, had a great knack for getting his acquaintances to see things "the Murdoc Niccals way" and certainly stood out. Despite all this, he was also the target of much bullying both from the pupils and the teachers. At age nine he was raped by a school lunch lady, which he cites as the source of his 'constant bad mood'. Murdoc was also bullied at school by a big, thick, meaty skinhead lump of a boy with arms like two racks of kabob meat named Tony Chopper. Chopper would call Murdoc all kinds of names and the list went on with new ones added daily. Murdoc got back at Tony by calling him a lot of offensive and extremely harsh names, ultimately calling him "a useless, bloated backward waste of space who would probably get a job of holding up 'For Sale' signs on the corner of streets only to then get himself fired and replaced by a bucket of the soil", which resulted in Tony punching Murdoc in the nose, breaking it.
The local pub had a routine talent show called "Are You A Star?" that Murdoc was often forced to participate in so he could win his father's drinking money. The performances arranged by his father were always humiliating song and dance numbers, usually with feathered costumes and tap shoes, including one performance in which Murdoc was forcibly dressed up as Pinocchio and sang "I've Got No Strings". It was from here on out that Murdoc decided to become a musician, and he would never again take the stage under someone else's direction. He would “wreak havoc on this world of buffoons”.
Murdoc dreamt about becoming a famous musician and leaving Stoke-On-Trent. After becoming a Satanist, he began making deals with the devil and came to an arrangement with him. If Murdoc was to become a famous rock star, he would offer Satan his soul. When the deal was finalized, Murdoc acquired Satan's bass guitar, the 'El Diablo', and his middle name was changed from 'Alphonce' to 'Faust'.
In September of 1998, Murdoc discovered Kong Studios being advertised on a website named 'Gigantic Disused Haunted Studios In The Middle Of No-Where', which he bought and moved in with 2-D.
Murdoc later went on to recruit Russel Hobbs as his band's drummer after kidnapping him from Big Rick Black's Record Shack in Soho. The band also hired 2-D's girlfriend at the time, Paula Cracker, as their guitarist, but was soon fired after she was caught giving Murdoc a blowjob in the studio toilets by Russel and received 5 more punches to his nose. After Noodle joined the band and the band was finally named Gorillaz, Murdoc organized a gig at the Camden Brownhouse and invited Mr Wiffy Smiffy from EMI Music to see them. He and the rest of the band were successfully signed after their first gig in November of that year.
Unfortunately, this was never to be. They were conned by a movie director (who it turns out, was just an insane man) while Murdoc attempted to star in a television program (he was too old for the part), and they ventured unsuccessfully into scriptwriting. Murdoc took off to a TijuanaW brothel after strangling 2-D (who, like the rest of the band, went their separate ways) and was eventually thrown in prison with a 30-year sentence for giving counterfeit checks to prostitutes. It was during this sentence that he was acquainted with his raven Cortez, the "jailbird with a chilling reputation". While serving his sentence Murdoc acquired some prison ink (in the form of the seven deadly sins tattooed across his back), and also took an Open University course: "Amateur Administration of Pharmaceutical Medicines" and managed to pass a medical exam, earning the title 'Dr. Niccals'. He escaped with the help of two Mexican criminals as well as a paper-mâché mannequin of himself and a taped loop of himself moaning.
After returning to the brothel to make a final point to the Mexican authorities, Murdoc loaded up on duty-free tequila and a few sombreros and made his way back to Kong, finding that Noodle had written the second album by herself (which he tried to take the credit for).
The new album, Demon Days, made the band into even bigger superstars. After several number-one videos, Noodle was apparently "killed" during the "El Mañana" video shoot (it can be noted that Murdoc came up with the idea of shooting down the floating island with Noodle inside, though he tried to save her in the long run).
After the El Mañana conspiracy, 2-D and Russel were frantic about Noodle's supposed death, but it turned out to be a hoax. Murdoc revealed the truth about the "El Mañana" video in the Gorillaz official autobiography book, Rise of the Ogre. Gorillaz-Unofficial released an article containing the contents of the book.
“ There's no way on earth I'm killing Noodle. Are you mad? She's Noodle. We're Gorillaz! The greatest band on earth. I'm arrogant, ruthless even, but I'm not stupid. I'm not having some two-bit mouldy despot record company nut killing off my band. No way, José. That clown got what he deserved. . . He set himself up and burned all the evidence in the process. Instant Karma for Mr Jimmy Manson. „
~ Murdoc on
It turns out that the entire El Mañana conspiracy was calculated specifically to get rid of an enemy of the band: Little Jimmy Manson, a psychotic hippie turned industry executive who was set on sabotaging Gorillaz. The reason why was that Jimmy had auditioned for Gorillaz a few years back, but was turned down after Noodle got the job, causing Jimmy to have a grudge against Gorillaz ever since. Murdoc saw Jimmy's plan and decided to get rid of him before it was too late. Murdoc told Jimmy that he had a plan to "help him" to kill off one of the band members so that Gorillaz would end with a bang and that Jimmy could start a new band with Murdoc. Noodle was to do the El Mañana video with Manson stowed away on the island and, while the windmill was crashing around them, Jimmy would shoot the guitarist whilst taking the parachute for himself. However, Murdoc turned the tables on Jimmy by not only "forgetting" to leave the weapon aboard the island, but by also locking him in the windmill. Jimmy supposedly died in the crash while Noodle parachuted to safety. It was stated by Murdoc that Noodle had been planning to leave after Demon Days, although leaving what, the band or the country, was never answered. Though it had been planned for months, she had neglected to tell anyone of her plans (although Murdoc stated it was obvious what she was doing). Murdoc, in order to run with his plan to off Jimmy, made a deal with Noodle: she could disappear for some R&R with no fuss if she did the video.
While some may say this is one of the only occasions when it appears that Murdoc isn't as selfish as he appears, he later states that "no one was going to ruin his band", obviously meaning he would not jeopardize his fame.
While spending many years on an around-the-world bender, Murdoc began running low on cash, he became a gun runner and was selling faulty weapons in Mexico in order to make fast money. He took further measures by burning down Kong Studios on July 25th, 2008, and attended Jamie Hewlett's opera as an alibi. After blaming the fire on some local kids, Murdoc cashed in on the insurance money and fled the country. His reason for leaving the UK was because he was on the run from a gang of pirates called "The Black Cloud" who purchased the broken weapons from Murdoc the last time he was in Mexico. Now armed with new, working weapons, they began to hunt Murdoc down as an act of revenge for ripping them off.
While sailing the world for somewhere to hide, Murdoc discovered an island made entirely out of a floating landfill which he would call Plastic Beach. He would also use the insurance money to erect a new Gorillaz HQ on top of the island and began working on demos for the Plastic Beach album. Murdoc has since revealed various disturbing truths about Gorillaz's history via his "Pirate Radio" broadcasts on Gorillaz.com. Among them include the revelation that Noodle was never rescued; upon entering Hell and searching wildly for her, he discovered that she was not there and that she had disappeared on her own. Returning to Earth, he created a clone-cyborg version of her from DNA that he collected around the wreckage on the site of El Mañana and used the new Noodle clone as his bodyguard against the Black Cloud, who were pirates and mercenaries that Murdoc had been selling bad weapons to since at least his time in Mexico. At a radio interview, Murdoc confirmed that he burned down Kong Studios and used the insurance money in order to create his hideaway/recording studio on a tiny island named the "Plastic Beach", located at Point Nemo. It was an island made entirely of social and cultural garbage. He is presently located on Plastic Beach, where he's kidnapped 2-D and began production of the Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. During the interview, Murdoc also hinted at a possible fourth album for Gorillaz.
It appears from the music videos of Stylo and On Melancholy Hill, an evil force known as the Boogieman is chasing Murdoc and is after him to claim his soul. The Boogieman also appears in several other pieces of Gorillaz artwork and is also seen in the 2-D ident, though the motives of the character are still unknown. However, on the Gorillaz website, it was noted that the Boogieman is a physical manifestation of Murdoc's evil side, with the Evangelist being a lighter side, though all we know of the Evangelist is that it was created for the sole purpose of saving Murdoc from himself. As it turns out, the devil was getting impatient, waiting nearly forever to get Murdoc's soul. He sent the Boogieman to collect it, but of course, he was unsuccessful.
Murdoc attempted and failed to appear at live shows around the world such as Coachella and The Roundhouse, but many things have stopped him, such as being deported from America. He said in an iTunes interview that he "wasn't 100% sure he really exists..." and that Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have been trying and failing to stick him back on a piece of paper. The ever-so pesky "Gorillaz Tribute Band" has been blocking his way and preventing him from taking the stage (See the Murdoc Dressing Room video shorts where, when preparing for a concert, Murdoc, 2-D, and Cyborg Noodle get trapped inside.) Murdoc had said that the "Gorillaz Tribute Band" was actually a group of people made by Lucifer, in punishment for not allowing him to take his soul.
Murdoc got together a group of collaborators in 2010 and went out to look for Noodle, and although they still haven't found her, she is now confirmed to be alive after the "El Mañana" incident, as she appears in the "On Melancholy Hill" video. This relates to Murdoc and the collaborators looking for Noodle, as they are in submarines in the ocean at the same time as Noodle, although the video also shows the arrival of the gang to the island of Plastic Beach.
On December 25, 2010, to cap off the end of 2010, Gorillaz unveiled (via the Gorillaz Advent Calendar) their newest album, The Fall. It was made on the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour using Damon Albarn's iPad.
Murdoc escaped the Plastic Beach ruins in his submarine, taking Cyborg Noodle along with him (her destruction by Noodle is implied to be a lie on Murdoc's part). The two were captured by the EMI Battleship Ringo, and imprisoned in "Dungeon Abbey", underneath Abbey Road Studios. Soon after, Murdoc was approached by an Entertainment Internal Affairs ...
During the Strobelite music video shoot, Murdoc met a man at the bar, who turned out to be El Mierda, a shadow demon and kingpin of a crime dynasty. Murdoc thought the man wanted a selfie but since El Mierda reminded him of his Geography teacher they took it anyway and Murdoc sent it to his school WhatsApp thread. El Mierda later had Murdoc framed for smuggling, sending him to the HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs prison.
On 4 June 2018, Murdoc's Twitter account became active once again, sending out a link that has instructions to contact Murdoc through Skype, Facebook, Kik, and Amazon Alexa. Through this chat, fans can hack into Wormwood Scrub's PA system and send a message over the loudspeaker. Murdoc needs the PA system hacked so he can pick a fight with Big Balls McGuinness, the toughest prisoner. Through this fight, he can gain respect so he can ask prisoners for info on El Mierda.
Apr 20, 2017 · Gorillaz‘s virtual members Murdoc Niccals and 2D sat down for their first live, on-camera interview with BBC Radio 1 DJ MistaJam.
- 30 min
- Jon Blistein
The officially released biographies for Gorillaz member, Murdoc Niccals. The snaggle toothed svengali of Gorillaz, his flop fringe disguises a mind like a rusty steel trap. Self-taught bassist, wannabe frontman, he's the band's warped back seat driver who knows that good tunes aren't enough to...
Gorillaz are Damon Albarn (right), Jamie Hewlett (left), and animated bandmates Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs, Noodle and 2-D. When Gorillaz opened the 2006 Grammy Awards, performing on-stage...
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