Damon Albarn’s ambitious Demon Days Live project came to Manchester for a series of one-off gigs this week which will not be forgotten easily.

Appearances by De La Soul, Neneh Cherry on ‘Kids with Guns’, Roots Manuva on ‘All Alone’ and Booty Brown, as well as a superb children’s choir, a gospel choir, the best part of an orchestra, and an eight-piece band, all synchronised to flashing cartoon visuals and combined with live animatronics could easily have spelled disaster; for the festival, and for Albarn and the rest of the Gorillaz for biting off more than they could chew, but amazingly the whole event went off without the slightest hitch, a huge achievement itself.

It had a reasonable claim to global music too, with the likes of gu-zheng (Chinese zither) player Zeng Zhen and a touching tribute to recently departed Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who appeared singing along with the live band on the huge video screen, blending their styles with those of an already diverse selection of musicians inviolved.

My only gripe was the no standing policy, vigorously enforced by the fun police/ bouncers, who loomed large on the periphery of the all-seated area, even ejecting one man who tried to, dare I say it, dance. Invite a load of musos, especially those from Manchester and put on stage

When Albarn stepped out of the shadows for the encores the smile on his face said it all, the big gamble had paid off, all the efforts, preparations and technical nightmarishness had been worth it, it was a huge success, for the 2D group and everyone involved, especially given recent talk of their plans for future, even more adventurous projects, and for the opening of the Manchester International Festival.

The Gorillaz performances have set the bar high for the forthcoming festival and if it continues in the same vein it’s going to be huge and Manchester’s entry into the global music scene it has recently neglected may be set for a meteoric take-off.

REGISTRATION OF NIGERIAN TEAM.
Dear Sir,

Exquisite global international, is a registered company here in Nigeria. We are into event management, we have taken time to study our Nigeria universities, higher institutions, collages, churches and we have fund that non of these institutions has a well organized choir or choral team(s) hence we are working with some of these institutions and multinational companies that we hope will be willing to sponsor competitions among these institutions in order to bring a perfect team that can compete internationally with any other institutions all over the world.
We write to know what it takes to get Nigerian team(s) registered for any up coming even , as you will agree with me that no competitions can not be call or refers as (international) with out representatives from this part of the world., Hence we are working to bring Nigeria choir team to the notice of these even.
It might interest you to know sir that Nigerian team has all it takes to stand her mates in other part of the world.
We will be gratefully if our mail is given attention. And please do advice us the category to get Nigerian register. And do let us know also if any organization has registered with your body earlier.
Thanking you for bring the leader of tomorrow together.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Ofuonyeadi.
234-4710086.
234-8033061157
www.exquisiteglobalint.8m.com
We are working register trustee with the co operate affair commission(CAC) here in Nigeria.