July 29th, 2005 by 
Pete
Murdoc from animated simian supergroup Gorillaz has launched a blazing attack on Pete Doherty and his recent Live 8 performance, branding the controversial singer as “well overrated”.
Gorillaz bassist Murdoc, claimed he was “appalled” by Doherty’s performance of T-Rex’s ‘Children Of The Revolution’ with Elton Jon at Live 8.
“The concert was all about raising awareness, but Peter looked like he was having trouble raising his own awareness,” he explained to Channel 4 Music, “He looked wasted.”
“With Africa we’re talking about a nation battling through immense poverty and hardship, and he can’t quite get it together to sing a song. When you look at what they’re faced with, it kind of makes his drama and what he’s faced with seem, trivial.
“On that day he just seemed like an odd sort of image.”
Albarn also went on to dismiss the amount of media attention Doherty receives, as Babyshambles’ solitary single only got to number eight in the UK charts, and his highest chart entry with The Libertines was number 11 with ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ way back in August 2003.
“What does matter is that Babyshambles have only ever released one song - one song!” Murdoc continued, “People talk about this great talent, but there’s nothing to him. So yeah, it’s strange that an African nation that’s struggling to survive is being given aid by someone who’s struggling to keep his hat on.”
“He’s a mess. I’m starting a campaign to ‘Make Doherty History’. I could probably get him to sign it too, for half a bag of pink whiz. He’s well overrated.”
Incidentally, much of this interview has been wrongly attributed to Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who has recently denied all involvement with the attack.
“There are four members of Gorillaz and I’m not one of them,” he explained in a statement to Xfm, “It’s not even my big mouth that’s got me into trouble. The fact of the matter is, I would never lash out at Pete Doherty like that. Are we really listening to cartoons now? What next, Homer Simpson for President?”
Gorillaz’ new single ‘Dare’ is released on August 29 on Parlophone/EMI Records.
“Feel Good Inc.”, the still blazing first single from Gorillaz’ Demon Days, has been nominated for two 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. The hypnotic clip, which features flying windmills and landmasses as well as a cameo from De La Soul, was directed by Gorillaz friend Jamie Hewlett and Passion Pictures’ Pete Candeland, and produced by Cara Speller and Emilie Walmsley. See what Murdoc has to say about the nomimation below.