April 6, 2006 15:39

Damon Albarn set to split Gorillaz

The star breaks the news during band's New York residency

The future of Gorillaz has been thrown into doubt after Damon Albarn admitted 2005’s ‘Demon Days’ is “probably the last album we make”.

The star was speaking after the fourth show of the cartoon outfit’s five-night New York Harlem Apollo residency last night (April 5).

Albarn told BBC 6 Music that although he was happy with the way things were going within the group, he thinks they’ve maybe taken the concept as far as it can go.

He admitted: "At the moment we're like, that's probably the last album we make, I don't think we could make a better album than ‘Demon Days’ really, for what this is and how it works."

However, he left a door open by adding: "Last night we thought 'Surely this isn't the end', and I don't know we're saying it's the end again, but it's quite a hip-hop thing to retire and come back you know."

The issue has been clouded even further by the revelation earlier this week by Blur bass player Alex James that the band have reconvened recently to make new music, their first since the release of the 2003 LP ‘Think Tank’.

The grand finale of Gorillaz’ NYC residency takes place tonight (April 6). As was the case during their Manchester Opera House residency in late 2005, guests De La Soul, Ike Turner, Neneh Cherry, Shaun Ryder, Roots Manuva and Martina Topley-Bird all joined the band to perform ‘Demon Days’ in full.

However, last night actor Dennis Hopper joined the band on stage to perform vocals on ‘Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head’ live for the first time.

See this week’s NME to see Peter Robinson take on Gorillaz’ Murdoc. It’s on sale at all good newsagents now.