February 28, 2011

Dennis Hopper is dead? Tribute for Gorillaz

After watching the Oscars this morning on live TV, and seeing the montage of dead persons in Hollywood, I got to say, I'm surprised.

I now know that Dennis Hopper and Pete Postlethwaite passed away. That's really something - when did they die? It wasn't like all over the front page of the news, or even the "entertainment" section.

Pete Postlethwaite is possibly the man with the most angular face shape I've ever seen. He was amazing in "Brassed Off" starring Ewan McGregor, and I read somewhere Steven Spielberg thinks highly of him, dubbing him the most versatile actor around.

Brassed Off premier
Dennis Hopper - at first I was like "Wait - wasn't he in one of the Gorillaz albums?" and then I did a quick search and found out that not only was he the guy who did "Fire coming out of the monkey's head" for Gorillaz album Demon Days.

He also performed and toured with the band during the promotion of Demon Days. I remember during my days where college work didn't bombard me with deadlines, words and essays, I used to watch the whole Gorillaz concerts online. Here's a particularly good performance featuring the one and only Dennis Hopper...



He is amazing. Simply amazing how an actor can work with Damon Albarn, the genius of creating music and combining people together, to create such a song. It plays great live too.

Dennis Hopper also features on Bananaz, Gorillaz's documentary film. He is hilarious... Damon's hilarious... Jamie's goofy. The clip below shows you the part he's in.



I think Damon just wants to use his American accent to show his gradual shift into the american music scene! Or to promote his album in the US ?

Dennis Hopper with Jamie and Damon at the Grammys
He will be missed... I'm now wondering how Damon took the news of his death. Damon and Dennis seemed pretty close and in good terms, at least on the business side of things.

It was a shock for me to learn he died, and only in the Oscars did I actually hear this news. It's sad.

Gorillaz lost another collaborator. Any thoughts?


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