Chatting with fans online

Many bands do webchats and post on their internet message boards. This is of course something that the people behind the Gorillaz could emulate perfectly for their fictional band, all it required was for someone to sit and type in the band’s messages and responses. Thus band postings and chats became a very important way for the band to communicate and interact with fans, and advance the Gorillaz story.

Chatting in the ‘Chatomatic’ (official Gorillaz chatrooms): The band appeared in the Chato to talk to fans on a regular basis in 2001. They used special avatars (pictures of themselves) to prove they were authentic.

Chatting in webchats at various websites: A variety of websites regularly hold webchats with various stars, such as bbc.co.uk and the Channel Four site. Here again Gorillaz were able to chat to fans and fans could be assured they were talking to the real band members. The Gorillaz must have done over half a dozen such webchats in Phase One.

Posting on the official Gorillaz messageboards: Gorillaz have made many postings on their old messageboard and the new one, occasionally surprising fans but more often ‘acting out’ a bit of pre-prepared interaction between themselves.