Gorillaz have kicked off their 2026 ‘The Mountain’ tour, and brought out IDLES‘ Joe Talbot, Sparks and more during the set.
Damon Albarn and co. launched their 2026 tour dates in celebration of their upcoming album on Sunday night (February 22) at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
The first part of the show saw them play the forthcoming album ‘The Mountain’ in full, beginning with the title track, and continuing with a rendition of ‘The Moon Cave’ where Asha Puthli and Black Thought were brought out as surprise guests.
Black Thought would go on to join the stage again later in the night for performances of ‘The Sad God’ and ‘The Empty Dream Machine’, both from the new record, and other guests on the night included IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot, who joined Albarn for the performance of ‘The God Of Lying’, having also featured on the studio recording.
Other guests on the night included Sparks, who took to the stage for ‘The Happy Dictator’ after joining the band for the official recording of the song on the album, and Kara Jackson, who collaborated with Gorillaz on ‘Orange County’.
After playing the record in its entirety, Albarn and co. played a handful of fan favourites from their discography, including ‘Dirty Harry’, which saw Bootie Brown join them as a special guest, ‘Feel Good Inc.’ with De La Soul, and ‘Clint Eastwood’ with Del the Funky Homosapien.
Check out more footage and the full setlist from the night below.
Gorillaz’s setlist was:
Set 1: ‘The Mountain’
‘The Mountain’
‘The Moon Cave'(with Asha Puthli) (and Black Thought)
‘The Happy Dictator'(with Sparks)
‘The Hardest Thing’
‘Orange County'(with Kara Jackson)
‘The God of Lying’ (with Joe Talbot)
‘The Empty Dream Machine’ (with Black Thought)
‘The Manifesto’
‘The Plastic Guru’
‘Delirium’
‘Damascus’
‘The Shadowy Light’
‘Casablanca’
‘The Sweet Prince’ (with Kara Jackson)
‘The Sad God’ (with Black Thought)
Set 2:
‘California and the Slipping of the Sun’
‘Rock the House’ (with Del the Funky Homosapien)
‘Dirty Harry’ (with Bootie Brown)
‘Feel Good Inc.’ (with De La Soul)
‘Clint Eastwood’ (with Del the Funky Homosapien)
‘The Mountain’ is set for release on March 20, and has so far been previewed by six singles: ‘The Hardest Thing’, ‘Orange County’, ‘The God Of Lying’ (featuring IDLES), ‘The Happy Dictator’ (feat. Sparks), ‘The Manifesto’ with Trueno and late D12 member Proof, and ‘Damascus’.
The latter features Syrian superstar Omar Souleyman and rapper/singer Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def), and was also given a live preview at the huge Together For Palestine charity gig at Wembley Arena, organised by Brian Eno last year.
Other artists to feature on the album include Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, The London Arab Orchestra, Demon Strings, Ajay Prasanna, Trueno, Anoushka Shankar, Chris Storr, James Copus and Matthew Gunner.
Deceased acts like Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, De La Soul‘s Dave Jolicoeur, Tony Allen, Proof and the late Mark E Smith of The Fall are billed as Voices from Elsewhere.
Albarn has previously said that the new record “is in four languages”, and shared that it was partly inspired after both he and Jamie Hewlett lost their fathers and went to India to cope with the grief.
Gorillaz first shared the new material with fans at a phone-free ‘House Of Kong’ mystery show in London in September, where they played the tracklist for the album in full for fans and celebrated 25 years of the band.
In March, Gorillaz will head out on a UK and Ireland tour that includes a one-off headline show at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20 – something that Albarn made a recent quip at.
Before the Tottenham gig, the band will also play some warm-up shows in Bradford, and from there will make stops at numerous European festivals over the summer, including Electric Picnic, Primavera Sound Barcelona and Porto, and Rock Werchter. Visit here for tickets.
Next month will also see Albarn perform on Saturday Night Live for the first time with Gorillaz. They’ll take to the stage of the show on March 7, with Ryan Gosling as host.
The post Watch IDLES’ Joe Talbot, Sparks, Black Thought and more join Gorillaz as they kick off 2026 ‘The Mountain’ tour appeared first on NME.
