Gig played on 02/11/05

The image of Damon Albarn indulging in some ace tomfoolery on 1993's famed "Rollercoaster" UK tour will linger in the memory for some years. Playing on a travelling rock roadshow of hulking potency alongside Dinosaur Jr, Jesus & Mary Chain and the beyond sound My Bloody Valentine, the Blur frontman was in comically infantile form, at one point straddling an unfortunate roadie on all fours fixing a mic. As if any further evidence was needed as to the distance Albarn has travelled since then, one only need look at who he's worked with in recent history or the global sonic influences that have infiltrated his every musical leap.

Alternatively, a better way of understanding this would be to witness the five-night Gorillaz takeover of the Manchester Opera House, if you were lucky enough to get in. Across the course of 90 minutes tonight, a cast of 83 people will take to the stage, some very famous, some still at school. Everyone plays their individual part, with the most impressive performance perhaps coming from an eight-year-old boy who utterly upstages all present with an almost mechanical body-popping turn midway through the proto-electro pop of "Dirty Harry". Sat at a piano, in the shadows, is Albarn, who only emerges fully at the close to bashfully take the applause of an enraptured 2,000 crowd.

Initial Gorillaz live shows back in 2001 saw Albarn attempt to conjure the dynamic 3-D animation of side-kick Jamie Hewlett by stretching an enormous screen across the stage, which was swamped in visuals as the band thrashed anonymously behind. It didn't really work, being about as head-spinning as watching a massive TV turned up too loud. Tonight, Albarn and the key band members perform before colourful, stain-glass windows, below a fairly unobtrusive screen playing low-key iconic Gorillaz images. Each of the many guests is lit in spotlight and, aligned with the sprawling, smart 21st century pop music of "Demon Days", this is a stunning, brave vision and experience, the like of which zero of Albarn's contemporaries have approached.

With Gorillaz, his themes remain big - love, peace, the elements etc - but there is no need for brash hectoring. Hellish Vietnam images - a Hewlett favourite - accompany the chasing string flight of opener "Last Living Souls", Neneh Cherry sashays into the light to utter the immortal words "push it good" a la Salt'n'Pepa for the self-explanatory fear of "Kids With Guns", while "Oh Green World" uses "Day Of The Dead" visuals to back the Earth-bound apocalypse at the song's core.

Meanwhile, "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head", sadly lacking Dennis Hopper in the flesh, asks the American nation "where were you when it all came down on me?" Of the other guest stars, a stoned and stunned Roots Manuva's Rodney Smith finds himself on stage for a rampant "All Alone" seemingly by accident, while Shaun Ryder, a man who's come up more times than the sun, appears to be reading his roughly five words off an auto-cue for his bellowed contribution to the audience-quaking drug anthem "Dare".

It's towards the close that Damon Albarn's sonic vision takes on its fully-realised, profound, epic grandeur with the ascending through the clouds beauty of "Don't Get Lost In Heaven", which wouldn't have been out of place on Brian Wilson's "Smile". Segueing into the dazzling, euphoric Gospel swell of "Demon Days", we see Albarn's hands raised to the sky like a conductor, a sorcerer, gripped by his own magic. The days of sniping at this lavish talent are very much over. No other British musician from the last decade comes close.

by Ben Gilbert