| “ | They still going? | „ |
| ~ Paula Cracker on Gorillaz |
Paula Cracker is 2-D's ex-girlfriend and the Gorillaz's first guitarist. She was kicked from the band after Russel caught her having an affair with Murdoc in the Kong Studios toilets.
Background
| “ | She was a rubbish looking bird. Seriously, she looked like Grayson Perry or something. | „ |
| ~ Murdoc Niccals, Rise of the Ogre |
Paula had been dating 2-D for two months when she was invited to join the band after Russel. However, after he found her and Murdoc "up to no good" in the toilets, Russel punched Murdoc in the face and broke his nose in five places; explaining its strange appearance. Russel relayed the news to 2-D, and Paula left the band. It was alleged that she was kicked out of the band, while some fans speculate that she left to avoid any further in-fighting among her former bandmates. She was eventually replaced by Noodle as the band's guitarist in 1998.[1][2]
Due to her guilt and bitterness of the situation, Paula later on apologised to 2-D with his favourite type of cake, a home-made cherry trifle. She also set fire to an effigy of Murdoc and has never looked back at that incident again, focusing her thoughts to build a positive mindset.
After her brief stint as a Gorillaz member, she set herself to invent and patent segull-repellent chips, which she used the profits to fund an AI-startup. Paula also became the first person to climb El Capitan in platform shoes and reached the semi-finals of The Great British Bake-Off with the same cherry trifle recipe that she gave to make amends. Coincidentally, the same AI chip that Paula’s tech company designed was used by Murdoc to build Cyborg Noodle’s motherboard.[3]
She currently is the manager of Asda in Stoke-on-Trent.[4]
Apperances and Mentions
She was only featured in one song, Ghost Train, the band's first ever song recorded back when they were still known as "Gorilla". Ghost Train was first leaked by Dr. Wurzel and later featured as a B-side track to the single release of Rock the House and on the compilation album G-Sides.
During Phase Two, Paula participated in the interview sessions for the Gorillaz autobiography Rise of the Ogre (later revealed to be heavily edited by Murdoc) and was also featured on the Where Are They Now? page of the Gorillaz Almanac along with Cortez the Raven, the Zombie Gorillas and Vlad The Inhaler.
Paula, being his first girlfriend[3], is considered a sensitive subject whenever 2-D is present, sounding disgruntled towards Murdoc in the Rise of the Ogre audiobook. In the Plastic Beach iTunes interview, 2-D attacked Murdoc for mentioning the incident with Paula, prompting Murdoc to stop him with a chloroform-stained rag.
During Cracker Island and the run up to the release of the music video for Silent Running, Murdoc believed that 2-D had betrayed The Last Cult for The Forever Cult because he still holds a two decade old grudge at Murdoc for having an affair with Paula and breaking up their relationship.[5]
Gallery
Trivia
- In the band's original lineup image, the birthmark above Paula's lip is missing. meaning she could have concealed it with makeup for the photo shoot.
- Rise of the Ogre has the only recording of Paula's voice.
- Although not a part of the band anymore, 2-D still mentioned Paula as his girlfriend in the band's first interview in 2000[6] and during the European leg of Gorillaz Live in 2001.[7]
References
- ↑ Gorillaz. Page 28-29 Rise of the Ogre. Penguin Group. Published 26 October 2006.
- ↑ Dr. Wurzel's blogpost leaking Ghost Train
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Caruana, Ed; O'Malley, Thomas (10 December 2020). Gorillaz Almanac, p. 32. Z2 Comics.
- ↑ "We are Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, co-creators of Gorillaz. Ask us anything!". Reddit (10 December 2020). Retrieved on 9 August 2024.
- ↑ Keep your enemies close… Gorillaz on YouTube. 17 January 2023
- ↑ Dazed and Confused - January 2001
- ↑ "Gorillaz - Voice Overs", located at 1:24. Bubblebabybumblebee (21 August 2023). Retrieved on 9 August 2024.