Time to monkey around with some bands named after Gorillas. Amazing how many artists haven chosen to ape the largest living primates.
THE GUERILLAS #1
We start today in 1969, not with apes but with insurgent militia. They're all G'rillas to me.
THE GUERILLAS #2
And while we're on that spelling, here are some more Guerillas, on a reggae trip. No date on this one, but I had to include them because of their mate "Militant Barry". Hopefully the mention of Dreadlocks won't trigger Ernie's 10cc phobia.
THE GORILLAS #3
I'll make things easy for you today, if you like. You don't even have to listen to the tunes. From the picture alone, these German Gorillas from 1971 clearly take top spot today. If George votes for anybody else, then I'm a monkey's uncle.
THE GORILLAS #4
Pub rock pioneers from Hammersmith in the mid-late 70s. Singer Jesse Hector (the one with a bad case of the Mungo Jerries in the photo above) sadly passed away in May this year.
GORILLA #5
A solitary ape now. Former members of early 90s indie band The Beyond went on to become a Gorilla in 1995. Singer John Whitby later became the Mayor of Derby.
GORILLAZ #6
Remember when the idea of a "virtual band" was quite a novel one? Of course, these Gorillaz were created long before AI came along to destroy the music business forever, and they're really the brainchild of Blur's Damon Albarn and Tank Girl comic book artist Jamie Hewlett (and their musical guest star mates). In years to come, I wonder if these guys will seem as outdated as Max Headroom? Or will we just dream of the days when being a "virtual band" still involved actual human creativity?
GORILLA #7
A Japanese Gorilla, from 2014...
GORILLA #8
And finally, another lonely Gorilla, because you can never have too much Hungarian psychobilly...
Which is your great ape?
