By Mike Newford

On the heels of a mind blowing run of European festivals, Gorillaz have announced the complete tour routing for the North American leg of their highly anticipated world tour “Escape To Plastic Beach.” The North American tour will begin in Canada at Montreal’s Bell Centre on October 3rd with a 19 date stretch winding up on November 3rd at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Tickets went on sale to the public in select markets beginning August 6th at LiveNation.com. Gorillaz fanclub, the Sub-Division, will benefit from a 48 hour exclusive pre-sale prior to tickets going on general sale. To join Sub-Division go to www.gorillaz.com/subdivision. Citi® cardmembers will also have access to presale tickets beginning Wednesday, August 4th at 10 am local time through Citi’s Private Pass® Program. For complete presale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com

Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s new live experience encompassing material from all three multi-platinum Gorillaz albums played its first ever show at this April’s Coachella festival, absolutely slaying a crowd of 70,000 in the final headline slot of the weekend. Featuring Albarn, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, Bobby Womack, Little Dragon, Bootie Brown, UK Hip Hop stars Kano and Bashy and others as well as video animation, artwork, film and stage design by Hewlett, Gorillaz have since played in front of more than 400,000 fans headlining Glastonbury, Roskilde in Denmark and Benicassim Festival in Spain and were the first Western band of their magnitude to play in Syria when they played the ancient Citadel in Damascus on July 25th following a headline slot at Byblos Festival, in Beirut, Lebanon.

On the heels of the recently released third Gorillaz album ~ Plastic Beach being voted #1 album of 2010 thus far in NPR’s listeners poll, and first single/video “Stylo” setting the record for the most successful YouTube Music Tuesday premiere ever ~ Gorillaz have followed up with an epic clip for “On Melancholy Hill.” The narrative reveals the whereabouts of Gorillaz guitar slinger Noodle, making her first appearance since her apparent demise in the “El Manana” video that capped the 2005-2006 Demon Days campaign, and drummer Russel Hobbs, returning from MIA status transformed into a giant. “On Melancholy Hill” also picks up immediately following the conclusion of the white knuckle chase captured in “Stylo,” with Noodle’s Cyborg doppelganger, Murdoc and vocalist 2D headed to Plastic Beach by way of an undersea odyssey featuring cameos from Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Simonon and Jones, De La Soul and more. The full back story of the various Gorillaz misadventures filling the gap between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, the discovery of Point Nemo and construction of Murdoc’s new HQ, the formation of the current Gorillaz live band and more are chronicled in Journey To Plastic Beach www.hulu.com/watch/158164/gorillaz-journey-to-plastic-beach#s-p1-sr-i0.

Journey To Plastic Beach recently debuted alongside “Feel Good Inc.,” “DARE,” “Clint Eastwood” and other visual essentials from the extensive Gorillaz videography at the band’s recently christened Hulu channel at www.hulu.com/gorillaz

For further developments in the ongoing Gorillaz saga, check back hourly at the all new gorillaz.com, follow the band’s own Murdoc Niccals atwww.twitter.com/murdocgorillaz, or check out the Gorillaz YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gorillaz

Catch Gorillaz October 6 at the Agganis Arena at

Boston University.