Biography
Murdoc was born on June 6th 1966 in Stoke-on-Trent, England to an unknown mother and Sebastian Niccals. In the Gorillaz backstory, Murdoc's family, his father Sebastian especially, was frequently abusive towards Murdoc, and his father often exploited him by forcing him to perform at local pub talent shows against his will for money. His distinct nose shape is said to be the result of the frequent physical abuse from family and peers that he was the victim of since his childhood. Murdoc's experiences of abuse as a child have had a significant impact on his psychological state as an adult. As a teenager, Murdoc became interested in Satanism, eventually making a deal with the devil and selling his soul to become a rock star. From this point on, Murdoc's middle name changed from Alphonce to Faust, and Satan gave him his bass guitar in finalization of the deal. Murdoc is said to have went on a crime spree with a gang of criminals in a stolen car on 15 August 1997 and crashed said car through the window of the keyboard shop that a then 19-year-old Stuart Pot was working at, landing on his face directly which gave him hyphema in one eye and put him in a coma, leading Murdoc to be sentenced to extensive community service and mandatory caretaking of Stuart. Afterwards, while in the car with a comatose Stuart, he caused another car accident, with this one causing Stuart to fly through the windshield and onto the curb, which gave him hyphema in the other eye and caused him to come out of his coma. He was then given the nickname 2-D by Murdoc and he immediately chose him to be the frontman of a new band he was forming. Soon after, Murdoc would then buy a studio after discovering it on the internet and move into the studio with 2-D, giving it the name Kong Studios. Murdoc would then go on to kidnap drummer Russel Hobbs while he was working at a record store called Big Rick Black's Record Shack in SoHo. Their then guitarist Paula Cracker, who was dating 2-D at the time, had an affair with Murdoc in the bathroom of their studio. She was then kicked out of the band after Russel caught the affair in action and punched Murdoc in the nose, giving it another disfigurement. She was later replaced by a Japanese guitar prodigy named Noodle after she shipped herself to Kong Studios in a FedEx crate in 1998. At this point, Gorillaz was officially formed and ready to launch. After the success of the band’s debut album and its tour, Gorillaz were approached by a movie director who expressed an interest in the production of a potential Gorillaz movie and the band briefly moved to California. Following this, Gorillaz had a meeting in which they all discussed potential concepts for a Gorillaz film. In the middle of the meeting, 2-D and Murdoc had an argument that ended with Murdoc strangling 2-D and Russel punching Murdoc in 2-D’s defense. After this event, the band went their separate ways. Murdoc relocated to a brothel in Tijuana, Mexico and was arrested for counterfeit checks, later discovering after escaping from prison and returning to Kong that bandmate Noodle had rough demos for a second Gorillaz album already written, with Murdoc then contributing his basslines to the album. After Demon Days success further escalated Gorillaz’ status as virtual pop stars, Noodle was presumed dead after the music video for El Mañana appeared to show the flying windmill island she was on in the Feel Good Inc music video being gunned down by attack helicopters. Soon thereafter, a panicked 2-D and Russel departed from Kong upon discovering this information. After going various places across the world, Murdoc became an arms broker for a group of mercenaries named the Black Clouds to raise money quickly after growing short on income, subsequently burning down Kong Studios, committing insurance fraud to save money and fleeing from the UK on a boat to an island of floating landfill in Point Nemo that he would later convert into his home. Taking inspiration from Thunderbirds' Tracy Island, Murdoc dubbed this island "Plastic Beach", creating a cyborg replica of guitarist Noodle and kidnapping frontman 2-D to begin work on Gorillaz third album, Plastic Beach without contributions from Noodle or Russel. After Noodle and Russel eventually arrived on Plastic Beach, the island was later shot down by a group of pirates and the band then parted ways once again. In the aftermath of Plastic Beach, Gorillaz’ 2016 interactive short story The Book of Murdoc reveals that Murdoc and Cyborg Noodle were arrested for breach of contract by EMI and then released under the condition that he record a new Gorillaz album, to which he agreed and was reunited with his former bandmates to record Humanz, the band's first album in seven years. At the 2018 Brit Awards, it was revealed that Murdoc was incarcerated at Wormwood Scrubs, being absent for the making of Gorillaz' sixth album, The Now Now and temporarily replaced by Ace from The Powerpuff Girls at the time, starting an extensive campaign to have himself freed from prison called "Free Murdoc". He has since been released from prison and returned to the band on 20 September 2018, starring with the rest of Gorillaz in an advertisement campaign promoting their line of G-Shock watches called Mission M101 and joining them for the final leg of The Now Now Tour. After going on vacation in Ibiza in 2019 following his return to the band for the end of The Now Now Tour, he has since returned to the band as an active member and is the bassist for the band's latest project Song Machine. In the first season of Song Machine, a somewhat confused Murdoc attempts to uncover information about the portals in the band’s newly revamped and relocated Kong Studios before building a portal of his own after being left behind by the rest of the band for a trip they made using one of the portals.
