2D (Gorillaz)

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2D
Background information
Birth name	Stuart Tusspot
Also known as	Stu-Pot
Born	May 23, 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex, England
Genre(s)	Alternative rock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals Keyboard Melodica Clavinet
Label(s)	Parlophone Virgin Records
Associated acts	Gorillaz
Website	Official website
Notable instrument(s)
Hohner Clavinet

Stuart Tusspot is a member of the virtual band Gorillaz. Born in 1978, he is the band's official pretty boy, known almost exclusively as 2D and formerly known as Stu-Pot. He performs the lead vocals and plays the keyboard for the band. He was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

[edit] Biography

2D (A nickname derived from the fact that he has a dent in each eye socket, both caused by Murdoc while in his vehicle. ) Real name Stuart Pot, (last name often thought to be Tusspot, though his family changed their name to Pot shortly before Stu was born), also known as Stu-Pot. He was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England. His father, David(who died in his sleep shortly after Demon Days was released) worked as a mechanic and owner of the Tusspot's Fairground. His mother, Rachel was a nurse who supplied Stu-pot with headache pills. He wasn't very intelligent due to two hits on the head as a baby, but was known as a kind person and had a general love of music. He hit his head again when falling from a tree at the age of eleven, which caused his hair to fall out. When it came back it was a deep 'Azure blue'. He was forced to move to Crawley, West Sussex, as a result of a lawsuit filed by Ivana Abramovitch for breaking Abramovitch's hand.

Stu-pot attended St. Wilfred's school where, despite his lack of intelligence and ambition, he got fairly good grades. For most of his life; Stu-pot didn't know what he wanted to do when he got older. He first wanted to become a stormchaser and then he wanted to paint. He developed an interest in machinery when he and his dad customized his Casio VL-1 keyboard. His musical idol was Augustus Pablo and his favorite band was The Human League.

The drama in his life began when Satanist hooligan Murdoc Niccals purposefully crashed his Vauxhall Astra through the wall of Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium, where Stu-Pot had been working, in an attempt to ramraid it and steal the synths. Murdoc's bumper crashed into Stu-Pot's face, landing him with an eight-ball fracture in his right eyeball, and putting him into a deep catatonic state. Murdoc was arrested and sentenced to carry out 30,000 hours of community service as well as care for the vegetablized Stu-Pot for 10 hours every week. (It was Later claimed by Murdoc, when he angrily split up the Gorillaz during their time in Hollywood, that if not for the subsequent discovery of 2D's Vocals, Murdoc would have killed him had they reached that point).

Not long after, in a poor attempt to impress some women, Murdoc performed a 360 in a Tesco car park in Nottingham with his vehicle. This sent Stu-Pot crashing through the windshield, hitting his head on the curb. He woke from his coma and also dented his left eye to match his right one, thus gaining him his trademark black, irisless eyes. It was then that Murdoc dubbed him "2D"; ironically enough, the origins of the name "2D", at least in the fictional background story of the Gorillaz, have nothing to do with the phrase "two-dimensional", but rather stands for the two dents in his head. Rather amusingly, Stu-Pot adores his new nickname, dropping use of his birth name completely and even signing formal letters with the first name "Two" and surname "D". Due to his history of violent blows to the head, coupled with a complete lack of natural intelligence, 2D has come out the other side possibly one of the stupidest celebrities in existence. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett commented on this, saying that he has a sheet of paper where a brain should be.

Because of the so-called 'eight-ball fractures' in his eye sockets, 2D currently suffers from very intense migraine headaches. As a result, he is pretty much permanently doped up on painkillers. This doesn't help his intelligence either.

There is a generally accepted rumour that 2D is actually a father. An e-mail can be found on his computer at the Gorillaz website[1] regarding child-support for his apparent four or five illegitimate children, each conceived with a different woman. As the email quoted, "The spiky blue hair on these offspring is a dead giveaway." Additionally, an MTV Cribs special on Kong Studios said on their profile of 2D that he is rumored to have fathered "scores" of illegitimate children.

2D is ambidextrous although he prefers to use his left hand.

After the "El Mañana" conspiracy, 2D and Russel were frantic about Noodle's supposed death. It was a hoax, however, and the band has once again gone separate ways but not for long (so promised Murdoc in the autobiography Rise of the Ogre; their biggest project to date is apparently being planned) and the singer was, according to Murdoc, "poncing off somewhere. He's probably gonna try and become an actor or a model or whatever..."

Additionally, it is also debated whether or not 2D's nickname contains a hyphen or not. Though the video for 'Clint Eastwood' labels him as '2-D', some of the more recent media events have removed the hyphen from the name.

[edit] Appearance

Also stated in Rise of the Ogre, he lost his tonsils in a food fight that started at the party held in honor of the Gorillaz label signing when an eclair was pushed into his face.

Despite missing his two front teeth, 2D can sing clearly. His speech, while still mainly clear, has a definite Cockney (or thereabouts) accent -- he says "summfink" instead of "something", and "fing" instead of "thing".

2D's speaking voice, provided by Nelson De Freitas, is very high-pitched. His singing voice, provided by Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn, rarely reaches such a pitch, even occasionally falling short of a bass voice (most notable in "Rock It"). Most of the time, however, his singing is an exaggerated tenor.

Like Noodle, 2D's looks seems to have changed from phase one to phase two, though not nearly as drastic as young Noodle. In phase one 2D is seen with very geometric, and almost purple hair at times, unlike in phase two; there his hair has seemed to gain a more realistic, lined tone and has turned to an almost teal color. On the cover of the Demon Days album, 2D is also seen with 'normal' eyes. His face has also gotten a more "Human" like look to it than in the beginning, meaning that his face seems to curve rather than a more pointed look.

[edit] Personality

2D is known to be very innocent and trusting, and especially accident-prone, as exhibited in the video for the song "Rock the House" (where he is hit repeatedly with billiard balls), as well as in a promo for the song "DARE" (in which he was hit by two bumper cars).

Additionally, during the period of the Gorillaz' first album, 2D was intimidated and violently bullied by Gorillaz bassist, Murdoc. But after returning home to work at his family's fair, he realized that he was the "real driving force behind the Gorillaz", and subsequently returned to the band with more confidence on their second studio album Demon Days. Despite his awesome level of mental deficiency, his occasional bouts of insight and philosophical statements can be taken to imply some sort of activity in his brain. It is debatable, though.

2D's interests include video games, melodicas, flickcombs, and zombie films. After the hiatus, 2D was seen at certain times with a flicknife in his hands. As seen on the official Gorillaz website, he owns a triple plasma screen entertainment system devoted entirely to the purpose of playing "widescreen Pong." One area of interest is the variety of slogans he wears on his T-shirts, which he claims are imagined by Jamie Hewlett. 2D says that he doesn't actually know what they mean, but he wears them because they make him look informed on popular culture. Among such slogans are "Born a Zombie from Mercur", "Born To Lie", "Hello Kinky", "Captain Howdy", "Tazar Yoot", "Pink Rabbit Sez: Shoot To Ill" and "T-Virus", (a likely reference to the T-Virus from the Resident Evil video game series.) One of his other favourite movies is Napoleon Dynamite, as illustrated when he does one of the "Happy Hands" signs from the movie in the music video for "Dirty Harry" and in his room on the Gorillaz website he has a poster on his wall of Napoleon Dynamite which links to the movies site . He also admits that he uses his Motorola phone to play pong or other games while the other members do their solo parts (as seen in such performances as the duet with Madonna at the annual Grammy award show).

[edit] External links

• 2D's biography on fans.gorillaz.com