is there no end to Damon Albarns multi-platform inventiveness?
It’s common to hear about train operators spending astronomical sums removing graffiti from their rolling stock. In a creative departure from that tradition, Virgin Trains are celebrating the Manchester Festival premiere of Damon Albarn’s Mandarin opera Monkey: Journey to the West with a high speed rolling artwork. The opera, retelling a traditional Chinese story of a Buddhist monk and his animal companions which will be familiar to children of the Seventies as the Monkey TV series, will be performed at the Manchester International Festival between 28 June and 7 July. As part of a sponsorship deal between Virgin Trains and Manchester International Festival, each of the nine carriages of the Pendolino train ‘City of Stoke on Trent’, was wrapped with a unique image from the opera created by Jamie Hewlett and graffiti artist Chu. Alstom’s maintenance staff at Wembley Train Care Depot spent 3 days intricately wrapping the train in its special cartoon livery. The 217 metre train made its pu
