Gorillaz will be taking a hiatus in 2011 after Damon Albarn confirmed the rumours in a telling interview.

The band will finish their world tour in New Zealand on December 21 and once their new album, which is called ‘The Fall’ and was recorded on an iPad, is released as a free download on Christmas day they will put music on the back burner.

Albarn told U.S radio station Triple J:

“I'm putting it back in a box for a while. Just putting it back on the shelf. I've got other stuff.”

“I'm doing a piece for the Manchester International Festival about Elizabethan occult philosophy. It kind of was the end of magic and the beginning of science."

Watch the video for the band's 'Stylo' here: