Gorillaz lead Glastonbury

Gorillaz will replace U2 as a headline act at next month's Glastonbury festival. The band, whose esoteric stage act features a combination of holograms and cartoon characters, has agreed to the spot a day after the U2 frontman Bono announced that his band would pull out because he needed to recover from a back injury. The band has also postponed 16 shows on the North American leg of its tour.

Gorillaz, whose principal vocalist and songwriter is Damon Albarn, and which also features the former Clash stars Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, will top the Pyramid Stage bill on Friday 25 June. The band's third album, Plastic Beach, has been well reviewed, and its numerous collaborations with artists including Mos Def, De La Soul and Shaun Ryder are expected to lead to various guest appearances at Glastonbury.

Organiser Michael Eavis promised "a massive audio-visual spectacle which will really ignite the Pyramid Stage". "The alchemy of Friday's show is going to be astonishing: a perfect, contemporary way to kick off the 40th anniversary celebrations," he said.

Albarn headlined Glastonbury last year with his other band Blur.