Gorillaz, a genre-mixing group lead by British musician Damon Albarn, will replace U2 as one of the headline acts at the Glastonbury Festival after the Irish band pulled out.

"[It's] going to be astonishing, a perfect, contemporary way to kick off the 40th anniversary celebrations," organizer Michael Eavis said Wednesday.

A back injury suffered by U2 frontman Bono forced the Irish rockers to withdraw from Glastonbury, which runs from June 23 to 27 in Pilton, in southwest England.

Eavis promises the June 25 show, which will be Gorillaz's only U.K. festival appearance, will be an "audio-visual spectacle."

The Glastonbury appearance marks a surprising return for Albarn, who also fronts Blur — one of the leading Brit bands of the 1990s.

At last year's festival, Albarn fell to his knees in a burst of emotion after belting out Blur's hit To the End. As he walked off the stage, he proclaimed it would be his last appearance at the festival.

Albarn started Gorillaz with artist Jamie Hewlett in 1998 as a kind of anonymous virtual band represented by cartoon characters. Hewlett was co-creator of the comic series Tank Girl.

Forming tunes that run the gamut of pop through hip hop and everything else in between, the band itself has been joined by other artists. Albarn was the one constant ingredient throughout its three albums: Gorillaz (2001), Demon Days (2005) and Plastic Beach (2010).

With major hits such as Dare, Dirty Harry and Feel Good Inc, the band has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide.

Many artists contributed to the latest release including Lou Reed, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Mick Jones and De La Soul.

A statement sent to The Guardian newspaper by the band's bassist — who goes by the moniker Murdoc — declared: "We're like some great big horrible warship pulling into the bay of Glastonbury to save the day. It was us or the Beatles and they split up years ago."