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In Rise of the Ogre it is revealed that Murdoc was dumped on his father's doorstep in infancy and went on to a very abusive childhood. It has been proposed that his many addictions and his sour attitude were due to his abusive and very bad childhood. Sebastian Jacob Niccals ("or Jacob Sebastian Niccals, depending on who's asking" wink was a spiteful drunk of a man who often verbally abused and exploited his sons. No one actually knew for certain who his mother was but most think he was born to a woman in a mental hospital for the terminally bored (though there are many other creative possibilities that contradict the theory). The local pub had a routine talent show that Murdoc was often forced to participate in so he could win his father drinking money (Murdoc once played Pinocchio, singing "I've Got No Strings" wink . Though he and his older sibling Hannibal never got along (he was responsible for two of the eight separate times Murdoc's nose was broken), it was through his older brother that Murdoc was introduced to his favorite bands, such as The Clash (though Murdoc found Black Sabbath on his own).

Murdoc played in a number of bands before Gorillaz; they never went anywhere. One of these was an unnamed Metal band which consisted of six people, including Murdoc on bass. The names and instruments of the other members appear in the Gorillaz 2005 promotional booklet and are given as follows: Billy Boy (who is based on a character in A Clockwork Orange) and Tiny on guitars, Crunch on drums, Rocky on keyboards and Munch who appears to be listed as "Band Artist." Not much else is known about these characters including their personalities or current whereabouts, although they appear on a few pieces of official Gorillaz artwork, most notably in the previously mentioned booklet as well as in Kong Studios where an image of Crunch, Billy Boy and Tiny can be seen on the wall in the instrument room.

Eventually after recruiting 2D through a series of accidents and not-so-accidents and kidnapping Russel from Big Rick Black's Music Shack, he pieced together the band that would become Gorillaz. He purchased Kong Studios and was delivered a small Japanese girl who could play a wicked guitar solo; Noodle replaced Paula Cracker (presently an overmedicated psychopath with a personal vendetta against the thirteen-year-old who helped lead the band to success) as Gorillaz's axe bandier. Murdoc wrote the self-titled debut album with help from 2D and Russel. With the album's success, the band launched a disastrous world tour: While in the United States, Murdoc established a cult of personality with various seedy individuals, chief of which being Little Jimmy Manson, a psychopathic midget dangerously obsessed with either killing Murdoc, or falling in love with him. In a hotel room one night, Manson and his cronies summoned a black-skinned demon boy that has stalked the band ever since. After achieving fame, fortune, and several nasty hangovers, the alcoholic bassist relocated his band over to Los Angeles so they could begin production on a movie.

Unfortunately, this was never to be. They were conned by a movie director (who it turns out, was just an insane man) while Murdoc attempted starring in a television program (he was too old for the part), and they ventured unsuccessfully into scriptwriting. Murdoc took off to a Tijuana brothel after strangling 2D (who, like the rest of the band, went their separate ways) and was eventually thrown in prison with a 30-year sentence for giving bad checks to the prostitutes. It was during this sentence that he was acquainted with his raven Cortez, the "jailbird with a chilling reputation". While serving his sentence Murdoc acquired some prison ink (in the form of the seven deadly sins tattooed across his back), and also took an open University course: "Amateur Administration of Pharmaceutical Medicines" and managed to pass a medical exam, earning the title 'Dr. Niccals'. He escaped with the help of two Mexican criminals, a paper-mache mannequin of himself and a taped loop of himself moaning.

After returning to the brothel to make a final point to the Mexican authorities, Murdoc loaded up on duty-free tequila and a few sombreros and made his way back to Kong, finding that Noodle had written the second album by herself (which he tried to take the credit for). The new album, Demon Days, made the band into even bigger superstars. After several number one videos, Noodle-close compadre to Murdoc-was apparently "killed" during the "El Mañana" video shoot (it can be noted that Murdoc came up with the idea of shooting down the floating island with Noodle inside, though).

After the El Mañana conspiracy, 2D and Russel were frantic about Noodle's supposed death. But it turned out to be a hoax. Murdoc revealed the truth about the El Mañana video in the Gorillaz official autobiography book, Rise of the Ogre. Gorillaz-Unofficial released an article containing the contents of the book.

“ I guess you've waited long enough. Noodle's safe, she was just acting as planned… Jamie Hewlett gave Noodle the command, and she parachuted safely off the island.
—Murdoc Niccals on the video for El Mañana ”

It turns out that the entire El Mañana conspiracy was calculated specifically to get rid of an enemy of the band: Little Jimmy Manson, a psychotic hippie turned industry executive who was set on sabotaging Gorillaz. The reason was that Jimmy auditioned for Gorillaz a few years back, but was turned down after Noodle got the job. He has had a grudge with Gorillaz ever since. Murdoc saw Jimmy's plan and decided to get rid of Jimmy before it was too late. Murdoc told Jimmy that he had a plan to "help him" to kill off one of the band members so that 1) Gorillaz would end with a bang and 2) Jimmy could start a new band with Murdoc. Noodle was to do the El Mañana video with Manson stowed away on the island and then, while the windmill was crashing around them, Jimmy would shoot the guitarist whilst taking the parachute for himself. However, Murdoc turned the tables on Jimmy by not only "forgetting" to leave the weapon aboard the island but by also locking him in the windmill; Jimmy supposedly died within the crash while Noodle parachuted to safety. His statement has followed:

“ There's no way on earth I'm killing Noodle. Are you mad? She's Noodle. We're Gorillaz! The greatest band on earth. I'm arrogant, ruthless even but I'm not stupid. I'm not having some two-bit mouldy despot record company nut killing off my band. No way, José. That clown got what he deserved. . . He set himself up and burned all the evidence in the process. Instant Karma for Mr. Jimmy Manson.
—Murdoc Niccals, Rise of the Ogre ”

It was stated by Murdoc that Noodle had been planning to leave after Demon Days, although leaving what, the band or the country, was never answered. Though it had been planned for months, she had neglected to tell anyone of her plans (although Murdoc stated it was obvious what she was doing). Murdoc, in order to run with his plan to off Jimmy, made a deal with Noodle: she could disappear for some R&R with no fuss if she did the video.

While some may say this is one of the only occasions when it appears that Murdoc isn't as selfish as he appears, he later states that no one was going to ruin his band, obviously meaning he would not jeopardize his fame.

However on November 8, 2007, the day of the live chat on fellow bandmate Murdoc's Facebook page, Murdoc revealed that Noodle has actually been taken in place of Russel Hobbs, to Hell by the demons invading the Kong Studios building. Murdoc is currently attempting to rescue her.

“ Noodle has been dragged to Hell. She can look after her self, but this one's too big for her on her own. I'm helping her out of there. In fact I only stopped by here to pick up a can of mace, when I noticed that someone had left the door open and let you gonks in....
—Murdoc Niccals on a live Facebook chat ”

He later explained:

“ Well…It’s funny. After the first album Russel had this big mad breakdown. He had the spirit of Del exorcised out of him by the Grim Reaper. Which kind of sent him mental. He tried to record a solo album but then he was saying that all these demons were flying out the speakers trying to eat him. Everyone thought he’d just gone loopy. “Living in a basement with Ike Turner”. Turns out though he was right. The Demons were real! You couldn’t really make it up. So next thing we know is after Noodle disappeared after The El Manana video incident, we hear this voice coming out of the basin basement room of Kong. Out of a radio. Turns out that when these demons couldn’t get hold of Russ, they grabbed Noodle instead. Dragged her downstairs, to Hades! So of course it fell to muggings here, (that’s me), to go on some epic Odysseus type journey into The Underworld to try and rescue her. It’s all tied up with contract I signed with Beelzebub that shoe-horned Gorillaz up the charts in the first place. He was cocked off about some late payment of my eternal soul, or something stupid. He as well as anyone should know that these type of payments take time to come through. I mean, well, everyone’s got their demons to battle. It’s just that mine take on a more physical form and have names like “Alichino”, “Lilith”, “Baphomet” “Sidragasum”, “Xitragupten” and so on….I guess that’s what you get if you’re born in a mental asylum named after a demon called Belphegor. Still I was never bored as a child. Yup…never bored.
—Murdoc Niccals on a live Facebook chat ”

But on September 13, 2008, on the Gorillaz official fansite, Murdoc gave the fans his personal review of "Monkey: Journey to the West." During the beginning of his review he stated that he went to hades and successfully rescued Noodle from the demons. However, Murdoc's epic story to hades was unknown. Although Noodle still hasn't returned to her room in Kong (Gorillaz website) it was also said that Kong was burnt down. No one knows for sure.

“ I've only just got back from this whole 'tracking Noodle down in the Underworld, and rescuing her from an eternal existence in the jaws of a 50ft soul-eating demon from Hades' epic-type-jaunt, as what was posted in my last Bookface geek-fest thing... That was pretty hairy, but it's all safe now, all good. I'd love to tell you lot about it but, as usual I've got myself all tangled up with some turgid movie dudes who say, “Y'know keep schtum, we'll sell the whole story to Schpeilburg”. Probably all rubbish again but let's see.
—Murdoc Niccals on the Gorillaz Official fansite ”

Murdoc has since revealed various disturbing truths about Gorillaz' history, via his "Pirate Radio" broadcasts on Gorillaz.com. Among them include the revelation that Noodle was never rescued; upon entering hell and searching wildly for her, he discovered that she was not there and had disappeared on her own. Returning to Earth, he created a clone-cyborg version of her from DNA that he collected around the wreckage on the site of El Mañana, and used the new Noodle as his bodyguard against the Black Cloud, pirates and mercenaries that Murdoc had been selling bad weapons to since at least his time in Mexico. At a recent radio interview, Murdoc confirmed that he burned down Kong Studios and used the insurance money in order to create his hideaway/recording studio on a tiny island called Point Nemo. Also known as "Plastic Beach", it is an island made entirely of social and cultural garbage. He is presently located on Plastic Beach, where he's kidnapped 2D and began production of the Gorillaz album: Plastic Beach. During the interview, Murdoc also hinted at a possible fourth album for the Gorillaz.