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A band who are really out of this world
10/11/2006
THANKS to some storming festival appearances, we know that Muse,
beyond any doubt, are the most thrilling live band on planet
rock.
Also, thanks to frontman Matt Bellamy's preoccupation with the
supernatural and fondness for flying around in James Bond-style
jetpacks, we also know that Muse are the oddest, most eccentric
band on earth.
But what we didn't know, until this year anyway, was that Muse,
right under everyone's noses, had gradually and deservedly become
the BIGGEST band on earth.
No longer are they just a much-loved concern among the rock
fraternity. Their latest Blackholes And Revelations album and
sold-out tour have turned them into a truly global concern.
Their shows at the MEN Arena tonight (Friday) and tomorrow promise
to underline their ascent into rock 'n' roll immortality.
"We've seen a lot of bands bubble up and disappear," says frontman
Bellamy with obvious pride.
"Maybe we've gone the distance because we've never really been
embraced by the mainstream but that's a good thing.
"We've been relatively free to do what we want. We come from a
small town in the middle of nowhere.
"We kind of felt like outsiders from the beginning both musically
and as people.
"I think that's a good place to be. We've never been grouped in
with any of the different movements of the last seven or eight
years."
What's most edifying about Muse's rise is that none of this was
really planned.
For a long while Muse were regarded not only as a fantastic and
thrilling live band but also as a band whose records were a bit too
eccentric and overwrought for mainstream consumption.
But Devonshire schoolfriends Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dom
Howard simply ploughed on making hugely ambitious and even more
unhinged rock records and waited until the rest of the world came
round to their (slightly mad) way of thinking.
But what humanised Muse to many people was their Glastonbury
performance of 2004.
Headlining on the final day of the festival and with many people
doubting their ability to pull it off, Muse's set was a
revelation.
Singer Bellamy wore a long, white lab technician's coat and led the
thousands of festival-goers into an explosive set which underlined
just how far Muse had come both as performers and songwriters. What
was all the more poignant was that Dom's dad, just after seeing his
son playing the biggest gig of his life, suddenly died on site with
heart problems.
Despite the tragedy, Muse soldiered on, fulfilling their summer gig
dates with magnificent bravery.
"It's difficult to know what to do with yourself," says Dom.
"But the key point was to move forward and find positivity
somewhere and my only way of doing that is to carry on doing what I
enjoy. Which is playing in this band.
"The whole tragedy kind of made us realise what was important in
our lives. Which is this band and performing."
From indie underdogs to Arena-headlining rock gods then but what's
unlikely to change is the eccentric, errant reputation of Muse's
singer Bellamy.
He infamously told the NME that he subscribed to the theories of
Zecharia Sitchin, a writer who claims the human race evolved as a
result of visiting aliens carrying out genetic experiments on
apes.
Bellamy's lyrics concern Nostradamus and the end of the world while
this favourite hobby is flying on jetpacks.
What does Bellamy himself think of his somewhat oddball
reputation?
"I'll say something like aliens are going to come down and take us
away as a joke obviously," he defends.
"Then it won't come across in print like that and I end up looking
like some mental bloke. But I've got used to it over the years. I'm
seen as this David Icke-type of character.
"But on a creative level I'm definitely interested in other
galaxies and other life forms. A lot of the new album explores
these themes."
Well, you could say it all makes perfect sense. Muse have already
conquered this world so what's to stop them looking into
others?
Muse play the MEN Arena tonight (Friday) and tomorrow.
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