Muse - A History

Before starting Muse, the members played in several different bands during their days at Teignmouth Community College in the early 1990s.
The formation of Muse was soon to come, Mat Bellamy, the lead singer and guitarist, succsessfully auditioned for Domonic Howards band.
They both asked Chris Wolstenholme, who played drums at the time, to play bass, he agreed and took up lessons as been playing bass ever since.

After a couple of name changes the band, consisting of Mat on guitar and vocals, Domonic on drums and Chris the band entered a battle of the bands competition, they won the competition and then smashed their equiptment. "It was supposed to be a protest, a statement," Bellamy said, "so, when we actually won, it was a real shock, a massive shock. After that, we started taking ourselves seriously.

Shortly after the competition the band decided to quit college, quit their jobs and change the band name to Muse, the reason for the name was a member of their previous college suggested it as they suggested the town of Teignmouth had a 'Muse' ((lowercase) the genius or powers characteristic of a poet.) hovering over it as there were several famous bands from the area, that, and Muse looks good on a poster.

After several years building a fan base, the band. The band had a meeting with Dennis Smith and later with Dennis' record label released 'Muse EP' of which only 999 copies were made and had only four songs. "Overdue", "Coma", "Cave", "Escape".
The bands second EP, "Muscle Museum EP" reached number 3 in the indie singles chart, it was at this time that the band joined Taste Media, they released three albums under this recording label.

John Leckie was brought in under the Taste Media record label and they released their first studio album, Showbiz. The album shows the diversity, softness and variety of the band. The lyrics also showed the difficulties faced when trying to make a name for themselves in their hometown.

On the bands second studio album, "Origin Of Symmetry" the band experimented with several different instruments including a church organ, mellatron and an expanded drum set.
Bellamy cites Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello as influences for this album, with high and low solo swings with several effects rarely seen before.
The album features a remake of a classic "Feeling Good", Muse Succsessfully sued Nestle for using the song in a TV advertisement, the money wno went to Oxfam.

Celine Dion was also threatened with legal action after wanting to name her tour "Muse", despite the band owning the worldwide performing rights to the name. Celine Dion offered $50,000 for the rights but Muse rejected this with Bellamy stating that "We don't want to turn up there with people thinking we're Celine Dion's backing band." Eventually Dion was forced to back down.

Roger Morton, of New Musical Express compated the lead singer, Mat Bellamy to late, great Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. He gave the album a 9/10.

Muse' record company did not like the way that Mat Bellamy portrayed his voice, stating that it was not "radio friendly", I personally agree with this however because of this, Mat and the band decided to leave the company as they would not release the album to the U.S, it was not until 2005 when their new record company, Warner, released the album.

In 2003, Absolution was released and held praise worldwide. It debuted at number one in the UK and "Time Is Running Out" was a top ten hit. Later on the album produced three more top twenty hits, "Hysteria", "Sing For Absolution", and "Butterflies and Hurricanes"
Along with the release of Absolution, Muse had their first world tour visiting countries such as Australia, New Zealand and France.
At the start of the 2004 US leg of the tour, Bellamy injured himself and had to get several stitches.

In June of 2004, the band played what is hailed as the best concert the band has ever done. Glastonbury Festival. After the festival the band was quoted as saying it was "the best gig of our lives". However the drummer, Dominic Howard's father passed away shortly after the gig due to a heart attack.
"It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage", Bellamy said. "It was almost surreal that an hour later his dad died. It was almost not believable. We spent about a week sort of just with Dom trying to support him. I think he was happy that at least his dad got to see him at probably what was the finest moment so far of the band's life"

Muse later continued the tour and went on to win two MTV Europe awards, one for best alternative act and another, unsuprisingly, for best live act. They also won best live act at the 2005 BRIT awards.

The band, in late 2005, released an official DVD entitled Absolution Tour, which had remastered and reedited versions of the songs performed at the famous Glastonbury Festival. The only song on the dvd from the Absolution album that was not shown on the DVD is "Falling Away From You" which has yet to be performed live.

2006 saw the band release their fourth studio album, Black Holes and Revelations. The songs, themes and even the title of the album reflect the interest held by the band members to science, fiction and politics. The album reached number one in Australia, UK, and much of Europe. The album recieved platinum status after selling one million copies in the UK.

The third single off the album, "Knights Of Cyadonia" was met with praise throughout the world and was voted #1 on the Triple J's hottest 100 of 2007 and #18 on Triple J's hottest 100 of all time the following year.
Another song, "Map of the Problematique" was realeased for download only in June of 2007 following a performance at Wembley Stadium in the same year.

The band spent the later part of 2006 touring several countries including Australia , New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Of the tour, the biggest performance to date was the two gigs performed at Wembley stadium. Both Wembley gigs were recorded to CD/DVD entitled HAARP released 17th March 2008.
Muse finished their Black Holes and Revelations tour playing at the KROQ Almost Accoustic Chritmas after playing sold out shows across the world.

There were several individual performances in 2008, none relating directly to an album release.
On the 12th of April 2008 they played a one off concert at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
In 2008 the band also performed along side other famous named including Linkin Park, The Offspring and Kaiser Chiefs.
On the 25th September 2008, the three members, Bellamy, Howard and Wolstenholme recieved an Honoury Docterate of Arts for their contrabution to music.

The bands fifth and most recent album, The Resistance was the first to be produced soley by the band. Upon the release of the album, it went number one in 19 countries.
Critics praised the album, mostly due to the classic traits, ambition and the thirteen minute, three part "Exogenesis: Symphony".
In the first week of release, 148,000 copies were sold in UK alone.

The Resistance Tour started in October 2009 in Finland. The band supported U2 in their U2 360' tour.
In the 'Breakfast With Muse Tour' KROQ held, Mat Bellamy was asked just how long the band intended on being on tour. He responded "We will probably be touring until the end of next year. We will be doing this U2 and European tour and ship off to Australia and Asia and return for an extensive US tour. It will actually be our longest US tour to date. Starting at about the end of February or March.".

In January of 2010, along side Dizzy Rascal and the likes, Muse played at both the Austrlian and New Zealand Big Day Out.
Muse will be hosting the 2010 Glastonbury tour, which if previous years are any insight, should be a sight to see.

The main genres that Muse use in their music are progressive rock, glam rock, and space rock. They also use electronica, indie, and metal.

Guitarist and frontman Mat Bellamy's guitar influences include Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello (of Rage Against The Machine).
Mat Bellamy has been compared to Jeff Buckley with the way he uses his voice.

Muse's album "Black Holes and Revelations" was influenced by both European and Asian music. "I've been listening to quite a lot of music from the south of Italy on this album", Bellamy admits. "I've been living in Italy for a while, and I discovered this music from Naples, which sounds like a mix of music from Africa, Croatia, Turkey, and Italy. It kind of gives it a mystical sound, so I think that's one thing that influenced the album. I like being influenced by things that have a mixed style".

Queen is also a major influence in the bands musical productions. Brian May, the lead guitarist for Queen has been quoted in saying this; "(Muse are) extraordinary musicians" who "let their madness show through, always a good thing in an artist."

With regards to the bands progressive rock traits, Domonic Howard has been quoted as saying "I associate it with 10-minute guitar solos, but I guess we kind of come into the category. A lot of bands are quite ambitious with their music, mixing lots of different styles — and when I see that I think it's great. I've noticed that kind of thing becoming a bit more mainstream."

The current band members are;

Matthew Bellamy - vocals, lead guitar, keyboard
Chris Wolstenholme - bass guitar, backing vocals
Domonic Howard - drums, backing vocals

In the bands history they have made a total of five studio albums.

Showbiz - 1999
Origin of Symmetry - 2001
Absolution - 2003
Black Holes and Revelations - 2006
The Resistance - 2009

Muse are currently promoting the release of their new song Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever) which is set for release in three days (18th May 2010) and will feature on the new Twilight movie, Eclipse.

Cheers
Joseph Rigby
0407 782 058