Have I got Muse for you....
Thursday 17th February 2000
Article by Ben Atherton
Let's get it out of the way at the start. Radiohead. Radio-head. Radio. Head.
It's a comparison that hyped new rockers Muse - due to entertain a capacity crowd at the Venue tonight - have heard before.
But mercurial frontman Matt Bellamy says it's one that the outfit who scooped the NME Premier Award for Best New Band last month are soon going to outgrow.
"If the only thing people have to go on is the record, then they may have a point," he admits.
The record in question - 1999's Showbiz album - was produced by Radiohead knob-twiddler John Leckie, and its rock histrionics prompted many a comparison to the Oxford miserabilists.
"But come and see is us live and I think you'll be surprised," Bellamy insists. "See us live and you'll see the record from the right point of view. Because we're English and we're influenced by the same sort of time of life there probably are similarities.
"But we're into other bands, heavier stuff like The Who, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and that's stuff that I've never really seen in Radiohead."
Muse's live ingredient X is Bellamy's Hendrix meets Townshend guitar bashing-show-cased at a recent NME Premier show at London's Astoria when the guitarist played the instrument behind his head before flinging it across the stage and storming off.
"I think that's one thing that people don't expect and that's why it gets talked about," he reasons.
"Because everyone thinks we're like Radiohead, they think we're going to be standing around being depressing. But the music isn't like that. When you see it live it's really much more of positive energy.
"Some of the best gigs we played, I haven't even noticed that the crowd has been there - we get so lost in it," he says.
"Sometimes we get a bit carried away and stuff gets damaged, but it doesn't happen every night and if it does, it doesn't mean that the gig's any better. It just happens."
Unfeasibly youthful - Bellamy is just 21 - Muse emerged from the rock and roll wasteland of the Devon coast and have recorded high-profile support slots with Bush, Skunk Anansie, Pavement, Flaming Lips and Foo Fighters.
"Last time we played Scotland we played to about ten people in King Tut's, so this is our first head-lining tour that people are going to come to," Bellamy reasons.
"Since then we've done a whole lot of support tours and I think that helped us a lot - people now know a bit more about is."
It could look like a case of too much too soon for Muse if the band fail to live up to the sweeping predictions of greatness currently being made of them, but Bellamy says he's not getting carried away.
"It's all a laugh. I mean, I love the music, and I always will, whatever level we're at - but all that other hype is just a laugh. You can be on the front page of a magazine, but unless people are buying your records it doesn't matter".
Currently previewing new material in their live set, Muse will be back in the studio as soon as their touring commitments allow - they're due to set out on a stadium-busting tour of the American Mid-West with the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
It's a long way from Bellamy's youth in Teignmouth, where a disastrous foray into recycling junked cars ended with a hulking scrap-yard owner banging on his front door demanding Muse's £500 tour van as repayment.
"There are two reasons why people make music or any type of art in general," he philosophises.
"The first is to fulfil something in yourself, and the other reason is to get a reaction from other people.
"I think you should always do it for the first reason. If you find yourself doing it for the second then you're probably doing it for the wrong reason.
"It won't always be rewarding because sometimes people won't be into it. But if you're doing it for yourself then you're always going to be pretty happy."
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