When life was loud

Billericay Gazette 16th August 2001 Muse have to be one of the biggest things to crashland on planet rock in recent years.   They clinched the Best New Band award in the 2000 NME Carling Premier Awards, toured with fellow V heroes Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters and generally made themselves very well known.  Make no mistake the Teignmouth trio had no intention of being one album wonders, such is the way they have adhered themselves to their fans like beautiful barnacles.   From their humble beginnings in a sleepy Devon town as Rocket Baby Dolls, an accidentally won Battle of the Bands fired the band up for the bigtime.   Releasing their first EP, Muse, in May 1998, the band were soon astonishing those at gigs with their dynamic, if a little crazy, live shows.   And then they bombed the brains of the rest of us who hadn't been lucky enough to stumble upon them yet with a deluge of singles.   Almost operatically, singer Matt ...

SLUG (Salt Lake Under Ground)  Volume 19/Issue 233 - May 2008 Muse HAARP Warner Brothers  Street: 04.01 Muse = Van Halen + Queen (Scene: remote location, nekkid girls brandishing fans, illicit drugs and unimaginable feasts; the members of Muse in the center of it all.) Warner Brothers suggests a live album and vocalist/instrumentalist/badass nerd Matthew Bellamy responds, “Eh, we’ll do it if it’s Wembley and we’re gonna play our biggest hits first to get them out of the way. Why?! Because we’re Muse, dammit.” Handshakes take place because, well, this is Muse, dammit, an outfit that quite possibly contains the last rock stars under the age of 35 who can, for good reason, sell out two nights of 75,000 fans; this is a band of virtuosos who 1) inspire droves to learn an instrument (and discourage those who already know how to play) 2) can actually attack subjects only Rush would dare approach, then mutate them into pop masterpieces. Owing that live recordings are generally a cont...

Modern Drummer - October 2006 Drummer Inkblot lest Throughout their career, Lamb Of God has toured with some of the biggest and most cutting-edge bands in heavy metal. Along the way, Chris has come in contact with many great drummers of metals past and present. Here are his thoughts on some of the genre's biggest names. "Joey's universal. He's a well-rounded guy who appreciates a lot of different styles of heavy metal and can jump into almost any gig at a moment's notice. To me, that would be incredibly intimidating. I would freak out and not know what to do. But he's the kind of guy who can take on those situations and do them right."

This advert appeared in Guitar One Magazine in August 2004.  For those who are interested in tech, I have put the accompanying advert text below.  "If you want to hear what you're really playing, you need a tube amplifier with definition. That's why Slipknot's Mick Thomson asked us to supply him with our KnuckleHead® Reverb amps and Celestion G12T75-loaded K412 speaker cabinets. These rigs have massive tight bottom end matched by killer gain. Just as important is the beautiful, clean lead channel with huge headroom¬ something that's so often missed in high-gain modern heads. What else? Rivera's unrivaled . reliability. And MIDI switching, two separate reverb settings, three channels, plus a switchable parallel effects loop that can do double duty as an overall gain boost or drop. Choose from two all-tube versions of the KnuckleHead® Reverb for a custom-tailored tone. For an almost over-the-top rippin' gain and fatter bottom end, the 6L6 version is your best...

Muse: from Radiohead wannabes to lunatic prog rockers with attitude The Scotsman  Friday 15th June 2001 Bonkers but brilliant, Muse break out of their shell with a wild, demented musical ride Muse: Origin Of Symmetry (Mushroom - four stars) A PSYCHIATRIST writes although it is unclear exactly when skinny Devon trio Muse mutated from whingeing youths with a Radiohead complex, in need of a good slap, into Britain's most exhilaratingly demented indie boys, all that matters is that it happened in time to prevent them from making another album as pedestrian as their debut, Showbiz .   With Origin Of Symmetry , Muse have progressed from a storm in a teacup to a full-on sonic maelstrom. Singer Matt Bellamy still takes himself far too seriously, but this time he has the brute power of the music to match his permanent state of apoplexy.  While Radiohead are reining in their pompous tendencies, Muse are giving full vent to theirs, shamelessly constructing a prog folly, with hi...

August 2000 Interviewer is Jody Thompson JODY: I'm here with Joey and Jim from Slipknot. Hi guys.  JOEY: Hullo JIM: Hello. JODY: How does it feel to be playing Reading Festival? The last day, arguably the best festival in the UK this year? JOEY: A dream come true, literally. I mean, we're from America, so we have always seen it on TV. It's been like a big thing. You know, America always televises it, and MTV covers it, so we've always known about it. So it's a dream come true to play here actually.  JODY: And what's it like to actually be above the bill of other bands like Rage Against The Machine, who are usually way up there in The States? JIM: That's uh, kind of a freaky thing. You know, it's weird playing after a band like Rage. I mean, they have accomplished so much, and they have done so many things, you know, and they've got great fuckin' records out, so it's hard to imagine playing after a band like that, you know, but we're going...

c.1999 *STUDIO SETTING* MATTHEW: Hi, we're called Muse. This song is called "Sunburn." (SUNBURN plays) DOMINIC: My name's Dominic, and I play the drums in Muse.  MATTHEW: My name's Matthew, and I sing and play guitar. CHRISTOPHER: My name's Chris, and I play the bass. (SUNBURN cont) MATTHEW: In school we were about sixteen, in an art lesson. And someone, I think it was one of our teachers, said something about 'Muses'. And we didn't know what it meant, so we looked it up in the dictionary and thought, 'That's a good name'. But the main reason is because it's only four letters in the word, when you put it on a poster it looks big. Bigger than all the other bands. Four letter name. Short names are good.  (SHOWBIZ CONT) Ry Cooder (remind you of anyone?) MATTHEW: I started doing music when I was very young, about the age of thirteen. I used to play a lot of um, Spanish guitar. I learnt a lot of Spanish guitar. I grew my nails so I could...

Guitarist (Issue 225)  July 2002  "Amp-wise I'm using Marshall JCM 2000s" says Matt. "I usually have one on the side of the stage mic'd up, and another onstage that I use for feedback. I just use one two-channel amp, one full on. A lot of people switch between channels for crunch sounds or clean sounds but I tend to stick to one channel 90 per cent of the time, which is volume on full, with the gain really low. You get this really attacking, clean sound which I use quite a lot. I'm actually involved in the new amp Marshall are building. It's not a signature - I'm not famous enough for that - but the sound is something I like".  

Sunday World (Dublin)  Sunday 5th June 2005 Cory says not having a dad screwed him up SLIPKNOT frontman Cory Taylor reveals that he's screwed up because he never had a dad in his life.   In an exclusive interview, Taylor tells Remix; "I grew up not knowing my father, whose family were Irish. That was a huge f**king issue for me.   "Now that I've got kids I miss them so badly when I'm on tour. I'm prone to outbursts of stupid crying and it's not a very manly thing to do."  Cory has a step-daughter aged six, as well as a two year old son. "My little boy, man, he's so there." Taylor says with obvious price. "He's got so much personality. He freaks me out."   The caring side of Taylor is not the image people have of outrageous group Slipknot. "Oh, I don't give a f*** what people think about this image. We are real people at the end of the day. When we take of the masks it's just us," he responds.  Stage masks ...

  (Guitar Magazine - March 2002)

Get On The Bus c.April 2026 SLIPKNOT SID: So everyone else, I think...we weren't all born in Des Moines, but we grew up there. Paul went there as an adolescent. Um, but he was, you know, he went there when he...I think he was already in his teens, or close to it. So, he already had a good sense of who he was, and what kind of music he liked by the time he went to Iowa, and he had that LA influence. So, he already knew he was like 'the DJ is what's up'. We need a DJ. And he'd seen me scratching. So, he was just like 'this is amazing'. And then everyone, they started talking to and asking, like 'who...who do we get for a DJ?'. Everyone was like, 'Sid'.   Q: Right SID: 'Sid's the guy'. You know, so I don't know. I just...I..it just happened like that. You know what I mean? I went over there, and some of the guys, were like 'I don't know', cuz they were just like straight metal heads. But once I started jamming with th...

Belfast Telegraph  Thursday 12th February 2004 BRIT-NOMINATED rockers Muse are to play the Ulster Hall in Belfast on Saturday February 21, it has been confirmed.   The band's third album, Absolution, sold well over 750,000 copies.   After releasing albums Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry, Muse performed at the Reading and Leeds festivals in 2002 before returning to their own studio in East London to record their third.   Singer/Songwriter Matt Bellamy, whose father was in legendary 60s band The Tornadoes, explains the thinking behind Muse.   "I don't really know many English bands that do rock music of a relatively modern nature, and I think that we're definitely trying to, not necessarily go against it, but prove that there is a lot more to it," he said.   Tickets to see Muse, priced £22.50 go on sale this Saturday, February 14th from Virgin and usual Ticketmaster outlets.  (Maureen Coleman) Link to original article (subscriptio...

Grade 6 Guitar: Rock & Pop 2012 Muse is made up of three multi-instrumentalists who met when they were at school - Matt Bellamy (vocals, piano and guitar), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass, keyboards and harmonica) and Dominic Howard (drums and electronics). They are well-known for their spectacular live performances. Muse combine a range of different musical styles — including hard rock, electronic, progressive and classical music — to create their own unique sound. ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ is taken from their 2006 epic album Black Holes And Revelations . Muse wrote this album whilst immersed in the New York club scene. This, along with their interest in science fiction and conspiracy theories, is evident in this song — which features paranoid lyrics, electronica and a dance beat. Matt Bellamy’s father was the rhythm guitarist with the 1960s pop group The Tornados. Bellamy often uses guitars made by Manson of Exeter, mainly a silver model which he helped to design. Its features inc...

MTV c. July 2002 MATTHEW: How are you? Q: I'm fine thanks. That's normally my opening line. But thanks for sorting that out. Um...is he all right? (CHRISTOPHER is not at the interview, so a huge blue board has been substituted for him and put in the chair) MATTHEW: Yeah, he's all right, you know. He's a bit quiet today. DOMINIC: Yeah, he's just a little bit...cold blue. Q: Truth is, he's never looked better. (CONCERT FOOTAGE - 'PLUG IN BABY') Q: Now you did...you auctioned your frequent flyer card out in some War Child auction. What was that about, do you remember?  MATTHEW: Uhh...I was a little bit drunk, and I was hanging around...I don't normally go to awards shows. We went to the NME...some party or something, and some NME guy was going around, taking bits from people in bands, and it was supposed to be for charity or something, and I sort of gave him my card. Actually, I'm quite gutted actually, because that card...I can use that card to ge...

Published 2009 (Eric Danville) Smack-shootin, Coke-snortin', Hopped-Up, Tweaked Out Metal Tunes ~ Opium of the people  Born to Be Wired: 10 Heavy Metal Drug Busts ~ Paul Gray  Gray was picked up in Des Moines, Iowa, after running a red light in his Porsche and hitting another car. After police saw him stumbling and barely coherent, they searched his car and found two hypodermic needles, cocaine and marijuana.  Metalheads Who Were Injured Onstage  ~ The various members of Slipknot have earned, between them, lacerated shins, shin splints, slipped vertebrae, dislocated shoulders, broken ankles, broken toes, broken ribs, broken collarbones, headbanging-related whiplash, and concussions.  Metal Songs That Clear Channel Communications "Suggested" Their Radio Stations Avoid Playing After the September 11, 2001, Terror Attacks  ~ Wait and Bleed ~ Left Behind  Give the Drummer Some: 6 Outrageous Drum Solo Stunts ~ Joey Jordison The jazz-trained Jordison has use...

MOJO  October 2021 (Issue 335) DRUMMER JOEY JORDISON (b.1975) was a founding member of masked Des Moines nu-metallers Slipknot , initially called The Pale Ones , in 1995. He appeared on all the group's releases until his 2013 departure, which he later attributed to the neurological disorder transverse myelitis. He also played with Murderdolls, Scar The Martyr, Rob Zombie, Ministry and Korn , and memorably deputised for Lars Ulrich at Metallica 's 2004 Download appearance.

Guitarist July 2002 "Most bands do live albums when they are old and fat," says Muse's Matt Bellamy. "We wanted to be different." Guitarist asks what all the Hullabaloo is about.  "I don't think anyone should be afraid of live music, or releasing it" ~ Matt Bellamy.  Maybe it's the fact that they hail from Devon, a good half day from the UK's musical hub of London, that makes Muse do things a bit differently. Maybe it's their fascination with obscure Benelux and Scandinavian bands. Or maybe it's the result of plying their youthful trade as Gothic Plague, Fixed Penalty and Rocket Baby Dolls which is responsible. What is certain, though, is that trying to predict the next move from the Teignmouth trio would confound Mystic Meg.  COMBINING THE LUXURIANT histrionics of Radiohead with the tight Nirvana-esque angst that only a three-piece can really carry off. Muse have always been different to the average rock band. Not content with doi...

NME 3rd August 2002 The tactics are simple and in theory, deadly effective. "We're going to nail Matt Bellamy," grins Aoife Hunt, one of six fans in red boilersuit that Muse have elected to go paintballing with. "He runs around a lot, though, and he's really short, so he might be hard to hit. I think Chris is the danger. He's going to be Rambo man."  As it turns out, Team Muse (the band plus roadie Paul, DVD documentary maker Tom, label guy Anthony and tour manager Len) are more like a squad of fearless suicide ninjas. "In the van, we said 'let's all go berserk and shoot each other', says Dom. "So anyone that moves dies."  He's not joking. In the dark, stinking underground confines of London's Citypaintball, made out to look like Tomb Raider meets Boot Hill with wooden shacks, tomb stones and bodies hanging from nooses, the carnage is total. Game one sees the combined fans/Bring It On team blasted painfully to pieces i...

Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette  Tuesday 11th May 2004 SINGLE OF THE WEEK Chart music release reviews by John Howelett.  Matt Bellamy might be very short and resemble a slightly-stoned rodent, but these are small prices to pay when you are a musical genius and fronting one of the brashest and most bombastic rock bands since Queen.   Derided early on in their career as Radiohead copyists, Muse's most recent two albums are more akin to the soundtrack of the apocalypse than prog rock noodlings.   The third single from their most recent album and masterpiece 'Absolution' finds Muse though in a more contemplative mood - the calm after the storm as it were. Beginning with a piano introduction that is reminiscent of ABBA (!) 'Sing for Absolution' soon shapes around some epic guitar chords which are memorably haunting.  Not perhaps the most uplifting single or indeed the obvious Number 1 contender, but truly majestic.  9/10 Link to Muse Ind...

Sunday World (Dublin)  Sunday 20th June 2004 SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor has revealed his personal heartache behind the group's tour which hits Ireland on Friday.  Hard rocker Taylor, whose group is famous for its scary masks, is missing his wife and kids.   He tells the Sunday World: "This tour has taken me away from home for six weeks and it's really tough on me. I grew up not knowing my dad and it's a huge f**kin issue for me.  "Now that I've got kids, man, I miss them so badly that I'm prone to outbursts of stupid crying. That's not a manly thing to do, but it's hard, man, y'know" Image  "It not the f**kin' work that makes the road hard for me. It's just being away from home. If I could fly in for every show and fly home, f**k, I'd do it every day."  Taylor has a six-year-old stepdaughter and a two-year-old son. "My little boy, man, he's so there," he says. "He's got so much personality, I ...

Kerrang! (Issue No.1587) September 26th 2015 A SUPERMASSIVE black hole has incredible crushing power. Throw an item of your choosing into one - a ball, a car, a skyscraper - and even the biggest thing you can imagine will be squeezed into an area smaller than you ever thought possible. Tonight, in similar fashion. Muse - last spotted headlining Download - have chosen to stuff and compress their usual grandstanding stadium shows into a whites-of-the-eyes assault on the 1,1 00-capacity Electric Ballroom, as a way of celebrating the announcement of their forthcoming world tour. And Matt Bellamy and co prove they’re able to slip between stadium supremacy and sweatbox intimacy just as deftly as their Brit-rock juggernaut peers Biffy Clyro - albeit with the odd bit of shrinking pain.  The good Muse first, though. Despite the bombast of his music. Matt isn’t generally prone to hyperbole, yet has declared latest album Drones to be his band’s finest offering to date. While some fans disagre...

  Dominic Howard was nominated in the "Alternative" section. 

Voliminal: Inside the Nine DVD 2006 (Interview itself may be from c. 2004/2005) (Paul pulls up outside the interviewers house. He is late. He puts this down to his car "being kind of fucked up", a long drive, and the fact that he had a "late start" as he "woke up kind of late").  Q: So, what does Slipknot mean to you, Paul?  PAUL: It's my life. You know. That's it. It's everything to me. You know, I mean, without Slipknot I'd be probably sleeping on someone's couch, working at the old bar I used to work at... Q: You've been playing music since you were a kid, right? Is this what you kind of envisioned being a rockstar would be like?  PAUL: I..you know...I never knew what being a rockstar would be like. I still don't know...I mean...I don't know I don't really consider myself a rockstar, but obviously I guess I am...I don't know. You know, um, I still do the same shit, man. I go to the same fuckin' bar, you know. ...

29th November 1999 (TV ZURICH) Interviewer is Mona Vetsch (Please note this interview is dubbed, so I have done my best to hear what is being said underneath, as it sometimes differs from the subtitles). MONA: Welcome, Muse! (They enter the studio by stepping out of what looks like elevator doors, Audience cheers as she shakes hands with them one by one.) MONA: Please, make yourself comfortable  (They head towards an elevated section, where they sit) MONA: Is this your first time in Switzerland? MATTHEW: Yeah, very first time.  MONA: You told me that you have been once before? MATTHEW: Yeah, I've been once before. I came here for the day to the mountains, to the sort of Italian area of Switzerland.  MONA: But, do you like winter sports? Like skiing or snowboarding?  DOMINIC: I like snowboarding.  MONA: Yeah, really?  DOMINIC: Yeah, I'd really like to go up in the Alps and mess around over New Year's for a bit. MONA: I'd imagine that it's really hard to snow...