When life was loud

Pure FM c. September 2009  Q: When you give to an album this kind of title, it cannot be for free. 'The Resistance', it's against what? Against what do you want to resist?  MATTHEW: Well um, I mean regarding what I was just saying with it...with it...I mean, I could speak about England, you know what I mean? In England, there's...there's...there's a desire for change. There, you know, just against the old way of thinking. The old fashioned constitution. The old fashioned Parliamentary system, you know? There is a resistance growing against this way of thinking. I mean on a...on a...on a grander scale, you could say that the corporate...the corporate erm domination of the erm, of The Western world and the Third World...erm...has been, has been sort of growing since the 1970's, 80's, 90's, and it's kind of like we are living in a situation where these corporations are like  giants . You know, giants of power , who probably own whatever station you ...

2001 DECEMBER Albums - Pick Of The Week 2002 MARCH More punishment, if you please...

West Lancashire Evening Gazette Saturday 15th December 2001 AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE  The War Of Art "Mightily heavy album from seven-piece American band who recently toured with Slipknot. Producer Rick Rubin catches their energy with sudden dynamic shifts, tempo changes and occasional interludes of peaceful ambiance. For the most part though, this is full-on rock at its snarling best" Link to original article (subscription required to view)

Belfast News-Letter Monday 23rd February 2004  REVIEW  Muse @ The Ulster Hall  HAD it been Carnegie Hall, let alone the Ulster Hall, the explosive rock sound of Muse would still have swallowed the venue whole, not even spitting out the bones.    The scale of the show by this superb three-piece was pulsating stadium rock at its finest in a venue where you can still see the whites of band members' eyes.    Spiky-haired singer Matt Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, and drummer Dominic Howard made their presence felt in every corner of the venue. Indeed, the band seemed like giants on the stage, covering every inch of it, throwing themselves into the magnificent, soaring rock sound, which is almost operatic in parts, Matt's vocals rising effortlessly to the top notes.    From the TNT distortion of opener Hysteria, they barely paused for breath, apart from the odd nod of appreciation to the sell-out audience, so engrossed in the musical odyssey...

Q Magazine March 2004 NOW TOP 40  ALBUM CHART ENDING 10TH JANUARY 2004 Boosted by the success of recent single Hysteria, Muse's third album had edged back into the charts in 2004 after debuting at Number 1 then disappearing in the Christmas rush. Climbing steadily from 60 to 33, it's now sold a quarter of a million copies, propped up by a UK tour at the end of 2003 and last months Brit Awards nomination for Best British Rock Act. But it was the sudden love for Hysteria that really kicked off the second wind. Radio 1 A-listed the track, shoving it into the Radio Airplay Top 40, and it was heavily rotated by MTV2 and Kerrang! TV. Factor in appearances on cd:uk and Channel 4's Ear Candy, as well as a live Radio 1 broadcast from Cardiff International Arena, and it's been hard to escape. That trend looks like continuing all year, with Muse's appearance at T In The Park this summer merely the first of several festival dates.  

NME 21st March 2015 Twist And Shout CHOSEN BY: Matt Bellamy ALBUM: Please Please Me, 1963 SONGWRITER: Phil Medley and Bert Berns  DID YOU KNOW? John Lennon had a cold while making Twist And Shout'. He did one take and attempted a second, but by then he had completely lost his voice Ooooooh! Wobble-heads ahoy as The Beatles tackle the Phil Spector-produced 1961 Top Notes tune, already a hit in 1962 for The Isley Brothers. But Lennon’s ragged, throat-torn performance set a new standard for punkoid rock’n’roll and inspired the Stones, The Kinks and The Who to adopt an equally passionate attitude. Today, ‘Twist And Shout’ is a standard at retro clubs and wedding discos, but at the time it was a sensation, hitting Number Two in the US in a week when The Beatles held all five of the top spots. Matt Bellamy; “I love that high-energy stuff. I’d love to hear that recorded exactly as they played it then, but with modern technology, because the sound quality is not doing justice to what the...

NME 1st May 2010 LIVE PAVEMENT, MUSE & JAY-Z HIT THE DESERT, THE STRANGE BOYS GET STRANGER AND THE BIG PINK TOUR THE USA EMPIRE POLO CLUB, INDIO, CALIFORNIA  Friday, April 16th -Sunday, April 17th A heavyweight line-up barely breaks a sweat in the desert heat.  "Muse, meanwhile, are the latest Brits to truly break America and Matt Bellamy obliges with an appropriately flash display of guitar wizardry. If it’s not a Hendrix-style reinterpretation of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, it’s a segment of mariachi riffing or a snippet of Nirvana’s ‘School’. And that’s to say nothing of the actual, full-length songs they play. It’s all unashamedly masturbatory but Muse didn’t get here by being shy about their talents."

Q Magazine  October 2009  Review - NEW ALBUMS MUSE: The Resistance  Imagine of Bono casually proposed that 9/11 was an inside job perpetrated by the US government. Or Chris Martin insisted that the human race evolved as a result of aliens tampering with monkey DNA. Or Noel Gallagher maintained that The Beatles were a front for a clandestine think tank intent on brainwashing the youth of America. And yet Matt Bellamy, the only other homegrown rock star capable of filling Wembley Stadium twice over, regularly expounded such opinions in the course of promoting Muse's thrillingly provocative fourth album Black Holes And Revelations without generating so much as an apoplectic Daily Mail editorial. For shame. There was a time when enemies of the state blowing the whistle on government cover-ups and media lies could have expected to meet with tragic accidents and freakish, fatal, acts of God. Now it seems you get a wink, a pinch on the cheek, and a couple of Brit Awards.  ...

Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette  Tuesday 24th August 2004 ALBUM of the week Musical album reviews by John Howlett SOMETIMES the mythology can obscure the music. With talk of drug addiction, punch ups, therapy and imprisonment there was very real fear that this record would never materialize. Produced, as was their debut album, by Mick Jones (of Clash fame) this is as shambolic and ramshackle as you'd hope and expect.   Whilst contemporaries such as Razorlight and The Ordinary Boys have recently produced good records in the same vein neither show an ounce of that spirit and creativity here. 'Last Post on the Bugle', 'Can't Stand me Now', and 'The Saga' are the rag back rock and roll of the first album, while elsewhere the sound varies from shimmering sixties pop ('What Katie Did') to acoustic ballad ('Music when the Lights Go Out'). In a year of so far below-average records, this is the first essential one.  10/10. Link to o...

Kerrang! July 25th 2015 July 25th 9pm Want to have a supermassive fun night in? Well, air plug in your air guitar (baby) and run around your living room, because MTV are playing Muse’s biggest videos. Dress like a Knight Of Cydonia! Roll around like a New Born! Do whatever leaves you Feeling Good! Embrace your inner Madness! Right, we’re out of Muse jokes now.

Kerrang! July 25th 2015 With Bring Me The Horizon and 5 Seconds Of Summer keeping fans guessing over the past few weeks with a series of cryptic teasers, we take a look back at the other bands to have left us scratching our heads in the name of rock... MUSE - THE RESISTANCE  It’s a well-known fact that Muse don’t do ‘small’. Which is why perhaps the only thing surprising about their masterminding of an elaborate worldwide game was that it took them until their fifth album to think of it. In July 2009, with fans awaiting news on the long-talked about release of The Resistance, the Devon trio announced that getting your hands on the first cut of material wasn’t going to be as easy as clicking on iTunes. Instead, fans had to solve a series of online codes and clues to reveal the location, date and time at which an ‘agent’ could be found, and a USB stick featuring new song United States Of Eurasia procured. The hunt took people as far and wide as Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mos...

Music Legends Magazine, Metallica c.2019(?) Lars recalls, "We took off, it was just me and my friend Steve, and about halfway over to Midlands Airport... I don’t know what the fuck happened, but all of a sudden I just fuckin’ lost it, and I had never quite experienced anything like that before. It was pretty fuckin’ scary to be in a little fuckin’ metal tube at 41,000 feet... I’ve never had anxiety attacks or any kind of stress attacks ever. It was fuckin’ freaky, dude. So I’m sitting there sucking on an oxygen mask and I’m like, fuck this, I need to get this checked out, so we landed in Hamburg and went to the hospital.  “They took some blood tests and everything was completely normal physically,’ he said, ‘it was just everything caught up with me mentally. At about six o’clock I was talking to James and Kirk and Peter Mensch from my hospital bed, and I was saying, I’m gonna get on a plane. And they were like, listen, you're not getting on any fuckin’ plane — stay the fuck in...

19th January 2010 NovaFM RADIO HOST: Let's do the game MATTHEW: Whatever that is  RADIO HOST: Okay, well the game is, who knows more about Muse? Matt from Muse, or Matt from the Action Battle team? (VARIOUS "Right", "Okay", "All right") RADIO HOST: So, we've got some questions here, and you just need to buzz in...I guess you (MATTHEW) would buzz in with Muse, Matt. Because if you both said, 'Matt', it's going to get really confusing MATTHEW: What do you mean like, 'say 'Muse'? HOST: If you know the answer?  MATTHEW: Okay, got it.  RADIO HOST: And what's going to be your buzzer? ABT: ABT maybe? Short for 'Action Battle Team?' MALE HOST: Just say 'Action Battle Team', it doesn't matter RADIO HOST: Just say the whole thing MATTHEW (BLOWS A RASPBERRY INTO THE MIC): Can I do that instead? RADIO HOST: Yeah ABT: And I'll say 'Muse' (laughs) no.... MALE HOST: I think flatulence is becoming a real ...

Bizarre Magazine  November 2010 Songwriter and singer for Slipknot and Stone Sour  The Stand Stephen King  "I love this book because it's about humanity. There's a battle for the souls every day, and it all comes down to the decisions we make. We can give in to our base, animalistic behaviour, or we can be consciously aware of all the choices we make and try to be good people. Do you want to destroy or create? 

Guitar Part N° 189  December 2009 An electro-acoustic signature guitar from the Slipknot guitarist, courtesy of Ovation? It’s a reality with the MT37-5 model, which adheres to the American brand's technical specifications! This guitar embodies Ovation's core design principles. It is built around a contoured Lyrachord body—that renowned composite material known for being relatively lightweight, extremely hard, durable, and highly resonant. Although this model is manufactured in Korea, the body itself comes directly from the American factories—likely a measure to prevent counterfeiting. The body profile features a significant modification compared to the classic Ovation design: the shape has been flattened in certain areas, resulting in a less rounded profile that is more comfortable than the traditional shape, especially when playing seated. ELECTRICAL PROFILE The manufacturer chose spruce for the top—featuring a textured, satin-black finish—just as they did for the composite bo...

Evening Herald (Dublin) Thursday 2nd May 2002 The past two years have seen a meteoric rise for Devon trio Muse. They've done the Slane thing and Witness thing, they've secured a notorious record deal with Madonna's Maverick label, they've had a string of successful singles, a debut album which has sold well over half a million copies and support tours with the likes of Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.   But it wasn't always that way, like everything they had to start from somewhere. In this case it started with a diss. A diss with the local music scene which saw the band (then called Rocket Baby Dolls, which was at least better than the previous names, Gothic Plague and Fixed Penalty) come up against a host of hopefuls in a Regional Battle Of The Bands contest.   Their performance was supposed to be a protest, a bit of a joke. So, when they actually won, it came as a shock.   So, Matthew, Dominic and Chris decided to get serious. They ditched their ...

Q Magazine October 2009  1. Uprising (Muse) "We should never be afraid to die!"  Never the shyest of bands, Matt Bellamy and co announce their return in typically OTT fashion with this monstrous intergalactic glam stomper, urging violent protest in the face of Government tyranny. Welcome back, lunatics.  (THE RESISTANCE, WARNERS LP) 

Q Magazine October 2009  Fake Nutters  Slipknot Crazy guys! Masked and dangerous Iowa nine-piece. Percussionist "The Clown" claimed to get psyched up for shows by inhaling the remains of a dead crow. Actually...Slipknot are entirely harmless. "The Clown" turns 40 this year. 

(The show is called "Recovery") The host is very typical of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Messy brassy blonde hair, eyebrow piercing, and in a suit to give him that post grunge edgy look to say he both does and does not conform. He is a little clueless, and is there for volume, not really substance.  HOST (holding a copy of Showbiz up): Uno , the first single of Showbiz , the debut LP from England, from the UK. What part of the UK are you from?  MATTHEW: I can't hear...sorry, say that again... HOST (after telling MATTHEW he has to take his earplugs out of his ears first): What part of the UK are you from?  MATTHEW: Uhhh, Southwest, Devon.  HOST: Devon, Devon. They make meat there, don't they? MATTHEW: Ummm, cream. Mostly, cream and cheese. HOST: Cream and cheese. Lovely. Very, very high protein place. How long have you been together?  MATTHEW: Uh. Six years.  HOST: Beautiful. And this is the debut, yes? MATTHEW ( putting his ear monitor in ): That's our...

Q Magazine October 2009 Knights of Cydonia Barmy sci-fi Western with gunslinger and blonde princess. The characters even have their own Myspace pages.  Plug In Baby Pervy cyber-porn, in which robot-octopus-babes eye up steel hoovers. Dr Freud will see you now, Mr Bellamy.  Sing For Absolution Muse as space explorers transporting frozen souls to a new home, only to crash-land in ruined London. Unlucky. Bliss Bellamy falls through a hole in a future city, hits the edge of the universe and dissolves into gas. Obviously. 

Sunday Life 13th July 2003 The Indie English band with the Radiohead influences, Muse, trailblaze in these CD computer 'burning' days by offering up an Internet only single on release tomorrow.  The new song, Stockholm Syndrome will be available for a limited time only as a download, along with a video on the band's website, www.muse-of-ficial.com.  The track will cost between £1 and £1.50. A Muse album will be released in the more traditional format in September, and followed by a UK tour.  Link to original article (subscription required to view)

Q Magazine October 2009 Paul Rees Issue Introduction "The apocalypse is coming.  At least so says Matt Bellamy, who is, as this months cover line reveals, hunkering down with an over-supply of baked beans and a chopper in preparation for our planet's impending doom. But then, as we shall see, he also believes that the human race is enslaved to aliens and dear old Queen Liz is a lizard. While all of this might suggest the wee fella is not playing with anything like a full deck, it is terrifically entertaining stuff nonetheless" There are those who thought Muse could get no more OTT and their singer Matt Bellamy is no stranger. They were wrong.  Matt Bellamy faces Q with a hotel bar snack in his hands and murder in his eyes. The Muse frontman is brutally re-enacting the death of a chicken with the help of a bread stick.   "What you do is lift its beak upwards and snap the neck backwards," he says, breaking the stick at what would presumably be the chicken-neck lev...

c. Late 2006 JAPAN  MATTHEW: Hello, my names Matt DOMINIC: My names Dominic MATTHEW: And we play in a band called Muse. DOMINIC: And you're watching Mujika Ranking Q: So, welcome back to Japan. MATTHEW: Great, great to be back. DOMINIC: Thanks Q: Is there any lives? Live shows that you did in the past that you really really remember in Japan, or anywhere in the world?  MATTHEW: I remember the first gig we did in Japan. It was really cool. Was it Quattro, in Tokyo? ( DOMINIC makes agreeing sounds ) MATTHEW: Yeah. Years ago. Yeah. And we played...it was the first time we played here, and uh, I remember the crowd was kind of like was stood there, and I was kind of a bit nervous, and I didn't really know what to do. So I kind of like pulled out some cheesy rock move, and everyone went ' woo'  and that inspired me to pull out more cheesy rock moves. Q: You did one of these? ( points as if scanning the crowd )  MATTHEW: Yeah. Exactly. And that actually inspired my whole st...