Muse: 50 Supermassive Facts About The Band

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Muse are set to headline Glastonbury 2016! To celebrate, here’s 50 facts you might not know. The band went through a series of names, including Gothic Plague, Fixed Penalty, Rocket Baby Dolls, before settling on Muse.

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For example, did you know that, at the end of ‘Space Dementia,’ Matt Bellamy’s trouser zipper was used as an instrument?

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Muse

A confession from Matt Bellamy: “We were all off our faces on mushrooms when we recorded ‘Plug In Baby’.”

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On the Big Day Out tour of 2004, on which Muse played down the bill, Metallica would set up a rehearsal tent next to the main stage in which to warm up before they went on. Often Muse would come offstage to hear Metallica warming up by playing ‘New Born’.

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Muse in concert – Sheffield

Being such a small lad – he’s 5’7″ – Matt Bellamy used to take advantage of his trips to Japan to have silk shirts specially tailored for him.

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Muse in concert – Sheffield

In his time off from Muse, bassist Chris Wolstenholme plays drums in a local pub band in the Devon town of Teignmouth, where he lives with his Kelly and their three children Alfie, Frankie and Ava-Jo.

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The band are keen poker players and once fleeced Robert Smith of The Cure for a hefty wad of cash.

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Muse

When requesting permission to play one of the biggest church organs in Europe in order to finish recording ‘Megalomania’ from ‘Origin Of Symmetry’, the priest at the church asked to see the lyrics to the song to ensure the band weren’t devil worshippers.

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Paleo festival – Switzerland

Matt on the first love of his life: “My babysitter. She saved my life when I was choking once and after that I loved her.”

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On their American tour early in 2005 Muse ran a competition whereby fans solving anagrams of new song titles on their setlists would be led by cryptic messages to a series of prizes – bikes left in cities that the tour visited.

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‘The Resistance’ was the first Muse album to have been produced by the band themselves.

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At their Wembley Stadium shows in June 2007 the band had plans to fly onto the stage in jet packs, but they fell foul of Health And Safety regulations.

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Drummer Dominic Howard has a penchant for dressing up behind the drumkit, and has played gigs dressed as Spiderman and Gandalf.

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muse italy 6/09

Apparently drummer Dominic Howard once revealed that the band used llama toenails as an instrument in the song ‘Screenager’.

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Muse announce concert at Wembley Stadium – London

A major inspiration for Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilgiht’ series, Muse have a new track, ‘Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever),’ appearing on the next film soundtrack.

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Since the very first Muse recordings Matt has never allowed anyone other than the record’s producer to hear him sing without musical accompaniment. Not even his bandmates are allowed to stay in the studio when Matt is recording his vocal tracks. Pic: Ed Miles

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Many of Matt’s guitars are designed by Devon’s Hugh Manson in order to incorporate revolutionary technical elements into the body of the instrument, such as touch pads and whammy pedals. At Wembley Stadium in 2007 the guitars were brought to him onstage by a remote-controlled robot.

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Matt Bellamy started playing the piano at the age of 6 and guitar at age 14.

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Apparently Dom has been injured on three separate occasions after having guitars thrown at him by Matt. Unintentionally, we’re sure.

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At one point during recording Muse considered making ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ a triple album, with the song-based album sandwiched between two discs of experimental electronica and rock.

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Matt Bellamy won this year’s Hottest Male Award at the Shockwaves NME Awards, beating out Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Liam Gallagher and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

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Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 – London

In addition to their eight NME Awards, the band have received five MTV Europe Music Awards, five Q Awards, two BRIT awards and four Kerrang! Awards.

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Matt Bellamy of Muse posed. NME 15/03/2008 Pub orig

Matt Bellamy wrote the music for the end credits of the 2009 film ‘The International.’

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Muse have won eight NME Awards.

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NME named Matt Bellamy the 14th Greatest Rock ‘n’ roll Hero of all time, ahead of John Lennon and Bob Dylan.

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Muse turned down an offer to play at the environmentally aware Live Earth concert in 2007 since their schedule would have meant hiring a private jet to get them there on time.

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Bellamy made it into the Guinness Book of World Records 2010. He currently holds the world record for the most guitars smashed on a tour – 140 guitars.

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When they first headlined the second stage at V, Muse were introduced onstage by Coldplay’s Chris Martin in a hoodie. Since then Matt and Chris have regularly sent each other tongue-in-cheek ‘abusive’ text messages.

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In 2008, Muse were awarded with an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth for their contributions to music.

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Drummer Dominic Howard’s earliest memory is of being on a rubber ring at the beach as it burst.

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After spending much of his twenties collecting gadgetry such as an MP3-playing watch and a jet-pack, Matt has since got rid of most of it since he lost his mobile phone a few years ago and realised that life was so much better without it.

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At Reading 2002 Muse took to the stage several minutes late – risking a £1,000-per-minute fine if their set over-ran – because Matt had lost his ‘lucky’ belt with elephants on it, a gift from a fan which he liked to wear for the most important gigs.

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Muse lead singer Matthew Bellamy NME 01/04/2004

Muse frotman Matt Bellamy is a keen scuba diver, and claims that on one excursion an instructor tried to kill him by only filling his oxygen tank halfway because he fancied Matt’s girlfriend.

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On September 10, 2001 Muse played a gig at New York’s Mercury Lounge and went straight to the airport to fly to Boston after the gig. Had they stayed overnight and booked a flight in the morning they would have been staying in a hotel on Manhattan’s Lower East Side when the hijacked planes hit the World Trade Centre.

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Muse have cited Queen as an influence, particularly with ‘United States of Eurasia.’ Brian May has since called them “extremely talented” and “extraordinary musicians.”

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In 2005 drummer Dominic Howard took part in the London to Brighton bike ride for charity. He made it back to London in time to watch Motley Crue the same night.

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