Crash landing

September 3, 2004

Splits second: Later, Matt Bellamy found his Quidam audition had been unsuccessful. Photo: by Domino Postiglione

Partying with Snoop Dogg, headlining Glastonbury, death and destruction ... Muse are living the rock'n'roll dream, reports George Palathingal.

Hordern Pavilion
September 10 show is sold out
Absolution is out now

They insist that time is running out.

They sing, like melancholic angels of otherworldly rock, for absolution.

They beg for an apocalypse, please.

Yet despite the fear and paranoia of their latest album, Absolution, and several particularly difficult recent months, it has not been all doom and gloom for the English princes of magisterial pomp-rock, Muse.

"I went to Snoop Doggy Dogg's party the other day in New York!" says singer-guitarist Matt Bellamy. "Can you believe that?"

How was it?

"I felt like just the wrongest person in the wrongest place. It was really weird. But it was a good laugh, actually, yeah.

"[Snoop Dogg] had basically rented out this ... I think it was some old bank from the 1900s that had a big room that was full of paintings and stuff, it was really classical-looking. It was converted into sort of a small club, with people boogieing on down, a few couches and, y'know, a few of his people hanging around.

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"All these women queueing up to kind of get on top of him and all this kind of thing ..."

The diminutive frontman laughs at the happy recent memory. But this has been a bittersweet year for Bellamy, drummer Dom Howard and bassist Chris Wolstenholme, during which ecstatic highs have clashed harshly with shattering lows.

In April there was an altercation with a guitar during the first show of their US tour in Atlanta, Georgia.

"It was the first time that we'd played in a club that small for like a long time," Bellamy says. "It was about 200 people or something. I think I was maybe getting a bit excited onstage, jumping around a bit too much.

"I jumped in the air and as I came down I lost my footing and went straight to the floor, but my face hit the guitar. The guitar kind of broke the fall using my face and I split my top lip open.

"I tried to carry on for a little bit, but so much blood was coming out it kind of filled up the microphone. I had to rush off and go and get some stitches done."

That's what I call bleeding for one's art.

"Yeah," Bellamy says. "It was a shock 'cause it was our first gig [in the US] in four years, so when I finally did get it sorted out, about four or five days later, we really appreciated being back on the road again."

Recently, Wolstenholme hurt his wrist, so Muse had to cancel some dates and modify their line-up for others.

But that pain was nothing compared with the comedown after the band's career highlight: headlining the main stage of massive English rock festival Glastonbury in June.

Shortly after a triumphant set, an exhilarated Muse were hanging out with friends and family when Howard's dad fatally collapsed.

"It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage," Bellamy says. "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 [Howard] 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."

It's particularly unfortunate timing when you consider the achievement of headlining Glastonbury.

"Well, it was," Bellamy says. "I think there was an element that we were probably not quite big enough to headline it. Normally bands that headline Glastonbury are like, they've already had albums that have sold 10 million records or something."

Muse fill "arenas all around Europe", but have moved only a relatively modest million or so of each album worldwide.

One can't help but wonder why their record sales don't match their ticket sales. After all, no one sounds quite like Muse, with Bellamy's soaring, operatic vocals and hard riffs propelling their nerve-frazzling guitar rock into spectacular new dimensions.

Fans who saw them in January at the Big Day Out or at their Metro sideshow will testify that they're astonishing live. However, they're also one of the few bands who've surpassed themselves with each album, from the magnificent debut Showbiz through the thrilling Origin of Symmetry and on to their third album proper, the dazzling Absolution.

"I think our live show has been where the heart and soul of the band is, as opposed to the albums," Bellamy says. "You could always say there's an element of the fact that we're aiming towards a young audience who these days are able to copy things and download them - which to me is not a problem 'cause I'd do the same thing, y'know?

"The charts, I think, are becoming more and more dominated by music that is aimed towards older people. I think that's probably because ... they're the only people who are left who don't know how to download music!"

He laughs again.

"You can't complain, y'know? I never thought we'd get this far anyway."