Lead singer of muse. Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy: "We had a choice

Full name Matthew James Bellamy
Date of birth: June 9, 1978
Birthplace: Cambridge, England, UK
Gemini
Height: 1.70 m
Eye color: blue
Hair color: ranged from fiery red to white; at the moment - burning brunette

Personal achievements:
1) Matthew took 29th place in the list of 100 best guitarists in the world according to Total Guitar magazine;
2) the riff from Plug In Baby was on the 14th position in the "Top 100 Riffs";
3) the same riff was listed by Q-magazine's Rock and Pop as one of the best riffs ever played;
4) the riff from Stockholm Syndrome according to the Australian "Top 100 Riffs of all time" was recognized as the greatest riff of all time, overtaking Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other legendary things;
5) in 2005, Kerrang! ranked Matt 28th in the list of "The 50 Sexiest People in the World of Rock Music";
6) Cosmopolitan awarded Matt the title of the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004.
7) According to NME magazine, Bellamy ranks as the 14th greatest rock and roll hero of all time, above Lennon, Dylan and many other musical idols.

Passion, hysteria, pain, screaming... It seems that the work of Matthew Bellamy (leader, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of Muse) burns him from the inside. His songs are filled with sizzling passion and romantic madness. They can cause any feelings, but not indifference. “Time is running, time is rushing, you can’t kill him, you can’t make him not scream” ...

It is not surprising that the leader of Muse himself is an eccentric nature with a mobile psyche. He admitted that he once even suffered from hallucinations: the musician felt as if the blades were piercing his head. Also in the past, during performances, Bellamy often destroyed the equipment, because he did not like the way it conveys her music to the audience. And once, at a concert in America, he managed to break his lip on a guitar. Matt bled profusely and was immediately taken to the hospital, where he received several stitches.

But after all, only one who is not afraid to destroy stereotypes and spits on the opinion of the layman can be a real creative person. Only such a person will be able to create something new, talented and beautiful.

Matt's piercing vocals are an integral part of Muse's sound. This falsetto is one of the main distinctive features groups. In an interview, Bellamy's partner, drummer Dominic Howard, mentioned that Matt had unusually small vocal cords, which led to his ability to sing in a high range.

His singing style has been compared to Queen's Freddie Mercury, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose, Ours' Jimmy Gnecco, Emilé Wordsworth, Bono, and mostly with Jeff Buckley, who, according to Bellamy himself, had the greatest influence on his work.

Bellamy's piano playing style is inspired by the works of romantic pianists such as Sergei Rachmaninov, resulting in the fusion of classical romanticism and rock music so characteristic of many of Muse's songs. In particular, the compositions "Space Dementia", "Megalomania", "Ruled by Secrecy" contain elements of the first movement of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, and "Butterflies and Hurricanes" contain elements of the cadence of the third movement.

In his live performances, Bellamy often resorts to long, romantic piano solos. It is worth recalling his Prelude in C-sharp minor opening "Screenager" on the part of the "Hullabaloo" compilation that was played live.

The album Black Holes And Revelations refers us to the Russian composer of the romantic direction P. I. Tchaikovsky. In Hoodoo, towards the end, you can hear the opening chords of his "Piano Concerto No. 1" played in minor key before the other parts come in.

Bellamy attributes some of his guitar playing to Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Obvious borrowings from the latter are present on Origin of Symmetry's second album in most of Muse's riff-based songs, and are expressed in Bellamy's extensive use of pitch-shifting effects in his solos, as in the case of Invincible with album Black Holes And Revelations. Bellamy also shares Morello's love of unusual and exclusive accessories for his guitar.

Among the bands and musicians who influenced him, Matt at various times named: Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Primus, Tom Waits.

Matthew James Bellamy
June 9, 1978
Cambridge, England, UK
Twins
1.70 m
blue
ranged from fiery red to white; at the moment - burning brunette

1) Matthew took 29th place in the list of 100 best guitarists in the world according to Total Guitar magazine;
2) the riff from Plug In Baby was at number 94 on the "Top 100 Riffs";
3) the same riff was listed by Q-magazine's Rock and Pop as one of the best riffs ever played;
4) the riff from Stockholm Syndrome according to the Australian "Top 100 Riffs of all time" was recognized as the greatest riff of all time, overtaking Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other legendary things;
5) in 2005, Kerrang! ranked Matt 28th in the list of "The 50 Sexiest People in the World of Rock Music";
6) Cosmopolitan awarded Matt the title of the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004.
7) According to NME magazine, Bellamy ranks as the 14th greatest rock and roll hero of all time, above Lennon, Dylan and many other musical idols.

Passion, hysteria, pain, screaming... It seems that the work of Matthew Bellamy (leader, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter) burns him from the inside. His songs are filled with sizzling passion and romantic madness. They can cause any feelings, but not indifference. “Time is running, time is rushing, you can’t kill him, you can’t make him not scream” ...

It is not surprising that the leader himself is an eccentric nature with a mobile psyche. He admitted that he once even suffered from hallucinations: the musician felt as if the blades were piercing his head. Also in the past, during performances, Bellamy often destroyed the equipment, because he did not like the way it conveys her music to the audience. And once, at a concert in America, he managed to break his lip on a guitar. Matt bled profusely and was immediately taken to the hospital, where he received several stitches.

Matt's piercing vocals are an integral part of the sound. This falsetto is one of the main distinguishing features of the group. In an interview, Bellamy's partner, drummer Dominic Howard, mentioned that Matt had unusually small vocal cords, which led to his ability to sing in a high range.

His singing style has been compared to Freddie Mercury from , Thom Yorke from Radiohead, Axl Rose (Axl Rose) from Guns N' Roses, Jimmy Gnecco from Ours, Emilé Wordsworth (Emilé Wordsworth), Bono, and mainly with Jeff Buckley, who, according to Bellamy himself, had the greatest influence on his work.

Bellamy explains some of the features of his guitar playing by the influence of Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello from. Obvious borrowings from the latter are present on Origin of Symmetry's second album in most of Muse's riff-based songs, and are expressed in Bellamy's extensive use of pitch-shifting effects in his solos, as in the case of Invincible with album Black Holes And Revelations. Bellamy also shares Morello's love of unusual and exclusive accessories for his guitar.

Scandals and intrigues, alien invasion and the end of the world - the popular British band Muse has been singing about this and more for 20 years. On June 19, the band gave a concert in Moscow, on June 21 they will perform in St. Petersburg. On the eve of Muse's Russian concerts, HELLO! I found out what you don’t learn from the songs of the group and what its lead singer Matthew Bellamy is afraid of.

Muse When Matthew Bellamy starts to sing in his unique falsetto, I get really scared! They are just sick, these Muse, but for some reason people like it,

Former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher laments. The British muse, fiends, musical terrorists who took over the world... Over the 20 years of existence on the rock scene, different things have been invented about the Muse group, one thing has remained unchanged - they were talked about. They also presented awards, including the Grammy and Brit Awards, and bought studio albums in huge quantities. On June 5, British rockers released their seventh album Drones, already on June 19 they performed in Moscow as part of the Park Live festival, and on the 21st they can be heard at the large arena of the Petrovsky stadium in St. Petersburg at the 10th anniversary festival Greenfest. On the eve of the concert, it's time to debunk the myths about the band, in the history of which there is a little bit of everything: magic, rock and roll and love.

practical magic

"Talking to the dead has changed my life," says Matthew Bellamy. As a child, he actually communicated with the spirits of the dead using a Ouija board. This popular at the time in some American families an accessory to call otherworldly forces was very fond of his mother Marilyn. One late evening, nine-year-old Matthew found her with her father and his older brother at the next session and was accepted into a home spiritist circle.

The spirits told us secrets that no one else could know. One of the “interlocutors” even predicted the war in the Persian Gulf a year before the event itself, Bellamy later recalled. - I then loved to come to school and scare classmates with stories about our gatherings. It made me special.

Matthew Bellamy
Muse fans

His peers had something to be afraid of: an eccentric reserved boy disappeared into the library, reading books on the occult, and said strange things. At the age of 12, Matthew closed himself even more: at home he broke a huge mirror, the pride of the Bellamy family.

My mother then yelled at me that I cursed the whole family for seven years ahead. Definitely one of my worst memories

He will say later. Soon the parents, as if to confirm the curse, divorced. A year later, Matt was noticed at a children's talent competition in the British town of Teignmouth by music producer Dennis Smith: in addition to magic, the boy practiced playing the piano. "Even then, Matt looked older than his years, he played with some special thoughtfulness," Smith later recalled in an interview with Kerrang! magazine.

At the age of 12, Matt met students in neighboring schools of the same age, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme. Then it was fashionable to put together rock bands, and they created their own - Rocket Baby Dolls ("Rocket Dolls"). At first, the guys didn’t invest any special meaning in their musical hobby: Dominic and Chris played for the company, Matt - because he didn’t know how to do anything else, and didn’t want to do anything else. In one opinion, the whole trinity was one:

We lived in a boring little town where people had little choice: get drunk, fight, take drugs or do something else. We chose something else - music.

Muse group

Rockers prefer...

The trio from Teignmouth began to write their musical biography even before moving to London and the new name of the band. In their hometown, during performances, they destroyed equipment on stage, sometimes they threw guitars at each other. "Music is the essence of emotion," Bellamy said thoughtfully, and continued to explore emotional depths offstage. He no longer got in touch with the spirits, but he got carried away with his own subconscious with the help of hallucinogenic mushrooms:

My first roommate was a drug dealer, but I never dabbled in heroin, only mushrooms and only in the right proportion.

In the right proportion, Bellamy managed to experience a little of everything: in addition to the generalized “musician”, it was quite possible to write “decorator”, “saboteur-bomber”, “toilet cleaner” in his resume. "There were a lot of weird things going on back then that I'd rather forget about now," he would say later, when Muse hit rock bottom. The group also coped with the consequences of fame in its own way, or rather, in no way:

When our first album Showbiz came out, everyone expected us to have a wild lifestyle and orgies with fangirls, but we weren't interested in that.

Outside the stage with the British trinity, there was rock and roll of a mystical nature. After one of the performances in Vienna, Bellamy disappeared without a trace for two days, and then returned "as if possessed", as his colleagues described. And in 2000, after the group received the first big award at the NME Awards ceremony, the plane with the musicians caught fire right in the air: "We were sitting in the cabin with this award like fools, and flames were visible in the window."

Muse group

In contrast to such events, Matthew Bellamy's personal life was calm and quiet: he met the Italian psychologist Gaia Polloni for nine years, and in 2009 they broke up. Only after that, Bellamy, as if remembering his status, followed the path of a real rock star: he had an affair with Hollywood actress Kate Hudson.

We met at the Coachella festival, he immediately asked for my phone number, was polite and just won me over,

Kate told InStyle magazine in 2011. By that time, she and Matt were already engaged, expecting a child, and Kate was looking for a house in London to move from Los Angeles closer to her lover. Next to the famous girlfriend, the usually closed Bellamy opened up: he told reporters how scary it was for him to meet Kate's mother Goldie Hawn, shared his first impressions of their son Bingham. However, in an atmosphere of mutual goodwill, the couple announced their separation at the end of 2014. No scandals and recriminations inherent in rock stars. Matt spoke about the breakup six months later in the most accessible form for him - music.

Matthew Bellamy and Kate HudsonMatthew Bellamy and his new girlfriend Elle Evans

End of the world as a premonition

"There's no love on this record at all - just paranoia and fear," Bellamy announced at the beginning of the year Muse's new album, Drones (available now on iTunes). After breaking up with Kate, he returned to his favorite motives: the supernatural and frightening. Matthew was afraid of many things: tsunamis, earthquakes, the end of the world and technological progress. Once, the musician even canceled communication with the press in New York under the pretext that a giant meteorite should fall on the city, and he agreed to give interviews only on board a helicopter. Shortly thereafter, Bellamy admitted to reporters that he had long ago collected an emergency stock at his house, where the rocker keeps cereals, nuts, ropes, an ax and other useful items "just in case."

A lot of things scare me, but most of all - the loss of sensitivity, he now declares. - If you lose the ability to feel, then you die inside yourself.

Dead Inside is the title track of the new Muse album. According to Bellamy, she best describes his feelings after breaking up with Kate Hudson: "You can't do anything, you feel overwhelmed." True, this condition did not prevent him, shortly after the breakup, from starting an affair with actress Elle Evans, a blonde who looks very similar to Kate. He appeared arm in arm with her at one of the parties at the last Cannes Film Festival. A 25-year-old model and actress, Elle has already starred in a thriller about the throes of creativity, which has a very "original" title - Muse. What is this if not a sign of fate for the not at all religious, but rather superstitious Bellamy ?!

Human

His father was directly related to music (the only parent of all three members of Muse) - George Bellamy played the guitar in several bands, one of them being the very successful The Tornados. Matt's mom was weird, and often coming home from school, he heard her talking to the dead, moreover, without using any spiritualistic devices. He has an older half-sister (his father's daughter from a previous marriage) and a brother.
In 1990 the family of musician Chris Wolstenholme, Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard moved to the seaside town of Teignmouth, Devon, UK. Exhausting heat in summer, severe cold in winter - something that all the inhabitants had difficulty getting used to. “If you are between 13 and 18, this place seems like a living hell. All we did was smoke and listen to music. We had nothing else to do there, ”recalls Matthew. The family was wealthy, and Matt had everything he wanted. But a few years later, his parents divorced, and everything changes in his life. Now he lives with his grandmother, and it was at this time that he began to seriously study music. It becomes a necessity for him.
In order to get into Dominic Howard's popular local band Gothic Plague, Matthew begins to learn how to play the guitar. When a guitar position becomes available in Gothic Plague, Matthew doesn't miss a chance to take advantage of it. During the couple of years that followed, the line-up changes all the time in the group, some leave, others come. Matt will then say with a laugh: "Everyone else ran away, unable to bear my company ..."
It was at that time that Matthew began to seriously write his own songs, which so far were not needed by anyone, and so far did not delight the listeners at all, which did not frighten the authors. As Chris, Muse's bassist, would later recall: "On the contrary, we became more and more inclined to continue writing and playing our own songs. At the beginning we played in empty clubs, but we promised ourselves that we would never play cover versions again. and we kept our word."
After graduation, Matt leaves for a trip to Europe. He visits Italy and also Spain, where he meets a Spanish guitarist, from whom he manages to learn how to play the Spanish guitar in the flamenco style, and in general the mind. He also spends some time in Greece. During the trip, according to him, very serious things happen to him: love stories, For example. And it is in Greece that the very song is born, called "Muscle Museum", a strange combination of words found by Matt in a pocket dictionary next to the name of his band.
At the beginning of the year, Matt works as an artist and graphic designer. He still plays in his free time with the guys who also found something to do: Chris is an assistant in a guitar shop, and Dominic is content with odd jobs. At one of the most ordinary concerts in the summer of 1997, a representative of the Dangerous Records label met with the group and invited them to record in the studio. This marked the beginning of Muse's fame as a musical group and Bellamy himself as one of the world's greatest live performers.

Concert performances

Bellamy is known for his live performances. He accompanies the performance of most of his songs with active stage improvisations. For example, when performing Plug In Baby, he sometimes jumps and spins on stage, playing out the most difficult riffs. His performances often include this circling jump and pushing the guitar between his legs. Songs such as Knights of Cydonia and Stockholm Syndrome are known as his favorite live songs. Bellamy is often hailed, including by NME, as one of the greatest live performers to date (source?). Muse's most notable live performances include the Reading Festival in 2002 and 2006, the 2002 Paris concert "Live at la Zenith", which formed the basis for the band's first Hullabaloo DVD, the Glastonbury Festival in 2004, which featured the band as headliner, and performances on 16 and 17 June 2007 at the opening of Wembley Stadium in London.

musical equipment

Bellamy uses custom guitars made by Hugh Manson in Exeter, Devon. Matt currently owns 11 Mansons, as well as a variety of guitars from other manufacturers: Fender Aloha Stratocaster (one of Matt's most beloved and expensive guitars), Gibson Les Paul DC Lite, Gibson SG, Jackson Randy Rhoads (custom) a Parker Fly, Peavey EVH Wolfgang and Yamaha Pacifica.
The Yamaha Pacifica 120 SC has been Matt's main instrument for a long time. An almost indispensable early period guitar. Bellamy equipped it with two DiMarzio humbuckers and equipped it with a Roland GK-2a pickup system, specifically for use with a Roland VG-8 guitar processor. Also at the concerts of that time, Peavey Wolfgang EVH and a strange orange guitar - EMEX Londaxe, known from the Uno video, were often used.
Gibson Les Paul DC Lite - the main guitar of the 2000 tours. Like most stage guitars it was used with a Roland VG-8 processor. Matt broke it at the Dublin Olympia on a Marshall 4 x 12 cabinet.
Matt:

The Fender Aloha Stratocaster is part of a limited edition of 153 Fender guitars. Guitar Matt 74th. It was released in 1995, the deck is covered with aluminum. The model of this guitar is dedicated to Freddy Tavares (1913-1990). This is a Hawaiian guitarist who was instrumental in designing the Fender Stratocaster models.
The shape of the famous Manson guitar can be considered a hybrid of the Yamaha Pacifica, Fender Telecaster, Schecter and Godin Triumph. This form was called the "Mattocaster": the same as Fender's production guitars are called.
The first and most famous is the silver Manson. Bellamy figured out how to improve her basic characteristics, and Hugh Manson helped him implement it. The body is made of poplar and covered with aluminum, the neck is made of maple, the fretboard is rosewood. The guitar has a built-in Z.Vex Fuzz Factory that gives Bellamy a unique sound and the ability to use controlled feedback. In addition, she has an MXR Phase 90 phaser, a Roland GK-2a midi pickup (polyphonic), and Seymour Duncan and Kent Armstrong pickups. All of his other Mansons are of similar design (except for the seven-string guitar, not originally intended for Matt), with only minor differences in pickups and bells and whistles. Only the built-in Z.Vex Fuzz Factory and MXR Phase 90 remain constant.
Matt's black Manson has a MIDI strip (touchpad) that controls an external Digitech Whammy WH4 pedal via a hardware MIDI interface. The neck features blue spectrum LEDs from Sims Custom L.E.Ds. The main difference of the Black Manson is the built-in Z.Vex Wah Probe pedal. This is a standard wah effect controlled by a shiny brass plate bolted onto the front of the guitar. The principle of operation is the same as that of the theremin. This plate acts as an antenna around which a ball of RF energy is formed. The closer your hand gets to the plate, the brighter the wah effect becomes. The guitar is equipped with three pickups: a bridge pickup - Kent Armstrong Motherbucker, a neck pickup - Seymour Duncan Hot P90, and a Fernandes Sustainer pickup system is installed on the guitar near the neck. It is actuated by a switch, which, in turn, is connected to a Kent Armstrong Motherbucker bridge humbucker. Above the MIDI touch pad is a toggle switch that is soldered to the pickups in an ON/OFF/ON pattern. This scheme is called Toggle Kill Switch (in the middle position of the toggle switch, the signal from the working pickup is cut off). Such schemes have long become the unofficial brand of Tom Morello. The switch is present on most Mansons. Sometimes Matt uses this switch during live performances of Plug In Baby.

Berlin, Admiralspalast. 07.09.09

The Manson Bomber had to be made on a tight schedule. Initially, the guitar was supposed to be mirror-coated. Hugh Manson didn't have the wood chrome technology and turned to Martin Sims. The guitar had to be done very quickly in order to be in time for the Muse tour. In a hurry, chrome plating went badly. Some places on the guitar turned out not to be mirrored, but matte, in addition, there were small spots on the upper part of the soundboard. Hugh solved the problem by purchasing a box of aluminum rivets from some World War II aircraft from a local scrap yard. The box was labeled "1945". Perhaps it was a Spitfire fighter or something like that. Next, Hugh drilled holes in the deck and inserted rivets into them to make it look like it was made of sheet metal. With a spray brush, in the right places, Hugh applied a purple-blue tint to the guitar. Hugh Manson:

It is worth noting that this guitar does not have built-in effects, there is only control over an external Digitech Whammy WH4 pedal like the Black Manson and a whammy presets controller (on the back panel). Two Rio Grande pickups: CrunchBox bridge pickup, JazzBar neck pickup, Floyd Rose double locking tremolo system and Toggle kill switch.
For the new Black Holes and Revelations album, he purchased a new Black Kaoss Manson guitar. The guitar features two Hot P-90s on the bridge, a Fernandes Sustainer System on the neck, and a Kaoss Pad. Matt also bought an M1D1 Manson, which is similar to the Black Kaoss Manson, but uses a Bare Knuckle Nail Bomb humbucker on the bridge and a Fernandes Sustainer System (model FSK-101, which is a variation of the latter's humbucker) on the neck. It is also known that on stage he uses the model Jackson Randy Rhodes, and before that he played on Ibanez. Bellamy uses Diezel VH4 amps, which are handcrafted in Germany, along with Marshall Mode Four cabinets, Soldano Cabinets and Line 6 Digital Effects.
Matt:

Most of Bellamy's rack effects are created by Line 6 modules. The effects modules are quite massive and are located in the rack of one of Diezel's amplifiers. All effects are daisy-chained via MIDI using the Midi Solutions T8 Thru Box and the Rocktron All Access Midi Controller. The latter is also on stage with Bellamy along with an Ernie Ball Vlume/Expression Pedal, Korg Rack Tuner and an A/B box switch. His studio effects chain also includes the Nord Modular.
On the latter album, "Undisclosed Desires" featured a keyboard, also made by Manson.

Achievements

In 2002, Matthew Bellamy was ranked 29th in Total Guitar magazine's list of the 100 best guitarists in the world, and his riff from Plug In Baby was voted 14th in the Top 100 Riffs. The same riff was listed by Q-magazine's Rock and Pop as one of the best riffs ever played. On top of that, Australian radio station Triple J's "Top 100 Riffs of all time" voted the Stockholm Syndrome riff the greatest riff of all time, beating out Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other equally legendary pieces. Plug In Baby also made the Top 20.

In April 2005, Kerrang! according to the results of the poll, Matt was ranked 28th in the list of "50 sexiest people from the world of rock music", including as his homegrown guitarist number 1. The fashionable Cosmopolitan did not stand aside, awarding Matt the title of the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004 years. NME magazine ranked him as the 14th greatest rock and roll hero of all time, raising him above Lennon, Dylan and many other musical idols.

Mood now - gloomy

Matthew Bellamy
From his furious solos and heavy riffs to his exhilarating stage performances and super guitars, 10 reasons why frontman Muse is the epitome of this decade of guitar music.

10. Thanks to him, the classics became cool again.

Set Zach Wilde up with a chamber orchestra, and he'll most likely eat the conductor for breakfast and pick his teeth with his wand. Matt Bellamy is another matter: he takes inspiration from this musty world of starched wigs and harpsichords and integrates its coolest ideas into his template-breaking guitar solos and riffs. While you're rocking out to the wild intro to Plug in Baby, you're actually listening to a modified Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bah'n'roll, baby...

9. His performances on stage are complete insanity.

Of course, credit must be given to all of Muse's set artists, but even all the satellite dishes and acrobats in the world can't compare to how one little guy from Devon loses himself in music. From Bellamy you will not hear shouts and friendly jokes; instead, he manipulates wild virtuosity, rapes his Manson in every possible way, writhing like an electric eel, using all his neurotic energy to create the greatest show on Earth (or any other planet).

8. He saved us from nu metal.

Dumb-headed rap with a lame-sounding chug was the sound of the new millennium until Matt Bellamy came along with Showbiz, lighting up the uneducated rock scene with searing jet solos and reminding a generation that life shouldn't end on a seventh chord. If it wasn't for the killer guitar parts on early songs like Sunburn and Muscle Museum, this magazine would have had to write about mindless morons mumbling about how to "play for a song." Nobody needs it.

7. He has a "super guitar".

In fact, Matt owns several super guitars, all made by British luthier Hugo Manson, all of which are special in that they contain far more built-in hardware than the technology it took to put the first man on the moon. Matt's guitars, including his famous "retired" Delorean or Silver Manson, are packed with a variety of pickups, amps and X-Y controlled kaoss tablets. Thanks to this, he can control all the effects with his fingertips. This is genius.

6. He created the most eccentric debut album in history.

Muse released their first album in 1999, the same year as Britney Spears' debut single Baby One More Time and a host of other things. The guitar music was insipid, so that the sound of Bellamy tearing the guitar strings furiously became like a breath of fresh air. Ignoring claims that Muse are just Radiohead plagiarizers, Matt performed heroically with songs like Muscle Museum, and in the end, proved that something special had appeared in the world of music.

5. He breaks stereotypes.

On paper, at least, the combination of progressive rock, classical, electronica and pop shouldn't work... it should have been something like Genesis played in the dreadful style of the '80s classic-crazed albums. Matt made it work properly. Few musicians can switch from beautiful Danny Elfman-style piano licking to downright diabolically heavy guitar riffs as easily as Bellamy does. Listen to New Born to be convinced of the existence of human genius.

4. His solos are works of art.

Matt's solos are built just as beautifully as his guitars. His tense-quavering passages, broken string sounds and always inventive effects layering are all a master class in expressive guitar technique. He has an amazing vibrato that makes all his solos incredibly spontaneous, even if they are carefully crafted. Check out Knights of Cydonia: Live at Wembley Stadium 2007 to see it for yourself.

3. He has unsurpassed creativity.

Matt Bellamy has a range of serious abilities. In addition to his unique guitar playing style, the kid can play the piano and has a three-octave vocal range (which is eloquently evidenced by the amazing performance of Plug in Baby and other colossal Muse songs). If that's not enough for you, then you might be interested to know that Matt is the lyricist and composer of all Muse songs, including classics like Supermassive Black Hole, Stockholm Syndrome and Knights of Cydonia. Yes, we are jealous too.

2. He wrote the best riff of the decade.

In the bare numbers offered by music shows and shops, Plug in Baby's riff is Sweet Child O'Mine or our generation's Stairway to Heaven. Like its famous predecessors, Plug in Baby leaves guitarists bewildered and powerless in the face of its exceptional prowess. This is one of those few riffs that always sound new and unique, and makes absolutely everyone want to learn how to play the guitar.

1. He is the Hendrix of our generation.

You always run the risk of getting into trouble when comparing someone to Jimi Hendrix, but we assure you, you can be completely calm when it comes to Matt Bellamy.
Matt uses effects and feedback like musical instruments, interspersing solos with an outlandish pop sound and harsh squeals. Just like Jimmy.
In Matt's hands, the guitar is more than just an instrument, it becomes an extension of his body and his voice. Just like Jimmy.
He is also a rare combination of a guitar virtuoso and a talented composer capable of writing great songs that will stand the test of time.
Again, just like Jimmy.