Remember this headline and article from March 2007? No!? Me neither, and no wonder, it's from the UK's daily mail much heralded on Infoworries as an indicator of what the British Public are finding buried amongst the hairs of their navals:
No planetoids are scheduled to collide with London the day I meet Muse. This is fortunate. Last year, singer Matt Bellamy forced his American record label to scrap an entire day of press interviews on the grounds that a giant asteroid was about to hit New York.
The journalists involved were bemused if unconvinced. They were at least flattered with the excuse ? much better to cancel promotional duties due to Armageddon than hangovers.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-444187/Band-members-Muse-prove-Invincible.html#ixzz1A6PGzlBTBut none of them left town. It was a typically eccentric demand from the Devonian rockers, whose on-stage performances have been compared to some of the most awe-inspiring live acts of the past three decades; think The Who at Charlton Athletic, Led Zeppelin at Knebworth, Queen at Live Aid, Nirvana at Reading.
And on this asteroid-free day, I very quickly discover exactly why they won the 2007 Brit award for Best Live Act, not to mention NME?s Band of the Year, and why they?ll be the first band to play the new Wembley Stadium. They put on one hell of a show.
Within the first 15 minutes of meeting them, I?m being asked to believe that the US Government was behind the 9/11 attacks, The Beatles were a secret plot to brainwash the youth of America, and the human race evolved as a result of visiting aliens carrying out genetic experiments on monkeys.
?I?m a very open-minded sort of person,? Bellamy says with considerable understatement. ?As far back as I can remember, I?ve felt the need to question the foundations our reality is built on.
It goes back to when I was four years old and my uncle, a British Army officer, was shot dead in Belfast. The newspapers reported that he died in an IRA ambush. But no one was ever arrested and IRA involvement was never properly established.
The impact of it grew stronger as I got older. By the time I was ten, I started asking questions but nobody had answers.
?I can?t imagine what it was like for my dad for the circumstances of his brother?s death to remain in the dark.
There were always rumours flying around that he was a member of the SAS, but that just added another layer of mystery to it all.
The whole thing had a profound effect on my life. It played a big part in my lack of trust in society and the organisations within it.?
Family tragedy notwithstanding, it has to be said that Bellamy entertains the kind of ideas that David Icke might reject as slightly fanciful.
Does it bother the singer that he?s so easily compared to the former Coventry City goalkeeper who believes the world is ruled by reptilian humanoids?
?Not at all,? he laughs. ?When you start unravelling the beliefs that you?ve been living with, you can go a little bit loose in the head and you get to a point where you almost believe in anything.
You can start entertaining ideas that might seem crazy to most people. But I believe those ideas, absolutely.
?Surely it?s more scientifically plausible to believe that aliens were involved in the evolution of man than believing that the world was created by a man with a big white beard? It?s not that far out when you stop to think about it.?
In person, 28-year-old Bellamy gives every impression of not being quite of this world. Unnaturally pale, twitchily intense, visibly uncomfortable in his own skin, and avoiding eye contact, he calls to mind David Bowie?s character in The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Much like Bowie?s alien emissary, Bellamy appears to find contact with humanity profoundly unsettling. It?s as though his willingness to embrace any madcap theory is his way of coping with a world completely incomprehensible to him. Or maybe it is his way of building a protection zone around himself.
Perhaps tellingly, when asked if he has any plans to marry his long-term girlfriend (Italian psychology student Gaia Polloni), he hums and hesitates at length, admits that he?d like to get married underwater just to see what it?s like, then veers off into a convoluted monologue about human evolution.
There?s evidence that Bellamy is not averse to playing up his dotty beliefs when it most suits his purposes, as with the asteroid stunt. ?It?s true that I didn?t fancy meeting the press that day,? he says.
?But there was talk of an asteroid hitting New York. As it turned out, it disintegrated before it was due to reach Earth.? Well, of course.
Whatever the sincerity of his wacko ideas, at least Bellamy is not alone with them. The dafter those ideas get, the happier the other members of Muse ? drummer Dom Howard, 29, and bassist Chris Wolstenholme, 28 ? seem to be in backing him up to the hilt.
?Most of Matt?s theories are totally valid,? says Howard. ?If you watch any of the documentaries about 9/11, you?re left in no doubt that those were controlled explosions and that the whole thing was meticulously planned by the American Government.
The same goes for the alien/monkey idea. You only have to look at those ancient cave paintings that show Neanderthal men in space helmets flying off in capsules.?
The wildly unconventional bent of Muse?s world view should come as little surprise to those familiar with the band?s music, which takes the listener on a heady trip through apocalyptic dread, eco-horror and barmy conspiratorial delusion.
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