Matt Bellamy
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Matt Bellamy |
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Matthew James Bellamy (born June 9, 1978 in Cambridge, England) is the guitarist, vocalist, and pianist of the Alternative/Progressive Rock group Muse, known for his falsetto voice and guitar and piano playing ability.
Background
Bellamy's father, George, was the rhythm guitarist in the 1960s English rock group The Tornados, who were the first English band to have a U.S. number one, with "Telstar". Bellamy's mother, Marilyn, was born in Belfast, and moved to England in the 1970s. On her first day in England she met George Bellamy, who was at that time working as a taxi driver in London. They moved to Cambridge, where Matthew's older brother Paul was born, followed a couple of years later by Matthew himself. In the mid-1980s they moved to Teignmouth, Devon where Matthew was educated at Teignmouth Community College.
Musical equipment
Bellamy uses Hugh Manson custom guitars made in Exeter, Devon. He currently has a number of Manson guitars, as well as instruments by other manufacturers including a Fender 'Aloha' Stratocaster, a Gibson Les Paul DC Lite, a Gibson SG, Jackson Randy Rhoads (custom), a Parker 'Fly', a Peavey EVH Wolfgang and finally a Yamaha Pacifica. Bellamy's famous Manson shape has been compared to a Yamaha Pacifica, a Fender Telecaster, a Schecter and a Godin Triumph.
The first and most famous is his silver Manson. Bellamy came up with the basic concept for this guitar and Hugh Manson helped him realize it. It has a built-in Z.Vex Fuzz Factory which gives Bellamy his distinctive sound and the ability to use controlled feedback. In addition, it has a MXR Phase 90 phaser, a Roland midi pickup and uses Seymour Duncan and Kent Armstrong pickups. All of his other Mansons follow this same basic design (apart from Bellamy's 7 string which was not originally built for him) with some just having different pickups and finishes, as with his mirrored Manson, and some taking the idea even further. Matt's black Manson has a MIDI strip that controls a Digitech Whammy IV, when it is connected, a Z.Vex Wah Probe and a number of other built in effects. For the 2006 album, Black Holes and Revelations, he bought a new guitar, the "Black Kaoss Manson". The guitar features two hot P-90s, a Fernandes Sustainer System on the neck and a Kaoss Pad. He also bought the M1D1, which is similar to the Black Kaoss Manson but has a Bare Knuckle Nail Bomb humbucker in the bridge position and a Fernandes Sustainer System (FSK-101 model, which is the humbucker version of the latter one) on the neck. He is also known to use an Ibanez Destroyer on stage (Hullabaloo). Bellamy uses Diezel amp heads, along with Marshall Mode Four cabinets ("We use Marshall because when we jump on them they still work, and they sound good... real good!"), Soldano Cabinets and Line 6 digital effects. Most of Bellamy's rack effects are made with Line 6 modules; his studio rack set-up also includes a Nord Modular.
Achievements
Total Guitar's rank bellamy #29 greatest guitarists. In 2004, Muse won "Best Album" for Absolution at the Kerrang! Awards.
Bellamy's riff from "Plug In Baby" was 8th in Total Guitar's poll of the Top 100 Riffs. This riff was also mentioned among the best-ever riffs in Q magazine's Rock and Pop Miscellany. As well as this, the riff for "Stockholm Syndrome" was voted the greatest riff ever by Australian radio station Triple J's Top 100 Riffs of all time, above Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other iconic riffs. "Plug In Baby" made the top 20.
In March 2007, Total Guitar published "The 100 Greatest Riffs", which included three Muse songs; "Supermassive Black Hole" at #93, "Knights of Cydonia" at #21 and "Plug In Baby" at #8.
In April 2005, Kerrang! magazine ranked him #28 in their "50 Sexiest People In Rock" poll, as well as their in-house number one guitarist. Cosmopolitan also chose him as the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004. NME Magazine voted him the 14th Greatest Rock'n'roll Hero of all time, beating Lennon, Dylan and many musical greats. Bellamy also won the Sexiest Male Award at the 2007 NME Awards, beating the likes of Carl Barât and Pete Doherty to the top spot.
In 2006, the Muse album Black Holes and Revelations was voted 'Album of the Year' by Planet Rock magazine. In the same year, Muse won "Best British Band" at the Kerrang! Awards.
In 2007, Total Guitar Magazine hailed Matt Bellamy as "the first guitar genius of the 21st century".[citation needed]
September 2007's issue of Q Magazine announced Matt Bellamy as a Guitar Hero. On October 1, 2007, Matthew and Muse won 2 EMA Awards in Munich for their live performance and best group in the UK and Ireland. Also in October 2007 they came top of the MTV2 top 100 British videos, with Plug in Baby
Interests
Bellamy's fascination with conspiracy theories has been evident since the release of Absolution, in which one song, "Ruled By Secrecy," is named after Jim Marrs' "Rule By Secrecy." The B-Side "Futurism" from the album the Origin of Symmetry also deals with a possible dystopian future. Riddles relating to the Illuminati have appeared during the treasure hunt they set for fans on the 2005 mtvU Campus Invasion Tour and in a cryptic announcement about Muse's forthcoming album. Bellamy's interest in metaphysics is also evident. In an interview with Alex Jones on KLBJ-AM Radio in September 2006, Bellamy revealed his interest in terrorism, its cause and the conspiracy theories surrounding it stemmed from the death of his uncle who was murdered by the Irish Republican Army.
With the latest Muse album Black Holes and Revelations we see Bellamy taking a much more optimistic approach to earlier and perhaps more dystopian themes, while still retaining the same concepts. The track "Exo-Politics" refers to the Zeta Reticulans, and suggests that "it's just our leaders in disguise" a conspiracy theory where the government fakes an alien invasion, a theme that Steven M. Greer has been promoting as a real possibility (coming from sources such as whistleblowers like the late German NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun) to politicians, the media and audiences worldwide through his Disclosure Project. The opening track on the album Black Holes & Revelations, "Take a Bow", uses lyrics which refer to his view on the world leaders, although when asked in an interview, Matt stated that the song was aimed at all world leaders, and not one specific person.
