Matt Bellamy

Matt Bellamy

Matthew James Bellamy (born 9 June 1978) is an English rock musician, who is best known as the lead member of the band Muse. His role in the band is that of main songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and pianist. He possesses a tenor voice and is known for his use of the falsetto register.

On September 26, 2008, the University of Plymouth awarded Bellamy an honourary doctorate degree in arts for his work in the field of music.

Early life

Bellamy's father, George, was the rhythm guitarist in the 1960s rock group The Tornados, who were the first British band to have a United States number one song, with "Telstar" (Bellamy composer of Ridin´ the Wind) . Knights of Cydonia, a single from Muse's fourth album Black Holes & Revelations, is often cited as a tribute to that song, with its space rock sound and accompanying video depicting a cowboy's quest through an alien landscape. Bellamy's mother, Marilyn, was born in Belfast, and moved to England in the 1970s. On her first day in England she met George, who was at the 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. Bellamy started playing the piano at age 6.

In the mid-1980s the family moved to Teignmouth, Devon. After the divorce of Bellamy's parents he moved in with his grandmother, which pushed him towards learning to play the guitar at the age of fourteen. He also attended Ullapool High School in the Highlands of Scotland for one year. He currently lives with his girlfriend near Como, Italy.

According to Bellamy, in an interview, seeing Jimi Hendrix destroy his guitars inspired him to take up the craft.

Muse

Main article: Muse

Muse formed in Teignmouth, Devon in 1994 under the alias of Rocket Baby Dolls. Still under the alias Rocket Baby Dolls they won the school's battle of the bands which led them to take the band seriously, and decided to change their name to a more "professional" name, Muse. The band is composed of Matthew Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Dominic Howard (drums and percussion). Muse met at Teignmouth Community College where Bellamy had been in a number of bands previously including Carnage Mayhem and Gothic Plague with drummer Dominic Howard. When members of Gothic Plague left due to other interests, Bellamy and Howard asked Chris to join. Muse struggled to establish themselves during their early years but have since gone on to enjoy worldwide commercial success. Their song Knights of Cydonia is a tribute song to George, Matthew's father, for his song Telstar. Muse blend alternative, hard rock, progressive rock, classical music and electronica. Muse are well known for their energetic and visually dazzling live performances and on 16-17 June 2007 became the first band to sell out the newly built Wembley Stadium in London . Muse have released five studio albums, Showbiz (1999), Origin of Symmetry (2001), Hullabaloo CD1. (2002), Absolution (2003) and Black Holes & Revelations (2006). Muse have also released 2 live albums, Hullabaloo CD2 (2002) and H.A.A.R.P. [DVD] (2008). A new album called The Resistance is to be released in September 2009.

Achievements

Bellamy performing live at the Virgin Festival in Toronto

Total Guitar readers voted Bellamy 29th on a list of the top 100 guitarists. In 2004, Muse won "Best Album" for Absolution at the Kerrang! Awards.

Bellamy's riff from "Plug In Baby" was 13th in Total Guitar's poll of the Top 100 Riffs above riffs such as Cream's Sunshine of Your Love.

In April 2005, Kerrang! magazine ranked him #28 in their "50 Sexiest People In Rock" poll but following an influx of letters to Kerrang!, they changed their decision and ranked him #1 in their unofficial 2008 poll, 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 John Lennon, Bob 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. Bellamy also reclaimed the title of Sexiest Male at the NME Awards 2009, again beating Pete Doherty and Carl Barat to the title, along with Keith Murray of We Are Scientists and Miles Kane. Bellamy appeared shocked when told of his win, declaring himself, 'too short to be sexy.'

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.

September 2007's issue of Q Magazine announced Matt Bellamy as a Guitar Hero. In October 2007 they came top of the MTV2 top 100 British videos, with "Plug in Baby". On 1 November 2007, Matthew and Muse won 2 EMA Awards in Munich for Best Group in the UK and Ireland and their live performance.

As a band Muse have also achieved 2 Brit Awards (both of which were Best British Live Act), and a futher 5 Brit nominations.

Musical equipment

Bellamy performing.

Bellamy uses custom guitars designed by himself and Hugh Manson 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, a Jay Turser JT-res Resonator 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. Bellamy stated that he loved the classic guitar that Jimi Hendrix used.

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 an 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 but for a local jazz guitarist) with some just having different pickups and finishes, as with his mirrored Manson. 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 Bare Knuckle Humbuckers, a Fernandes Sustainer System on the neck and a touch pad which connects to a Korg 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, Soldano Cabinets and Line 6 digital effects. Most of Bellamy's rack effects are made with Line 6 modules. On April 14 2009, Manson Guitars announced on their website that they had brought out a line of Matthew Bellamy signature guitars, based on the Seattle, Glitterati and Delorean models. They all contain Midi Pads.

Political Views

Bellamy believes the September 11 attacks to be an "inside job", claiming:

"September 11 is clearly an inside job, there's massive evidence that suggests that it was either allowed to happen or even worse, deliberately made to happen. There was a document called Project For The New American Century which was made by neo-Con writers in the '90s who supplied most of the agenda that Bush is putting into place now, which clearly says, 'We need a Pearl Harbor-level of event so we can have an excuse to invade the Middle East."

External links

• Matthew Bellamy guitar rig