Muse

Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion, synthesisers). They are known for their energetic live performances.
Muse have released seven studio albums: Showbiz (1999), Origin of Symmetry (2001), Absolution (2003), Black Holes and Revelations (2006), The Resistance (2009), The 2nd Law (2012), and Drones (2015). They have also issued four live albums: Hullabaloo Soundtrack (2002), which is also a compilation of B-sides, Absolution Tour (2005), which documents several of the band's performances such as Glastonbury Festival 2004, HAARP (2008), which documents the band's performances at Wembley Stadium in 2007, and Live at Rome Olympic Stadium (2013), shot in 4K and taken from the band's Rome show during The 2nd Law World Tour.

Black Holes and Revelations earned the band a Mercury Prize nomination and was named the third best album of 2006 by the NME Albums of the Year. Muse have also won numerous music awards including five MTV Europe Music Awards, six Q Awards, eight NME Awards, two Brit Awards—winning "Best British Live Act" twice, an MTV Video Music Award, four Kerrang! Awards and an American Music Award. They were also nominated for five Grammy Awards,of which they won Best Rock Album for The Resistance. As of June 2015, Muse had sold more than 17 million albums worldwide.

The members of Muse played in separate school bands during their stay at Teignmouth Community College in the early 1990s, but the formation of Muse began when Bellamy successfully auditioned for the part of guitarist in Dominic Howard's band, Carnage Mayhem. They asked Chris Wolstenholme – who played the drums at the time – to learn to play bass guitar for the band, Wolstenholme agreed and took up lessons, while Bellamy had to become singer and songwriter for the band.

Bellamy and Howard's first band name was Gothic Plague. They later changed the name to Fixed Penalty and then to Rocket Baby Dolls.


In 1994 the band used the name Rocket Baby Dolls with a goth/glam image to compete in a local battle of the bands. The band won the contest, smashing their equipment in the process. "It was supposed to be a protest, a statement", Bellamy said, "so, when we actually won, it was a real shock, a massive shock. After that, we started taking ourselves seriously." Shortly after the contest, the three decided to forget university, quit their jobs, change the band name to Muse (1994–1995), and move away from Teignmouth.The name "Muse" was supposedly inspired by Matthew Bellamy's art teacher Samuel Theoun. The band liked that it was short and thought that it looked good on a poster.Music journalist Mark Beaumont writes in his biography of the band, that they wanted the name to reflect "the sense Matt had that he had somehow 'summoned up' this band, the way mediums could summon up inspirational spirits at times of emotional need."

After a few years building a fan base, Muse played their first gigs in London and Manchester supporting Skunk Anansie on tour. The band had a significant meeting with Dennis Smith, the owner of Sawmills Studio, situated in a converted water mill in Cornwall. He had seen the three boys grow up as he knew their parents and had a production company together with their future manager Safta Jaffery.

This meeting led to their first proper recordings and the release of the Muse EP on 11 May 1998 on Sawmills' in-house Dangerous label.

Despite the success of their second EP, British record companies were reluctant to sign Muse. After a trip to New York's CMJ Festival Nanci Walker, then Sr. Director of A&R at Columbia Records, flew Muse to the US to showcase for Columbia Records' then-Senior Vice-President of A&R, Tim Devine, as well as for American Recording's Rick Rubin. During this trip, on 24 December 1998, Muse signed a deal with American record label Maverick Records.Upon their return from America, Taste Media arranged deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe and Australia, allowing them to maintain control over their career in individual countries.

In 2002, Muse threatened Celine Dion with legal action, when she planned to name her Las Vegas show as "Muse", despite the band owning the worldwide performing rights to the name. Dion offered Muse $50,000 for the rights, but they turned it down. Bellamy later stated, that "We don't want to turn up there with people thinking we're Celine Dion's backing band." Eventually Dion was forced to back down.


Band members
Matthew Bellamy – vocals, lead guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, keytar (1994–present)
Christopher Wolstenholme – bass, backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, harmonica (1994–present)
Dominic Howard – drums, percussion, synthesizers (1994–present)


Discography
Main articles: Muse discography and List of songs recorded by Muse
Studio albums
Showbiz (1999)
Origin of Symmetry (2001)
Absolution (2003)
Black Holes and Revelations (2006)
The Resistance (2009)
The 2nd Law (2012)
Drones (2015)