Matt Bellamy

From WikiMuse

Matthew Bellamy
Full name	Matthew James Bellamy
Date of birth	June 9th, 1978 (age 31)
Place of birth	Cambridge, England
Height	5' 7" (1.70m)
Instruments	Vocals, guitars, pianos, keyboards, synthesizers
Other roles	Producing
Current gear	Neumann KMS 105 microphone, custom-made Manson guitars, Kawai MP-8 piano

Matthew James Bellamy - commonly known as Matthew/Matt Bellamy - is the frontman of Muse. He is the lead singer, guitarist and pianist/keyboardist of the band and is also the main songwriter of the three members, having written all of their lyrics as well as co-writing all of the music with Dom and Chris.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Childhood

Matthew James Bellamy was born in Cambridge, England on June 9th, 1978 to parents George and Marilyn, who had moved to Cambridge from London in the early 1970s. At the age of 5, Matt began to play his first instrument, the piano, though he says he "didn't really get interested until [he] was ten or eleven".

The Bellamy family moved to Devon when Matt was 10 years old, and subsequently Matt attended Teignmouth Community College from the age of 11. During his time at TCC, Matt's interest in music grew. He began to play the clarinet and at the age of 14, Matt's parents divorced and he had to live with his grandparents, which is when he started playing guitar.

It was around this time that the band was born. Matt played in a band called Carnage Mayhem which apparently split up in December 1992 after Bellamy chose to audition for Howard's band, known as Gothic Plague, which was "the [band] in which everyone wanted to play". Gothic Plague split up soon after, but Matt and Dom remained friends and had the intention to create a new band, for which they needed a bass player who could also provide backing vocals. Matt and Dom were aware of Chris, though he was already in a band, Fixed Penalty, for whom he drummed. However, Chris was "really pissed off" with his band, and so he agreed to learn bass for Matt and Dom's new band. This new band played one gig, which was a battle of the bands contest at Broadmeadow Sports Centre in Teignmouth, under the name Rocket Baby Dolls. Bellamy states that the band had "an inability to play music" and it was "experimental" and consisted of "noise". Despite this, RBD went on to win the battle of the bands, after which they trashed their gear. The three boys then decided to forget about university and undertake a career in music with their new band, Muse.