The day after the World Cup finals kick off in South Africa, Muse will be at the Stade De France themselves, playing to 80,000 fans at what will be their biggest ever headline show in mainland Europe. Today they are slumming it at the rather more modest Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, a 17,000-capacity sports arena in the city’s 12th Arrondissement. On the avenues surrounding the venue – which looks like London’s O2 Arena inside and resembles a sawn-off, grass-covered pyramid from the outside – seated tickets costing 57 Euros are exchanging hands for three times their face value....

Matt Bellamy



Last time we met (The Conspiracist) he was pondering the end of the world. Today, there’s troubles closer to home for him…

How the devil are you?

– I’m not in a great mind-frame… I’ve had a rough week. But we’ve been playing concerts in the UK this week that have been amazing.

What’s been the best thing about this century?

– Blimey. I have a fishbowl memory; I am not very good at retrospectives. So I am going to say our gig in Sheffield recently. The crowd were just mental. We’d played some shows in North America and Northern Europe on the tour but it was a different...