It’s almost 20 years since Muse blew up big with their bombastic third album Absolution, which was released in September 2003, but it was almost all over before it started. The trio from Teignmouth, Devon, hadn’t quite hit the ground running with their 1999 debut Showbiz, an album that had the big ideas they would later refine but not quite the songs. Looking back to that era a few years ago, frontman Matt Bellamy told Classic Rock’s Niall Doherty how they almost packed it in but a disastrous evening involving a spicy Spanish sausage helped them turn the corner.
“The most difficult period for the band was actually the first album to the second album,” Bellamy said in 2015. “Chris [Wolstenholme, bassist] was having his first baby at that time and it was very difficult for him to be away from touring and we were struggling at that point. We weren’t really doing well on the first album in terms of touring itself, it was hit or miss, gear would go missing or stuff wouldn’t work, sometimes venues where people wouldn’t be there.”
