James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
However today the hallowed turf belonged to the fans, the entertainers taking to the stands in a bid to prove Wembley’s worth as a musical mega-venue. Heaven knows George Michael did enough damage to the history books the weekend before when he became the first artist to perform at the new Wembley.
Tonight the real first band to play the new Wembley stadium – that’s Muse – are about to perform on the first of two dates that sold out in no seconds flat. Before them, a hundred-foot high bank of 60,000 excited faces screaming “Entertain!”
Rodrigo y Gabriella ensured they didn’t outstay their welcome with covers including a full-length, flamenco-tinged ‘Stairway to Heaven’
The unenviable task of warming up this expectant crowd fell, with mixed results, to support acts confirmed long, long after the last ticket had been paid for. Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriella scampered onstage in the mid-afternoon and immediately injected energy into proceedings with furious soloing and percussive axe-bashing. Although they couldn’t engage the crowd at all times, covers including a full-length, flamenco-tinged ‘Stairway to Heaven’ ensured they didn’t outstay their welcome.
Next up, Dirty Pretty Things seemed content to mark the occasion by turning the towering setting into the World’s Biggest dodgy pub gig. Familiar stadium sound issues were horribly exposed by the four-piece setup, with droning power chords echoing and swirling about the ears, limiting the crowd’s tolerance for the wealth of bland new material aired.
Although a divisive choice for main support, The Streets warmed to their work with all the goodwill of a Live 8 outing. Frontman Mike Skinner frequently tried to recreate Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ handclaps throughout an impressive set drawing heavily from their acclaimed debut album. “I know you didn’t pay to see us”, he appealed as he tried to incite a stand-high Mexican wave, “but do it for Freddie!”
So far, so humdrum from the night that promised so much for this mass of fans – it was going to take more than a spirited ‘Fit But You Know It’ to satisfy them. Muse were under pressure to make musical history.
After entering through a trapdoor in the centre of the crowd, Bellamy and co. sauntered to the stage across a giant catwalk, before unleashing the most spectacular performance of their career.
Even a venue on this scale struggled to contain a band on such imperious form – the colossal ‘Citizen Erased’ and ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ rocked Wembley right up to the top of the arch. Elsewhere fans were treated to airings of ‘Micro Cuts’ and ‘Unintended’, and the grandiose setting proved a perfect complement to the chart-bothering new material.
There were more subtle flourishes as well – ‘Blackout’ was made memorable by dancers suspended from giant balloons performing above the congregation, whilst ‘A Soldier’s Poem’ was illuminated by thousands of mobile phones forming a wall of twinkling lights as Bellamy dedicated the song to “unsung heroes”.
Such a superlative two hours yielded too many more highlights to mention; where Muse, and indeed Wembley, can possibly go from here is an exciting prospect if tonight’s scenes are to ever be bettered.
But spare a thought for those who, this time last week, were enduring ‘Fastlove’.
