- Miles Hedley
MUSE at the 02 London

In a full assault on the senses, rock giants Muse threw everything at their O2 London audience. Not only did they play a storming set of 25 often apocalyptic songs but they delivered them to the accompaniment of lasers, dancing space zombies and, looming over the stage, a gigantic inflatable space robot – and we lapped it up, Reeva Charles writes.
Muse’s lyrics may be dystopian but their musicianship and showmanship are anything but doom-laden - as multiple awards and more than 20million album sales prove.
Singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy’s much-admired vocal range from tenor to falsetto thrilled the crowd as he and bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard (drums) powered through fan favourites such as Pressure, Plug In Baby and Supermassive Black Hole as well as more up-to-date hits like Thought Contagion.
There were more tender moments, too, such as Dig Down, a slower, gospel-inflected track which saw the audience swaying in unison with phone-lights held aloft.
But Muse are best known for the epic nature of their songs and few are more epic than this gig’s grand finale, the anthemic and soaring Knights Of Cydonia - and the mosh-pit went mad.
The two-hour show was the penultimate in the European leg of Muse’s World Simulation Theory Tour. If you missed it, or want to relive the experience if you were there, a DVD film of it will be available later.