Ongoing History Daily: Matt Bellamy’s musical heritage
Matt Bellamy, the leader of Muse, inherited at least some of his need to make music from his father. George Bellamy was something of a rock’n’roller himself way back in the day.
He was the guitarist in an English pop group called the Tornados. They were a space-rock sort of group produced by the legendary whacko Joe Meeks who became the first-ever British band to have a number one hit in the United States with an instrumental entitled “Telstar,” which celebrated the launch of the first-ever commercial communications satellite. That was 1962.
Matt pays tribute to his dad’s accomplishment with the song “Knights of Cydonia,” which tries to recreate that space-rock feel of “Telstar.” And mix with weird western music and Queen-like vocals, of course.
I remember hearing that song on 1050 CHUM when they were an oldies station on the 90’s. When I first heard Knights of Cydonia I knew something sounded familiar but could not put my finger on it until I heard the story of Matt Bellamys father and Telstar. What a crazy video for KOC!! I miss the days of music videos on after school on “Toronto Rocks” etc….