Who was your biggest Pandemic Celebrity Disappointment (PCD)?
While the correct answer is probably Bono, for me it was Matthew Bellamy: the Lead Singer, Guitarist and Chief Conspiracy Theorist of Apocalyptic Glam Brit Rock band Muse.
OR SO I THOUGHT.
This from the Guardian in 2022, sigh:
His political education was self-directed and he is humble about his missteps. “I’m not an intellectually trained thinker,” he says. “I made the usual mistakes that people from my background make, which is conspiracy theories and all that kind of stuff.” At one point, he became prone to talking about UFOs, David Icke and how 9/11 was an inside job.
Wikipedia delivers the fatal blow:
Bellamy expressed interest in conspiracy theories, including the theory that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job".[43] However, in 2022, he described these notions as quackery and said he had abandoned them. He said conspiracy theories were attractive because they were distractions from pressing issues and that "there's a comfort that maybe human beings somewhere, even if they're evil, are in control, when in fact the truth is far more frightening – there are no humans in control and it's all a bunch of chaos".[43] Bellamy is vaccinated against COVID-19 and supported masking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHAT A JUICY MAJOR LABEL DEAL THAT MUSTA BEEN MATTY.
Anyway: the Art must always be separated from the Artist, and what can’t be denied is that pre-’Rona Peak Muse was fucking amazing — Imminent Apocalyptic Transhuman Dystopias have never been musically expressed with such Conviction, Foreboding and Bombast. Battle cries to liberation from authoritarian tyranny were frequent, as was the kind of Reckless Romantic Sentiment that becomes entirely appropriate in the context of impending societal End Times doom.
Absolution was astonishingly and gratuitously epic and remains one of my favourite Rock Albums ever: I came very close to being able to play this immortal bass line at one point.
Black Holes and Revelations was a bit patchier, although did produce what may be the most iconic Apocalyptic Glam Brit Rock song of all time, the 6-minutes-and-change of Knights of Cydonia: which actually came first in our Downunder’s very own Hottest 100 Countdown of 2007 (aka the absolute glory days of Publicly-Funded Australian Youth Radio).
Really, Knights of Cydonia is the Pandemic Protest Anthem that never was: the chorus could have been quite literally written as a so-cliche-it-works Freedom Rally soundtrack:
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
A post-’Rona Redemption of Knights of Cydonia should be of pressing priority to other Wholesomely Conspiratorial Musicians. Unfortunately, similar to my Radiohead Paranoid Android Dilemma, 6 minutes of Excessive Brit Rock is a bit beyond my skill set for the time being.
Tbh, I’m so disappointed in Matt that I can’t even be bothered checking his Astrology. What I will say is that — just like Thom Yorke — he really picked up on the Pluto-in-Aquarius vibes over a decade ahead of schedule.
Whereas Thom and co. went the down the “Abduct Me Into The Mothership” route, Matt and chums went full Project Fucking Blue Beam by literally warning us about the inevitability of a staged alien invasion.
So: are we actually going to get the Fake Alien Invasion? Obviously, Tucker Carlson is doing his best to set the stage, and presumably Tom Delonge of Blink 182 fame is waiting to jump back on the bandwagon.
Stranger things have and probably will be soon happening. Actually, the Fake Alien Invasion option (even if some Space Laser Direct Energy Weapons get involved) seems vastly preferable to several other more violently destructive scenarios currently on the geopolitical table, so I am happy to do my part to manifest this one into existence.
The Great American Moonchild Eclipse is obviously top of the list of potential Will-Smith-in-Independence-Day shenanigans, given how many eyes will be turned towards the heavens. Personally, I would lean towards the Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction: which also happens to be occurring within a few degrees of the Celestial home of one of, if not the most famous Extra-Firmament Species.
Anyone for an April Falls Eclipse Season Fake Pleiadean Invasion special?
Memes shamelessly curated from this Memelanche:
Bono... Who'd have thought it possible?
I remember seeing them (US) on their first tour to the States, in Austin. It was in a big club, I forget the name of it now, but among those of us punkers, we had a joke we'd always try to get inserted into every band's performance, no matter what/how/who/anything else... "Faster!" was the joke, because most bands played so damn fast they could barely hold onto their instruments.
I shouted it at U2 from the second floor balcony... I remember Bono looked up instantly, clearly annoyed. Well, they WERE foreign, and they WERE over here for the first time, but I WAS a fan already... He clearly didn't get the joke, but I just thought he was full of himself a bit too much...
That's my U2 story, and I'm stickin' to it, lol. Sorry, Bono, but... shiiiiiit, now I'm glad it pissed you arf.
^_^
That is so disappointing about Muse! I love them too. I guess all those glorious rebellion anthems were hot air.
That whole time was so heartbreaking that I purposely stopped paying attention to who was caving to the narrative and am thus blissfully ignorant whether my music heroes became pitiful pussies.