So, here's my attempt at Muse fiction. I've been reading awesome stuff for ages, and this was just something that popped into my head a few weeks ago. Badly written, yes, but hopefully you guys think the idea's good. So R&R, if you please! :)
My heels clicked along the sidewalk as I walked down the road, away from the underground station I had just emerged from. St. John's Wood station was one of the smaller tube stations I had visited, and the cute little Beatles shop would definitely be worth visiting later.
To be honest, I was still amazed that I was doing this. As a 15 year old in a different country on the other side of the world from your home, you'd think your parents would be insistent on not letting you out of their sights for the whole time, but they'd given me this one afternoon to do what I wanted.
Don't get me wrong, my parents have lots of faith in me, and I have been to London before, but it was a few years ago, and I was still amazed that I'd been given the freedom to do my own thing for the afternoon. On the top of my list was one place that they hadn't wanted to go back to, but had such an amazing meaning to people around the world.
Abbey Road.
From the famous Beatles album, to the TV series, to the amazing bands and artists that had recorded there; when I had last went, I didn't really grasp the importance of such a place, but now I knew. And I knew I had to go back there.
It was a Tuesday afternoon, and so far, it wasn't too busy. I walked down the street and consulted my pocket map, hoping that it wouldn't be too far away. I was in luck.
I rounded the corner, and there it was. The legend. Or part of the legend, at least.
A few tourists took photos of each other crossing the famous crossing, and I smiled, remembering my family and I do that 3 years previously. I crossed the road once the tourists had passed me on their way back to the station, and then I was alone. I was surprised; there were now no tourists around, and for such an important spot in London, I was alone.
I smiled as I wandered down past the crossing to the studios. No one could go any further than the front gate, for obvious reasons, but I stood outside the building, separated only by the white pillars, and the small car park.
The pillars, as I noticed, had writing all over them, from people writing their favourite lyrics, to people thanking God for inventing music in the first place, to just random statements. I smiled and drew out the marker I had bought at a corner shop especially for this moment, and pondered what I was going to write. I had been thinking about it for the whole train ride as I listened to my iPod and watched the other few people on the train go about their daily actions. Would I thank the building for producing such amazing music? Would I write a lyric? I was completely clueless.
Finally, I settled on a line of lyrics that I found so true in life, in everything. By my favourite band, who had made such great music, even in Abbey Road.
Don't waste your time, or time will waste you
I put the finishing touches on the Muse logo and stood back, surveying my work. I smiled; I hoped that my message would be seen by someone else; perhaps they'd be encouraged to listen to Muse after seeing my message? Maybe.
I began to read some of the other messages that had been around the previously blank space where my message was. It was then that I saw someone emerge from the front door of the studio. I didn't think much of it; Abbey Road was still a working studio, and a very prestigious one at that. But, as I thought to myself, maybe there was a famous band recording in there right now?
Curiosity got the better of me and I looked up at who the person was. My view of them was obstructed by their car, as they grabbed something from the front seat, then stood up again, closing the car door. It was only then that I saw their face clearly enough to see who it was.
Oh. My. God.
Either someone was here trying to make a solo act out of a bass, or my dream had come true. Because Chris Wolstenholme was only metres away from me, and walking back into the studios. I gasped, and unintentionally, he heard me. I covered my mouth at being heard; I definitely wasn't the screaming fangirl type, and I would hope that he didn't realise that. But, I suppose he would find out, because he began walking over towards me.
Towards me. Chris. Bass player of Muse. Okay, maybe what I said about not being a screaming fangirl wasn't so true, because I felt like screaming now.
"Geez, what did you do with all the other tourists that usually hang around here?" He was in front of me, and talking to me. My mind had blanked as he walked over, and now the man that most knew as the 'Wolstenbeast' was standing in front of me.
I smiled, and laughed. "Just luck, I suppose. It's so nice here without the flashes of cameras and people trying to get run over at the pedestrian crossing."
He smiled back, and there was an awkward silence for a moment, before he spoke. "So I suppose you're a tourist, then? And I'm assuming you know who I am." He said with a chuckle. I grinned and nodded.
"I'm from Australia. And of course I know who you are! Geez, favourite band! And the best concert I've ever been to."
Chris smiled. "Really? Best gig ever?" He replied. I just raised my eyebrows; it was a rhetorical question, according to me at least.
"So, what are you doing here? Going solo?" We both laughed, and suddenly things didn't even seem awkward. After less than a minute, I knew that Chris was amazingly nice, and fortunately, it hadn't sunk in that I'd actually met him, otherwise I would have been a lot more giggly.
"Na, in here recording with the boys. It's going pretty well; of course, no one knows that. No one's really bothered us; it's been good."
"Good! So... back to some good old Musey music, or something different?" I said with a bit of cheek. I'm sure that they knew that their last album, The Resistance, hadn't been well liked by most of their fans. A lot of us really just wanted to hear some good old Origin of Symmetry-era music. Still, it wasn't our music.
Just then, the heavens decided to open. Whether it was fate, or pure stupidity, I remembered at that precise moment that my raincoat was back in the hotel room. I mentally face-palmed. But, as I looked back at Chris, he just smiled.
"Come on in; it'll ease up in a minute," he yelled out over the downpour of rain.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "Of course!" And that was all it took for me to run through to the veranda of Abbey Road Studios. Was I going to be able to come inside, or would I just wait on the veranda? I'd already been lucky enough that day to meet Chris; I wasn't asking for much else.
He opened the door in front of me and gestured for me to go inside. I wiped my feet on the mat and stepped inside. Inside somewhere that not many people got to see.
I was standing in a narrow hallway, with different rooms branching off, and a staircase at the end of the passage. Chris smiled back at me and motioned for me to follow him. He walked down the hall for a bit, then turned off to the left, but not before sticking his head back out at me and winking.
I walked in slowly, and was astounded by what I saw. I had seen this room on TV, but I didn't think I'd ever see it in real life.
And I honestly didn't think I'd ever be standing as close to these people as I was now.
Dominic Howard, and Matthew Bellamy. The other two members of Muse.
And my absolute idols.
I tried not to gawk like an idiot, and I only just got away with it. Chris explained to them that I had been the only one standing outside when the rain began to pour, and they only seemed to be sympathetic, smiling at me and introducing themselves. For me, it really just passed in a blur; I was really talking to them! I was finally snapped out of my daze when I heard Matt playing something at the piano that he had just sat down at.
I smiled and tapped my foot along to the opening of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, humming and watching him in his element. For a moment... then he looked up at me.
"So, into classical stuff?" He asked, spinning around on the chair to face me again. Dom had sat down at the drums, and Chris had gone off to the other room to get a drink.
"Yeah, I really like Rachmaninov. He's... exciting; I don't get bored with his work." I smiled and sat down at a chair near the piano.
"Good to hear. I reckon kids these days don't listen to enough of the good stuff. Even something like Mozart is better than nothing. Not that I recomend that anyone listen to him for long periods of time; even I would fall asleep."
I smiled as Matt rambled, and I completely agreed with him.
"Yeah, I agree. I play the flute, and I find that some things just... don't grab me. But then there are other things that are exciting and take twists and turns, and I'm completely hooked."
Matt grinned and replied. "Well, it's good to know that someone appreciates this stuff. I always worry that our fans don't really know where some of this is coming from. I mean, it's not plagerism, but I'm really inspired by these guys; Rachmaninov, Chopin, Rossini – all of their works have stories to tell."
I smiled. "Yeah, Rossini! The Thieving Magpie is awesome. And believe me, I know that a lot of 'Musers' appreciate classical music. Well, not all, but I'm working on my best friend. I got her from hating you guys to being obsessed, so I reckon I can take it one step further."
At this, Dom laughed. "Wow, got her obsessed? What did it take?"
I laughed, remembering the two nights that had taken place the summer previously. "It was quite easy; she said that she had a fascination with english accents, so I put on interviews with you guys in them, because I hadn't seen them before. But after that night, she denied that she liked them, even though she said she did. Then another night she heard Time is Running Out and fell in love."
We all laughed, as Chris came back into the room, and announced that the radars said the rain would ease up in about 10 minutes. While I was sad to leave these guys when the rain did stop, I knew that this would be a worthwile 10 mintues.
"So, Kate, who else are you into? Bandwise, I mean." Dom fiddled with his floor tom as he asked me, then looked up for my answer.
"Well, I love The Temper Trap, and a little aussie band called Amy Meredith. They're both really great. Other than that, just the usual: Coldplay, The Script, and none of the crappy American stuff." We all laughed, as Chris sat down with his bass, and played a little line while we talked.
"Yeah, none of that stuff. Have you ever heard of a band called The Joy Formidable?" Dom asked me.
"Yeah! I saw them live about a year ago supporting The Temper Trap in Melbourne. They were great. I reckon they'd be the perfect support for you guys!"
"Good. I've been looking into them and apparently they have a great presence onstage. And seeing that neither of these guys will help, I need all the advice I can get for the next tour." Dom threw a drumstick at Matt and proceeded to ignore the muttered insults coming from the piano's direction, as Chris shook his head like a mother that had grown tired of her children's ongoing antics.
"Yeah, they're really great. Speaking of touring; coming to Oz anytime soon? I got my bestie obsessed just after you left in December, and I'd been to your concert, and I'd had a spare ticket; didn't work out well!" Dom laughed as he sat up and grabbed another drum stick.
"Yeah, that's pretty bad! We should be coming out the end of next year; that is summer, right?" I laughed as Dom commented on the weather.
"Yup, that's summer alright. You guys came out at an awesome time last year! And the summer before that too... I would think that you were just taking advantage of our climate!"
Dom laughed as Matt began to tinker with the piano keys, before standing up and retrieving a guitar from the corner.
"Yeah, we always seem to time it just right, don't we! Na, we've got some new stuff to play this time round, so at least we have another excuse to come!"
"Speaking of new stuff, how about we play that one we were doing before? We need a second opinion, after all." Matt said, smiling in my direction. I nodded eagerly, and looked over to the few recording staff that flicked some switches before giving a thumbs up signal to the band.
" Okay, after you Matt!" Dom said, grabbing his drumsticks off of the snare, and spinning them around in his fingers a few times. Chris stayed sitting down, and Matt moved over to the microphone, as a tech person gave me a pair of headphones.
I put them on, and as soon as Matt saw that I was ready, he launched into an energetic guitar riff. The drums came in, then the bass, and the beginnings of their new material flooded through the headphones and into my eagerly awaiting ears.
Matt sang to perfection, and the lyrics weren't what I – or any of the Musers on the .mu messageboard, for that matter – had been expecting. We were thinking a heap of Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever) clones because of his romance with... her. But, no, it was really good.
And by really good, I meant Muse good. The drum beats were intense, but still providing a backdrop for the rest of the instrumentals. Chris headbanged just a little bit, and the bassline coming through my ears was easily one of the best I'd ever heard. And Matt; well, whoa. His guitar line was still riffy, but had a melody that easily worked together with the vocals. Speaking of which, he was sounding the best that I'd ever heard. I was foot tapping and semi-head banging along, and they seemed to notice.
When the song finished, I was definitely disappointed, to say the least. I had been enjoying it so much; and just by hearing that song, I hoped and prayed that the rest of the album would be like that, because it had been amazing.
Just then, the onslaught of rain ceased above us, and we all smiled bleakly. I took the headphones off and grabbed my bag.
"So; did you like it?" Matt asked, putting the guitar down and coming over to me.
"Yes; I loved it. It sounds brilliant!" I said happily. He smiled, somewhat relieved.
"Great! Now... we don't have to do anything for the rest of the day?" Dom asked Matt, walking up behind him as Chris retrieved something from the other side of the room.
"Hmm... maybe." Matt said, and he went over to one of the tech guys to talk to them.
"I should probably head off, but thank you, so so much!" I gushed. It still hadn't sunk in... would it ever?
"Of course, no problem! We couldn't leave a Muse fan to get wet in a foreign country, where the public transport is home to tonnes of criminals, and muggers and generally shady citizens." Dom said with a grin.
"Great! That makes me feel so much more confident about the trip home." I said sarcastically. I did do a mental gulp though; I didn't really think too much about the risks associated with my afternoon's antics.
We both laughed, and Chris walked back over, setting some items down on the table in front of us and handing Dom a marker.
"Come on; we've given her shelter, the least we can do is give her some autographs!" Chris set to work on signing what looked like a promo EP for the new album, a few picks, a drumstick, and... FLASHING GLASSES!
"Whoa, you guys really didn't have to!" I said as Matt walked back over, picking up the flashing glasses and putting them on my face. He turned the flash mode on, and I laughed when I saw a reflection of myself in the mirror on the opposite wall.
They handed me my signed items, and I reached for a camera, smiling politely and turning the camera on. The amazing guys were happy to oblige and posed stupidly for the camera, and then nicely. They all helped me get photos with each one individually, but when it was Dom's turn, I noticed that he'd left the room.
Fortunately, I didn't have much time to disappointed, as Dom came in with his hands behind his back.
"I remembered about this while we were playing, and I thought that you Aussie fans might want to know how it's going." With a small flourish, he whipped a leopard material out from behind his back and held it up.
It was the leopard print morphsuit!
I smiled and laughed, as he stuck his hand up one of the arms and held out the other arm for me to do the same. Chris took the photo of us grinning and making a claw shape with our leopard-covered hands.
Alas, it was time for me to go, and with one last farewell from the guys, and endless thank you's from me, I left. I still couldn't believe that I had met them, and as I walked back to the station, I was still gobsmacked.
I was just crossing the infamous abbey road crossing when I heard two pairs of footsteps come up behind me. I looked behind me to see Matt and Dom pausing in the middle of the crossing, Matt nudging his head in the direction of where Chris stood, armed with a camera to capture the moment.
I grinned and froze in a walking position, and I stayed there until Matt pushed me over. Luckily, I caught my balance, and glared at him.
Chris walked over and pulled a pen out of his pocket.
"Here, write your email address on my arm, and we'll send it to you!" I did as I was told, and after all three of the guys hugged me, I finally got on my way.
I ran up the stairs of the hotel my family were staying in, not bothering to wait for an excruciatingly slow lift to make it's way down to me and back up. I unlocked the door quickly, and flopped down onto the bed, an estatic grin carving it's way onto my face as I sat there breathing heavily. I looked at the time; 20 minutes before my parents were due to be back. And just as I opened up the lid of the netbook, I remembered.
Lucy. CRAP!
I drummed my fingers impatiently on the desk as the computer booted up, and I almost froze the computer attempting to get into Skype. Despite the difficulties, I was still grinning, and when I was finally signed in, I immediately clicked on my best friend's name, impatient to establish the chat and see her face to face.
After about 10 seconds, Lucy's face popped up onto the screen.
"Hey you! Where are you?" Lucy asked, looking confused from my grin that was still etched on my flustered face.
"Hey Lucy! It's awesome to see you! I'm in London. You will never believe what just happened to me!" I bit my lip in an attempt not to tell her everything immediately. No, she should try and guess.
"Um... you got raped?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise before we both laughed, the delay ensuring that the laugh was long-winded.
"Well, Lucy; you remember that joke we once shared on the bus? We were talking about someone, and rape became involved?"
A brief pause.
"Oh yeah, and then we laughed the whole way home thinking that Matt had raped..." Lucy trailed off.
"Oh my God; what are you implying? Did you actually-"
"No!" I quickly denied it. "Better."
"Okay..."
"Well, for some weird reason, Mum and Dad let me go off and do what I wanted this afternoon, so I decided to go to Abbey Road. And just as I got there, all the people cleared off, and it was just me. I signed some Musey stuff on the wall, and then someone came out of the doors."
Lucy waited for me to continue with bated breath.
I grinned.
"It was Chris!"
Lucy's mouth dropped and she gasped. "Really? Oh my Gosh; what happened?"
"Welll... I gasped, and well, he heard me. And he walked over, and we got talking, and then it started raining. So... he told me to come inside!"
"Inside..."
"Inside Abbey-Fricken Road Studios!" I almost screamed the last comment, because it was just sinking in to me... it had really happened!
Lucy remained silent in awe as I told her the rest; meeting the others, listening to the music, talking, pictures, everything. And as I explained, I rummaged through my bag to find the camera, and I began to upload the photos to Facebook. I chose the photo of me with Dom to be my new profile picture, and I told Lucy as I uploaded the photos.
I watched her flick through them, pausing to 'aww' on the ones with Matt in them. She was a Matt-girl of course, which meant there was no competition for Dom.
Which was always good, because we both knew that I would have won.
I finished up the chat with her just as my parents got back, and I explained it all to them, as well. Of course, they didn't care as much, but they still expressed their surprise at my antics for the afternoon.
I was just about to get off the computer when I saw an email pop up in the corner of my screen.
Hi Kate,
Hope you had a good time getting to meet us. You were certainly an awesome person to have to listen to our new song, and we enjoyed chatting to you.
Here's the last photo we took, and I hope we can keep in touch!
Matt, Dom, and Chris (predominantly Dom, but still. The other two are watching me, making sure I don't type in anything inappropriate. Which I won't. See, I've gotten to the end of the email and I haven't fucked anything up! Yay me! Oh, oops. Ah well, see ya!)
I laughed at the comment as I opened up the attached photo, to see the perfect shot of me, Matt and Dom walking across Abbey Road together. It was perfect, and I grinned as I uploaded it to Facebook, and began my rant on my blog about how awesome the day had been.
I lay in bed that night, thinking about my afternoon. Thinking about how positively amazing it had been.
I rolled over and looked at the glasses, softly flashing before me as I leant over to turn them off.
I was one lucky duck.