Matthew Bellamy was born in Cambridge on the 9th June 1978 and moved to Devon with his family at the age of 10. Matthew’s dad, George Bellamy was in a band called The Tornadoes, who were the first band from the UK to get a US number 1 record.[source?] At the age of 13 Matthew’s parents got divorced.[source?] "It was ok at home, middle class, we had money.” Matthew says. “Well until the age of 13. I think I almost got everything I wanted until the age of 13, yes. Then, everything changed, parents got divorced, and I went to live with my grandmother, and there wasn't that much money. I have a sister who's younger than me, she's actually my stepsister: my dad had her from another marriage, and also an older brother. Until the age of 14 music was part of my life since it was part of the family circle: my dad was a musician, he had a band, etc. But it's only when I moved in with my grandparents that I started playing music myself. It was like a need to me."[source?]
Matthew started playing piano at 6 when his brother influenced him to play a soundtrack from a TV series by holding him in front of the TV and then putting him in front of the piano. Matthew managed to play the song and his brother used to make him play it in front of his friends for show off. At the age of 11, after seeing Jimi Hendrix putting his guitar on fire, he decided he wanted to buy a guitar, which he asked from his grandmother.[source?] His parents and older brother also used an Ouija Board to contact the dead, which Matt discovered when he was wandering downstairs late at night. He then became interested in it after the divorce of his parents. “It was exciting to go to school and to tell 10-year-old kids all about it, as they found it all quite scary and I was quite impressed that I was doing something that was scary to other people but that wasn't to me. I did get quite into that.” His beliefs changed after one correspondence predicted the first Gulf War a year before it started. “My beliefs in the whole thing changed. I now believe that you’re contacting something in your subconscious, which is quite different. Something that you might not have known was already there. That’s probably more realistic than thinking you’re contacting somebody who’s already dead. And I do practice that".[source?]
Bellamy's first[1] memory is of breaking an expensive family heirloom[2] - a large mirror[2] - after letting go of a bucket whilst spinning around with it, as a result of which his mother proclaimed that he'd cursed the family for seven years.[1] This occurred in the year previous to the one during which his parents split up.[2] In December 1999, he claimed this was his most guilt-ridden memory.[2]
Music