Having played in more stadiums than Muse’s bassist back to the home of English football for an adrenaline rush requiring serious balls of steel.

Chris Wolstenholme returned to Wembley Stadium – which hosted the band’s awesome sell-out shows in 2007 and 2010 – to ride its supermassive zip wire.

And once the bass beast was freed from his groin-hugging harness, Chris spoke exclusively to MTV News about the Olympic closing ceremony, Muse’s new album and their ambition to be the first band to play in space...



What’s scarier – the Wembley Zip Wire or performing in front of a billion people at the Olympic closing ceremony?!

Probably the Olympics. It was by far the biggest TV audience we’ve ever played to, but both had their moments!

I remember the day of the closing ceremony being pretty chaotic. There was supposed to be a dress rehearsal but that never happened. We went into the stadium for a quick run-through and there were thousands of people running in different directions – it just looked like total chaos.

But the whole ceremony ran seamlessly so I was totally blown away by it and for nothing to go wrong was pretty amazing.



How surreal were the rehearsals?

They were bizarre, especially the location. We spent 12 hours sitting in the green room but the line-up was so varied I don’t think you’ll ever get The Who, Queen, The Spice Girls, Jessie J and Muse in the same place again!

Your new album The 2nd Law has been described as Muse’s most diverse, so are you bracing yourselves for the most diverse reaction yet?

We are. It’s always a weird time once you’ve finished an album and a nervous wait for it to come out. From our point of view it’s the best thing we’ve ever done, but you never know what to expect and just because we like it that doesn’t mean everyone will feel the same.

What do you make of the reaction to your new songs?

It’s generally been good. Even with the Olympics behind it, Survival has been met in pretty much the same way as every first song we’ve released off our new album – people either love it or hate it, which seems to be the vibe with us.

We don’t have any casual listeners, but that’s a good place to be. We have hardcore fans who are totally devoted to us, but also some people just don’t understand it. We’re not a coffee table band, that’s for sure!

Why did you choose Madness as your first single?

It’s quite an unusual song for us. We’ve delved into electronic stuff before but Madness is very stripped back and simple.

It shows a completely different side to the band and the things Matt [Bellamy] sings about is much more personal compared to what we’ve done before. So it’s nice to put something out that wasn’t the obvious first single, which for us would be some epic pomp rock type thing!

You’ve written two tracks on The 2nd Law. Are they just for the album or are you intending to perform them on your upcoming tour?

Yeah we will be. Matt’s excited about just playing guitar for a couple of songs and run around not having to worry about singing, which is something he’s wanted for years so he can enjoy the gig a little bit more. It’s great for the band and something we’ll explore more as we go forward.

My songs are a small part of this album and a small part of what we’ve done overall. Playing them live is a daunting thought at the moment, but once we get going it should feel quite natural.

Being widely regarded as one of the best live acts ever and every tour being bigger and more spectacular than your last, how much pressure do you feel to meet fans’ huge expectations?

We shoot ourselves in the foot by constantly trying to push things to the max. Playing live for us isn’t just about the music, it’s about the whole experience and we want people to walk away feeling like they’ve seen something amazing.

It’s only really pressure that we put on ourselves. We always have ambitious ideas. When we played here at Wembley we wanted a helicopter to fly us over the stadium and drop thousands and thousands of balloons over everyone, so we were disappointed when that wasn’t allowed.



What are Muse’s ambitions for the future?

There’s still a lot we want to do. Playing stadiums is a massive thing for the band, but there are still countries which have their equivalent of Wembley that we haven’t done yet.

Hopefully we’ll be the first band to play in space. It’s been talked about quite a bit and I’m intrigued to find out if gravity allows you to play. It would probably be some stripped back, acoustic thing but I really think it will happen.

The Wembley Zip Wire tour runs until 2nd September and is available for those aged 12 and over. To find out how you can book your place, please visit wembleystadium.com/tours or call 0844 800 2755.