Map of my head

"The first time the teenaged Dom Howard met Matt Bellamy, his future bandmate was wearing a pink fluorescent Umbro shellsuit and had a flat-top haircut, army-style. Bellamy’s gang was called The Sports and Howard’s were the Indie Kids, all long hair, DM boots and baggy, colourful trousers - the ’90s look. “Matt was in a band at the time, playing mainstream pop, like fucking Dire Straits,” Howard recalls. “Really uncool. He’d not been exposed to the indie-rock stuff that we were into like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Senseless Things.” The next time they met, at Bellamy’s house, Howard started playing albums for Matt and asking him to play on a guitar. The kid with the horrible shellsuit proved to be a talented musician. Howard drafted him into his band Gothic Plague, “It was like, I know you look weird, but you’re a good guitarist, so I’m sure we can get along."

Madness-Layered

"The first time the teenaged Dom Howard met Matt Bellamy, his future bandmate was wearing a pink fluorescent Umbro shellsuit and had a flat-top haircut, army-style. Bellamy’s gang was called The Sports and Howard’s were the Indie Kids, all long hair, DM boots and baggy, colourful trousers - the ’90s look. “Matt was in a band at the time, playing mainstream pop, like fucking Dire Straits,” Howard recalls. “Really uncool. He’d not been exposed to the indie-rock stuff that we were into like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Senseless Things.” The next time they met, at Bellamy’s house, Howard started playing albums for Matt and asking him to play on a guitar. The kid with the horrible shellsuit proved to be a talented musician. Howard drafted him into his band Gothic Plague, “It was like, I know you look weird, but you’re a good guitarist, so I’m sure we can get along."