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'The Day I Sold Chris Wolstenholme Olive Oil' - Tales of Muse from the town of Teignmouth
People are often confused when I tell them I come from Teignmouth. 'Where's that?' they ask, a puzzled expression on their faces. 'It's in Devon' I reply. More blank faces. More scratching of heads. The money shot comes with: 'It's where the band Muse come from'. 'Ahh, right, got you!' they'll say. Yeah right, as if you could point it out on a map!
Coming from the same town as a now globally successful rock band affords the occasional tale about the less glamorous side of rock n' roll. The most visible member of the band in the Teignmouth area is bass player Chris Wolstenholme, who, unlike a number of famous people, obviously hasn't forgotten his roots back home, and can be seen wandering about town or in the supermarket when the group are not away recording or touring. In fact, when I used to live there, he was often seen inside the local Co-op, where I had my first meeting with him after he asked me (very politely I must add) where the olive oil was, then I had the privilege of serving him as well! That must have been around 1998/99, just as the band were starting to get noticed, and it was a major talking point the next day at college, I can tell you - especially interested was a guy called Andrew, who was the 'Official Muse Spokesman' at college, and could often be seen spouting the virtues of the band's debut EP, which he would play CONSTANTLY during our A-Level Art classes. It was quite funny to look back and realise that Andrew was actually the one with his finger on the pulse at that time, claiming Muse would be 'The Next Big Thing'. The only thing was, nobody believed him! To our shame, we all had Muse down as one of those groups that would do well, but certainly not be as big as they were destined to become. They'd maybe release a couple of EPs in local record stores and perhaps play a few decent local venues, but...we just thought they'd die out and eventually pack it in. How embarrassed we were when Andrew proudly came into college clutching a copy of Muse's debut album Showbiz, which soon took precedence over the EP he had been playing to death on the Art room's stereo. It's worth mentioning also that I did go and buy a copy of the band's first EP just to see what all the fuss was about, and recently sold it on auction site eBay for 180 quid, so...thanks to Andrew for that! I kick myself now when I think about the other six copies the record store had in, which would have probably sold for equally ludicrous sums of currency!
There are rumours of lead singer Matt Bellamy popping back to get another custom-made guitar picked up from Manson's Guitars in Exeter, but he seems to be very elusive - the only possible sighting we've had of young Matthew was by my mate Simon, who thinks he saw him get out of a car in Newton Abbot and go into Argos wearing some very scruffy clothes. He was in two minds about this though. If you're in Exeter it might be worth popping into Manson's and persuading the owner to let you have a look at his latest project! The last axe I saw in the workshop was a guitar (sorry, I'm crap with guitar models, as I am with most car models) with a cracked mirror effect, which worked most wonderfully on stage when the lights would catch it and reflect back into the audience.
But it's certainly Chris that we see back in Teignmouth most often (of drummer Dominic Howard, there has been no sightings by anyone I know). He's also the one we identified most with during our college days, seeing as myself and 'Official Muse Spokesman' Andrew were in the same class as his sister.
It was one (very drunken) New Year's Eve in a Teignmouth pub called The Devon Arms when his sister, who was working behind the bar at the time, received a call to say Chris' wife/partner had given birth to their baby, and we were all trying to listen into the call, shouting things like 'what have they named it?' - always trying to get some Muse related trivia!!
My last encounter with Mr Wolstenholme was at Tescos' this Christmas - it was a couple of days before Christmas Eve, and he was buying a very large quantity of Quality Street. In fact, he had about six boxes of the stuff in his basket. It was absolutely heaving in the store, and I was tempted to ask him if it was as busy as the band's recent London Earls Court gig they'd played only a few days previously! I'm never sure if he sort of recognises me when I see him around town - this time he kind of nodded to me as I looked over at him, and it always makes me wonder if Simon, my friend and old band-mate (when we were in a group called The Freak Travel City Kids, who, it must be said, did not really repeat Muse's run of good fortune and commercial success and fragmented around about mid-2003) managed to ever get Chris to have a look at our band's website. The story behind that particular tale was that Simon's cousin's half-sister's dog's best mate (who is really more a friend of a friend) knew Chris and his family, and Simon reckoned he could politely ask them if Chris wouldn't mind taking a look at our website, which contained all our lyrics and other various stuff. As I say, I'm not actually sure if he ever did see it, but I'd like to think so! I don't really know what Simon's motive for getting a member of Muse to look at a shoddily put-together website was, I think he was dreaming of an easy passage into the music business, but then again that's like asking the man who works on the turnstiles at Highbury if he can get you in the Arsenal squad! It's a documented fact that Muse didn't really think much of Teignmouth as a place to live, and I guess to be honest, it's not all that great (for the young 'uns, anyhow) but there are certainly worse places to spend your time.
So there you have it - olive oil, shopping for new guitars, drunken discoveries of new born babies with Muse bass players for a father and excessive purchasing of Christmas chocolates. It's not all rock n' roll after all...I guarantee, if you were to probe a bit further the inhabitants of this small coastal town, you'll find some have their own tales of Muse related incidents. For instance, my old hairdresser apparently used to play with Matt Bellamy when they were younger. But not in a dirty way...
People are often confused when I tell them I come from Teignmouth. 'Where's that?' they ask, a puzzled expression on their faces. 'It's in Devon' I reply. More blank faces. More scratching of heads. The money shot comes with: 'It's where the band Muse come from'. 'Ahh, right, got you!' they'll say. Yeah right, as if you could point it out on a map!
Coming from the same town as a now globally successful rock band affords the occasional tale about the less glamorous side of rock n' roll. The most visible member of the band in the Teignmouth area is bass player Chris Wolstenholme, who, unlike a number of famous people, obviously hasn't forgotten his roots back home, and can be seen wandering about town or in the supermarket when the group are not away recording or touring. In fact, when I used to live there, he was often seen inside the local Co-op, where I had my first meeting with him after he asked me (very politely I must add) where the olive oil was, then I had the privilege of serving him as well! That must have been around 1998/99, just as the band were starting to get noticed, and it was a major talking point the next day at college, I can tell you - especially interested was a guy called Andrew, who was the 'Official Muse Spokesman' at college, and could often be seen spouting the virtues of the band's debut EP, which he would play CONSTANTLY during our A-Level Art classes. It was quite funny to look back and realise that Andrew was actually the one with his finger on the pulse at that time, claiming Muse would be 'The Next Big Thing'. The only thing was, nobody believed him! To our shame, we all had Muse down as one of those groups that would do well, but certainly not be as big as they were destined to become. They'd maybe release a couple of EPs in local record stores and perhaps play a few decent local venues, but...we just thought they'd die out and eventually pack it in. How embarrassed we were when Andrew proudly came into college clutching a copy of Muse's debut album Showbiz, which soon took precedence over the EP he had been playing to death on the Art room's stereo. It's worth mentioning also that I did go and buy a copy of the band's first EP just to see what all the fuss was about, and recently sold it on auction site eBay for 180 quid, so...thanks to Andrew for that! I kick myself now when I think about the other six copies the record store had in, which would have probably sold for equally ludicrous sums of currency!
There are rumours of lead singer Matt Bellamy popping back to get another custom-made guitar picked up from Manson's Guitars in Exeter, but he seems to be very elusive - the only possible sighting we've had of young Matthew was by my mate Simon, who thinks he saw him get out of a car in Newton Abbot and go into Argos wearing some very scruffy clothes. He was in two minds about this though. If you're in Exeter it might be worth popping into Manson's and persuading the owner to let you have a look at his latest project! The last axe I saw in the workshop was a guitar (sorry, I'm crap with guitar models, as I am with most car models) with a cracked mirror effect, which worked most wonderfully on stage when the lights would catch it and reflect back into the audience.
But it's certainly Chris that we see back in Teignmouth most often (of drummer Dominic Howard, there has been no sightings by anyone I know). He's also the one we identified most with during our college days, seeing as myself and 'Official Muse Spokesman' Andrew were in the same class as his sister.
It was one (very drunken) New Year's Eve in a Teignmouth pub called The Devon Arms when his sister, who was working behind the bar at the time, received a call to say Chris' wife/partner had given birth to their baby, and we were all trying to listen into the call, shouting things like 'what have they named it?' - always trying to get some Muse related trivia!!
My last encounter with Mr Wolstenholme was at Tescos' this Christmas - it was a couple of days before Christmas Eve, and he was buying a very large quantity of Quality Street. In fact, he had about six boxes of the stuff in his basket. It was absolutely heaving in the store, and I was tempted to ask him if it was as busy as the band's recent London Earls Court gig they'd played only a few days previously! I'm never sure if he sort of recognises me when I see him around town - this time he kind of nodded to me as I looked over at him, and it always makes me wonder if Simon, my friend and old band-mate (when we were in a group called The Freak Travel City Kids, who, it must be said, did not really repeat Muse's run of good fortune and commercial success and fragmented around about mid-2003) managed to ever get Chris to have a look at our band's website. The story behind that particular tale was that Simon's cousin's half-sister's dog's best mate (who is really more a friend of a friend) knew Chris and his family, and Simon reckoned he could politely ask them if Chris wouldn't mind taking a look at our website, which contained all our lyrics and other various stuff. As I say, I'm not actually sure if he ever did see it, but I'd like to think so! I don't really know what Simon's motive for getting a member of Muse to look at a shoddily put-together website was, I think he was dreaming of an easy passage into the music business, but then again that's like asking the man who works on the turnstiles at Highbury if he can get you in the Arsenal squad! It's a documented fact that Muse didn't really think much of Teignmouth as a place to live, and I guess to be honest, it's not all that great (for the young 'uns, anyhow) but there are certainly worse places to spend your time.
So there you have it - olive oil, shopping for new guitars, drunken discoveries of new born babies with Muse bass players for a father and excessive purchasing of Christmas chocolates. It's not all rock n' roll after all...I guarantee, if you were to probe a bit further the inhabitants of this small coastal town, you'll find some have their own tales of Muse related incidents. For instance, my old hairdresser apparently used to play with Matt Bellamy when they were younger. But not in a dirty way...
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1 comment:
yeah good story, i'm a muse fan myself and what i would give to spot chris, matt or dom, but you've seen chris twice. that's amazing.
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