Newsbites: Muse album much more than dubstep

No fear: Matt Bellamy

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy recently worried fans by revealing their new album, The 2nd Law, will feature experimentation with dubstep. But now he says there’s only one track matching that description. He reports: “We’ve tried a bunch of new things. We’ve tried to do what Rage Against the Machine did with hip-hop in the 1990s, and take a bit of the electronic world and dubstep, and play it with real instruments. There’s only one track like that – the rest is very, very diverse. There’s a bigger emphasis on groove. We’ve always tried to improve on that with every album and I think we’ve really nailed it.” [BBC]

U2 bassist Adam Clayton’s housekeeper has been found guilty of stealing £2.2million from him. Carol Hawkins will be sentenced for embezzlement on July 6 after a jury at Dublin Criminal Court passed a unanimous verdict. Judge Patrick McCartan said: “The evidence in this case was overwhelming. Nobody could seriously disagree with the verdict.” Hawkins, who was paid £39,000 a year, committed 181 separate acts of theft.

Chris Cornell says Soundgarden always stood out from the rest of the grunge movement. “We weren’t one of those bands that was easy to get,” he insists. “I think every band from the Seattle scene was pretty easy to figure out, but we were extremely diverse and we could do it authentically, which is not easy. We covered a lot of territory – in terms of commercial acceptance that hurts you, but in terms of longevity, and having a lasting impact, it helps you. We’re not like anybody else; we can’t be imitated.”

Paul McCartney admits he “lost it” during a soundcheck with Beach Boy Brian Wilson ahead of their first performance together. The ex-Beatle says: “We were doing a benefit together and I was okay on the actual performance. I held it together. But at the soundcheck I lost it, because it was very emotional and I was thinking: ‘Oh my God, I’m singing it with Brian.’ It just got me – I couldn’t do it.” McCartney last week messaged Wilson on his 70th birthday, saying: “Can you believe we made it this far?”

Meanwhile, McCartney raised £41,000 for music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins last week when he auctioned one of his left-handed Hofner violin-style basses. The organisation’s annual Silver Clef night in London raised over £250,000.

Eddie Van Halen has finally admitted it really was him on the tape played by Marty McFly in Back to the Future. The cassette is marked “Edward Van Halen” when seen in the movie just before McFly, played by Michael J Fox, uses it to scare his father with the words: “Silence, earthling.” But Van Halen says the track heard wasn’t part of a song – instead it was him “just playing a bunch of noise.” [TMZ]