MUSE : MUSE Tour Diary: Backstage Photos [Vanity Fair]

"...here are our in-ear monitors that we have to put on. The show will sound terrible without them"

"Karen is amazing and keeps everything shipshape for us."

"We have really been getting into playing ping-pong on this tour. We have been playing some fans too, which has been hilarious!"

"...here is the view from Chris’s hotel room in Santa Monica …"

"... then look at what we landed in when we touched down in Edmonton! That’s the joy of touring: no two days are the same!"

"Chris plays football as often as possible. We often tweet to fans and play against them, which is great fun."

"Matt likes to have an adventure on days off. Here he is on a Segway tour in Edmonton."

"Here is Matt in the dressing room radioing for something just before stage time."

"Please meet the mighty Morgan Nicholls, the one-man orchestra! Morgan has been touring with us since our third album."

We eat pretty much anything that Pete tells us to. Pete makes incredible food for us and makes sure we eat at the right times so we are not too full before we go onstage. Portion control is very important in our business, as it’s easy to get fat these days.

"The members of the crew have a massive catering room put aside each day as there are so many of them. We feel it’s important to make sure everyone is fed and happy."

"We don’t have the right to moan about anything. We are very lucky to do this every day!"

"Here are some of the crew members. Some have been with us for years, and some are new, fresh faces … [Clockwise from top left:] Adam Taylor (our monitoring engineer), Glen Rowe (our tour manager—brought of out retirement for this campaign), Paul English (the best stage manager in the business; Paul has been with us a long time), Zoe Hodge (assistant stage manager who makes sure all the local crew members know what they are doing), and Maya Gas (the production assistant who keeps the crew in order)."