Muse - Muse Stun Fans With Otherworldly Show

MUSE wowed fans at British musical festival V with an out-of-this-world performance featuring enormous spaceships - despite one of their stunts having been banned by officials.

Six enormous satellite dishes on either side of the stage began glowing and spinning shortly before the trio's gig, closing the first night of the Chelmsford, England, leg of the outdoor festival on Saturday (16Aug08).

The audience erupted with cheers as the spacecrafts began firing huge beams of light into the crowd and the trio ran on stage.

The band had previously planned a spectacular stunt which included a UFO (unidentified flying object) landing on stage - but organisers axed the idea, claiming it breached health and safety rules.

And the rockers had clearly put the setback behind them as they played their 2006 hit Supermassive Black Hole, with huge bursts of smoke firing from the stage.

The group, led by frontman Matt Bellamy, played an encore of Starlight to rapturous applause, as scores of white balloons were released into the sky and a massive flame burst over the stage.