This thread has made me both laugh and cry, although in both cases I couldn't entirely say why. I only discovered Bellamy a few years ago - far too late - and it's only sinking in now just how much I missed. (I can't even plead youth - the second band I ever saw live was Steeleye Span, in 1974.)

Some of the stories on last year's thread made me think that he could be quite a prickly customer with his friends, & presumably even more so with those who weren't his friends. I think (and I'm drawing on my own experience here) that a deep-rooted self-doubt can manifest itself, paradoxically, as arrogance: if you dismiss other people's opinions, there's no danger of having them confirm your lurking suspicion that you're useless. I wonder if there was some of that going on for him.

Dick Gaughan said that he thought Bellamy was always looking for the next project, the vehicle that would finally let him find his voice & do what he wanted to do. That could also be a way of warding off self-doubt - OK, maybe that wasn't so great, but wait till they hear the next one... The realisation that there really wasn't anything seriously wrong with his work - he really was good - may have tormented him even more.