Organisers of the V Festival today announced one of this year's headliners will be Muse.

The three-piece super group from Devon have signed an exclusive deal with V, making their appearances at Chelmsford's Hylands Park and Weston Park in Staffordshire their only European festival dates for 2008.

Fronted by Matthew Bellamy with Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard, the group have pretty much gone stratospheric in the last couple of years and are quite rightly regarded as one of the best live acts in the world today.

Following their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, the group have released three further studio albums, Origin of Symmetry, Absolution and the 2006 Mercury Music Award-nominated Black Holes and Revelations.

The latter finally cemented their prog rock, stadium anthemic sound.

Once again, Muse have been nominated in the Best Live Act category at this year's Brits awards, a gong they picked up in 2005 and 2007.

This year's headlining slot at V follows their barnstorming performance at the same festival in 2004 and previous sets at Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds.

In a break with tradition, the people behind this year's V are holding back the name of the other headlining act until nearer the on-sale date for tickets - so make sure you keep reading the Gazette for more details.

The 2008 V Festival will take place at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, over the weekend of August 16 and 17.

Tickets go on sale on March 7 at 10am and are available from the Civic Theatre box office in Fairfield Road, Chelmsford, in person or by calling 01245 606505.

They will also be available from the Gazette's Reader Travel service on 01268 270027.