On the way to News Of The World (from Freddie Mercury’s interview with Kes Baars for the Dutch magazine OOR; Frankfurt, May 15, 1977):

Kes Baars: Do you plan to repeat the scheme of the last two albums, with four months in the studio and the subsequent release of an excellently produced album?

Freddie Mercury: No, we’re not doing that anymore. When this tour ends (A Day At The Races Tour'77), we will have three months to record a new album, but we want to record it in two months, without much polishing and excessive use of sound effects.

By the way, our experience in the studio is so great now that we do not need to spend so much time recording polyphonic compositions or something like that. We don’t have a specific concept for the next album yet, but it’s going to be a hard and energetic album, with a few of Brian’s acoustic compositions and more piano parts than usual.

The album is expected to be released in October (October 28, 1977). This is very important in connection with Christmas: before the holiday albums are always sold well. And it’s kind of a tradition for Queen to release a new album at the end of the year.

Kes Baars: What do you think about the modern rock scene and what place does Queen occupy on it?

Freddie Mercury: There’s no rock scene now, is there? There hasn’t been any decent new stuff coming out in recent years, and the whole scene is still determined by the names that came out in the ’ 60s.

Queen is an important part of the music of the 70s, because for several years you have been constantly hearing or reading what some bands compare to us. If the group has a different style of music or she works with a well-balanced vocal, people will say that it looks like a Queen. This is a confirmation that we as a group have won our niche. I am very pleased with this, but we had to work hard.

(Kes Baars didn’t talk about punk bands that were ubiquitous in 1977. But he tried to provoke discussion).

Kes Baars: What about the debut album of a band like Boston? [in particular, More than a feeling]

Freddie Mercury: I only listened to them once. It’s a lot like Queen, isn’t it? Well produced, but nothing special. After all, the boy [Tom Scholz] seems to have been grinding these few songs for years in his studio.

Kes Baars: I think it’s a very good album after all.

Freddie Mercury: Ok, that’s your opinion. You know what it is, almost all American bands have been trying to imitate British bands for years, but they lack the style of British bands. Technically, everything is fine, but that doesn’t mean anything. There are a few exceptions, like Eagles and Aerosmith, which are limited to one direction, and I think these are decent bands. Eagles is a good example of a truly American band.

Photo by Jorgen Angel (Copenhagen, 13 may 1977)

Freddie Mercury’s experience with the press

(from an interview with Kes Baars for OOR magazine,Netherlands, May 1977)

Kes Baars: What is your experience with the press?

Freddie Mercury: The British press is using every opportunity to inflate the sensation. It’s been years since I last spoke to a British journalist. Everything you say is distorted to make the story as sensational as possible. And they ask stupid questions, like why I don’t paint my nails anymore, or why I say «darling» to an audience.

I no longer give interviews to the British music press. The worst of all is New Musical Express. As for the press outside England, I will say that I am very critical of interviews and rarely give them. I only want to talk to people who know music and can ask competent questions. If I want to talk to someone, I’ll pick an interviewer. Now I’ve only agreed to a couple of interviews because we haven’t played in continental Europe for more than 2.5 years.

Even in America, I only spoke to select journalists such as Mick Brown of Rolling Stone, Lisa Robinson, and Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times. But in General, I have a bad experience with the music press.

The album begins with the quasi-theme song «Play the Game», written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury in the style of a classic Queen piano ballad, with great rock elements. It all starts with spacey and shrieking synth sound effect before settling into the warm and delicate verse. Everyone in the group brings their «A» game to this track, as middle section blends the heavier rock elements led by May with some more wild synth effects. «Dragon Attack» was composed by May and is the first track built on pure textures, a practice which Queen would expand on later on this album and on later albums. The song features a slight drum solo by Roger Taylor before it reaches its heights with some wild, dueling guitars above the middle section with a unique arrangement that allows these guitars to creep in and totally invade the song’s core.

The hit song «Another One Bites the Dust» was composed by John Deacon and is largely built on his simple bass riff which was inspired by the contemporary group Chic. Later, the song takes on a funky element when May adds guitar in the second verse before it goes «pure disco» during a bridge which includes a simple dance beat strewn by various synth sound effects. The formula worked, as «Another One Bites the Dust» sold seven million copies as a single, reached the Top Ten in Britain, and became Queen’s second and final #1 hit in the United States.

Queen’s initial #1 hit is also on The Game, although it was released nearly a year earlier. «Crazy Little Thing Called Love» was written by Mercury as a tribute to the late Elvis Presley. This is also one of the few tracks in the Queen catalog where Mercury plays guitar, as he claimed he composed it in just ten minutes while strumming the few chords that he knew. This all worked out, as a rockabilly track with great style, rich harmonies, and a potent bass line and guitar riffing. Preceding the hit track in the album’s sequence is Deacon’s very pop-oriented «Need Your Loving Tonight», a bright and light tune driven by melody and produced with a much different approach than the more up-front and focused tracks on the album.

The second side commences with «Rock It (Prime Jive)», written by Taylor. This song is in two distinct parts, with Mercury crooning during the long intro and Taylor taking over during the new-wave influenced body of the song. While the song really doesn’t go anywhere from here, it is still intense and interesting enough in its upbeat approach. «Don’t Try Suicide» is a song that’s hard to peg. It does have some very cool sonic motifs throughout, but it is so extremely corny in its PSA-style message that it almost sounds like it should have reserved for a non-album project;

The album’s final three tracks were each recorded during the 1979 sessions. «Sail Away Sweet Sister» is a fine tune by May where the guitarist takes lead vocals and performs his most potent, harmonized guitar lead on the album. This song also features English folk elements and more great harmonies and production. Taylor’s, «Coming Soon» , is percussion driven with a stylistic blend somewhere between ELO and Cheap Trick, along with some heavy new wave elements to top it off. The album concludes with May’s «Save Me», which starts as a sad song of lament but soon launches into a dynamic theatrical piece. While Mercury is back on lead vocals, May played most of the instruments on the track including acoustic and electric guitars, piano and synthesizer. While not a big hit in the US, this album closer peaked at #11 on the UK Singles chart.

Source:http://www.classicrockreview.com/2015/01/1980-queen-the-game/

June 30, 1980

THE GAME

Release of «The Game» album (vinyl, compact cassette). 1 place in the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and the long-awaited top of the Billboard 200 chart in the USA. Fragments from the book written by Jackie Gunn and Jim Jenkins «As It Began»:

Queen spent the summer of 1979 (June-July) working on her new album, mostly at musicland studios in Munich. The usual way of working for the band was to come to the studio with concrete ideas and almost finished works; it was only necessary to bring them to mind, adding fullness of sound. This time they had very few preparations: no ready-made ideas, no half-made songs, only vague sketches. They had to create every song from scratch. They now collaborated with new producer Reinhold Mack (better known simply as «Mack»). In parallel, they began working on the soundtrack to the film «Flash Gordon». It was not easy to record two albums at the same time.

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The recording for the new album and the soundtrack for the film was also done in early 1980 (several sessions from February to May). The band again worked in Munich, deciding that musically it was a very inspiring place; they were also interested in the nightlife of the Bavarian capital.

It was at this time that Freddie decided to change his appearance, cut a thick mane of black hair, which caused a strong anger of many fans. In 1980, after the release of the video to Play The Game, he angered them even more by letting go of the mustache and finally giving up the nail polish. The result was not long in coming: the group’s offices were flooded with mountains of razors and bottles of varnish.

June 30, 1980 started an American tour, and on the same day in the UK went on sale the game, the ninth album of the group (if count Live Killers; approx.). He immediately soared to the top of the British charts, which did not prevent NME to make a scathing criticism:

«Old izezzhena corny, and they like wearing blinkers. Purring from self-gratification.»

However, the sounds inflamed them with love, typing the first lines of the review in capital letters:

«I LOVE QUEEN, LOVE QUEEN… This album hits the bull’s-eye, it’s as good as winning men’s singles at Wimbledon.»

Synthesizers were involved in the process of creating the album. John explained the situation: «We just wanted to test the latest studio equipment. But in general, we are always ready to try something new or unusual while recording. The synthesizers were already quite advanced at that Time, compared to the early Moog, which produced only a few strange sounds. The synthesizers that we used could play all kinds of sounds and instruments, it was possible to create a full-fledged sound of the whole symphony orchestra by simply pressing a button. Unbelievable!»

They created a «new sound» upset some old fans who would never have thought that the group is interested in electronic music, but Freddie said that the Queen should not engage in self-deception, it’s time to keep up with the times. After the release of the album, which won first place in the UK charts (for the third time in their career), the group has a lot of new fans.

White Queen

«I wrote it in College, where I led a relatively quiet life, although studying at the University as a whole was quite intense!

I read the White Goddess by Robert Graves, who explored in his book the role of the idealized image of the Diva / Mother / Queen - a figure in art based on historical facts.

And the decision to call «Queen» our band, which came around the same time, fit in perfectly - was one of the reasons to go with that name further.

The personal side of writing associated with the girl (of course!), which I saw every day in College, and she was for me a real goddess. It’s incredible in retrospect, but because I was so in awe of her, I never found the courage to speak to her, not even to speak to her, in three years…

The song came on tape much later, on our second album («Queen ll», 1974.)»

– Brian May

40 years ago, on June 22, 1979, Queen released their first live album. Live Killers rose to 3rd place on the UK charts, gaining gold status.

Album songs taken from different concerts of the European tour of Jazz, held from January to March 1979. Individual tracks don’t sound in the original live performance: they either consist of fragments from different concerts (up to three or four per song) or contain a studio overlay.

The album didn’t include a few songs of the standard track list of European concerts: Somebody To Love, it’s Late, If You can’t Beat Them and Fat Bottomed Girls.

The live version of Love of My Life, which became the hallmark of all subsequent concerts of the group up to the present day, was released a single just before the album (Studio recording is not released even on the b-sides of singles).

Not having achieved much success in the UK charts, this live LOML, however, became the No. 1 hit in Brazil and Argentina (in the charts of the latter lasted a year) after Queen’s tour of Latin America in 1981.

A faster version of We Will Rock You from the beginning of the concert was also released as a single in the US and Japan.

«Freddie could write a thing in twenty minutes. Before he appeared in the studio, he had only one line in his head. But in the process work came the rest. It was amazing. I got along exceptionally well with Freddie. I loved working with genius. He had an amazing perception of music. But I was fascinated not only by his musical talent. He was a great guy, very attentive. He was genuinely interested in me, my family and children.»

– Reinhold Mack is a German producer and sound engineer.

Mercury and Reinhold Mack met in 1979, when Queen were recorded in Munich in one of the most legendary studios – «The Musicland». Mack was amazed at the speed with which Mercury worked. It took him only six hours to write a potpourri of rock and roll.

June 1, 1982

Single release of Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love) on 7" vinyl. B-Side – Cool Cat. In the UK chart single spent 8 weeks, the highest position – the 17th.

The song was written by Brian May, who was deeply impressed by the warm welcome of Latin American fans in February-March 1981 (Argentina, Brazil). Since Brian studied Spanish a little bit, he picked up a few words in Spanish for the new song to create something similar to the 1976 Teo Torriatte for Japanese fans.

It was with Las Palabras De Amor Queen that they performed for the last (15th) time on Top of the Pops (recorded on June 9, 1982, aired on June 17). However, during the life of Freddie Mercury, Queen did not play the song live, except for a few introductory chords played by Brian on a 12-string acoustic guitar at a concert in Milton Keynes June 5, 1982, before the beginning of Love Of My Life.

The first full live performance of Las Palabras De Amor took place on April 20, 1992 at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness. Queen performed it with the Italian singer Zucchero. The song was later included on the 2008 rock the Cosmos Tour setlist (for Spain and Latin America).

7 years later, in 2015, during another visit to Chile, Roger Taylor in an interview with the local newspaper La Tercera said:

«When we first came to South America, we unfortunately could not visit Chile, but we performed in Brazil and Argentina. I remember that Brian was very inspired by the fantastic reception of Latin Americans, and we decided to write a song with the choir in Spanish as an expression of gratitude, because you can’t just sing in English all the time.

The audience was very hot and sincere. We saw the enthusiasm with which they sing along to our songs, and wanted to express in this way the return courtesy.»

May 14, 1977

Queen concert in Festhalle, Frankfurt.

Freddie Mercury on the Frankfurt concert and the European tour A Day At The Races (excerpts from an interview with KES Baars for the Dutch magazine OOR; Frankfurt, May 15, 1977):

Kes Baars: Last night [at a concert in Frankfurt] I noticed quite a lot of parents with children of different ages. Many parents just put their children on their shoulders.

Freddie Mercury: Great. Real proof of what we’ve always wanted: to reach as many people as possible with our music. By the way, I also noticed. First time on open air in Cardiff last summer. Then I everywhere I saw children on the shoulders of parents.

Kes Baars: it’s obvious that now you’ve managed to reach too large an audience, with the result that only a few people love all your songs.

Freddie Mercury: There is. But this is the only way: to play in a variety of musical styles, so that you as a group could not hang a label. It happened at first. Many journalists considered us a teenage or heavy band with a focus on vocals. In fact, we were neither. Of course, we had songs that could be attributed to a particular direction. Now, fortunately, not so.

Kes Baars: Why is there no warm-up on this European tour?

(Freddie is silent for a moment, pretending to think.)

Freddie Mercury: In any career there comes a stage when you can no longer do it. Our show was such a bright and spectacular event that it would be inappropriate to work with the opening. Besides, it takes too much time: our concert goes on for more than two hours, and since we have very young fans, the evening will end too late for them. Soon our show will go even longer due to even more effects.

At the moment we are working on the integration of the video in the show, and there are still a lot of ideas. Hopefully, when we play at Earl’s Court this summer, a new stage will be ready (approx. – will). We believe that these two London shows will be a kind of run-in for the American tour, which will start on October 11 and will again take three to four months.

After that, I hope I’ll be free for a while. I have a beautiful home, but I hardly ever go there. Everywhere in the world, especially in Japan, I buy antique furniture and paintings, and I don’t even know what they look like. But that’s life.

Live photos of Queen: Frankfurt, May 14, 1977 (taken by Peter Staecker):

May 10-11, 1985

From May 6 to 16, 1985 – The Works Tour in Japan. After two concerts at the famous stadium «Budokan» in Tokyo, the group moves the show to the capital’s sports arena Yoyogi National Gymnasium, where 2 great shows are held on May 10 and 11.

May 11 concert is broadcast throughout Japan on television and radio, one of the most “«bootlegged» concerts in Queen’s career. The official release of We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan was first released on VHS in Japan in 1992 and reissued there on DVD in 2004 («Final Live» is still quite conditional; after the concert in Tokyo, there were still Queen concerts with Freddie in Nagoya and Osaka).

May 7–11, 1974

Six Queen appearances in new York city, at the URIs Theatre Broadway (now The Gershwin Theatre), as the opening band Mott the Hoople. The audience is about 2000 people. Fragments from the book Jackie Gunn and Jim Jenkins «As It Began»:

«From May 7 to 11, 1974, Mott and Queen had scheduled concerts in New York City, at the Uris Theatre on Broadway, where rock concerts had never been held before! The owners of the theater were slightly alarmed by the upcoming events, but promoter Ron Delsener reassured them, and all six concerts were completely sold out.

Unfortunately, the theater suffered little damage, because some viewers extinguished cigarette butts directly on the carpet. However, Ron inspected the room before the first concert, counted all the existing holes from cigarette butts, and after the concert again walked through the rows for the same purpose, so that the group was fined only for new damage to the coating.

On May 11, at the last concert, during a gala performance with Mott (performed, of course, by All The Young Dudes), Brian, who had not been feeling well for the past few days, suddenly lost consciousness. He was forced to go to the hospital in Boston before the next concert. The band was looking forward to hearing about Brian’s health to decide whether to cancel the shows or not. The doctors were adamant: they should cancel the concerts not only in Boston, but also the whole American tour, because Brian has viral hepatitis!

Brian recalls: «The first day I woke up at Parker House in Boston, I felt like my whole body was filled with lead, I tried to eat a grapefruit on a friend’s advice to be in shape, literally dragged myself to the bathroom mirror and saw that I was turning yellow! Suddenly, our dream of conquering America came to an end. I felt guilty, as if I had let everyone down, they took me and put me on a plane back to Britain, where I was bedridden for six weeks! And that was just the beginning!..»

Elektra Records contacted all the people who contacted Brian to make sure everyone was vaccinated against hepatitis, which meant that all the other Queen members, all journalists, Mott The Hoople, tour managers, roadie and many others were interviewed. The label received extensive information from the doctors at the hospital, where the group was vaccinated before leaving for Australia. The conclusion was unambiguous: Brian was infected when using a dirty syringe or needle, which caused all subsequent problems with his hand, which bothered him since January 1974. Mott The Hoople continued the tour, replacing Queen with the canadian band Kansas.»

Many years later, Roger recalled: «Poor Brian was yellow, bright yellow, and I was amazed at how we managed to get him through the check-in queue at Kennedy airport in New York. The poor man could hardly stand, we put him on a plane, took him home, then took him to the hospital. He was sick. We were devastated. You know, the tour was interrupted because it was our first trip to America, so we had mixed feelings about it, but on the other hand, we were very worried about Brian…».

Photos from the concerts May 7 to 11, 1974 in New York:

Mary Austin about their first meeting with Freddie:

«Freddie and I were introduced by Brian may at a band meeting when they were trying to come up with a name. Freddie proposed to call the group «Queen», and Brian – «Built Your Own Boat». It was at Brian’s house in Barnes.

Remember, Freddie was solid black hair that gave him the appearance of the gallant; he relied on the mantel-board. He was very proud of his new white shoes. Suddenly he turned to me and asked me what I thought of the names. I said, «I think the Brian Built Your Own Boat». But Freddie did it his way, as he did most of the time, and they called themselves «Queen.»

Although he looked very menacing, I found myself fascinated by this musician of artists, something resembling a wild beast. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. He was very confident, and I always lacked confidence. We started dating. I really liked it, and it all started from there»

«Freddie was madly in love with life and did not want to lose a minute. Freddie valued every moment and didn’t want it to go to waste. That’s it, briefly, but that’s how I remember him. A man who appreciates every moment.»

– Brian May

«Somewhere in the middle of the Father To Son has a place, when all of a sudden breaks the whole army of guitars. And I remember the first time I heard that, I thought I heard a whole orchestra of guitars. That’s what I’ve been dreaming about ever since I first heard Jeff Beck perform Hi Ho Silver Lining.»

–Brian May

+ photos for the interview:

EMI party in Rotterdam; April 20, 1978.

Queen and Lisa Robinson at EMI party in Rotterdam; April 20, 1978.

Brian May: Enlightened Monarch

Author: Sacha Reins (Best, №118, May 1978)

It’s no secret I’m a Queen fan. So I volunteered for an interview. Now, after a few weeks, when the interview took place, I admit the obvious: these young people have their own cockroaches.

[Sacha Reins, 70s]

It was a series of last-minute and appointed interviews that were cancelled under strange pretexts.

The sirs took a star. On the Sunday before the concert in Paris, their press agent told me to stay at home on the phone, and as soon as one of these gentlemen is ready for an interview, I will call, and I will immediately have to come. What was I supposed to do, send them away?

Then there’s this ridiculous party. On the night of the second concert in the hall of a chic restaurant in their honor was a party where they were handed gold discs.

The group arrived … and locked in a private office, so they wouldn’t be disturbed.

Queen is constantly surrounded by a team of security guards-bodyguards-managers who systematically block the group.

As soon as you manage to overcome this dam, you come across charming guys who pretend to be surprised to see you furious at being treated like pigs. They know nothing! I don’t believe that.

Queen, in fact, suffer from a complex of Rolling Stones. Like the Stones, they want to be chased by hordes of crazy fans. Alas, this is not so, they are part of a well-known group, but individually do not cause delight in the crowd. And so to create an illusion … they surround themselves with a whole retinue and security service, as useless as grotesque.

An interview with Brian May took place one day in Zurich. In the evening I had to attend their concert and then have dinner with them. The interview ended, I took my things, called a taxi and went to the airport to go home. I’m tired of their antics. Brian May was very courteous, but his entourage certainly sucks.

Monarchy

– Are you satisfied with your Paris concerts?

Yes, very. For us, these shows were held in a very special way. We were beginning to think we were banned from France. None of our recordings were sold here until We Are The Champions. And as soon as this single was a success, we said, well, it’s time to go. The first night we were very nervous. We have been told so many times that the Paris audience is one of the most difficult in the world! We were very careful the first night, almost closed, and I think the audience felt it. The second night was completely different: contact had already been established.

– I attended this concert, and several times you made me think of Led Zeppelin because of the music and the peculiar interaction between you and Mercury.

– This is not the first time when we are compared with LZ in one or another plane. In fact, I think there was a lot more common ground between Queen and LZ a few years ago when we started. But now we have moved away from this form of hard rock, we have developed our own harmonies, a style that belongs only to us. However, LZ and we follow similar routes because, forming as musicians, we were influenced by the same people.

– Is there any stage rivalry between you and Mercury?

– No, we are too close, we know each other too well, we had too many common problems. Freddie is the natural point of attraction of the group, and it’s good that he realizes his charisma in this way.

The first person the viewer watches will always be the lead singer and then the guitarist. Therefore, it would be foolish to try to fight with Freddie for power on stage. Especially since he’s a fantastic showman.

– No leader in the group?

– No. Whenever we make a decision, whether it’s our business or music, we meet all four of us together, have a long conversation, and then decide what we’re going to do.

We complement each other. Specifically, John Deacon deals with money. Roger Taylor is responsible for our communications with the outside world, I mean the outside world in relation to Queen.

– In this sense, I found that your behavior in Paris was a little strange. All of these appointed and revoked by the miserable occasions interview. This ultra-twitch security that has built a wall around you. This ridiculous party, when you took a private office with a thug at the door, which blocked access to other guests. As if journalists or promoters were going to attack you! It was all very strange.

– For our image well, that we look as excessively guarded and hard-to-reach group. So even more people will be interested in us. As for the party, I don’t remember it very well.

Equipment

– Keep going. Who gave you the idea of this light installation?

– Nobody, we developed it a year ago with the help of our engineer Jerry Stickels.

– So she came before «Close encounters of the third degree»?

– Long time. So this similarity between the spaceship from the movie and our glowing crown is very strange. Americans were struck by this similarity. We receive many letters on this subject.

– You have a lot of stage equipment. This is a device that endlessly reproduces the sound of the guitar, have you been using it for a long time?

– Since 1972. It was necessary for us from the very beginning, but we had no money, we were able to buy it only in 72-m. This is a rather complex device. It took me a long time to learn how to handle it properly, and I also changed it so that it could play two different sounds indefinitely. Now I know it perfectly and can use it to play harmonies, counterpoints, chords.

[Vintage 1970’s Maestro Echoplex EP-4 Solid State Tape Delay]

The trickiest thing is to perfectly tune the scene so I can hear exactly how the sound goes and comes back. If for some reason it is hard to hear what is happening, it is a disaster because I do not know how often to put a refund. But this has not happened for a long time, because now we have everything we need on stage.

We are sometimes criticized for the fortune we have invested in our equipment. This kind of criticism is quite inappropriate, because if we spend so much money on equipment, it’s all for the audience to be satisfied, both visually and musically.

You see, we’re interested in being able to play back what we’re doing on the record. Complex harmonies and all that. But there are only four of us. We need the help of electronics, so Freddie and I are using these devices with endless echoes. We don’t want to play pre-recorded tracks like some bands do. We don’t think it’s fair.

– But you use the entry in Bohemian Rhapsody…

– Yeah, but that’s different. The BR passage you are referring to is a complete reproduction of a studio recording. We recorded this song as an Opera. Each of us sang about twenty different parts to reproduce exactly one big classical choir. It is absolutely impossible to perform on stage. We tried it a few times, but it sounded really bad compared to the album version, so we decided to play a pre-recorded Opera passage. But to avoid any doubts or misunderstandings, we give these recordings in complete darkness and do not appear until the hard rock part, which we play live. It’s more honest.

– Where do you get all these classical and Baroque allusions that your music is filled with?

– I don’t know, because none of us have any real classical foundations. I think that all this comes from the depths of our childhood memories, when our parents listened to waltzes on the radio, brass bands in parks on dundays. It must have come from there.

– Your latest album, News Of The World, doesn’t have enough references to Baroque.

– Yeah. We went back to pure hard rock. Without excesses. We’ve come a long way in the Baroque style, a cross between Opera and rock, and I don’t think we could have been more successful than with A Night At The Opera. That’s why we came back to more unpretentious music.

– A Night At The Opera sold best, so don’t you think you’ve disappointed a large audience who liked these musical tricks?

– We always disappoint someone, no matter what we do. When we started working with the Baroque style, we disappointed our first fans who loved us for our pure hard rock.

– They say you don’t take vacations.…

– Yes, we work hard. Every year we lock ourselves in the studio for two or three months, then we go on a two-month American tour, then we spend two months in Europe, two months in Japan and Australia, and when it’s over, it’s time to go back to the studio for the next album. We have been living in this rhythm for five years.

– Bands like Queen and all the major British bands we’ve seen in recent years have been getting more and more stage equipment. Now everyone has lasers, bizarre scenes, smoke generators, etc. When will this arms race end?

– Never. Show business will always follow with interest the development of technology in all that relates to audiovisual information, and use it to create even more pompous, beautiful and impressive shows. However, there is a very clear reaction from part of the public (I’m talking about the rock audience), especially in the UK, where most young people want the bands to return to the adequate stage art as it was ten years ago.

I don’t mind, but here we are faced with a mathematical impossibility. To play without assistive devices, you will have to work in small halls, even in clubs where your creative energy is in direct contact with your audience. There really is no need for a rotating stage and smoke, everyone is in direct contact with the music. But the famous band will no longer be able to play in small halls.

[News Of The World Tour]

Look at Paris, in two days we performed in front of 18,000 people. In a hall with two thousand seats we would have to play for everyone nine days in a row and eighteen days – in the club. At this rate, it will take us ten years to travel around the world, it is unthinkable. That is the only way to have time everywhere – to play in the huge halls (and believe me, Pavillon de Paris – not the biggest).

[Pavillon de Paris (aka Les Abattoirs de la Villette – “Slaughterhouse in La Villette”); as a concert hall for about 10,000 spectators, the building was used from 1975 to 1980.]

Now, about the question you asked me. I don’t know how or when it will end, but I know what the next step is: holography. A hologram is a three - dimensional photo projection in space. It will be possible to create incredible scenery, in a second to project the Grand Canyon of Colorado or skyscrapers of New York in 3D, creating the illusion of full presence. The basic principles are developed, but everything else is still in the process of testing for wide application.

Fantasia

– What about Sex Pistols?

– It’s a band that we really like (“we” means Queen) and I’m really sorry that they broke up. But it was almost inevitable.

– Why?

– They were under too much pressure. The British music press (the worst in the world) has made the lives of these guys unbearable, making them both heroes and scapegoats. The British press, to keep circulation, so needs in stars, that fabricates new names for couple of months. And an ordinary boy is not easy to survive the rapid transformation from a young nerd to a star. Most young talents don’t know how to handle it. If by a Fluke they stay on the horse and become really popular stars, then the same press that inflated the whole story, smears them on the wall, because it feels that they are out of control and will be able to do without her support.

The British press is destructive, and Sex Pistols is not the first victim. We had a chance to succeed without the press. When we started, we were not written about, and when it did happen, the whole thing was limited to three contemptuous lines. As a result, we were able to gradually and without their help to gain the trust of the public.

– How long will you stay together?

– Hard to say. At the moment, everything is fine, we get along well, we are famous all over the world. Why run away?

– Do you see yourself on the rock scene in forty years?

– Perhaps by that time our music will develop in another direction. Maybe we’ll have other ambitions. Personally, I am always guided by some achievable goal, to conquer France, for example. Or something like that. Make a full house in Madison Square Garden or Earl’s Court.

If one day we reach the point where all desires are fulfilled, because we have already achieved everything, it will become a serious problem. That’s what happens to Elton John.

Everything he could wish for, he had already received. He was not destined to become more famous or rich. He can only go down, because already at the top. He is unhappy because life cannot give him anything new. I don’t want to be in this position.

– You wanted to conquer the French public, and you did it. Got a new target?

To lose the French public, so that there is a goal to return it. No, I’m kidding, to compose music so beautiful that animators could create on its basis at least the same beautiful cartoon as Fantasia. And finally take a vacation. Long vacation.

Source:http://queenfrance.online.fr/htm/presse/article3.htm

Translated from French: @gefuhl-des-zweifels

«You Take My Breath Away, I recorded myself, I kind of ‘multiplied’ myself. So the others didn’t participate in the vocal recording. I played the piano and don’t know how we managed to make it so easy with all our multiple vocal overlays and re-recordings. People think we’re too complicated, but that’s not true. It really depends on each individual track, if it requires it, then we do it. So it’s quite rare for Queen and by our standards.»

– Freddie Mercury

About the video for the song «I Want to Break Free» (The Works, 1984, written by John Deacon)

The clip was completed on May 4 (the first stage of filming took place on March 22) 1984 at Limehouse Studios (London), directed by David Mallet. The budget was around £100,000. The video was intended as a parody of the TV series ITV «Coronation Street». The idea was suggested by Roger Taylor (according to some sources, his girlfriend): «We wanted to show that we can still laugh at ourselves. I think we’ve proven that.»

Musicians have used images, a well-known actor on the series: Brian May like Hilda Ogden (actress Jean Alexander), Freddie Mercury as Beth Lynch (actress Julie Goodyea). Lynch in the film was a blonde, but Freddie decided that in the role of a blonde he would look stupid and chose the image of a brunette. It is likely that Roger and John are most visually consistent characters – Sally Webster (actress Sally Whittaker) and Minnie Caldwell (actress Kathleen Bryant).

The choreography of the ballet part of the clip was performed by Freddie Mercury’s friend Wayne Igling, the soloist of the Royal Ballet. Especially for filming in the role of V. Nijinsky in the image of the Faun (ballet «L'après-midi d'un faune») Mercury shaved his signature mustache. Rehearsals were not agreed with the management of the Royal Ballet, which subsequently led to some trouble for Igling.

It is known that MTV refused to show the clip, not accepting British humor. Roger commented on the refusal: «MTV’s management probably felt that the clip of the women’s clothing did not correspond to the general public’s ideas about rock musicians. Then on the channel were only Whitesnake, Whitesnake again, and again … Whitesnake!» And Brian May added: «I think at this point we lost America…»

The image created by Freddie Mercury in the video became very popular and was used in concert performances of the group. Lisa Stansfield performed the song «I want to break free» in 1992 at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert in this image.

***

«Coronation Street» (1960-2017) – the longest soap opera in the UK tells about the life of ordinary inhabitants of Coronation Street in the small town of Weatherfield. Against the background of an idyllic picture — representatives of the working class, ordinary people with different fates. They love and hate, meet and break up, succeed and fall to the bottom. Their many vicissitudes of life, full of humor and drama.