This is an interview with Brian May, recorded just prior to the release of "A Kind of Magic". The interview was transcribed from a limited edition coloured vinyl LP, published by Tabak Marketing Limited in 1990 for BAKTABAK. The LP number is BAK 6014, and the ISBN number is 5017744240147.
Copyright (C) 1990, Tabak Marketing Limited, reproduced without permission.
Have fun. Greg <- in Australia.
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Interviewer) The new record that Queen has out is from the film. What different approach do you use when it comes to writing for films as opposed to just writing for records? How does your song writing approach differ?
Brian) Well, I'd better say something quickly before we get into this, and that is that the album isn't really a soundtrack album. It started off, a lot of the ideas come from the movie, but really, once the movie was delivered, once the film was out of the way we just concentrated on making it a Queen album.
Right. Now to answer your question [laughs]. We actually enjoy it a lot. I think that all of us would agree that although we are used to getting our own way and that we like to make our own albums, when a film comes along that we really get fired up by, if we get inspired by it, it's a very good starting point, because instead of reaching inside yourself and putting things out, you're being directly inspired by something. It's like having someone sticking things into you and producing a reaction, it's no problem.
We saw, I think, 20 minutes of the "Highlander" film before it was finished, and we all went out going "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can hear this, I can hear this", and we all had songs in our heads from that point. I wrote the love song that I wrote for the movie in the car coming home from that first showing, because I was so inspired, so ignited by what I saw. So it's easy.
The first stage is great, because you have all your ideas from outside. The hard bit is when you have to fit the music in detail to the action. You come against all sorts of problems, and things you think might work don't work. Very often things which you would almost throw away, you suddenly find work perfectly with a particular piece of the film.
We spent, I s'pose, three or four months just working on particular passages in the film. The problem was compounded by the fact that they kept changing the film while we were doing it. So it's like trying to pin the tail on a moving donkey. But really there are these two stages. In the initial stage it's great because you get this inspiration from outside. No problem, you don't even feel responsible for what you're doing, it just flows out. Then the final bit is just sheer hard graft, getting that stuff done. It was a relief to get the stuff on that piece of celluloid, get it finished and done. That was about six weeks ago I guess. From that point on we said "OK, the films done, great, fine. Now we'll make an album." And that's what happened. We used some of the ideas from the film, and some other ideas which came from completely different places.
Interviewer) Russel Mulcahy was involved for some parts of the project. How did you get on with Russel?
Brian) Very, very well, yes. He's a brave man actually because we met him very briefly in London, then he came out with us to Munich where we were doing some demos for the film, on his own and just pitched himself in with us. That was quite a brave thing to do. Not many people can actually get away with that, because we're a sealed unit, and if anyone comes along it's hard for them to fit in, but it was great. He was there, he pitched in ideas, he argued with us, talked to us, got drunk with us. It worked out very well, and I think that's a major part of why the whole project worked for us, we were in tune with him.
It turns out we were always an admirer of his work. We've been associated with videos from way back, we did some of the very first videos. Russel is also one of the best known names and it was always strange that we never worked with him before. So this seemed natural that finally we were working with this guy, 'cause we both came from the same place, in a way.
I) You said about the group being very much a closed unit. Now, "One Vision" the song was, correct me if I'm wrong, that was the first song you'd written all together, is that right?
B) Yes it was really, unless you go back years and years ago to things like "Stone Cold Crazy", which came out of the whole of us. But yeah, that was an unusual event. We all had bits of ideas and we hammered it out of all the things we put together. It was very much a group effort. I like it a lot, actually, but it wasn't one of our most commercially successful pieces.
I) I think you said it took the cake at Live Aid, though. (Note from Greg <- in Australia: I know One Vision was after Live Aid, but I'm sure that's what he said!)
B) Live Aid was great for us, everything worked right.
I) A lot of people said that U2 took it, but I think the consensus would have to be that Queen showed that they're a good musical group.
B) It was nice for us, at least we were able to show that we can play without the icing on the cake. We didn't have our show, but we could play OK. Yeah, it was a good time. I think everyone was there, including us, for the right reasons. I'll never forget that day, it was wonderful.
I) Besides the songs from "Highlander" on the new album, what are some of the other songs? What are they about? Can you say anything about them?
B) Freddie's written a song called "Friends Will be Friends", and I think Freddie and John worked on it together. It's something which I took to heart very much as well because it's kind of traditional Queen sound. It has this... If you can remember "We are The Champions" or "Play The Game", it's in that kind of mould, it has all the Queen trademarks. And yet it's a new song and a new idea, and that's something I instantly related to. Very nice, very good track. It sounds very complete.
There's a song called "Pain Is So Close To Pleasure" which I started off, and I think again John and Freddie worked together on it. That's really sort of a motown sounding track, very unusual for us.
"One Vision" is on there also, There's a track called "Don't Lose Your Head", which Roger wrote around one of the riffs which was used in the film. There's a song called "The Prize", and that is a song which is based around the Kurgan's theme, which... The Kurgan is the bad guy in the "Highlander" movie, and I wrote this piece for him, and then once the film was out of the way I was able to make it into a complete song.
Then there's "Princes Of The Universe", which is the title track of the movie, even though the movie isn't called that. Should've been actually [laughs]. I think it's a better title than "Highlander". A lot of people get the wrong idea from the title, they think it's just a film about Scot farmers or something. We told them that they should call it "The Immortals", because that's what it was about. It's about this group of immortals who are battling each other from the 15th century in Scotland up to 20th century New York when the film climaxes.
It's a very good film by the way, I think. Very dramatic, very heavy and also has a very nice romantic subplot. There was a song which was written for that called "Who Wants To Live Forever." The hero of the movie discovers in his first battle that he can't die, and unfortunately he finds that he falls in love with this girl, and everybody tells him that it's a bad idea if they stay together because eventually she must grow old and die, and he won't.
But nevertheless he does, he stays with her and she does grow old and she dies in his arms and she says "I never understood why you stayed with me" and he says "I see you just the same as I saw you when I first met you" and she's old and she's dying. I was very moved by that and I wrote this song called "Who Wants To Live Forever (When Love Must Die)." That's another part of the movie.
Then there's a song called "One Year Of Love" which John wrote, and that was written around a different romantic interest. It's about the Highlander as he is in the 20th century when he's just about to fall in love again, even though he said he wouldn't - har-har! That's a romantic song too.
I'm trying to think what else there is... That's most of it.
I) Who produced the album, was it all Queen?
B) Yes we did but with the help of Mack, who is our co-producer for the last two to three albums. Also with the help of David Richards, who is a new face in a way, except that he's been our in-house engineer in Montreux Mountain Studios, which are our studios, and he really came into his own on this. He did most of the work that related directly to the film, and did a wonderful job. Very bright young man.
I) You've all got numerous solo outlets for expression, besides Queen. Do you think those solo things are essential to the health of Queen as a band?
B) Yes I think they are, I think they're a very bloodletting process. They release the frustration which all of us feel because we can only have 25% of our own way in this beast called Queen. I think it's very important that we all get out and do our own stuff now and again.
I) Besides your guitar project, what else have you been doing?
B) I produced a group called Heavy Pettin', I produced their first album but not their second. I think that we'd both had enough of each other after the first album [laughs].
And then mostly I've been producing my kids. I have two little children and my primary concern is to make sure they're brought up right. So the time I've had available I've jealously guarded and I've tried to spend it home while they're growing up.
I) With the video for "Princes Of The Universe", I believe Christopher Lambert also appears in that. Now is that from the movie or is that something extra.
B) No, he came along and made the video with us. It was a lot of fun. He's great, A very nice guy.
I) Did you see "Subway"?
B) No. I still haven't. I saw "Greystoke". No I haven't seen "Subway", I hear it's very good.
I) It's very good.
B) I like him a lot. I think he's great, very good.
I) "Subway" to me is almost like a 90 minute rock video.
B) I haven't seen that, I would like to... Have you seen "Round"
I) No, but I heard it's the most blood thirsty thing in the world. B) Oh it's great, it's just... You gotta see it. Sorry.
I) You played Sun City in South Africa a few years ago.
B) Yes we did. We stirred up a whole hornets nest of controversy.
I) What's the current thinking from the Queen camp about return visits or the attitude to South Africa and apartheid?
B) OK, the current thing is that we said we won't go back until this regime is gone. That's in response to what everyone else has said. We went there, and we're not ashamed of the fact that we went there. It would be very easy to say "OK, we made a mistake. Sorry" and all that stuff, but that's not really the truth.
The truth is we thought very carefully about going and we considered that it was right because for the first time we were going to be able to play to non-segregated audiences, which we did, and it's absolutely true, whether people believe it or not.
I was there, I saw it with my own eyes, I know what happened. We feel that by going there and by stating very clearly our point of view, which was that we were utterly opposed to apartheid, that we did a lot more to accelerate the end of that way of thinking in South Africa than many people have done by staying away.
I know it's a very unpopular thing to say, probably, but it's the way we feel, and that's the truth. We've been there, we've seen it, we've talked to people of all races there and we feel that, well know for a fact that a lot of people who were there feel that it was right for us to go. It's kind of special for us, because we've been selling records in South Africa for a long time, but not just to the white part of South Africa. We've been selling records to the black community, particularly "Another One Bites The Dust" and "I Want To Break Free", which became like an anthem for the human rights people down there. So we feel very close to the people who are fighting for their rights there.
By going there we feel like we helped them, and I know a lot of them there feel the same way. I can go on about t for a long time because it's something I feel very strongly about.
Nevertheless, we've now had so much pressure from people, the UN committee, Little Steven and all his friends, that it's better to stay away that we've said "OK, we'll go along with you, we'll do it your way", and we've said we won't go back.
I just pray that it's the right way. I think in my heart I'm not convinced that it's gonna do, that it's gonna be the best way to achieve the end which we all want to achieve. All I can say is that our aims are all the same, we just have slightly different ways of going about it.
I) I think without going there, though, people very much think it's all a black and white situation. It's not, there's 16 shades of gray, and people don't realise that until they get there.
B) That's right. That's right. That's so true, yeah. I would challenge so many of the people who come up with this very glib thing "OK we'll boycott the bastards. We're right, they're wrong." I would challenge them to go there and find out the real situation and then come back and say the same thing.
Of course apartheid is wrong. Of course the present situation produces a lot of misery, but how do you go about bringing about the change? I'm not convinced that this isolation policy is right and I'm not convinced a cultural boycott has ever achieved a change of internal attitude in a country. I don't think there's any examples in history where this worked.
I think all you do is tend to make people more bitter and more entrenched in their own opinions. Anyway, that's what I think.
I) Now onto some cheerful topics.
B) Yes-Yes-Yes
I) The album. In what way do you feel that it's a progression over the previous album?
B) It's a bit early for me to be able to answer that question. I can't really see it in perspective yet. I can only see it as a bunch of songs that we did, the same as I always see the album when we've finished.
I've no idea what people will think about. I think we are gradually improving as musicians, I think we play our instruments better that we used to, truthfully. I think we have a bit more taste in the way that they're applied. I think we have a better overview of what we're doing in relation to how people see us.
You have to because people are all the time telling us what they think of us. Now, that in some ways is a good thing, and in some ways it can create difficulties. I listen to those first three or four albums that we did and they were done in great naiveté.
They were just flowing out of some young boys who had some ideas. Although they're very imperfect in many ways, I like them because they have this unselfconscious drive about them. What we're doing now, we have to be kind of self-conscious about them because we know what's happened with us and we know what's happened to us.
We still think the same about each other, but it's hard to separate the cause from the event, you know what I'm saying? We're all thinking "Well what are people gonna think of us?" and "What's this gonna be like once it's out there?" and "How are we gonna do this on stage?" and it's a...
I) So you're saying you actually think more about how the end songs are going to turn out than you did before.
B) I think we do, yes I think we do, and I don't know whether it does us any good or not, to be honest. It's there and it can't be taken away.
I) You would never take, or would you think if you just sort of put out something that you didn't put much thought into, thinking about all the various aspects: the video and how it would sound on stage , if you just sought of... Don't you think that that is perhaps just a little too calculating?
B) Well, if I was on me own I would, and that's what the Starfleet thing was about. I did it because I liked it, and I put it out because some people liked it and that was it. But with the four of us, we have such different tastes anyway that most things get torn to pieces before they ever reach the point were they're on a piece of plastic.
So things can't be ill-considered. Generally if somebody writes a song and the other three hate it then they will either chuck it out or else they will work on as a band until we reach something which we all think is acceptable. So that it can't be totally spontaneous. Having said that, we're aware of the value of spontaneous performances. We try and keep the bits of, the magical moments which happen in the studio, and get them all on the album.
But that's not quite the same thing. A Queen album by the time it comes out has been quite carefully crafted. You can call it calculated but you can also call it caring about your creation. It's like... I don't know how a painter behaves when he's putting together a picture, but my impression is that there will be a moment of inspiration when he knows his direction, he'll get going on it. Most times he'll spend a lot of time making sure he's got the maximum out of his idea. That's what we're like. We don't like to let it go until we think we've rung all the potential out of it.
I) You don't think, at this stage you'll get to the point where you'll say "I'm sick of Queen. I've just had enough"?
Q) I very often get to that point, very, very often. Particularly at album making time. It's so frustrating to be able to get 25% of your own way and that's all. It's continually a problem for us all, and we fight a lot and we push and we push. But I still think it's worth staying within the group, somehow, because it has a certain kind of chemistry which works.
I) So the whole is greater than the sum of the parts?
B) Yes. Exactly. I think so.
I) What do you do with all you money? [laughs] Just to lighten the tone a bit here.
B) [laughs] I'm glad you didn't ask me what I do with the spare time that I have. What do I do with my money? I give some of it away, I use it to buy food, I use it to educate my kids, I use it to collect photographs, which I'm passionately interested in.
A certain group of photographers who operated in the 1860s whose work I collect. I regard them as kind of the rock stars of their day. They were doing things which were very popular for a short space of time. I collect their work and I want to write a book about them.
And I use it to buy bus tickets to get places, and air fares and God knows what else. Without ruining my kids completely I think it's a good idea if they see quite a lot of the world, so I try and take my family a lot of places. And I buy toys, lots and lots of toys.
I) For yourself or your kids?
B) Both.
I) So, where's home for you at the moment?
B) England, London.
I) Do you think it will always stay that way?
B) Yes, I think so, really. I've got too many roots here to leave.
I) Have you got any new challenges. Things that you think in the back of your mind "Ooh, I wouldn't mind doing that one day"? Racing a power boat across the Atlantic or something silly like that.
B) Not that. I'd like to go into space. I'd like to be on one of those shuttle jobs. I was an astronomer for many years, that's what I was trained to be. I don't want to take measurements and be an astronomer though, I just want to go up there as a sightseer... And a poet, as a musician.
I don't know if that's possible, but I'd like to do it. The fact that those poor people got killed on the last American effort doesn't put me off, really. I think there's always going to be an element of danger. But I'd love to do it, I'd love to do that. If I don't do it, then maybe my kids will. Maybe they'll send me a postcard from the moon.
I) When you listen to early Queen albums, are there things that you cringe about, or things that you think still hold up well?
B) I think ideas wise they hold up quite well. Some of it I think is a bit embarrassing sound wise. I hate the way the drums sound on those early tracks, and sometimes the guitar is a bit iffy. We were very much... We were very strong minded even in those days, and we fought for or own way, but we didn't know how to get it. The fashion when we started was to record everything dry and separate, and I think over the period when we were making the first album we realised that this was wrong for us.
Various people told us that it could all be done in the mix, and of course nothing can be done in the mix, really. If it's not right on tape the first time, it's never going to be right. So from that time on we experimented with ways to make it sound more alive and more real, more exciting. I think we're still learning, we're still learning how to get things on tape.
I) Are you still discovering new things about one another, or do you know each other so well that there's nothing that shocks you or surprises you?
B) [laughs]
I) Something you can say on the radio.
B) I think we're still discovering each other. We talk to each other a bit more freely than we did in the past. We're able to discuss our differences a bit more open mindedly. I'm sure we still get shocked by each other. We're all very extreme, all four of us, sometimes it's very, very hard to find a middle course at all.
Even on the most elementary things like "What's the album gonna be called?" We've been talking about that for the last three months - no one can decide. It sounds stupid, but if you can argue three months about that, what about when it comes down to intricate musical pieces? You can argue forever.
I) So who finally wins out in all the arguments?
B) The person who wins is the person who persists the longest and feels the strongest, I think.
I) You're shortly to go on a European tour of fairly massive proportions. Does it bother you some ways that perhaps things have got just a bit out of hand, because you're playing to what, 70 000 people at a time, 60 000 people at a time? Do you feel as if sometimes you're losing contact?
B) No, this is something new for us in Europe, we've done it outside. To be honest, we were the slowest people to get into this. We've been playing music for 15 years - and the demand has been good for us which is great - we're very lucky. But we've stuck in the whole to doing either theatres or arena type situations like 15 000 - 20 000.
It's only recently that we've allowed ourselves to get moved outdoors, and we were quite nervous about it in the beginning. But I think we've done enough of them now to know how to handle it.
We've done very large gigs in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, the outdoor situation, and I think we can handle it now. You can throw Live Aid in if you want. We've also done... We did Leeds a few years ago, which was great, one of the best concerts we ever did in my mind. That was outdoors and everything was right.
It's very dodgy, a big gamble. I think if we were ever ready for it we're ready for it now, and I feel perfectly ready to take on that challenge.
And as far as losing contact is concerned, you're losing contact as soon as you play to two people instead of one, but your also gaining something. You gain a very special feel of an event that you get at those large concerts, and I think it's worthwhile giving it a try.
I don't think I always want to play in those situations, not at all, but I do want to try it this time out. I want to see what happens. I think it's very exciting. We had some great moments in South America and we've been telling everyone about it, and there's been films of it come back but nobody realises what happened down there. I think people are suddenly gonna realise what we're able to do in that situation. I think they'll be surprised, I really do.
I) Next question. Will it be coming to Australia or New Zealand?
B) Yes we've talked about that already. We had a great time down there last time, especially New Zealand which was a new territory, and new territory is always exciting, and Australia seemed like a new country to us.
I) It had been a while since you'd been there, hadn't it?
B) Yeah, it was so different, and so... It seemed like... In the old days it seemed a hard place to break into in the sense of the way people thought about us. Now it seemed like everyone had their arms open and it's very much like a rock and roll territory, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves down there.
So as soon as we get the opportunity we'll be down there, doing Australia and New Zealand, and hopefully a bit more thoroughly than we did last time, because we didn't manage to get to Perth or Adelaide, all those places. We need to get back there, and we're aware of that. To be honest we were very over cautious.
I) A lot of English groups say this. They don't realise how much people in Australia really crave to see, y'now...
B) We were kind of... I know people don't think we're like that, but we were quite nervous about overdoing it. We thought that if we go down there and try to do this massive thing, perhaps people would have forgotten about us down there, y'now. But the response we got in Sydney and Melbourne when we were down there was unbelievable, really. We'd just wished that we'd done the whole tour of the whole country.
We just... What can I tell you? We just underestimated what was going to happen. So we're very aware of that and we feel that we didn't do it properly, and we will do it properly next time, you bet ya' life!
WIMPY AND QUIPS _John Ingham shares an eggburger with Queen's Brian May_ (Sounds September 27, 1975)
It was an easy day; I was reading my old press clippings. The phone rang. I almost didn't answer it but security can lull you. I picked it up. The voice was persuasive, it belong to a publicist. He was offering the mouth of a popstar. Business was slow, I took him up. We agreed on a price. I was given a time and address.
The microphone wasn't working--I tied the cord to the mike with a rubber band and it sprang into action. The batteries were fresh. I dropped into the tube and headed into East London. Sarm Studios had few pretensions: it was an efficient hitmaking machine hiding out in an obscure basement.
Brian May was leaning against the wall conferring with several others, his blue work shirt was decorated with badges. He went into the studio to get his black velvet jacket; lying on an amp was the infamous .7 guitar. May confessed he'd had another built to the same specifications, meaning that it had to be played with the hand constantly damping the strings to prevent instant feedback. His jacket was also decorated with badges.
We stepped outside; it was beginning to rain. We walked quickly round the corner to the Wimpy. He ordered an eggburger while I set up my recorder. A dilapidated character at the next table gave May the once over. The black velvet suit spoke its own language. His ashen Aubrey Beardsley visage and cherubic ratsnest halo of hair added extra volumes -- obviously one of those goddamn rock stars little girls go crazy for. He edged over to the end of the table. I turned around.
"Beat it bub. This is classified" He shifted back to the other end. I had instantly noticed that May spoke with a soft voice; the hubbub of conversation swirled around us disconcertingly loud. The muzak was like barbed wire being raked across the eardrum. I put the microphone extra close to May's eggburger, pointing it directly towards his kisser. I thought for a moment, and then asked about Queen's recent management hassles. The interview had begun.
"It affects your morale," he replied. "Your capacity for working. It dries you up completely when you're worrying about business things. We couldn't write at all in that three months. We came back from Japan thinking, 'Great, we're going to finish the writing and then record it,' but the whole thing with Trident blew up at that point, and we spent the next three months being businessmen, which is the last thing we wanted to be. But now it's all sorted out -- all the emotions came out in a big flood -- and I think it's going to be really good."
What prompted the blow up?
"It's been coming for a long time. It's difficult to know what to say without being libelous. Mostly I feel less annoyed than disappointed. They're a company which started out in a small way, but recently I think their holdings got too big for them and got on top of them. If we hadn't got out we would have been trampled on. I think we saw it just in time."
So you saw yourselves being swallowed up in that empire rather than receiving personal involvement?
"Yes, and not receiving our just rewards, and not getting treated right. It's a great shame because the relationship used to be very good. We weren't nasty about it at all. We said: 'look, it isn't working. We want to get out and we want to pay the price'. They got very emotional and it eventually got very nasty indeed and it got to the point where" -- he paused for a long time, the muzak swelling up in the silence -- "they just threw everything at us they possibly could and it developed into a war but (he smiled quickly) I think we won."
It seemed to be going well. The chap was talkative, had a droll sense of humour. If only I could think of enough questions to last the distance. I decided to wrap up this business trivia and fired him a question about their new manager John Reid.
"We knew we were in a difficult position management-wise, but we were in a good position overall. So we went around and saw everybody that we could, and it just turned out that the only situation that was suitable for us, really, was John Reid. The whole framework suited our framework. It's a difficult situation, being halfway in your career."
Brian elucidated on ensuring activities: a November British tour, several nights at each venue, then to the States, Japan--"one of our favourite places at the moment"---where they perform in a couple of baseball stadiums, and then Australia and Europe. I asked a truly hoary and creaking standard question: How do you see the last album as a progression from the last one?
He answered instantly. "It's more extreme. It's varied, but it goes further in its various directions. It has a couple of the heaviest things we've ever done and probably some of the lightest things as well." He thought, a discordant violin sawing in the background. "It's probably closer to 'Sheer Heart Attack' than the others in that it does dart around and create lots of different moods, but we worked on it in the same way we worked on 'Queen II'. A lot of it is very intense and very ... layered."
I started to ask a question and it vanished into the mists. I stared blankly at Brian, ignoring thoughts that the questions had dried up. And they call this a living? A synapse came to the rescue. What of those rumours that you're closing in on your second PhD dealing with astronomy?"
"No."
What about your first one?
"I wish I had the time; it's about 96 percent done. It breaks my heart because I get no time to finish it. It's all written up, all the work's done, but I can't get that last bit done. For a time I could keep it up at the same time as the group, but it's impossible now." This was a matter that had long intrigued me. It seemed daft to pursue a course of studies when it seemed certain that the knowledge would never be applied.
"Well, at the time it didn't seem like we had a chance. We weren't really close to the music business. We were a band, but we didn't have any contacts. We'd all done a lot of work in a band and never got anywhere. We thought: 'well, it's there, but we can't get to it.' And it was only gradually that we began to realise that something was happening. I think the Mott tour was the turning point, really."
Such caution took me by surprise. It had seemed almost ordained from the beginning that Queen were On The Way Up. I shot him a quick one about the idea of giving it up for life as an academician.
"I didn't want to give it up. We always knew that if we got the chance, we would. It's always been a dream."
Do you ever think you'll utilise that astronomical knowledge practically?
"I hope so, I still keep in close contact with my astronomy friends, and I still read the periodicals. I hope to some day."
I'd been a bit of an astronomy nut myself; I understood the fever. I asked his reasons for pursuing astronomy.
"It was another sort of childhood dream, I think. I was always interested in the stars. It just happened that the subjects I was best at were maths and physics. It was a momentum thing, which happens in schools to a certain extent. If you're good at something then you're shoved into it, and I then discovered that I'd got a physics degree and there was a place waiting in the Astronomy Department, so I thought: 'must do it'."
He laughed softly and took another bite. I checked the cassette. Godfrey Daniel! Hardly any tape had been used. I'd have to think of more questions!
"I really enjoyed it. I still think it's as interesting as when I was a kid. It was part theory and part practise. It's solar system astronomy; I was looking at dust in the solar system."
Dust?
"Dust. There's a lot of it around. I was doing stuff on motion of dust, using a spectrometer to look for Doppler shifts in the light that came from them, and from that you can find out where they're going, and possibly where they came from. It has a lot to do with how the solar system was formed."
Space jockeys all, we continued to talk shop. Brian dropping the fact that his research had helped establish that this dust had an orbit. I chuckled at how the boffins must feel about this budding scientist wasting his life in a rock band. He got up for another cup of coffee. I took the opportunity to check the tape back. Mother of pearl! My voice was louder than his! It was there, though, that was all that mattered. He returned and I asked teenybop questions about Queen's ultimate hysterical mob reaction in Japan.
"It's good practise," he summated dryly. The Olsen infatuation with fame surfaced: if Brian wasn't interested in fame, what was the point of playing in a macho ramalama band like Queen?
"The first ambition was to make an album. I wanted to make something that would last for generations, because I thought I had some worthwhile things to do. I was very, very keen on the guitar, and there were lots of things I wanted to do like harmony guitar parts, and there was no outlet. It was great to get the first album out, and having done that it freed our mines to actually start creating for its own sake. And the second album was, I think the most creatively dense thing we've done. It was done at a time when our heads were cleared of all the things we'd always wanted to put on record."
I was running out of ideas. I decided to double back over earlier ground from a different angle. Queen's fairly fast rise to power had always fascinated me -- just who was manipulating who? When a band creates its own demand and an audience subsequently rushes in to fill the vacuum, is that audience aware of the manipulative wires, and if so does it care? Just who masterminded that, squire?
"Ooh, really hard to say. I suppose we did have a lot to do with it. We always argued over what we should do; and there's a lot to being in the right place at the right time. The Mott tour was exactly the right tour to do. It's very easy to say that it's come out all right and would have done anyway, but you never really know what the contributing factor was.
"We've always been very demanding with the people we work with. If there's something to be done we don't generally sit back and let them do it, we interfere with them and make their lives hell (he gave a small laugh)... Everybody who works with us has to understand what we're trying to do. It's not just managing a band, it's managing Queen, which is very different." He laughed again.
"I'm very happy. The only thing I'm not happy about is not getting enough time to think on an abstract level. You have to tailor most of your thoughts to producing something, and it's nice to think -- what is it? -- extrinsically as well as intrinsically."
--
Here is a transcription of the interview with Brian/Roger from VH1's "Weekend Review" programme last weekend. The interview was interspersed with short clips of the performance of "The Show Must Go On" with the Bejart Ballet (as well as with the usual video clips of course).
RMT: He was very much his own creation. He made himself and he just got better and better. At first we thought "he'll never get away with this" but he just developed and became a better singer, better and better all the time. He was a great writer from the start and absolutely inherently a musician. He was quite extraordinary.BHM: He really didn't change, he didn't, in inverted commas, sort of become someone you couldn't talk to, we were always very close as a group, very democratic as a group, we were very much guided by each other in performance and in the studio we would produce each other and use each other to bounce off and I would always play a better solo if Freddie was there saying, "no, no, no, no, no, you can do this" or he would keep something that I was going to throw away.
VH1: The Freddie Mercury tribute was broadcast in 70 different countries and featured contributions from Elton John, George Michael, Guns'n'Roses and many more; and allowed the rest of the band to see Freddie off in a style he would have been proud of.
RMT: I think it's something we had to get out of our systems, I know I did and spent about 3 months on the phone. It was a very difficult thing to get together and we had so much co-operation from all those great artists, some of whom I still haven't got round to thanking.BHM: I always remember the moment Joe Elliott grabbed my sleeve as we were going off at the end and said, "Brian, you have to stop for a minute and just look at this and think what it is because you're never gonna see anything like this again". And he was right, so it was great to have those people playing with us, very thrilling for us and I think we did the job for Freddie.
VH1: The music of Freddie Mercury and Queen lives on and this year, a ballet performed in Paris was the venue for the first public performance for the 3 remaining members of the band since the Mercury tribute in 1992. They decided to do it after a personal request from Elton John.
RMT: There's a new ballet written by the father of French modern ballet, Maurice Bejart and it's written around our music with a few bits of Mozart thrown in which is quite a flattering mixture isn't it? And it's a wonderful work, it's a great piece and Elton thought that it would be lovely if we just came on at the end with the ballet and performed 'The Show Must Go On' as a surprise which we did and it was great, it was a lovely experience.BHM: I was surprised that I enjoyed it, because in the interim period, I've very much been trying to get Queen out of my system, and I know that probably doesn't sound very nice but in a way it's unhealthy to be just clinging to the past.
* * * RMT: It's a difficult thing, but having said that, it's been 5 years since Freddie's death now and I think we don't feel quite so precious about it as we did and we accept it as something that happened and it's in the past now and, so I think maybe the future is open to us doing something again.BHM: I know people would love to see us together and stuff, but it would have to be in the right way, not in some way which would spoil what went before.
RMT: Elton put it very well, he said, "You lot are like a fantastic racing car, sitting in the garage with no bloody driver", which was a great analogy I thought, and very flattering; but you know, we'll see.
Freddie on A Day at the Races
"The new Queen album is called A Day At The Races," laughs lead singer Freddie Mercury, "and not Horse Feathers!"
It was some weeks back, and Europe's biggest rock band had four months' studio time behind them, and two weeks ahead. "It feels like we've been working forever," Freddie sighs, "and I'll be glad to see the end of it. I think we all will, although everything's been going fine. We've even got release dates set up," he adds, optimistically.
Later, sitting comfortably on the finished product, Queen's animated lead singer takes time out to talk about the carefully delayed album. A Day At The Races (Asylum), Queen's fifth, is the band's first self-produced record. "We finally got that organized," Freddie nods, to explain the absence of veteran Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker: "We just felt that, for this one, we needed a bit of a change. We were quite confident in doing it ourselves. The other albums we really co-produced, actually we always took a very keen interest."
"It was all very amicable," drummer Roger Taylor is quick to explain. "Roy's been in and out of the country. He's heard some rough mixes. Who knows? Maybe he'll be back producing the next one! It's been tremendous pressure recording this album." Mercury, meanwhile, is quite happy with Queen's first attempt at studio self-sufficiency. "I think it turned out for the better," he insists. "Taking more responsibility has been good for us. Roy's been great, but it's a progression. really - another step in our career. We simply felt that it was now or never."
Queen fiends needn't despair, however. "There are definitely different sounds and a few surprises on the album" Freddie promises, "but we've still maintained the basic Queen sound." A Day At The Races features four songs from Mercury, four from guitar-phenomenon Brian May, and one each from Taylor and bassist John Deacon. "I feel this time that we've got quite a few strong singles," says Freddie. "It was a very hard choice, to be honest. Picking the first single is a matter of taste. We settled on `Somebody To Love' to start things rolling. It's one of my tracks," Mercury adds, modestly.
" `Somebody To Love' is Aretha Franklin-influenced," Taylor says. "Freddie's very much into that. We tried to keep the track in a loose, gospel-type feel. I think it's the loosest track we've ever done."
"It's new, it's slightly different," Freddie agrees "but it still sounds like the Queen that used to be. A Day At The Races is definitely a follow-up to A Night At The Opera. Hence the title. We learned a lot from A Night At The Opera about studio technique." "This time out we missed Roy's cheerfulness," Taylor says. "He contributed a lot technically, and we've capitalized on it."
Each time we go into the studios, it gets that much more difficult," Freddie explains, "because we're trying to progress, to write songs that sound different from the past. The first album is easy, because you've always got a lot in your head that you're anxious to put down. As the albums go by, you think, `They'll say I'm repeating a formula.' I'm very conscious of that."
Taylor confirms their constant testing: "We took a break in the midst of it to play three gigs. It was great to get away from the studio for a bit, and it was great playing live, again-that's a much more immediate satisfaction."
"It was difficult trying to maintain the Queen idiom," Mercury elaborates, "and, at the same time, come up with songs that were different and more interesting." Freddie Mercury offers his own track-by-track rundown on Races:
"We start off with a track from Brian called `Tie Your Mother Down' which we've recently put in the live act. In fact, we played it at Hyde Park before we recorded it. I was able to come to grips with the song in front of an audience before I had to cut the vocal. Being a very raucous track, it worked well for me.
" `You Take My Breath Away' is a slow ballad with a new twist. That's another track I did at Hyde Park, with just me on the piano. It was very nerve-wracking playing all by myself in front of 200,000 people. I didn't think my voice would come through," Freddie jokes, half-serious, "It's a very emotional, laid-back number.
" `Long Away' is a twelve-string thing written by Brian...very interesting harmonies.
" `The Millionaire Waltz' is quite outlandish, really. It's the kind of track I like to put on every album," Freddie teases. "Something way outside Queen's format."
"It's comparable to `Bohemian Rhapsody'," Roger Taylor explains, "in the sense that it's an arranged, intricate number. There are several time-signature changes," the drummer adds, "'though not quite so many vocal overdubs."
"Brian has orchestrated it fully with guitars," Freddie says, "like he's never done before. He goes from tubas to piccolos to cellos. It's taken weeks. Brian's very finnicky. Anyway, this track is something that Queen has never done before- a Strauss waltz!
" `You And I' is John Deacon's track. It's very John Deacon, with more raucous guitars. After I'd done the vocals, John put all these guitars in, and the mood has changed. I think it's his strongest song to date."
Unlike the concept-ized Queen II with its Side White and Side Black, A Day At The Races plays, in Freddie's words, "as a unit. Side Two opens with `Somebody To Love,' the single. We're not going to settle for less than Number One in America. We were a bit disappointed in `Rhapsody'." Disappointed? "I suppose we're spoiled," Freddie concedes, light-hearted. " `Rhapsody' was a strong song, and a mammoth hit on Continent. This time, we won't be second best.
" `White Man' is the B side. It's Brian's song, a very bluesy track. Gave me the opportunity to do raucous vocals
Tears Turn Me On
“The Sun” Friday July 19, 1985
Freddie is a great admirer of modern band and current music in spite of his years in the business.
He says: "I like Tears For Fears, Wham!, and Culture Club-- they're all very good. But Tears For Fears are among my favourites because they're writing music I cam really relate to."
_Dream_
"They've got a lot of rhythm and at the same time they've got a lot of aggression. They also have very good songs. But I love the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, above all other singers. She must have one of the best voices ever. She sings like a dream. I wish I could sing half as well as she does. It's so natural.
"She puts her whole emotion into it. Each word she sings is full of meaning and expression. I could listen to it forever."
Freddie also reveals his deep love of opera. He says: "Montserrat Cabelle is sensational. She has that same kind of emotion as Aretha Franklin. The way she delivers a song is so very natural. It's a very different gift."
But Freddie's favourite band remains Queen who have been together now for 13 years.
And he strongly denies making a solo album has threatened the future of one of the world's greatest rock bands. Freddie says: "It's probably brought us closer together and will enhance our careers."
_Closer_
"It's like painting a picture. You have to step away from it to see what it's like. I'm stepping away from Queen and I think it's going to give everybody a shot in the arm.
"But I'll be working with Queen again. No doubt about that. Queen are gonna come back even bigger."
Circus interview with Freddie, 1975
Queen fused the dominant strains of Seventies rock (metal, progressive and glam) into a unique style that was at once heavy, glamorous and sophisticated. The ultimate expression of the regal British rockers' genius is the majestic 1975 metal-opera "Bohemian Rhapsody" (from A Night at the Opera ). In this lively interview from April 1975, Queen's suave frontman, the late Freddie Mercury, discusses everything from his influences to his favorite nail polish.
More than anything else, Freddie Mercury wants to be a legend. The vehicle for the 28 year-old "Kensington poseur" is a rock 'n roll band called Queen, and the meticulous Mercury seems to have the situation neatly in hand. He came up with the band's name, he designed their crest (combining the star signs of its members), and he defines their style. "The concept of Queen is to be regal and majestic," he told the English press early in their career. "Glamour is a part of us and we want to be dandy. We want to shock and be outrageous instantly". Freddie's grabbing for glory with all the gusto he's got, and it's a safe bet he wouldn't turn down any M.B.E.'s Her Majesty might want to lay on him.
Freddie's thrust for the top began far away from the heart of the British Empire. Born September 5, 1946 in Zanzibar (an island off the East Coast of Africa), he was the son of a British civil servant. Subsequently he was educated in India, and finally landed on the island of the Anglo-Saxons while still a youth. He went to school at Isleworth and then began Ealing College of Art one year after proto-Who guitarist Peter Townshend left. It was there that he met the boys from Smile in 1968.
Smile was a local group featuring Roger Taylor on drums and Brian May on guitar. Freddie who had been singing with groups since he was 14 years old, was himself performing in small, unmentionable bands while studying the art of Mucha and Arthur Rackham. All the bands in the area used to keep tabs on each others' music and even occasionally traded equipment. In 1970, Smile broke up in general frustration, and Freddie quickly cornered Taylor and May to sell them on his idea for a hotshot band to be called Queen. The pair approved, invited Freddie to join them, and after six months of auditions, the lineup was completed when they signed on John Deacon as their charter bassist.
For months they practiced, playing only small, select shows for their friends and word-of-mouth fans instead of grinding through the usual provincial club circuit. Their big break finally came when two producers, John Anthony and Roy Baker, asked them to make a demonstration tape. Featuring words and music written predominantly by Mercury, the tapes were hawked around until EMI decided they were a good bet.
The first LP, Queen, was an immediate hit in many circles and Queen II, dealing with the theme of "good versus evil," swelled their reputation across the ocean in America as well. Then came the disaster. May was stricken with hepatitis and a royal tour of the states last spring with Mott the Hoople was aborted.
Undaunted, Queen launched their third album in the fall of 1974, Sheer Heart Attack. Cruising behind a single that went to #1 in England, "Killer Queen," the LP's success was assured, and by November Melody Maker was calling them "one of the hottest bands in the nation." Finally, in February 1975, Queen got another crack at touring the States.
Just before they flew over, Circus Magazine Inquisitor Scott Cohen spoke with Freddie. The king of Queen was in a London studio working on the soundtrack for the movie of their Rainbow Theatre concert. His speech was quick, as though his mind were on getting back into the studio.
Circus: Let's start at the beginning, in Zanzibar.
Mercury: Zanzibar? Well, I was born there. I stayed there about three or four years. Then I moved to England. You won't get much from Zanzibar.
Circus: I'm trying to visualize it. Are there palm trees?
Mercury: Well, yeah, it's tropical. It's off the east African coast. That's where my parents were staying. My father worked for the government. He was sort of posted there and I was born there. Then we moved back to London and I've lived here ever since.
Circus: What kind of music do people listen to in Zanzibar?
Mercury: As far as I can remember I guess they were into Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. I'm sure the Beatles got in there.
Circus: What do people do there?
Mercury: I guess play soccer and hockey. There are a lot of beaches there, so I guess they do a lot of swimming.
Circus: Have you ever been to Queens, New York?
Mercury: No, we've only been in New York once. We stayed there a week and were playing every night. Why, what's it like?
Circus: A lot like Zanzibar. It's very tropical, there are a lot of palm trees and lots of beaches. People swim a lot, play soccer and listen to Elvis Presley. What images did you have of New York?
Mercury: It had a very hectic pace. I enjoyed it basically from the reception we got. People were telling us how vicious the city can be, but I enjoyed it. There's so much to see, so it depends on how long you're there for. The record company took us to all the obvious places to go, to all the restaurants, clubs and things. When we come back again, we'll be looking for all the other places.
Circus: What kind of non-musical, non-business type things have you been thinking about lately?
Mercury: There's been nothing non-musical that I've been thinking about lately because we've been doing this film thing, the sound-track for it, and we've been trying to get the tour thing together because we're coming over soon. You know about the Rainbow here? It's sort of the place to play over here and when we played there we did a movie of the show and now we're putting the pieces together. It's going to be called "Queen Live At The Rainbow."Circus: Do you think Americans idolize rock stars and movie stars because there is no royalty here?
Mercury: Do they? I thought that was finished. I thought that was done in Cecil B. DeMille's time, Mae West. I think they're sort of beginning to idolize rock stars now, aren't they? But not as great as they did in those days.
Circus: Is it hard to embarrass you?
Mercury: Ummm, to be honest, not much embarrasses me actually. It's not embarrassment, but maybe annoyance, that I feel when things aren't going right onstage. It was a funny moment when we played at the rainbow and the power went out on us. That was sort of embarrassing.
Circus: What is your biggest fear?
Mercury: Getting out on time.
Circus: Do you like getting feverish?
Mercury: I can get a buzz of all kinds of things. Just listening to music is a kind of fever.
Circus: What's your favorite form of entertainment?
Mercury: Listening to Jimi Hendrix; Lisa Minnelli; going to art galleries. I like most of the Victorian artists. I like a lot of detail work, water colors, that sort of thing. And popular stuff like Dali.
Circus: Would you like Dali to do your costumes and makeup?
Mercury: Not really. I like him for different reasons. We have Zandra Rhodes do our costumes.
Circus: Would you like to be the first man on the cover of Vogue?
Mercury: That would be great. You never know how true that might be, actually. We're working on it.
Circus: Would you like to date Liza Minnelli?
Mercury: Oh, no. I would like to talk to her, yes.
Circus: What do you think she would tell you?
Mercury: I would just like to meet her after a performance and take it from there. I don't know what she would say to me, or what I would say to her.
Circus: You're both very much into clothes. You could talk about that. Didn't you once sell antique clothes?
Mercury: Yes, some of my best clothes are from that period. They're the clothes I like best. I don't like manufactured clothes.
Circus: Was it actually a business?
Mercury: Yes I got in touch with a friend ... I normally like clothes anyway, and when Queen was semiprofessional I thought I would do something at the same time, and I got an opportunity to get a small boutique in Kensington Market.
Circus: Is there one designer you like most?
Mercury: I have a tailor who makes my trousers and a friend who makes shoes. Ages ago I used to go to Ossie Clark, along with Zandra Rhodes. Circus: I find shoes to be the hardest part of the wardrobe to find.
Mercury: London is full of shoe shops. You can have them made to order. Just go in with your design.
Circus: How large is your closet?
Mercury: Pretty large. I've got a sort of huge apartment in Kensington and I have a huge corridor that's just full of my wardrobe. I could start a shop in there.
Circus: Where would you advise Queen fans to buy their clothes?
Mercury: It really depends, there are so many places. There's a place called Essences, that's a very good place. They seem to get very good quality stuff, but still old, 1920's stuff. If they have the money I'd ask them to go to Zandra Rhodes, because she's got a place where she works and you can buy them off the rail. They're quite beautiful.
Circus: Do you think clothes make the man?
Mercury: It depends upon what kind of person you are. For what we do, clothes are very important, and if you know where to get them it helps.Circus: Do you spend a lot of time in front of the mirror?
Mercury: If I have time, yes. I'm a very vain person and, yeah, I do.
Circus: Do you ever think about the mirror while you're in front of it, what effect your image has upon it?
Mercury: No, I don't go that deep into it. I have other things to think about. I have quite a few at home, different shapes and sizes, but I don't think there's any kind of chemical reaction.Circus: Could you compare yourself to another human being?
Mercury: No way. I think I'm totally original. I'm sure there are many people who see themselves in me, but that's to them. I'm me, basically, and that's how I like to be.
Circus: What brand of nail polish to you use?
Mercury: I used to use Biba. That's another nice shop people can go to. It's really a beautiful shop done up well. When fans come over here, that ought to be the first place they go. I used to use Biba black nail polish, but I changed. I got minor's now. Black seems to be the color for me.
Circus: I'd like to know what you think about these people: Jimi Hendrix, Liza Minnelli Led Zeppelin ....
Mercury: Jimi Hendrix is very important. He's my idol. He sort of epitomizes, from his presentation onstage, the whole works of rock star. There's no way you can compare him. You either have the magic or you don't There's no way you can work up to it. There's nobody who can take his place.
Liza, in terms of sheer talent, just oozes with it. She has sheer energy and stamina, which she gets across the stage, and the way she delivers herself to the public is a good influence. There is a lot to learn from her. Led Zeppelin is the greatest. Robert Plant is one of the most original vocalists of our time. As a rock band they deserve the kind of success they're getting.Circus: How about your fans, the Linneys family?
Mercury: They're great. They come to our shows, write letters, send presents, got to know us. We seem to attract quite a few families. The daughters like us and they bring their families. It's great. Brian gets on with the Linneys daughter.Circus: The electric light?
Mercury: Very important to our act. We've got quite a light show that we carry around. We've taken a lot of time out to work with them. Lights enhance all our songs differently.Circus: Which queen in a deck of cards do you identify with most?
Mercury: The Queen of spades. I get the feeling it's more like me. It's very arrogant and I'm arrogant. I also think the Queen of Spades is more vain than the other ones.Circus: What are your favorite sports?
Mercury: I like Ping-Pong and I like athletics, swimming, hockey.Circus: Have you ever met a plaster-caster?
Mercury: No, what is it?
Circus: In the late sixties there were two girls who were famous for making plaster casts of famous rock stars' erections. Cynthia Plaster-caster is the most famous of them.
Mercury: Is she still around?
Circus: I think she retired at the end of the "summer of love."
Mercury: Too bad I never heard of her. How many did she do?
Circus: I don't know, maybe thirty or forty. She had quite an exhibit.
Mercury: I'd like to meet her when I'm in town.
Circus: I don't know how you would go about that. How do you invest your money?
Mercury: At the moment I don't get any. I spend it as soon as I get it, on a house, clothes, paintings. I love going to restaurants and spending money on good food.Circus: What do you do with your left hand that you don't do with your right?
Mercury: Oh, umm, I play better piano with my right hand than I do with my left. There's more things I don't do with my left hand than I do with my right. I'll tell you one thing, I only wear nail polish on my left hand. It's the only hand I'll wear black nail polish on. I only need it on one hand. Circus: Do you think your figure has been an important part of your success?
Mercury: It helped. We have a very strong image that we get across in our music. It's important, the way you look, the way you play .....
Interview with Jim Hutton, from Irish Radio
November 1995
Transcription by Gary NolanInterviewer - I'm trying to work out your accent, I'm intrigued by the fact you won't say what county your from even because you are photographed with Freddie on the front of the book, the book is in all stores all over the country at the moment, will you even tell us the county.
Jim - That's an old photograph, I have changed.
Interviewer - No I can see I'm looking at you and I'm looking at the photograph.
Jim - The hair is blonde now.
Interviewer - And apart from a few gray hairs at the edges you still have the moustache and you still look very handsome and I can see why Freddie was struck, a very strong looking individual. But you are from Ireland.
Jim - I'm from Ireland.
Interviewer - When did you discover you were gay?
Jim - I think I actually discovered, well discovered is a very strong word to use, I felt something odd about me around the age or thirteen maybe fourteen, I suppose admitted I was gay well, maybe around just seventeen.
Interviewer - And what was it like growing up in a small Irish town realising you were so different
Jim - Well I suppose to me I was basically the only one that was like that, that was just I felling I had, I had obviously had not met anybody else, I suppose like most young people immaterial whether you are gay or not your sexuality that's something to be discovered. So its taboo.
Interviewer - And did you confide in anyone Jim?
Jim - Nobody.
Interviewer - And you went to London then.
Jim - I didn't actually go to London. I went to Kent, I had some relatives in Kent.
Interviewer - But you hadn't come out in Ireland so to speak.
Jim - Oh no, I went over on a holiday originally and ever since then I hav'nt looked back.
Interviewer - And that's when you came out.
Jim - Yes, its much easier there are bars/clubs/pubs.
Interviewer - And when did your mother discover that you were gay?
Jim - I actually think that mothers, its instinct with them, I really and truthfully do.
Interviewer - You think she knew all along?
Jim - I think she knew all along and suppose throughout the years she was waiting for me to tell her. Its waiting for an opportunity and really a lot of time that opportunity never really presents itself. There is never the right time and unfortunately we either have to hit while the iron is hot and just say bang, you know, its sand I think a lot of people not necessarily in Ireland but a lot of people I know on the gay seen like a tragedies happened in the family then they tell the family, because they are already dealing with a one shock so a second one is not so bad. Which I think is very sad they have to do that, they have to wait. Interviewer - Wait like for a funeral or something.
Jim - Yes, Never a wedding (laughs).
Interviewer - So when did you tell your mother?
Jim - A few years before Freddie died. The whole family, I mean she just said well they thought as much, my neph's & nieces I have quite a lot of them, a big Irish family, for years they suspected. Apparently they all used to discuss it when they were younger between themselves.
Interviewer - Jim is different. Did they call you Jim?
Jim - They always called me Sheamus, Uncle never Aunt.
Interviewer - And when did they discover that Uncle Sheamus Hutton was Freddie Mercury's boyfriend? Because they probably would have loved Freddie's singing.
Jim - I don't really know if they cottoned on to it, I did tell them that as far as my connection with Freddie was I was his gardener, I worked for him which I did do, as for the relationship, I don't really know, they might have suspected, but certainly when he died.
Interviewer - And does your family now accept openly that you are gay?
Jim - Oh yes, I have a wonderful, I find myself blessed with the family I've got. They really are brilliant.
Interviewer - And you travel, you come back to Ireland
Jim - Yes I spend about six months a year here roughly.
Interviewer - Talk to us about Freddie and his personality, we have this image of this incredible singer with this incredible voice. But describe Freddie’s personality for us.
Jim - Do you want the onstage one or the offstage one?
Interviewer - The one you knew as his wife or husband.
Jim - Everybody knows the onstage one, it is like anybody, I don't know how may year he was on top maybe 20 years, its like anyone who has a nine to five job, once your job is over, that's it I'm outta here, I'm going home, and that's one thing Freddie looked forward to, every time he come from holidays, he's home, you know you get home kick your shoes off just sit down and relax at your own pace.
Interviewer - Can of beer.
Jim - Bottle of Vodka, whatever took your fancy, but no he really was I suppose a run of the mill Joe Bloggs.
Interviewer - And you lived with him, how soon after meeting him did you move in his house?
Jim - It may have been something like eighteen months to two years. Which is something orchestrated beautifully as well, I used to live in rented accommodation in Surrey. I think it was one weekend when Freddie was going back to Germany, I gave him my telephone no and I started to get these phone calls at two and three and four o'clock in the morning from Germany, obviously my landlady didn’t appreciate this because she had to answer the phone so she gave me notice to quit. She said I'm fed up with the, I want you out of here in two weeks.
Interviewer - And did she know who was it on the phone?
Jim - No, no it was just his voice on the phone, another person on the phone.
Interviewer - And she's traipsing up and down the stairs and knocking.
Jim - And she wasn't a young lady at the time either.
Interviewer - So your landlady tells you its time to go.
Jim - So I let fly at Freddie over this - I mean you and your bloody phone call at this time in the morning, I've been evicted, so he said fine, you go and live in Garden Lodge.
Interviewer - Which is Freddie's house, and when he was ringing you by the way at four o'clock in the morning what was he saying to you.
Jim - I haven't a clue, I cannot remember what he was saying to me, its weird.
Interviewer - Ok so you moved in with him. And what was that like? There was obviously other staff in the house?
Jim - It's such a vast change to everything but I suppose deep down inside me no it wasn't a change. It was but it was'nt. Its very hard to try to describe it. Again I mean it was a place where I suppose like any couple that have their own place together, immaterial of who owns it or what you make a home out of it.
Interviewer - But I mean any couple living together - I mean usually both of them are contributing to the household. How did you, you were a hairdresser weren't you? Did you keep that up?
Jim - Oh yes, that's a very important part of my life. My independence, very important to me, and I think its one of the things in me Freddie admired, I think it was. He liked people to give out and say no, this is this and that's the way it is.
Interviewer - So would you have handed up money to the running of the house, would you have insisted on keeping your independence.
Jim - I think I went through a stage where yes but it was very short lived, of donating X amount of money towards food, but that was very short lived, and actually when I started working for him as with the other, Peter and Joe, well then that was all part and parcel of your job, your accommodation everything was included, so I mean you didn't feel obliged to actually, obviously you pay for your own toiletries etc.
Interviewer - We remember, Freddie’s' public image, we remember him at Live Aid in particular, fantastic set. Queen I think it was Elton John who said, what did they say, you were there afterwards when Elton John strutted across and said...
Jim - You bastard you stole it.
Interviewer - Which they did, well U2 were good on the day but Freddie really scored.
Jim - Yes, seriously it was my very first time I had been to a live concert.
Interviewer - And did people know you as Freddie’s partner, Freddie's husband?
Jim - They knew me as Jim, I was with Freddie. And that was it.
Interviewer - And people in the business knew that Freddie was gay obviously?
Jim - I never heard them discussing it with anyone. Unless there were other people in the business who were gay and they knew each other but I never heard them talking about it.
Interviewer - Were you with Freddie before he went on stage that day, I think it was about four o'clock in the afternoon?
Jim - I arrived back from the Savoy as I was working doing my hairdressing job that morning, and half day, arrived back, there was quite a few in Freddie's flat that day, they were watching television, I knew there was something big going on, but it did'nt click with me, In actual fact I knew it was Live Aid but what it was that was it, and we had been hanging around his flat and they been watching television and he eventually said to me, "are'nt you going to get ready then" and I said "for what" and he said "you’re coming to this concert today" and I said "wha!!!"
Interviewer - And did you talk to him before he ran out on stage, what was he like, was he calm beforehand?
Jim - Oh god no, a total bag of nerves.
Interviewer - Was he!
Jim - Absolute total bag of nerves.
Interviewer - Freddie Mercury was nervous before he went onstage?
Jim - I think most people are, I mean can you imagine doing this program in front a live audience of seventy two thousand people.
Interviewer - And then a million or billion around the world…
Jim - It's frightening to see that mass of faces, you never know what’s going to happen.
Interviewer - And you were standing at the side of the stage.
Jim - I was backstage, I was all over the place actually.
Interviewer - And then when Freddie came off how was he?
Jim - He was great, I think his line when he goes onstage was I'm Theirs/I'm Yours. And when he came off he just downed a large vodka and just totally flake out, literally just go crash out.
Interviewer - Lets just listen to his voice, but before we do, Barcelona with Monserrat Caballe was there a row about the tape when Freddie wasn't well when they performed that. What’s the story in the book?
Jim - No that was the Le Nit night, which was the official thing for the Barcelona Olympics and this wasn't the Barcelona song actually it was another different tracking and yes they mimed it, Freddie’s throat was'nt very well. And I think the tape was either running too fast or too slow, now that's how much of a professional he was, he could tell as soon as the tape started, the first note, he knew.
Interviewer - Was he one for losing his temper?
Jim - Oh he could lose his temper oh god yes, he was human, he was just like you or I.
Interviewer -This is Barcelona, Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Caballe, incredible voice Jim, really unbelievable.
Plays Barcelona
Interviewer - You're conducting that Jim, as if, were you there when they performed that first. What was it like?
Jim - Oh yeah, it was stunning, absolutely brilliant, it was done at the Koo Club, I think that was before the Olympic flag arrived in Barcelona, it was a pre run to the Barcelona Le Nit, and obviously myself and a few other people knew exactly what was going on, it was a big-big night in the Koo Club.
Interviewer - That's in Ibiza...
Jim - It's in Ibiza, yes, I mean just to be standing there amongst the crowd. If you knew a little secret and nobody else knew and then all of a sudden everyone knew it. And when Monseratt came out everybody just, I mean Spanish and with she being Spanish they just went WOW. When Freddie came out, I mean they both came out together, you see this, I suppose Monserrat is quite ahh..
Interviewer - Big, big…
Jim - Largest lady and the very slender Freddie. I mean it was quite a sight. But I mean just to look at and I don't mean just for sizes, probably the biggest opera star in the world and one of the better known rock stars in the world.
Interviewer - One of the better singers in the world as well Freddie was.
Jim - And to actually get those two together, two totally different worlds, but that was Freddie he never believed that music should be different. Its all the same thing, its immaterial whether you are singing rock and roll, opera any of those I think he believed that.
Interviewer - And did you meet Monserrat?
Jim - Oh gosh yes, I met her quite a few times.
Interviewer - And what's she like?
Jim - The first time I was introduced to her was when she came to Garden Lodge, I think it was to discuss making music together with Freddie, and Freddie threw a beautiful meal/dinner for her, he went out of his way to find out exactly what she would eat. It was a very private dinner. As she came into the lounge she was wearing one of her lovely gowns and she almost tripped. She just stuck her foot on him. And all you could hear was this little voice. " OOOH SHIIIT" she was one of the lads, just as jolly as anybody.
Interviewer But it was a glamorous life and I want to talk to you about that glamorous highlife with Freddie Mercury after the break.
BREAK
Interviewer - Welcome back, I'm with Jim Hutton or indeed Sheamus Hutton as he's known, originally from Ireland, but he has just published a book called Mercury and Me, his life with Freddie Mercury of Queen's fame lover. The high life Jim you were flying around from London to Geneva and...
Jim - Oh yeah, I always remember the very first time Freddie wanted me to go to Germany and I was very annoyed with him because as I say it's the independence streak in me that he actually sent his chauffeur to get me up the West End of London then to drive me back to Heathrow but also bought my ticket for me first class to Germany, I suppose I was quite chuffed but I was annoyed as well.
Interviewer - Why?
Jim - I would much prefer to pay that myself.
Interviewer - Could you have paid that yourself?
Jim - I would have probably gone to a bucket shop and got a cheap ticket.
Interviewer - In that high life did you meet all the stars, the Jaggers, the Elton John's and any of them, did you come across them?
Jim - No..
Interviewer - Freddie kept to himself really.
Jim - Freddie occasionally would have a few, I mean Elton came around a few times, Divine was another one that came around a couple of times, there were a few. But I mean as I say offstage was offstage that was it - forget the music side.
Interviewer - And what was your relationship like, Freddie had a reputation for being promiscuous is that a fair word to use, probably isn't a fair word to use?
Jim - I don't know, I mean I will be very honest. The way I look at it is, our relationship started when Freddie and I met, and that's when the relationship started not before, not what had been going on before, I probably heard what had went on before yes but we never discussed that. And I think the same applies I suppose to any happy normal relationship, you don't go backtracking on what happened before I met you.
Interviewer - But there are a couple of occasions in the book where you suspected.
Jim - Yes, he did, where he used to go out and mess me around a bit. I eventually cottoned on but it was mostly friends of mine who tell me he was messing around chatting other people up. But I don't know if it was his insecurity or the fact that I didn't show possessiveness or jealousy, that was the one thing I never showed that I never let him know I was jealous, that was one thing that he wanted to see. He wanted to see me lose my temper. And I did once, I did a few times.
Interview - And what did you say to him?
Jim - I basically gave him an ultimatum, you know its, you make your mind up what you want, you want me or you want that. I', assuming that what he actually liked to see. I suppose let him know, "don't me with me, don't mess my life up" and that was it, I suppose he wanted to feel he was wanted, I mean seriously wanted not just wanted for the sake of him being Freddie Mercury, it was insecurity I suppose.
Interviewer - And you stuck with him through thick and thin?
Jim - Yes.
Interviewer - And when did you discover he had AIDS?
Jim - I think it was probably '87.
Interviewer - How did you discover that?
Jim - It was around about Easter time, I as actually at home in Ireland, it may have been just after or before Easter. It was certainly not Easter as I didn't spend Easter at home anyway and I trekked four miles into town to get to the nearest phone to phone him up, four miles!!
Interviewer - Four miles!
Jim - Yes, this is Ireland of 1987, I hope Irish Telecom are listening.
Interview - So you traipse four miles…
Jim - …into town to phone him up and he's starts screaming at me initially because they hadn't heard from me in a week and I explained that look its an eight mile trek, four miles in and four miles back to make a bloody phone call. He hadn't realised that and he just said to me Oh when are you coming home" and I said "Tomorrow" and he said "oh good, because there is something very important I want to tell you" he didn't sound depressed on the phone or anything and I said "cant you tell me now" he said "no, I cant tell you over the phone." Which I mean I was to find out and discover the following day … I suppose I got home and we had a little cuddle and chat and then he told me, I mean a bombshell, literally Interviewer - And what did he say, did he break the full news to you?
Jim - The total news, the total, in one fell swoop. That was it.
Interviewer - I've full blown...
Jim - Yeah, I mean, I do say in the book that he was an honest guy, and he was, he was honest to me, he was honest to himself, which is more important.
Interviewer - And what went through your head when you heard?
Jim - I suppose like anybody, you automatically say "oh gosh no I don't believe this we must get second opinion" I think everyone says that with an illness you have, obviously that did go through my head and I said it to him don't be ridiculous, we will get a second opinion. And I mean forgetting for a moment as Freddie said to me "These are the best there are". You know.
Interviewer - The doctors he was going to?
Jim - The doctors he was seeing, they were the top AIDS specialists.
Interviewer - Because he had money
Jim - Of course, that's what I was going to say, you forget that he had the money to bring them in. And that was really about the last time we talked, that it was mentioned, I mean as a serious conversation.
Interviewer - And did you cry or were you upset?
Jim - O I was livid, I was in total disbelief. It took me a long time to actually say yes.
Interviewer - And then the impact on you physically because you had been sleeping with him obviously.
Jim - He actually...with that conversation he just said to me "if you want to leave me, I will understand, I won’t blame you, I won’t hold it against you" and my feelings for Freddie obviously we were living together now for a while and we were going much stronger and I just said "no, I'm not leaving, why should I" its basically my love for him that said no you don't do this.
Interviewer - Then when did you discover that you were HIV positive?
Jim - I discovered in 1990, I decided to have a test on the quiet.
Interviewer - Did Freddie encourage you to have the test?
Jim - Oh Freddie many a time said to me to go and have a test, but I said no-no, I'm ok, many a time.
Interviewer - And if I have it I don't want to know.
Jim - Well I think this is, you know...he did say that, it was left up to me in the end to go and have a test done. Which I did have very, very quiet. I didn't tell anyone about it. Interviewer - And if I remember you were in, where were you when you got the news of the…
Jim - When I got the second, the news of the second test. Freddie and I and Joe were in Switzerland. Our last trip to Switzerland before Freddie died. So it was really three maybe four weeks before Freddie died that the news of my test came through in Switzerland.
Interviewer - Do you remember that phone call?
Jim - I remember it very well. But the other thing was that I knew beforehand anyway. So I mean it was immaterial to me. I had known in 1990.
Interviewer - But this was confirmation.
Jim - This is the confirmation. You know and Freddie egged me on to phone my doctor up so I did and he said "I'm sorry, you're positive" and I said "are you sure" he said "yes" and I think you really got to, people handle it totally different. Basically I get on with life, I don't sit down and mope, and think about it, I haven't got time for that. Interviewer - And how is your health now?
Jim - Fine, I have had time to sit down and think, oh I've got to headache or whatever, I get on with life.
Interviewer - You sat with Freddie as he died.
Jim - Sure, I'm sure there are many a person have sat with their parents when they dying, its I don't think there is much difference in that with a parent who is dying or a loved one.
Interviewer - I want to talk to you about being with Freddie as he died with great dignity but we will do it after this.
Ad Break.
Interviewer - Welcome back, I'm with Jim Hutton or indeed Sheamus Hutton as he's known, born in Ireland but moved to London when he was about seventeen and has just published a book called Mercury and Me, I might as well give the details now, its £14.99 and its published by Bloomsbury and it's the story of Jim's life with Freddie as man and wife, as lovers for seven years. How soon before Freddie died was he very ill, Jim, because he seemed to be very healthy almost to the very end.
Jim - I suppose it really hit me that he was ill around about his birthday which was the 5th of September, when he came down for his early cup of tea, but then again we went off to Switzerland for a ten/fourteen day break, yeah about a month.
Interviewer - But he was losing weight.
Jim - Yes he was losing weight, but he was still flying around Switzerland, not talking about driving everywhere, get out of the car and go for a little walk along the lake. Interviewer - And was he interested in trying all the various cures, he was on AZT at one stage?
Jim - He was on AZT for a period but, I think he became a bit of a guinea-pig for certain drugs but what they were I don't know, as I was unfortunately I didn't medicate Freddie, that was all left up to Peter and Joe, they are the ones that really took him in hand. Interviewer - Staff members in the house.
Jim - Yes, and I think that they did try out trial drugs on him.
Interviewer - Those last few weeks as Freddie lay in bed seemed to be very traumatic, in terms of he needed a lot of care.
Jim - Well not to the degree that the press was making out, I mean a lot of the stuff in the press was just hype, they never bothered to ask anyone what was happening or anything, I mean you are up against a blank wall in situations like that. But ahem no, one of the things Freddie said to his doctors when he was diagnosed was "look when it comes a time for me to go I want to go with dignity, I don't want you guys prodding needles into me and keeping me going" and that was what he did do. I think at the end Freddie made his mind up when we were in Switzerland, I actually say that's why we wanted to go to Switzerland, make his mind up, do I continue with all these drugs, or don't i. And I firmly believe that in Switzerland he said "no, this is it". Because when he did come back from Switzerland I mean it was about three weeks, he deteriorated rapidly, I was actually to discover via Joe that he had come off all his medication except painkillers. And to do something like that must have taken a lot of courage.
Interviewer - And he died in November this month, was it November 24th, three years ago? Do you remember the moment he died?
Jim - The precise moment you can never tell, I don't think you can tell anyway, but yes the seconds ticking up to it.
Interviewer - And was he conscious or...
Jim - The day before, that was a Sunday, he was in what they call I think a conscious coma.
Interviewer - In and out and...
Jim - Well no it was one where you are aware, he was aware of what was going on all around him but yet could not communicate with us, awake. And that evening we went to change the bedclothes etc and what about twelve minutes to seven and as we changed his, I changed his underwear etc., I just looked down and…I said to Peter "he's gone" it was just (clicks his fingers)
Interviewer - He'd slipped away.
Jim - I think he'd gone the way he wanted to go. With his favourite cat on the bed as well.
Interviewer - And this photograph in the book, because you… the last posed photograph of Freddie you actually took.
Jim - Yes that was when, before they made the video of These are the days of our lives.
Interviewer - Now he looks quite frail.
Jim - He had shaved his beard off, everything for the days of our lives.
Interviewer - And then of course once Freddie died the papers went berserk.
Jim - Well then you know, Field Day, well they went berserk for three weeks before he died. I mean you couldn't move going into Garden Lodge, without hitting a barrage of press. Seriously it was horrendous. And it was a barrage of press they blocked the whole road, everything.
Interviewer - Because Freddie had been quite public about having AIDS.
Jim - Well…
Interviewer - In the sense that he didn't hide the fact.
Jim - He didn't hide the fact that he had AIDS, but then again he didn't openly admit it, no not until 24 hours before he died. But then that was a rushed statement which I said in my book that he was coerced into releasing.
Interviewer - Oh yeah?
Jim - Yes I've got my own reasons why but I wont say what but a lot of things were happening world-wide.
Interviewer - Because it was world news when Freddie died.
Jim - You had the Magic Johnston came out, around the same period of time all of this. But there are other reasons why I think, my reasons for thinking it is if Freddie had wanted to release that statement he would have done it a long time ago he wouldn't have waited till the last.
Interviewer - And what was that like for you, you were losing a husband, a lover? Jim - I had lost everything, literally everything. And I was to learn weeks later even our home.
Interviewer - Because?
Jim - Well we were politely asked to leave by the executors
Interviewer - ..of the will, and he left most of his money to Mary Austin Jim - He had made a promise to Mary many years ago, and Freddie was one of these people that...
Interviewer - Explain to our listeners who Mary Austin is because people never…
Jim - Mary is...she had a relationship, she had a fling with Freddie, oh crikey, in the seventies, which lasted I don't know how long, I really don't know much on that, only what I read in the papers. She up to his death worked for Freddie as a company secretary. She, well people say Why, Freddie trusted Mary, I think she was the one person he really and truly trusted. And he made a promise to her many years ago, long before I came on the seen that she would have the best part of his estate. And what I'm trying to say is that if Freddie, he was one of these type of people that if he made a promise, he would go out of his way to make sure that promise was kept, that he carried that promise through, so basically he was saying that you don't need to write that down.
Interviewer - You now Jim are grieving, you have lost somebody you have obviously been very deeply in love with and vice-versa, and they you have to leave the home were...
Jim - Everything, well it wasn't just me it was Joe and Peter also.
Interviewer - And were you locked out, literally locked out?
Jim - No, we were given a date to leave. I think I was the last one to leave Garden Lodge.
Interviewer - And what did Freddie leave you in his will?
Jim - In his will Freddie left me financially, he left me well off financially and that is it.
Interview - He left you - what did you say in the book?
Jim - He left me half a million pounds.
Interviewer - Half a million pounds.
Jim - But Freddie according to friends left the same amount to myself Peter and Joe so that we would never have to work again. Basically I suppose emphasising that they won't have to buy properties either. That his wishes would be kept, hoping he believed his wishes would be carried out. His verbal wishes.
Interviewer - Which were?
Jim - Which were that myself, Joe and Peter would stay in Garden Lodge as long as we wanted.
Interviewer - Oh I know what you mean, so you are being very strong in the sense that you should still be there and...
Jim - Well yes and no, I do believe I suppose in many ways it was good that we were asked to leave but I think that it would have been much nicer that they said in your own time go. Instead of putting a final date to it, you know. It was good in many ways because I mean it made us get out and pick our own lives again, so there was a positive side to it, the negative sides was we as I say were literally kicked out of our own home. We weren't, it was one tragedy on top of another. You know instead of giving you time to grieve over what's happening, to get your life rolling again.
Interviewer - So do you think about death, because you HIV and all?
Jim - I think everybody does at one stage or another. Well I mean I could walk out of here and get knocked down by a bus.
Interviewer - But I'm saying, you knows your are saying its important, Freddie had you and he had other people around the house obviously, have you somebody, I mean will you come back to Ireland.
Jim - No I don't think so, I suppose it would be bad enough my family knowing that I had developed full blown AIDS, it would be bad enough having my family to cope with that so why put the other pressure on with my being there., also knowing, I don't know what the medical facilities in Ireland are like. I mean in a years time…
Interviewer - They are as good as anywhere I think at this stage.
Jim - They probably are, I mean in some cases much better. But I've also got my backup doctors here, they have been looking after me all these years.
Interviewer - You sound as if you have been cheated out of, you know…
Jim - Out of life.
Interviewer - No, not out of life necessarily, but out of the, after Freddie and the house and...
Jim - No we were not cheated, we don't feel cheated it that way, as regards feeling cheated, I mean we were basically, the way we felt that we were being dismissed, we didn't exist anymore, you know once the deed was done those three people didn't exist and they were never here.
Interviewer - And is that one of the reasons you wrote the book?
Jim - No, I've written the book as I suppose a grieving process for myself. I mean it has taken time to write the book, and I suppose in many ways the only thing I probably think about is that I shouldn't have written it so quick, its wasn't written quickly. Because since the book has come out there are a lot of other things that have come out.
Interviewer - Sure you are talking a lot more now.
Jim - You know this is where the book has helped me, this is the reason, also I suppose to say well look this didn't happen and that this did happen.
Interviewer - To put the record straight?
Jim - To put the record straight.
Interviewer - Also in terms of you being openly and acknowledged as Freddie's, this is the life as the way he chose.
Jim - That wasn't the actual issue of writing the book, I suppose friends in the gay world knew who I was anyway.
Interviewer - You say, by the way as a complete, I don't know where this is after coming into my head, you talked once about snoring and Freddie gave out to you because you snored.
Jim - Oh yes, knocked me out of bed once.
Interviewer - Because you snored? Jim - Yes.
Interviewer - And were they happy years?
Jim - They were, yes they were, yes.
Interviewer - Did you go to the concert afterwards, I remember in memory of Freddie?
Jim - The Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert, oh yes I was there...
Interviewer - And what did you think of that?
Jim - I was amongst the crowds, I suppose at he time I was still checking "where's Freddie". I think a lot of people were doing that that day.
Interviewer - Do you remember David Bowie going down on...
Jim - I remember David kneeled down and saying the Lord’s prayer as we call it, oh yes.
Interviewer - That was powerful.
Jim - It was powerful but there again you see I do know that some of the press over here say like "how dare he" how dare the go down (slight radio interference)...Freddie praying at nighttime before he goes to bed, before he goes to sleep. Oh yes.
Interviewer - And what does he say?
Jim - I dunno, whispering, I'd go to bed at night and I'd hear this whispering. And I'd say what are you doing (radio interference again)
Interviewer - People wouldn't have imagined.
Jim - Well why not, come on.
Interviewer - Did you ever help him write songs, I know there was one song he wrote in the bath and he wrote songs to his cat, crazy little thing called love I think was written in the bath?
Jim - That was way before my time. No Delilah wasn't written in the bath that was in Switzerland, but as regards helping him write songs, not actually sitting down and, he'd come along to any of us in the house and say come on now I'm writing a song, throw a line at us, and if it didn't sound right to him he'd say, "throw some words at me" Interviewer - Talk to me
Jim - Talk to me, and things like that. So that was it as regards to helping him write. Interviewer - So did you ever realise this when you were what 12 or 13 walking around a small Irish town that one day you would be the lover of one of the most famous men in the world?
Jim - Oh God no, President of Ireland yes. (Laughs)
Interviewer - A more realistic ambition, you are in good health now?
Jim - At the moment I am.
Interviewer - And continued good health, we will play out now with Freddie voice again "Those were the days of our lives" Were they?
Jim - Of course they were.
Interviewer - How do you look back on the time?
Jim - I will never relive it, that is the way I look back on it and just go forward now.
Interviewer - Sheamus Hutton, thanks for joining us and best of luck with the book.
Jim - Thank you.
Interview with Mary Austen
Entertainment Express - BBC1 Friday 8th January
(excerpts)
Mary Austen
Freddie and I went... I think we were dating for about six months, and then we started to live together, which we both approached fairly cautiously, and we ended up being together for... living together for about seven years. We started off as friends, and when the relationship failed it was the friendship that carried us both through for twenty two years. I used to learn things about our relationship through interviews that he did, mainly for David Wigg at `the Express`. [ British newspaper ]
David Wigg - Showbusiness Editor Daily Express
Of course the public perception of Freddie was that he was gay, and not many people knew that he had this very deep love for Mary Austen. It was an extraordinary relationship, which became like brother and sister, where it had started off as lovers.
Mary Austen
It took a long while for me to really fall in love with this man, but once there I could never turn away from him. His pain became my pain, his joy became my joy.
David Wigg
The only person that he felt comfortable with... really, truly comfortable was Mary, who was I think, the truest love of his life.
Mary Austen
I was able to look inside, almost, another human being, and what I saw was a treasure trove of beauty, and I think that he also did that to a few million people outside too. And that's why, I think, the fans continue to feel the way they feel about him, it's that they saw that beauty, they saw the fun, they saw all the aspects of Freddie's personality, and they too fell in love... with him.
Mercurial Rhapsody
A fab five remember Freddie
Joe Elliott, Def Leppard:
"Freddie Mercury was the very acceptable and positive side of pompous and big. He was like a male version of Liza Minnelli. He was this big, old character that was larger than life. I imagine the closest thing you'll ever get to Freddie Mercury is Wrestlemania, and that's including the show, the building, the people inside it and the ring!"
Gary Cherone, Extreme:
"Freddie meant everything to me growing up. For as long as I can remember I've been the biggest Queen fan. There's nothing we don't know by Queen."
Axl Rose, Guns N'Roses:
"Freddie Mercury's death was something I had been preparing for since I had heard of his AIDS...If I didn't have Freddie Mercury's words and lyrics to hold onto as a kid, I don't know where I'd be...I never really had a bigger teacher in my whole life." (excerpted from Rockline)
Billy Squier:
"We were very close friends; he was a very special person to me. Freddie was probably the most creative individual I ever met, and he was really fun. He had a great zest for life. He was also very unselfish and very caring. He put himself out to work with me and it was phenomenal experience. [Freddie sang background on Squier's Emotions In Motion and Enough Is Enough albums; Billy opened Queen's Hot Space tour.]"
Brian May, Queen:
"My tribute really was 'The Show Must Go On.' There's a lot in there. I remember writing this line -- 'my soul is painted like the wings of butterflies' -- and I brought it to him one morning, a little worried about what he would think of it. I said, 'Do you think that's okay? Can you sing that?' And he went, 'Darling, I can sing that and I will give it my all.' Because he knew what it was all about and it didn't need to be said."
by Corey Levitan, Circus, 30 September 1992, p 64 - 73
Top Billing Interview with Brian May and Roger Taylor
Taken from "Top Billing" on SABC 2 - 2 January 1998
Roger Taylor: The last album "Made in Heaven" was quite, quite slow, quite down, quite a lot of ballads, lot of slow songs and we thought it would be nice, if we did release a compilation, releasing the hard rock songs of Queen.
Brian May: We thought it would be nice to give people what we never gave them, which is everything up. Like an album was normally very full of light and shade, all our albums were like that, you would find something very strong and then something very gentle on purpose you know so that the album was very listenable I suppose. But we thought it would be just great to have an album that you can just bung in your car or whatever and it rocks the whole way.
[Various clips of "I'm in Love With My Car" live]
RT: Queen were in essence a hard rock band.
[Clip of "Headlong"]
RT: This album represents a lot of the reasons why people liked us in the beginning.
BM: Yes there were ballads and yes there were anthems and everything but really it was a rock band.
[Clip of "We Will Rock You"]
BM: There were actually a lot of tracks available, I think probably twice as many tracks as we could get on the CD. So we were able to be very picky and I think when you can be choosy then you can make a good combination.
[Clip of "We Will Rock You"]
RT: Except the new song which Brian happened to write, and gave me a tape and said what do you think of this song... and I actually forgot to listen to it for a while.
BM: He put it away in a drawer somewhere you know, cause he was busy or whatever and it was months later when Roger phoned up suddenly, excited and said I just listened to the track and its amazing, and we have to do it as a Queen song.
RT: So we just got together and chemistry clicked back in and it was really good fun, I really enjoyed working with Brian and John again.
[Clip of "No-One But You"]
Narrator: Both Brian May and Roger Taylor have been sharpening their vocal skills for their own solo albums and they share the singing on this Freddie Mercury tribute video.
BM: We all knew that it shouldn't be something fancy, you know the song is not a fancy song where you have this big set, you know you are all heroic, its not that kind of thing. Its very simple and very direct and human. So the only way to do it is to base it around just playing, you know its called a Performance Video and within you have to tell the story and create atmosphere.
[Clip of "No-One But You"]
BM: If we were making a Queen video Freddie would be at the piano, or a gig you know and, for instance, there would be cups and stuff on the piano and there would be cups and Freddie would take a sip of whatever. And if it were a gig there would be a glass of champagne here because at some point he would say "Cheers Darlings" or whatever you know.
[Clip of "Tie Your Mother Down"]
Narrator: Although Freddie has been dead for six years it still feels to the remaining member so the band that in some ways he is still with them and not just in his musical legacy.
RT: I think we all always feel that somehow he's around. We lived with him for so many years we know how he would react to any given situation,so you imagine in your head he'd be saying, "Oh stop that... don't be ridiculous".
BM: The last shot was of the champagne glass, just so we had it covered and I was very keen that we have it in case... because you never know how you cut... how you finally edit a video, sometimes you change your mind in the edit and we had a final shot all planned.
[Clip of the planned final shot of "No-One But You"]
BM: But then we thought well, you know, maybe this glass which has been there all along would be a nice way to end as well. And in the end there's just one spot light on it and the Rudy goes cut and just before he goes cut, something happened! And I went, what was that? Did something happen? And everybody said, "No, I don't think anything happened." Anyway we ran the thing back and you see this little, tiny moth come down and it sort of wheels around the glass and the off into space.
[Clip of the final shot of "No-One But You']
Queen's Freddie Mercury: The Circus Magazine Tapes
by Don Rush
Freddie Mercury speaks about "Bohemian Rhapsody'' and the state of Queen. This candid, is reprinted from the March 17th, 1977 edition of Circus magazine.
Back in the old days, we were often compared to Led Zeppelin. If we did something with harmony, it was the Beach Hoys. Something heavy was Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant was always my favorite singer-and he's said nice things about me, you know. He actually said he liked 'Killer Queen.'
We were always a sitting target in the press because we became popular so quickly. But, you know, we spent two years putting our act together. It destroys the soul to hear that you're all hype, that you have no talent, and that your whole career has been contrived. I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs. When the whole point of Queen was to be original.
I'm the first to accept fair criticism. But the dishonest reviews-where people haven't done their homework - I just tear them up. I do get annoyed when up- and-coming journalists put themselves above the artist.
I don't care what the journalists say, we achieved our own identity after Queen II. As for the Beach Boys or Led Zeppelin comparisons: it's the combination of all those influences which means Queen. We were disliked by the press in the early days because they couldn't put their finger on us, and that was the case with Zeppelin as well.
A lot of people slammed 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but who can you compare that to? Name one group that's done an operatic single. You know, we were adamant that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' would be a hit in its entirety. We fain' been forced to make compromises, but cutting up a song will never be one of them.
We've always put our necks on the line. We're fussy and finnicky and have very high standards. If a song can't be done properly, we'd rather il isn't done at all. We're the fussiest band in the world, and we put so much loving into every album. We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear .
And, we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager freaks when we show him the bill. We're lavish to the bone, but all our money goes back into the product. We've gone overboard on every Queen album. But that's Queen. If people said, "The new album sounds just like Night At The Opera," I'd give up. Wouldn't you?
After Sheet' Heart Attack, we realized we'd established ourselves. We felt that there were no barriers, no restrictions. A Night At The Opera featured every sound from a tuba to a comb. Nothing is out of bounds. Every molecule of Day At The Races - every iota - is us. No session men. We don't try to reproduce that onstage.
We 've been slagged in the press for our flamboyant stage show. We think a show should be a spectacle. A concert is not a live rendition of our album. It's a theatrica! event.
In the early days, we just wore black onstage. Very bold, my dear . Then we introduced white, for variety, and it simply grew and grew. 'Stone Cold Crazy' was the first song Queen ever performed onstage.
I have fun with my clothes onstage; it's not a concert you're seeing, it's a fashion show. I dress to kill, but tastefully. My nail polish? I used to use Biba, now I use Miners. One coat goes on really smooth.
If we're weird onstage, I don't know what you'd call the Tubes. We're a bit flashy, but the music's not one big noise. I think we're sophisticated. I like the cabaretish sort of thing. In fact, one of my early inspirations came from Cabaret. I absolutely adore Liza Minnelli, she's a total wow. The way she delivers her songs-the sheer energy. The way the lights enhance every movement of the show. I think you can see similarities in the excitement and energy of a Queen show. It's not glamrock, you see; we're in the showbusiness tradition.
The lavish presentation appeals to me, and I've got to convince the others. You don't know how I had to fight for 'Big Spender' on the last tour We row about everything, even about the air we breathe. We're the bitchiest band on earth, darling. We're at each other's throats. One night Roger was in a foul mood and he threw his entire bloody drumset across the stage. The thing only just missed me - I might have been killed. Yes, we're all very highly strung. Once, Roger squirted Brian in the face with hairspray in a tiny, steaming dressing room. They nearly came to blows. We've all got massive egos, my dear. The others don't like my interviews. And frankly, I don't care much for theirs. I'm very emotional; I think I may go mad in several years' time.
People think I'm an ogre, you know. Onstage, I am a devil. But I'm hardly a social reject. My parents were very strict, actually. I was born in Zanzibar September 5, 1946. My father was a civil servant. I learned to fend for myself in boarding school. All the bullying- I had the odd schoolmaster chasing me. I was considered the arch poof.
I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. That's as much as I'll divulge. I got my diploma from Ealing College of Art, in graphics and illustration. You know, I designed the Queen crest. I simply combined all the creatures that represent our star signs-and I don't even believe in astrology.
I think my melodies are superior to my lyrics. 'Death On Two Legs' was the most vicious lyric I ever wrote. It's so vindictive that Brian felt bad singing it. I don't like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song. I think that's awful, just awful. When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance.
Years ago, I thought up the name Queen. It’s just a name. But it's regal, obviously, and-sounds splendid. I like to be surrounded by splendid things. I like to browse around art galleries, but I'm a hard-working lad and I never have the time. I bought a house in London which I'd only seen in photographs. I know that 's absurd, but I had no time to go house-hunting. And I needed a place to move my furniture and clothes. I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.
I'm not into business at all. I'm hopeless with money; I simply spend what I've got. I guess I've always lived the glamorous life of a star. It 's nothing new-I used to spend down to the last dime. Now I've got money. I always knew I was a star And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.
'Killer Queen', interjects Mercury. It's a turning point in that it sounds nothing like the noisy heavy metal sound to which we are accustomed from Queen, thus justifying their earlier claim of 'versatility'. It's more of a mixture of Beach Boys, early Beatles and 1920's music-hall. Quite nice, actually. Says Mercury : "People are used to hard rock, energy music from Queen, yet with this single you almost expect Noel Coward to sing it. It's one of those bowler hat, black suspender belt numbers - not that Coward would wear that." And you ? "Oh no dear, just a nice black number."
Roger's Drum Masterclass
Music Works - BBC World Service [Radio - not TV] 28/11/93 1030GMT
reproduced without permissionJS = John Sugar (presenter)
RT = Our Rog
PC = Phil CollinsJS: So far in the programmes, we've heard artists explaining and demonstrating
on piano, synthesizer and guitar. In today's rhythmic edition, we hear
about the drums from two rock superstars, Phil Collins of Genesis and
this drummer:RT: Hi I'm Roger Taylor of Queen. Welcome to the Music Works
[a bit of RT drumming]
[a clip of Now I'm Here]JS: Drums have played an important part in contemporary music and in todays
pulsating edition of the music works, RT and PC will explain and
demonstrate different rhythms, beats and drum styles from behind their kits.
From the African TomTom to the Indian Tabla(?) drums have played a vital
role in peoples lives for thousands of years. The modern drum kit,
comprising bass drum, tomtoms and snare with an assortment of cymbals
became an integral part of western music this century. Jazz and the big
band era of the 1940s gave the drums a more prominent role in the music
and with the advent of Rock'n'Roll in the mid 1950s, an even greater
emphasis was placed on the all important beat. Roger Taylor has been the
drummer with the rock band Queen for over 20 years. Ironically, he began
his musical career not seated behind the drums at allRT: Well really I was just an aspiring Rock Musician. I picked up a guitar
and found it very difficult and I sort of graduated to drums because I
found them very easy - I suppose it was a case of natural aptitude.
Mitch Mitchell was my role model at the time, and I still think listening
to Mitch Mitchell, especially the early stuff with Hendrix, is just
fantastic. This fusion of jazz technique and wonderful riffs but with
this rolling ferocious attack on the whole kit, it had lots of jazz
influences I think. In fact for me he played the kit like a song, it was
just wonderful. Total integration into the song. Not just marking time[a clip of Hey Joe]
JS: In the late 60s, other drummers like Ginger Baker of Cream and Keith Moon
of the Who were playing their kits with an explosive zeal that was familiar
to the jazz scene but new to rock music. And Led Zeppelin developed a
different approach to recording the drums in the studio. In 1971, the
band's Four Symbols album featured the new drum sound typified on the
track "When the Levee Breaks" pioneered by the groups larger than life
drummer John BonhamRT: The greatest Rock'n'Roll drummer of all time was John Bonham who did
things that nobody bad ever even thought possible before with the drum kit.
And also the greatest sound out of his drums - they sounded enormous, and
just one bass drum. So fast on it that he did more with one bass drum than
most people could do with three, if they could manage them. And he had
technique to burn and fantastic power and tremendous feel for rock'n'roll
"When the levee breaks" is the archetypal heavy drum sound - it's never
been bettered - it's like a steamroller, enormous bass drum. Simple but
takes feel
[a bit of RT playing the intro]
A very simple pattern, but the sound was everything.
[a clip of When the Levee Breaks]RT: The interplay between the guitars and drums was wonderful on that. He
used to use 4 microphones on the drum kit - quite inexpensive microphones
just placed properly, drums tuned properly, played properly sounded great
and the first time I saw Led Zeppelin, Bonzo just walked on the stage
and just warmed up for about 10 seconds. Freddie and I nearly fell over
we just couldn't believe the power and the sound. People are still today
trying to imitate Led Zeppelin, America is full of drummers trying to
play like John Bonham.
[a clip of Rock'n'Roll]JS: But there's more to being a drummer than hammering the life out of a drum
kit. All music has rhythm and a tempo and together they provide the
vitality and character of the music. Tempo means speed or time. Most
Rock'n'Roll for example is in common or 4/4 time. Roger Taylor holds
such technical terms in high esteem [radio equivalent of a ;-)]RT: I try and avoid technical terms because they make me go to sleep. Er,
4/4 really as far as most people are concerned is basically different to
3/4 or 6/8. A song like We are the Champions is basically in 3/4 which
is 3 beats to the bar which is really waltz time
[a bit of RT playing Champions]
[a clip of Champions]
That's just 3/4 , er hang on a minute... yeah. Whereas the majority of
songs are in 4 time, it's very simple 4 beats to the bar
[RT demonstrates 4/4]
[a clip of the Stones. either Brown Sugar or Jumping Jack Flash (dunno which)
which is presumably what Roger was playing]
[RT demonstrates 4/4]RT: Almost all beats, the great majority of them, are in 4/4. Anything other
than that, you're talking Jazz or an arrangement by Genesis! I had to
play one of those the other day and it was very difficult! Turn it on
again - very difficult. I think it went 13 time to 3 time to 4 time
[a clip of Turn it on again][a large bit about PC talking about In the Air Tonight and Ringo]
JS: Jazz has given contemporary music a wealth of explosive drummers with
characters to match, like Art Blakey, Phil Seaman, Gene Crouper and many
more. But there's one jazz drummer that sends shivers of delight through
both PC and RTRT: I saw Buddy Rich playing. He was wonderful, fantastic. I would say of
just sheer technique he's the best I've ever seen. I remember he did a
sort of press(?ed) roll thing which lasted for about 5 minutes. It
started off as a whisper which you could barely hear and it got so it
filled the whole room of about 3500 people and it was like thunder, it
was all one snare drum - in the manner of this
[RT does crescendo drum roll]
I can't keep it up for 3 minutes, but it just shows unbelieveable
control of the drum and the sticks
[a clip of Buddy Rich playing something][[a bit with PC talking about Buddy Rich]
JS: But is it possible that drummers could find themselves replaced by
digital technology. Drum machines are featured on many of today's
recordings, especially the many dance hits that regularly storm the chart
They are small, versatile, keep perfect time and don't need to get paidRT: Fantastic to write with. They have their place, they're terribly useful
to the musician, but they're just another tool. They never will replace
a good drummer. A lot of the bands that use them, I call then typewriter
bands because basically they program the sample sounds with no real
dynamics, and that dynamics is very important. And the records come out
sounding very flat and very 2-dimensional whereas something with real
dynamics and a good drummer can add another dimension - depth - to the
band and that's why bands that play together when they're actually
making the record will always sound betterJS: As far as RT is concerned, the human touch us still preferable to a machine
A good drummer obviously needs an instinctive feel for the rhythm, and
modern dance or funk music requires a different approachRT: Yes, the difference is subtle. It's really the way you place the beats
within the bar. And often you get more going on behind, often it's
sharper and snappier
[bit of RT demonstrating]
You might have 16s going on on the high hat
[bit of RT demonstrating]
Unlike something that's straight. Like one of our old things which is
as straight as you can get. Another one bites the dust, which is
something like
[a bit of RT playing AOBTD intro]
[a clip of AOBTD]JS: So far, we've heard about tempo and technique, the great drum pioneers,
dynamics and drum machines. But before I leave you, what about the human
qualities? If you've always had a yearning to play drums and are about
to go and spent your hard earned cash on that expensive drum kit, how
do you know you've got what it takes?RT: You need a sense of time, a sense of rhythm, a sort of inner clock and
that you really need naturally. You have to have agression and lastly I
would say you definitely need stamina. But you do learn tricks, apart
from the fact that you develop more stamina, your muscles get more used
to what's demanded of them. We used to do a song called Dragon Attack
that was very hard on the right wrist, It should have gone
[a bit of RT playing Dragon Attack chorus]
I used to end up going
[a bit of RT playing Dragon Attack chorus with half the hits]
You sort of half the work that you're doing with the right hand, and
that's just an example. Also there are techniques of being louder and
using less energy. For instance, when people start playing the snare
drum, they will play the back beat but they'll probably play it like this
[RT hits drum a few times - very clean sound]
when you learn a bit more, you find that virtually every time you hit
the snare with the back beat you don't just hit it but do what's called
a rim shot. A rim shot is not this
[RT hits rim]
A rim shot is this
[RT hits drum - much more drag]
[RT plays something, don't know what]
That's just a way of accentuating or getting more power out of the drum
It's development of technique and I suppose playing the drums more
efficientlyJS: Why have drummers got this wildman reputation?
RT: It's because they're basically far superior to other musicians
JS: You're not biased? Why should drummers always be being deemed the lunatic?
RT: I suppose it's more physical than most of the other things, your adrenalin
is pumped more naturally whereas bass players are usually, well... quite
often fairly morose, rather like their instruments. There are stereotypes
and it is quite amazing how often members of bands seem to follow those
stereotypes. Singers are ALL vain. Guitarists are all vain but won't
admit it. Bass players are quiet people, and drummers are very exciting
people to be with.JS: You mentioned earlier that one of the qualities a good drummer needs is
to be aggressive. Drums are quite antisocial and loud, so that might make
the individual antisocial and loud and therefore get noticedRT: There might well be something in that, and there's something rather nice
about spending the evening hitting things[clip of The Who - the one that sounds like Under a Raging Moon (?won't get
fooled again)]THE END
XX-XX-1985 - Unknown
Rock On Freddie
As thousands of adoring fans flock to buy his first solo album this week, Freddie Mercury tells of the one thing that all his success and all his millions can’t ever buy……
Freddie Mercury. the outrageous front-man of superband Queen. Is addicted to his phenomenal success but his fame and fortune have also been the source of his misery. Freddie loves creating bizarre stage images and thrives on the roar of his audiences and the beat of his music. But when the lights down at the end of a show. he is .left feeling lost and lonely.
"You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man. and that is the most bitter type of loneliness." says Freddie. "Success has brought me world idolisation and millions of pounds. but it's prevented me from having the one thing we all need-a loving. Ongoing relationship.
"It's like the old Hollywood stories where all those 'wonderful actresses just couldn't carry on a relationship because their careers came first.
"That’s the way it is with me. I can’t stop the wheel for a while and devote myself to a love affair because all sorts of business problems would pile up. The wheel has to keep turning and that makes it very hard for anyone to live with me and be happy.
"I'm driven by my work and will go on for as long as my system will allows me - until I go insane. There's a voice inside me saying. 'Slow down Freddie. you're going to burn yourself out'. but I just can't stop.
"You can't' revel in the success and then. 13 years down the line. wake up one morning and say. 'No. I don't want to be a superstar today. I want to go out in the streets on my own. or pour my heart into a relationship'. -It's impossible. Because this is it."
"It" is being the extrovert lead singer with probably the most successful rock band ever. In their 13-year reign. Queen have rocked the world in a way that no other group has before or since .not even the Beatles.
Today. Freddie and. the boys-Brian May. Roger Taylor 'and John Deacon each earn over £1 million a year and need never make another record or undertake another tour. But they have no intention of stopping. ~st year. Queen toured Europe and had yet another hit with Thank God It's Christmas, and Freddie released his first solo single. Love Kills-which made the top 10 and began work on his new single and first solo album. Earlier this year. he and the band were the star attraction for the 250.000 fans at the rock festival in Rio. Brazil.
"It was awe-inspiring and mind-boggling to be up there. with all those people in the palm of your hand." says Freddie. "But the other side of the coin is that. though was surrounded by masses of people who love me. I must have been the loneliest person there. Can you imagine how terrible it is when you've got everything and you're still desperately lonely? That is awful beyond words.
"I don't want people to think, poor old Freddie. because I can deal with it. But I'm so powerful on stage that I seem to have created a monster. When I'm performing. I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man.
"Of course, the stagey streak in me, where I love to jump around
and be volatile, is real, but people don't realise there's more. They expect me to be the same in my personal life as well. They say. 'Come on, Freddie, perform, give us some excitement'."
The hunky, dark-haired singer, who takes pride, in his rippling muscles and ever-changing appearance, once joked that he'd had more lovers than any Hollywood star.
"But they never last," says 38-year-old Freddie. "I seem to eat people up and destroy them. There must be a destructive element in me because I do try very hard to build up relationships, but somehow I drive people away.
"They always blame the end of
the love affair on me because I'm the successful one. Whoever I'm with seems to get into a battle of trying to match up to me, so all the time I'm feeling guilty and over-compensating... Then they end up treading all over me.
"I can’t win. Love is Russian roulette for me. No one loves the real me inside. they're all in love with my fame, my stardom.
"I fall in love far too quickly and end up getting hurt all the time. I've got scars all over. But I can't help myself because basically I'm a softie I have this hard, macho shell ~which I project on stage but there's a much softer side. too, which melts like butter.
"I try to hold back when I'm attracted to someone but I just can't control love. It runs not All my one-night-stands are just me playing my part. What I really like is a lot of loving. And I spoil my lovers terribly. I like to make them happy and I get so much pleasure out of giving them really wonderful, expensive presents."
Freddie has admitted that he is bisexual, but says: "I couldn't fall in love with a man the way I could with a girl". The one love of his life and the only person he really trusts is 31-year-old Mary Austin, a quiet, fair-haired woman. Freddie and Mary had a seven-year romance.
"Our love affair ended in tears but a deep bond grew out of it, and that's something nobody can take away from us. It's unreachable," he says. "All my lovers ask me why they can't replace her, but it's simply impossible.
"I don't feel jealous of her lovers because. of course, she has a life to lead, and so do I. Basically, I try to make sure she's happy with whoever she's with and she tries to do the same for me.
"We look after each other and that's a wonderful form of love. I might have all the problems in the world, but I have Mary and that gets me through."
The seal of Freddie's commitment to Mary is his decision to leave her his millions.
"What better person to leave my fortune to when I go?" he smiles. "Of course my parents are in my will and so are my cats. but the vast bulk of it will go to Mary.
"If I dropped down dead tomorrow. Mary's the one person I know who could cope with my vast wealth. She works in my organisation and looks after my money side and all my possessions. She's in charge of the chauffeurs. maids. gardeners. accountants and lawyers. All I have to do is throw my carcass around on stage."
Freddie is one of the world's richest rock stars but he never has a penny in his pocket and has no idea of how many millions he owns.
"I love having so much money." he admits. "but I don't believe in counting it And because I have far more than I need, I give a lot of it away to people I like.
"I try to enjoy life and if there was no money I wouldn't let it stop me having a good time. In the early days. when I hardly had anything I'd save for two weeks and then blow it all in a day so that I could have a blast of fun."
Certainly. money hasn't always been so free for Freddie. Born Freddie Bulsara on September 5. 1946. his father was a government accountant, which meant Freddie spent some of his childhood in Zanzibar and India. After school. he did a graphics course at Ealing College of Art in London (he designed the band's logo. using the four members' birth signs as inspiration). It was in late 1971 that he joined May. Taylor and Deacon and the Queen phenomenon began. The biggest visible mark of Freddie's success (and millions) must be his magnificent 28-room mansion in London's Kensington, for which he paid over £1/2 million
in cash!
When Freddie bought the house four years ago, he had three of the eight bedrooms knocked into one, for himself, and filled the
mansion with handmade furniture from Harrods and priceless Japanese carvings and paintings from Tokyo. Outside. an army of gardeners carved out a country retreat in the grounds.
But the king of the castle still hasn't moved in: For the first time Freddie explains why: "Every person who makes a lot of money has a dream he wants to carry out and I achieved that dream with this wonderful house. - Whenever I watched Hollywood movies set in plush homes with lavish decor. I wanted that for my-self and now I've got it But to me it was much more important to get the damn thing than to actually go and live in it Maybe the challenge has worn off now. I'm very much like that-once I get something I'm not that keen on it any more. I still love the house but the real enjoyment is that I've achieved it
"Sometimes, when I'm alone at night. I imagine that when I'm 50 I’ll creep into that house as my refuge and then I'll start making it a home. Anyway. as it is. I can only spend 60 days a year in England for tax reasons."
Freddie has spent the last few months in Munich putting the finishing touches to his first solo album. Mr Bad Guy, which he has dedicated to his dead cat. Jerry.
The album. which is out this week. is packed with new material taking different direction.
'I’ve put my heart and soul into this album. he says. 'it’s much more beat orientated than Queen’s music and it also has some very moving ballads.
In between hard work he also found time to begin a new friendship with a German actress 42-year-old Barbara Valentin.
Barbara and I have formed a bond that is stronger than anything I've had with a lover for the last six years." he says. "I can really talk to her and be myself in a way that's very rare."
Among his existing close friends. Freddie counts Rod Stewart, Elton John and Michael Jackson.
"Rod. Elton and I were going to form a band called Hair. Nose and Teeth after the three of us." he laughs. "But it hasn't happened because none of our egos can agree on the order of the words! Naturally I want it to be called Teeth, Nose and Hair.
"I'm very fond of Rod and Elton. They both came to my last birthday party and sang happy birthday when the cake was wheeled in. I shouted out. 'This is probably the first time the two of you have sung without being paid for it!' and they laughed like mad.
"Michael Jackson and I have grown apart a bit since his massive success with Thriller. He's simply retreated into a world of his own.
"Two years ago we used to have great fun going to clubs together but now he won't come out of his fortress. It's very sad. He's so worried that someone will do him in that he's paranoid about absolutely everything.
"I get worried about that myself but I'll never let it take over my life like that"
Freddie has said that if he wasn't
a rock star with Queen. he'd have liked to have been a ballet dancer. He once appeared with the Royal Ballet dancing to a selection of Queen hits, and it was at a glittering Royal Ballet party that Freddie met Prince Andrew.
"I was wearing a white scarf and holding a glass of wine when I was introduced to Prince Andrew. But I was so nervous I didn't realise my scarf was dangling in the drink." Freddie recalls.
"There I was trying to be really cool and suddenly the Prince said, 'Freddie, I don't think you really want this getting wet'. He squeezed out the scarf and that broke the ice between us.
"I said, 'Thank goodness you've put me at ease. Now I can use the odd bit of dirty language'. Then we both burst out laughing.
"He really got into the spirit of things and even had a dance. He's really quite hip in those sort of situations.
"I have a lot of respect for royalty. I'm a tremendous patriot"
Yet another unexpected side to the king of Queen. But then there's much more to Freddie Mercury than most of us ever see. Underneath the bizarre clothes and images that have become his trademark, there is the other Freddie. He sums it up simply . . . "Sometimes, I just long to be perfectly ordinary as well."
Brian and Roger at MTV Music Awards, September 1992
Transcription by: Andrew G. Reid (ereid@public.compusult.nf.ca)
AR's Note: I found 2 short interviews on a video tape I had of the 1992 MTV music video awards at the Pauley Pavillion, UCLA, September 1992. I also typed in the acceptance speech by Brian and Roger when the recieved the MTV award. Shown on Much Music in September of 1992. Queen won the MTV award for best video from a film. The song was "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the film "Wayne's World"
Interviewer: Michael Williams (Much Music Canada). These 3 items are in chronological order. Although on the video, they are in a different order (1,3,2))
1. Transcripton of interview with Brian May at 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. Interview before the awards ceremony regarding the success of Wayne's World.
Michael Williams: (audio trouble)...Wayne's World and just the fact that Queen has always been Queen and really in everyone's heart and all the material is out, all of the cd's are out now. Are you pleased with the job that Hollywood Records has done?
Brian May: Yeah, I'm very happy with what's happened and it's ironical that it took a comedy film to do it. You know? I think Freddie would have seen the amusing side of it and he would be proud that it is his magnum opus that's done it again. Bohemian Rhapsody is out again and young kids are realizing what a piece of stuff that was so I'm very happy and very proud. Things happen in mysterious ways, you know? We've struggled around for years thinking that one day we'd get America back and it took young Wayne to do it!
2. Transcription of interview with Brian May and Roger Taylor at the 1992 MTV Music Video awards. Interview during the awards ceremony prior to their winning the MTV award for best video from a film
Michael Williams: First Question now, tell me a little bit more about the material you recorded before Freddie's passing and what you are going to do with it.
Brian May: Um... I can't tell you very much about it. They're just a few songs. Some are more close to completion than others, but I think that they're very good and as with the Innuendo material they're quite pertinant, if you know what I mean, because we were looking at the problem, we were aware of Freddie's problem and he could barely stand, but he was singing like nothing I've ever seen. Incredible! So there's a little treat to come, definetly and we, you know, Roger, John and I hopefully will get in and finish it off at some point.
Roger Taylor: Yeah...We haven't really felt like, we didn't feel like rushing into the studio and finishing those tracks, but we're definitely going to be finishing them next year and I suppose that will obviously be the last you'll ever see of the original line up. Um...whether we work again is to be seen. We'll let nature take its course.
Michael Williams: Now...and the Charity, the Magic Johnson Foundation. Your relationship with that.
Roger Taylor: Well it's really one of a number of charities which we've helped. We've got a full time researcher in England who is, in fact based in Switzerland, and who is just really giving us all the information about great charities and the many many AIDS charities so we've tried to split the money up sensibly. It's a very difficult postion to be in and we were able to give, of course Magic's fantastic foundation, we were able to give him a good nice checque today and obviously it's good to have publicity around it because it generates more awareness which is the key thing.
Brian May: Yeah...It's a good point that Roger makes. I think that the actual awareness and the noise we make is at least as important as the money. Because it has to be a snowball thing, you know? The world has to really wake up very quickly if we're gonna get on top of this at all.
Michael Williams: Thank you...
(cut away to Bohemian Rhapsody video)
3. Transcription of Queen accepting the award for Bohemian Rhapsody (best video from a film). Award presenters: Jean-Claude Van Damme and Halley Barrey.
Nominees:
- Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
- Try a Little Tenderness - The Commitments
- Addams Groove - Hammer
- Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
(AR's Note: When Bohemian Rhapsody was announced as a nominee, a cheer erupted from the crowd)
Brian May: Well...Everybody(waves to cheering crowd)! Contrary to what you may think...Can you hear me?...Yeah!...Contrary to what you may think, this is a surprise! Thay wouldn't tell us, so I'm a little overcome. I would just like to say that Freddie would be very pleased. He would be...um...(crowd cheers)...I think he would be,...he would be tickled by the irony that the only thing that would ressurect us is...um...a wonderful comedy film, but I think he would have a good laugh and I think that it is a worthy tribute. So thanks very much to Wayne, and to Garth wherever you are and I'd also like to thank Hollywood Records and I have to thank Penelope Spheeris for putting us in the movie and Bruce Gowers who made that whole thing in the first place. Here's Roger.
Roger Taylor: Thank you...And we loved the movie! Thanks!
Brian May: Thank you!(acknowledges crowd)
(crowd cheers)
Playback: The Making Of An Album
Brian May's "Star Fleet Project" with Eddie Van Halen
As told to Jas Obrecht
Star Fleet Project, a three-cut mini-album credited to Brian May & Friends, documents the rare airing of two rock's foremost guitarist in an informal jam setting: Brian May of Queen and Eddie Van Halen, winner of Best Rock Guitarist in this issue's Readers Poll. The sessions took place in Los Angeles on April 21 and 22, 1983, three month after Brian's Guiatr Player cover story. Also in attendance were Alice Cooper keyboardist Fred Mandel, REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer, and Phil Chen, bassist for the Rod Stewart band. "Star Fleet", the project's single, contains brief example of May's layered guitar technique, a signature sound on many Queen hits. May and Van Halen swap hot blues solos in "Let Me Out" and "Blues Breaker", which total 20 minutes. Here Brian shares his thoughts on his album and forthcoming video.
I hope people will take Star Fleet Project [Capitol, MLP 15014] in the spirit in which it was done. It wasn't made for release in the beginning, but I think it should be fun for some poeple to listen to. All the mistakes were left in; I've even written that on the album. I wanted to leave the rough edges because I want people to feel like they were there. I didn't want it to sound like it had been worked on and messed around with too much.
The musicians on the project are some of the best friends I have in the business, and also the people I respect most from a playing point of view. I asked them if they would come in and play around with me. They all said, "Yeah, we'd like to". Luckily, they all had a little break in their schedules, and they could come in. This project brought out unusual things in all of us; we really worked on each other a lot. This is not Edward and me, but Phillip, too. He's very different style of bassist from what I've been used to. He is one of the originators of a style. I've always watched him and thought it would be interesting to play with him because he has this very percussive style which you'd almost think wouldn't fit into rock'n'roll, but, in fact, it propels it along. He's very good. I've known Alan for quite a while, but I had no idea what it would be like to play with him. When you hear people's record, you have no idea, really, what they would be like to play with. But it was great. the incredible thing about him is his consistency. He could go for 12 hours, and if you picked up his tempo from the begining, it would be the same as the end. He's like a rock, particularly on the blues thing where you just feel that solidity which gives the track a sort of integrity. I really like that.
There weren't any rehearsals, except that we played around at each other's houses a little bit, acoustically. I'd been to Edward's studio in his home, and I played a little with him - nothing very organized. I value Edward's friendship more than anything, really. I have total respect for him as a player, but what's important to me is that we're good friends. I wanted to make sure I didn't waste anybody's time, so I did a little bit of preparation. I made a rough demo of the format of "Star Fleet", which originally was a theme tune for a Saturday morning science fiction serial for kids in England. There were just a couple of verses of this song on the end, which really caught my imagination, so I tried to get in touch with the guy who had written the song, Paul Bliss, and couldn't at the time. So I pressed on and did some arrangement around a couple of verses and wrote extra middle bit for it. Later I got in touch with him, and he said it was a pity that I coudn't find him in the early days because he's got some more verse in the middle - which I'm dying to hear - but it was too late for the project. My song does follow his musical theme, and I used the verse he wrote. He's a keyboard player who has done a lot of writing for various people.
When we recorded this, we went into the studio about 12:00 midday. We already knew rought what we wanted to do because we talked about it, and played them a couple of demos. We worked till about 11:00 at night. A lot of it was talking rather than playing, but we did a lot of playing, too. There's a lot of stuff which isn't on the album, obviously, but I think the most listenable music is there. There isn't much else that you would call "songs" on the rest of it. It's just a lot of playing around, a lot of different rhythms. I don't think it would be of as much interest. "Star Fleet" was done on the first day. I thought it was the most adventurous and ambitious thing to try. We were very up and full of nervous tension. I think you can tell by the way we played. We all didn't know each other, and it was very electric. Everyone looked at each other and was wondering what the hell was going to happen next - very funny. I went home totally exhausted with a splitting headache, but very happy.
The next day we all knew each other, and it was much more relaxed. We did "Let Me Out" and then a lot of blues jamming around and a few other bits and pieces. I used the guitar I always use, which I made with my father years ago. I didn't have my whole pedalboard business. I just had a couple of Vox Ac-30 amps and a Boss (Chorus Ensemble) pedal to stereoize them, which is the way I like to play these things. So generally in the mix you hear me in stereo on the left and right through those two amps, and Edward in the middle with his echo floating around each side. That will proably help you figure it out. If you hear it on head phones, it's very obvious who does what: My stuff is in each ear, and Edward's in the middle. At the end of one song, one of my amp blew up, so I had to put me on one side and him on the other. And the amp was brand new! Ed was playing his regular guitar - the original red one - and a Marshall top and a Marshall cabinet. He has slightly more edge to his sound than mine, which is sort of thick. There is very little vibrato bar from either of us.
In a way, Eddie's and my playing sound much more alike here than it does with our respectives bands, particularly on the blues stuff. Electric blues is where I came from originally. Way before Queen formed, I used to play blues. One of my first inspirations was Eric Clapton on that John Mayall Blues Breakers album (London, LC50009), the one with the Beano comic book on the cover. The same with Eddie. We got to taking about that, and that's where the "Blues Breakers" track came from. That was totally unplanned. We were just talking about those sessions, and what it must have been like in those days when everything was a bit freer and easier. We started kicking around those little riffs which are a bit like Blues Breakers, and just let the tape roll as we played around. Although "Star Fleet" was sort of structured, I wanted to have a bit of arrangement and a little bit of trading off together, and then I wanted to give Edward a place to just let loose. It was built around wanting to have this bit where I could just lay down the chords, and he would let loose in the middle. That track begins with Edward doing fingerboard tap. Later on he does the line with harmonics, and I layered in the harmony guitar parts. Then at the end, we did a climb together. That was a great feeling, because we just stood on each side of the board and worked out roughly how it should be. We said we have to start here and end up there - go up in more or less semitones, but get to the right place at the right time. That was fun - he played his better than I played mine!. The song fades and then starts up again, which was completely sponteneous. Edward has this thing that ha can never stop playing (laughs). So every time everybody else thought we'd finished, he'd be going, "chack, chacka, chack, chack". So those plucked chords there are his. He's just so inspiring it's ridiculous.
There was no overdubbing at all, except to produce the harmony guitar on "Star Fleet". I didn't want to overdub because I wanted to preserve the original feel. We kept everything. There's a place where Edward breaks a string towards the end of "Let Me Out". First of all, we thought, "Well, should we do something about that?" And then I thought, "No, it's great because nobody has ever heard that on a record before". There's all sort of talking to each other that you can hear if you listen very carefully, and bits where we slip around. I don't think it's a matter for concern. I would rather leave that in there and keep it original.
I worked on "Star Fleet" a little to make a single version. I wanted to have something which was instantly accessible, so I made a little introduction on the single version instead of sort of long preamble on the mini-album. So the single gets into the song very quickly, and it lasts about half the length. I made it to tell people about the album. I've been working very hard on making a video for "Star Fleet". The people who made the series, which originally was Japanese, heve very kindly given me access to footage that I'm using. We're putting a whole little story together using the original shots of theirs. I'm also telling the story - a sort of figure who appears, a background narrator. It's amazing how long it takes. I've been working on the Queen material and trying to do that, and it's nearly killing me. But I'm very enthusiastic about the way it's turned out, because I love the series and want people to be able to share the feeling of that, too. It's great stuff. The hero of the piece is called Shiro, who is the chief pilot of Star Fleet. And he flies along with his friends, three little space rockets which detach from the main X-bomber. At one point whene things get really bad - when he's under fire from the enemy - the three modules join up to form one and become this robot which is controlled by him. The robot can go down and fight on land. He smashes tanks with his fists, fires torpedoes, stamps on stuff with his feet, and all kind of things. It blows my mind. It's most amazing the way it's put together. The models are incredible. My experience working on the soundtrack for Flash Gordon came in handly for this. It's very similar, actually. I think I should go into this full-time.
There weren't any reservations from the other musicans as far as releasing Star Fleet Project. Everyone was very positive and has been wonderful to me. In the begining I didn't want to put it out because I thought it was private, and I didn't know if it would be in good taste to release it. I played it to a feww friends, and they said, "Really, you should, because a lot of people would like to hear this stuff". So I spoke to each other of the guys individually, and they all said, "Hey, do what you want with it. We'll be happy". The only thing which was really hard was getting the paper-work done. These days people's contracts are such complete maze. It took literally a couple of months to get through all the paper-work that was necessary from management and record companies. And that's with the best will in the world; nobody was trying to make it difficult. Queen was leaving Elektra at the time, which was the final piece we had to get into place before we could put anything out. It's a big headache, but I think it's worth it. I want people to know that this is just a one-off thing, a piece of fun. It's not like anyone's leaving their group or anything; there's no hint of that. We're all very much involved with our bands activities. This was just a little trip out.
Transcription of Brian's show on Capital Radio 25/2/85
On Monday 25th February 1985 at 3pm, Brian presented a two hour show on London's "Capital Radio" as a guest DJ.
BM: Hello, nice to see you
Roger Scott: This is a new role for you, have you ever done this sort of thing before?
BM: Not for a very long time. I've played around with it a little bit in America. In the old days you used to be able to go into a radio station and they'd say "Alright! You can do anything you want!" kind of thing. These days they're very tight so they wouldn't let you do it.
RS: You're still going to squeeze in a few knucklebusters here I would think?
BM: Yes, well it's not going to be that soft, I'll give you that. I can't say you're that soft these days, my God I couldn't get in the door! He does rock, does our Roger!
RS: There were so many stories to hit the press about that Rock In Rio show..
BM: Yes, all of them complete fabrication
RS: What's your outstanding memory? I remember reading something about you chucking people in swimming pools
BM: No, I jumped in myself actually. It was the only thing left to do that night really. It was a bit warm and everyone was getting very silly and there was this lovely inviting pool there so in I went. That's all.
RS: Outstanding memory?
BM: Just looking at the crowd really. We never quite believed that it was going to happen and we were going to get quarter of a million people a night or whatever, and it just actually happened, they all rolled up and one night it was pouring with rain and they were still there until two in the morning from four in the afternoon and it was very well organised and very well lit which is unusual so you could actually see the audience very well, all in pools of different coloured lights and I think there is going to be a video of that some time and perhaps people will be able to see, but it was quite something I must say. And there was the feeling of it being the first time, which it was, because there never was that much rock'n'roll in Rio. Now there is mate, I tell you!
RS: Are Queen taking a rest for the rest of the year?
BM: No, we're starting, er, the beginning of April we'll be in New Zealand and Australia and then a couple of weeks after in Japan and then we go in the studios again and make the thirty ninth album!
RS: First of all you have to get through the next couple of hours
BM: That's right, which is going to be quite hard!
RS: Good luck
["Hammer To Fall" - Queen]
BM: This is Brian May and we're going to get straight into this - I can't believe they let me do this. This is my favourite group....
["Photograph" - Def Leppard]
Yes, Def Leppard from the Pyromania album. I think this country has yet to see the full might of these guys. I didn't believe it either - I didn't think they were that good until I saw them. Oh boy oh boy oh boy they are amazing. This group isn't too bad either. This is some guy called Edward Van Halen and his brother Alex and there's a couple of other guys in the group, but you should hear the rapport between the bass.. er guitar and the drums on this, it's absolutely unbelieveable I think. It's called "Hot For Teacher" and it's Van Halen...
["Hot For Teacher" - Van Halen]
(in the middle of the track, Brian shouted "Loud!" over the music)
Yes, Van Halen. It's going to be dry this afternoon - they've got me even doing this stuff can you believe it! - it's going to be dry this afternoon, eleven degrees C, clear overnight with a maximum of five degrees centigrade but misty tomorrow morning. How about that. And here is the best singer in the world in my opinion.
["Better Be Good To Me" - Tina Turner]
That of course is Tina Turner and absolutely tears me up and I hope she does you too. This is Brian May standing in for John Sachs on Capital and I've got something else for you now. A little later we have my favourite Foreigner track pretty soon after this.
[commercial break]
Hello, this is Brian May playing a few tracks for you. This is the kind of record that I think heals you if you're feeling a little torn up sometimes. It's Foreigner.
["I Want To Know What Love Is" - Foreigner]
That's Foreigner and I'm very impressed how they can do that after being a long time on the road. It seems to be something which is very personal which sometimes is hard to do. And they resist the temptation to tart it up, you know what I mean? The chorus just keeps on the same although there's loads of other things that would rhyme. Anyway, this is Brian May standing in for John Sachs and seeing as he's not here I'm going to do this appeal for him. They were going to try and make me say mayday but I don't know about that really, but it's some kind of appeal, OK! So has anyone got an old guitar to give away, bass and acoustics are needed, give Capital helpline a ring on 01 388 7575 if you can respond to this urgent [sharp intake of breath] mayday. Oh my god! Right, try this.
["Since You've Been Gone" - Rainbow]
(record stopped in the middle, and Brian said "spot the deliberate mistake" and then restarted it)
That's Rainbow from some time back. A little tasteful Ritchie bit on the end, I hope you like that. OK, the next one you're going to enjoy even more, this is "Gimme All Your Loving". Did you spot the deliberate mistake there? I'm sorry about all that, but we thought you might enjoy the same record twice, you know how it is. They're all having kittens in here, you see they made the big mistake of giving me the knobs to play with as well as talking. It's great, I can go over here or I can go over here or I can do all this shit... excuse me!
["Gimme All Your Loving" - ZZ Top]
I've been listening to those guys for a very long time, ZZ Top, they're just so unbelieveably cool. I don't know what it is, it's great. So we're going to have something totally different after this.
[commercial break]
Just in case you were wondering if this was going to be totally headbanging, this one really gets me. It's very emotional, it's Amii Stewart.
["Friends" - Amii Stewart]
Isn't that pretty? So's this.
["Start Me Up" - Rolling Stones]
The Rolling Stones, in case you needed to be told. I've got two problems in life, firstly I never grew up and secondly I never got out of flower power so we're going to have some flower power music after this.
[commercial break]
Where were you in the summer of 1967? I was in about a six foot by five foot bedsit listening to Jimi so I'm going to enjoy him now.
["Little Wing" - Jimi Hendrix]
Guess what? Someone heard my mayday, so special thanks to Tessa Martin who sent in a guitar, and this is something else from our little flower power indulgence period here. I hope you like this one. That was Jimi Hendrix and this is Cream. I think if they re-released this it would be a big hit in the days on the beach(???) to come this summer.
["Sunshine Of My Love" - Cream]
In total contrast this is something pretty modern which I actually got to play on. This is Brian May, by the way, I'm standing in for John Sachs and I don't usually do this kind of stuff, I usually play guitar for a living but just for once I'm in here playing some records. This is Jeffrey Osbourne.
["Stay With Me Tonight" - Jeffrey Osbourne]
(straight into)
["Ogre Battle" - Queen]
That's my group, Queen, from some time back - "Ogre Battle". I wasn't going to play any Queen stuff but they forced me, you know. I'd like to play this for my long suffering lady, Chrissie, the next couple of tracks.
["Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper]
I think Cyndi Lauper is great and very much underrated. She's going to be round for a very long time. This is especially for a friend of ours - this is for John [Deacon], some of you may know that John's had a little problem with his car recently but he's going to be alright.
["Don't Drive Drunk" - Stevie Wonder]
[commercial break]
This is Brian May on your Capital Radio, playing some Genesis for you.
["Turn In On Again" - Genesis]
Normally I don't like this stuff that's just drum machines and various kinds of machines, but this is very strange. I don't think this has ever been heard in this country, I doubt. It's by a group called Animotion and it's called "Obsession" and after a while if you hear it a few times it just gets in your brain.
["Obsession" - Animotion]
I was just getting all emotional, but they're going to make me read some traffic news here, I'm sure you're going to enjoy this a lot. There are townbound delays on the A4 because of roadworks in the nearside lane appraching Hammersmith Broadway, watch out on the A4 coming into London. There are faulty fraffic lights at the junctions of Baker Street and George Street, and Clapham Road and Bedford Street, and a broken down tanker is causing long delays in both directions on Gunnersbury Lane between Chiswick roundabout and Hangar Lane. We're going to play some more music and it's real music. I think this is my favourite record ever.
["Tracks Of My Tears" - Smokey Robinson]
That's definitely the best record ever made, I'm going to die with that playing. So we've got some Steve Perry after this
[commercial break and trailers]
So that's what you're getting tomorrow. Meantime, here we go with Steve Perry.
["Oh Sherrie" - Steve Perry]
In case I don't get a chance again, I'd just like to say a big thank you to Mike the producer, without whom I never would have got through all this. So we're going to try and get this cue right. Get a load of this.
["Can't Get Enough" - Bad Company]
(start splutters and Brian says "close, wasn't it!")
It's terrible this disc jockey business. They don't have toilets in here, you have to rush out along the corridor. I just bumped into Roger Scott who said it's terrible and they used to put on Bohemian Rhapsody in the old days so they could go for a long leak. Anyway, this is Ozzy.
["Crazy Train" - Ozzy Osbourne]
Now the problem with this kind of program is that it's not hard to find the tracks to play, it's very hard to know what not to play. It's really terrible. We've gone back to Def Leppard now. These people are very underrated, you should listen to this.
["Foolin'" - Def Leppard]
This is Brian May and after this it is going to be the Hitline so I have to do what I'm told after this, OK.
[commercial break]
OK,we're now back to the Capital Hitline and at number 10, these are the records that you voted for by the way on 388 7671, number 10 is The Commodores "Night Shift", at number 9 Paul Young "Every Time You Go Away", and at number 8, this.
["You're The Inspiration" - Chicago]
I'm personally very glad that the Capital Hitline people force that kind of stuff to get played in this country which is well made and at the same time means something. This is the Capital Hitline and I'm standing in for John Sachs, I'm called Brian May. At number 7 there's Maxi Priest which is called "Should I?". At number 6, Phil Collins.
["One More Night" - Phil Collins]
Phil Collins at number 6 on the Capital Hitline. London Road in Forest Hill is slow moving in both directions because of the weight of traffic. There are faulty fraffic lights at the junctions of Baker Street and George Street, and Clapham Road and Bedford Street, and a broken down tanker is causing long delays in both directions on Gunnersbury Lane between the Chiswick roundabout and Hangar Lane. Watch out on the roads OK. Be careful. It ain't worth it.
["Love And Pride" - King]
Number 4 is next.
[commercial break]
If you're wondering whast's going on, John Sachs is not here today. This is Brian May from the Queen group standing in and doing some stuff. We're on the Capital Hitline and we're up to number four which is the excellent good bloke Howard Jones, number 4.
["Things Can Only Get Better" - Howard Jones]
Hitline number three is Prince.
["Let's Go Crazy" - Prince]
If you want to vote for tomorrow's Capital Hitline, the telephone number is 388 7671 so vote for tomorrow's hitline on that number.
[a bit more of Prince]
I couldn't fade out his histrionics at the end. That's Prince at number 3. Number 2 sound is Dead or Alive so here we go.
["You Spin Me Right Round" - Dead or Alive]
It's been a lot of fun being here on Capital Radio this time. Three o c'clock tomorrow you can hear Heaven 17 having a go at disc jockeying like me, best of luck to them, and a five o'clock today you can hear Nicky Horne. This is Brian May signing off. I've had a good time, thank you for listening. I don't know what to say about Bruce except that I hope he's not as good as I think he is on this tour, it's going to be too much to bear. And very best of luck, thank you for listening to me.
He's number 1 on the hitline, I should have told you that. Bruce is number 1. Bye.
["Dancing In The Dark" - Bruce Springsteen]
It's not bad this, really. It's a shame Roger Scott doesn't like this guy. He's pretty good, Bruce Springsteen.
[a bit more of Bruce]
Right, this is definitely the last time. Drive home real carefully, OK. Look after your mate.
[commercials and cut to next programme]
Interview: Brian with Richard Skinner
Virgin Radio, Live Tuesday 15/6/93
[Started off by playing Brighton Rock]
RS: You're in the last stages of a UK tour. How's it going?
BHM: It's been incredible. Very exciting for me, a great challenge. It takes everything I've got to get through it, just physically! But it's wonderful We've had a fantastic response.
RS: Why is it particularly gruelling this time? I mean you've got plenty of experience of touring.
BHM: It's just that I have to sing which is incredibly consuming physically. I understand what dear old Fred went through all those years because we used to go out and party after the show and go out and shop in the morning. And Fred always used to say "I can't do that - it takes all I've got" and that's the way I am now. I check into the hotel, I rest and prepare, I do the gig and I go to sleep.
RS: You're not slowing down, Brian?
BHM: I'm fun on days off!
RS: I read that when you first found yourself centre stage, you found it quite difficult to cope with - rather than hanging round the edge with a guitar
BHM: It took a little while. The first three gigs or so down in South America I thought "I'm not absolutely sure I can pull this off. It's an experiment and we'll see what happens". I didn't know if the voice would last more than thirty minutes. But strangely enough if you have the will to do something then it's amazing what you can do. And the voice seems to get stronger the more you do this as long as you treat yourself reasonably sensibly.
RS: Did you have to go to singing lessons? A lot of people have been surprised by the range that your voice is displaying, on record and live.
BHM: I didn't really go to lessons. I just applied myself in the way that, I suppose, my Dad taught me to. My Dad taught me that if there's something you really want to do more than anyone else then you can do it better than anyone else. I wanted to do this. I didn't want anyone else to sing after Fred - my stuff - and I just had to do it. I'm continually fascinated to see how far I can take it. In the studio in the beginning I couldn't get above an A. That's what I've done all my life when I used to sing with Queen a bit - the harmonies and stuff - that was my limit. And I just gradually pushed and I kicked it until it bled really, to see what I could do. And at the end of the album I could sing three or four notes higher than that. And now on tour I can do things I couldn't do on the record.
RS: Isn't it strange you've discovered this latent talent for hitting the high notes relatively late in your career?
BHM: It's not just the high stuff, although that's a nice little challenge. It's getting the strength and getting the power to express yourself. There is a knack to it. I mean it still kills me. I can't speak or walk for the first half an hour and then I'm fine. There's a recovery curve.
RS: Is it my imagination or is your voice deeper than it used to be?
BHM: Maybe it got stretched!
RS: I can understand why you didn't stretch yourself before, because with such a fantastic singer at the front of Queen, there was no impetus.
BHM: That's right. I always thought once Fred got hold of something there was no point in anyone else singing it. Because he always gave it something incredibly special.
[Played Driven by You]
RS: Is your life the rarified one of the rock star?
BHM: It's a strange life. You can't be totally normal otherwise you can't survive. That's the truth. You can't be the boy next door. But I prefer to keep a balance and to the things that a normal person does. Sometimes it's very hard. The actual life itself and the travelling means you're very pulled away from it a lot of the time. It's very hard to have a family life. It's just a very difficult thing to get right. The fact that I'm easily recognisable now makes it harder to do some of the normal things.
RS: America preceded the UK tour. You were out on tour there with Guns n' Roses. A band who know how to party a bit
BHM: They do, and they also know how to work. They work and they play hard, same as we used to as Queen. There are a lot of similarities in fact. They're very nice to be around. They're very considerate to us, so it's been a great vehicle for us, and we're going to go out and do some more after this British leg.
RS: Was it odd for you to be in a support slot?
BHM: It is, yeah. There's a lot of things you have to swallow technically. You don't get sound checks. You normally go on in the daylight and not all of the audience are in. There's all that stuff to deal with. But having said that, it's a great opportunity because we virtually have nothing to lose. A lot of people coming to that show aren't quite sure who I am, so I have an education job, and I have a job to get on there and play and do a proper show. If I'm playing to a Queen audience or to my own audience then it's kind of to the converted. But if you're going on to someone else's audience then you have to work and you have to learn your craft. It's been an apprenticeship. The band, my band, is now incredibly tight, very professional and can face any kind of disaster.
RS: We talked about this before. You are determined this is a real band. We're not talking about Brian May and a load of backing musicicans. Do you feel you're in competition with yourself? When you go out with new stuff you're competing with what you achieved before, with Queen?
BHM: There is an element, and in certain sectors I have to say "hang on, this is not Queen. This is what I am doing now. Queen was then and this is now". I've found in Britain, and in parts of Europe, where the records have had some success, that people understand and I'm allowed to move on. People have been great. I sort of had faith that they would, because the Queen audience always moved on and didn't trap us into any format. I took a few risks on this tour. There are some things I'm doing where I thought "now what are people going to think about this?", because it is consciously breaking away, but the reaction has been great, even among the diehard Queen fans people have come up and said "we understand what you're doing and we're with you". And it's not just Queen fans. There are new people there. It's a new life and a new world, and I'm happy to provide the continuity with the people who have been with us. I have a certain loyalty, but I have a loyalty to do what I should be doing, not to traipse out Queen for ever.
RS: There are rumours about material in the can, taped with Freddie performing on it that hasn't seen the light of day. Will it one day? Or is it better put on the shelf?
BHM: It's a difficult question and it's something we don't find it easy to agree about at the moment, I have to say. I won't push the point. Yes there is a bit of material but probably not enough for a whole album but then you have the difficult question of whether you go in there and kind of pad it out to make a Queen album, or just put it out as it. I would favour at the moment not pretending that we're Queen. In my mind, it just seems like there cannot be a Queen without Freddie and we should probably rather not pretend that there could be.
RS: So don't add new material, recorded recently?
BHM: Difficult area really. I mean it's possible. We did do tracks without Freddie in the past, but I don't feel we should be clinging that much to the past. We should be moving out and moving on.
RS: I must add my plea to at least have the tracks that were recorded released. Maybe as an EP.
BHM: Well I'd love to have them out there. They have to be definitely out there. They're the last things that Freddie did, and they're very precious. It needs careful handling.
RS: Here's another track. Cozy Powell played on this.
BHM: Yes, Cozy was very inspirational in many ways when I was trying to get the album together. He still is, and he's one of the best, as everyone knows. It's a privilege to be able to hook up with someone like that. That's one of the things which, I suppose, the success of the past gave me - that I could ring people up who are world class and say "Do you want to do something"
[Played Resurrection]
THE END
Harmony in my head - The Brian May interview
Typed in by Matthew Pickles <mjp30@cam.ac.uk> from 'Guitarist' magazine December 1992.
David Mead spoke to Brian May on the day that the news broke that his guitar had been mistakenly despatched to France, to await an uncertain fate at the hands of 'lost and found'...
Happily, Brian was able to dismiss the story as complete fiction. "It certainly didn't come from me," he shrugged. "I haven't even seen it yet, I just heard about it." But it would be difficult to imagine May separated from his lifelong playing companion. "I'd certainly find life very difficult without it," nods Brian.
So how's the guitar actually wearing? It must be going on twenty-three years old.
"It's amazing how it's holding up. The only thing we've ever replaced are the machineheads. Everything else is original; the frets are very worn down, but they still work and I wouldn't like to touch them until I have to. It does have a good feel.
"The frets were one of the few things I actually bought for the guitar. Everything else was junk. I bought the fretwire from Clifford Essex in Cambridge Circus. They used to publish a magazine called BMG - banjo, mandolin and guitar - which was rooted in old, acoustic instruments and older players, bluegrass players, really fascinating stuff. You could get anything in that shop, though. It was one of the only places that you could get banjo strings to put on the top, because in the old days you couldn't get thin guitar strings. So we used to go up there and get our .008" banjo strings and put them on the top and it really transformed what you could do."
You've always used a combination of very light gauge strings with a very heavy pick - the notorious sixpence.
"It is heavy, but I hold it lightly, to compensate. What I like is that I can feel the movement and it all gets transmitted to the fingers. To me, it's a very sensitive way of playing."
What with the AC30s and the guitar and so on, you must have got your gear sorted out pretty early on...
"I was lucky. I knew the sound that I wanted, in my head, and I just happened to find this old AC30 which belonged to a friend of mine. I played through it and thought, 'That's it, that's what I want,' because of the warmth. And with the treble boost you can push it hard, smoothly into distortion. And it has this lovely articulation on the top..."
On the sleeve of 'Back To The Light' you say that you use both old and new AC30s. Are these the vintage re-issues?
"Yeah, that's right. There was a period in the middle which wasn't too good. I don't like any of the transistor stuff and some of the modifications didn't work, but nowadays they're making them just like old ones and they're brilliant."
Your live setup was twelve AC30s, split into four banks of three, each group with a different effect. Were they all on at once?
"Really, I played off the monitors. The bigger the venue, the less you can hear your own amps anyway. So I just played off the monitors. I'd have them all on if I needed a confidence boost, or just for the sheer enjoyment of the sound, but it was fundamentally one AC30 that made that noise. And then I used a delay, which in the beginning was an old, modified Echoplex, to produce a single repeat. That came back through a separate AC30 so they could both distort to their hearts' content and not interfere with each other. You wouldn't get this intermodulation distortion; they would both have this full-blown, distorted sound, which blended together really nicely. Eventually I had the other repeat to make three parts, so then I could make harmonies by playing along with the tape."
Have you ever been tempted away from your tried and tested gear by anything that you've seen?
"I've tried out a lot of things on the way. I've tried most of the guitar synths and stuff, but I just prefer my instrument: it's very human and it makes the right noise. I do play through Zoom boxes these days which I enjoy; I think they're a good little piece of apparatus. They're great for each end of the spectrum: for the full-blown solo or for clean rhythm. The only thing that perhaps they don't handle is that intermediate area, which the AC30 is very good at - where you can strike a chord and it's distorted, but you can still hear what the chord is."
I hear you've been looking at Eggle guitars...
"Yes, I've been playing around with one for quite a while; it's a very nice piece of work. We've actually talked about doing a deal together. I don't know whether that will actually happen, because Guild really have the first option, but I was hoping there'd be a way that we could cooperate and perhaps Eggle could go the British end of it. But they're beautifully made, really beautiful.
"I've also got an Ibanez Satriani guitar, which is really inspiring and so speedy up the top end of the neck."
You established some elements of your sound very early on: the stacked harmonies and so on. Was that a fixed idea from the word go?
"It was a dream to do that from way, way back. I was always fascinated with harmony, anyway, from the 60s records that I grew up with - the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and the Crickets. But I also felt that the guitar became a different instrument when it was turned up to maximum and fully distorted - it was no longer a polyphonic instrument, really. So it seemed to be crying out to be orchestrated, and I could hear just what it would be like in my head. This was long before Queen and even before Smile, which was the group before that.
"Then there were a few things that reinforced that feeling. For instance, Jeff Beck's hit 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' had a bit in the middle where he double-tracked the guitar and, just for a moment, it breaks into harmony. I don't know if it was by accident - I should ask him one day - but I used to play that over and over again and just revel in that sound, and I thought if you could get hold of that sound and make a feature of it, and if it were not just two guitars but as many as you needed to make a proper arrangement, the possibilities would be endless. So, as soon as we got in the studio, I was on the trail."
You must have an established formula for achieving that harmony sound. So where do you start?
"It starts in the head. I find the best ideas come from when you're not actually touching the guitar, otherwise your fingers fall into the same positions and you get stuck in ruts. Also, the best solos often come from the best songs, because there's something in the song to feed off - a chord structure, a feeling or an atmosphere. That's why it was so great working with Freddie and the band; there was always something unusual to work the guitar into, and usually it was in some weird key as well. And that helped, because then you have no preconceived ides, so if you do come up with something, it's going to be something unusual."
Do you think of it in terms of a melody and then harmonise it, or does the whole thing come as a block concept?
"I've always thought of the guitar as another voice, so I start with a voice, singing along with the vocal, and from time to time you can hear a place where other voices would come in, like backing harmonies, which then become part of it. It's just a question of realising what is in your head, because I find I can usually hear roughly what I'm trying to get to. Occasionally, there's a happy accident that leads me in a nice direction."
How many tracks do you use for one of your multi-track guitar lines?
"It varies. On this album I think the maximum was about thirty. On 'The Dark', I wanted this frightening wall of sound coming out to contrast this very small voice - the kid in the cot. You can get a long way with three parts and with four you can conquer the world!
"In the case of 'Killer Queen', which I still like, it was just three separate voices and they go in and out of harmony, but they play their own tune. I enjoy things like that, where they have a life of their own."
The Queen harmony vocal idea was pretty much fully developed even on your first album, and it seems like the most significant developments since have been on the part of technology catching up. But it must have been very difficult to start with...
"True, you had to bounce things as you went along. It's a bit of a shame, really, because when we go back to those old multi-tracks, there's nothing you can do in some cases. Somebody re-mixed 'You're My Best Friend' the other day and I always thought it would be nice to re-balance that stuff, but when we got the tape out, it was all on one track, so that's it."
I was thinking recently that if anything was a prime candidate for digital remastering, it would be the early Queen albums...
"Well, we've been working on digitally remastering them all. There is a lot you can do when you get back to the original mix tape, but for us the mix was all part of the creative process and I don't really want to remix stuff. We have let a few people remix a few things, just for fun, but normally I wouldn't want to change it; it had a certain magic at the time.
"I like most of those original mixes, but they were incredibly complex to do, and without any automation. We all used to be at the desk - four of us, plus Roy Thomas-Baker and Mike Stone - all six of us with fingers on the faders and sometimes we'd work thirty-hour mixes! At the end, you were totally blind and deaf to it, you'd go to sleep and wake up the next morning and the mix was still going on! Weird... very intense. But they definitely have a special quality, those early mixes."
The pioneer spirit! But that's what I meant about technology having caught you up. For instance, have you seen the Digitech Vocalist? Instant Queen vocals!
"Oh yeah, I've used one. The beginning of 'Driven By You' is just one voice, put through the Vocalist. I did it live, but it's only one take - great machines!"
Going into the studio now, you must know exactly what you want.
"Well I try not to stay with the same methods. Certainly when I was setting up my studio in the country, the nice thing was that we didn't do anything standard; we didn't take anything for granted, whether it was the mics, positions of drums or anything. We started everything from scratch, which is nice, because people get so stuck in their ways: you walk into a professional studio and things are always done in a certain way. The guy says 'The drums go over there...' and it's nice to get out of that and just find your own sounds with no preconceived ideas.
"For instance, there was one little overdubbing room in Air studios which was tiny - it was about as big as an armchair - but we used to put the AC30 in there and put the mic facing the window and get this amazing sound. There was a very nice room in Wessex, I don't know if it's still there, but it was the main room, where we recorded 'We Will Rock You' and that was all acoustic stuff - it's just us stamping on boards and clapping over and over again."
There wasn't a bass drum on that?
"No, no drums whatsoever - just feet on the boards and handclaps."
The new album starts with an entirely different version of 'We Will Rock You', that is to say, the traditional carol. Was that kind of polarisation with the Queen song intentional?
"Er, yes. I'm a bit wary of explaining things, but throughout the whole album you can hear this person who is very confused, confronted by different situations as they roll past him. So I started off with the idea that there's this little baby in the cradle, he's completely in the dark and the dark is something really frightening. It was convenient that it was 'We Will Rock You' because here was this nursery rhyme and the version Queen did was very big and macho. Total opposites."
It must have been very strange making an album containing many familiar Queen attributes, but without Freddie.
"Very strange. It was always a project which was in parallel with Queen, because we always had a positive attitude to people doing stuff outside the band, getting new experiences and bringing them back into the band. But it did become something very different at the end, when Freddie went. I started to realise that this was a kind of bridge toward the next part of life, whatever that may be.
"I always felt close to Freddie in the studio, whether he was there or not, because we worked together so intensively over the years. So I can still hear him talking to me when I'm doing some of this stuff, especially when I'm trying to sing - which has not been easy. But I wanted to do it, because I didn't want anyone else to be speaking my ideas when it was such a personal statement. So it was good for me to imagine Freddie sitting there.
"In the beginning, Freddie didn't have all the powers that he wanted to have as a vocalist; he just worked to achieve those and improved as he worked over the years. So I just took that as a good example. I thought, 'If I'm going to sing this album, I'm going to have to work at it,' and I treated it rather like a weight-training program - I went in there, sung my guts out and tried to reach further every day. It's amazing what you can do if you really try. I was quite stunned, because in the beginning I was struggling with it - all those regions around top A - and in the end, in 'Resurrection', I got up to a top D above that, without going into falsetto, which was quite a little crusade for me. I was amazed that I could actually do that. It's another question as to whether I can do it on stage, but at least it happened, as least I know I can get there if I really try hard enough."
When you first performed 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' at Freddie's tribute concert at Wembley, you played it solo and there was a point where you paused and the audience went a little wild. You seemed to register surprise...
"Relief, more than anything else! It was a big step to do it and I wanted to do it for Freddie. It wasn't that the song had a particular relevance - it wasn't about AIDS - but it was a song that I felt was the best way of expressing myself and also the best thing I had to offer at the time.
"It was terrifying! It was in front of 72,000 people in the Stadium, half a billion people around the world and so it took an incredible amount of getting hold of myself to do it. As I was walking over to the piano I was thinking, 'Should I really be doing this?' So it was difficult, it really was. It's so easy to do in rehearsal and yet, when that moment comes, something happens to your throat. Plus it really brought me back in touch with what was going on; suddenly there was only me doing my personal little bit."
At the Tribute and subsequently in Seville, it must have been great to be surrounded by so many people who openly acknowledge Queen as a huge influence. I'm thinking of Extreme in particular.
"It's fantastic, a great compliment and I think Extreme are great. If they're going to carry the banner, they're very worthy. They're incredible musicians and they have this feeling that they can cross all the boundaries, which we had, too. The new album is unbelievable; they're so adventurous and they have a habit of pulling it off, whichever area they go into."
I remember the medley of Queen songs they did at Wembley...
"That took a lot of courage, more than people realise. In front or our audience, to do our songs, it could have gone awfully wrong. And they must have known that."
What was the Guitar Legends concert in Seville like for you?
"Fun. Really great fun. I had the opportunity to get all my favourite people together. What made it fun on the night was the fact that we knew what we were doing. We put enough rehearsal in to know we were going to be okay; it wasn't people just going up there and jamming."
"I was particularly keen on the idea that Joe Satriani should play with Steve Vai. This was a one-off and a chance to do something special. They both played on my stuff and we all played with Joe Walsh, which was a really great buzz, pounding out 'Rocky Mountain Way'..."
Although the riff went wrong...
"Ahhh... You noticed that!"
Only because it's one of my all time favourite riffs...
"It was very funny. I guess Joe Walsh started it, but the two drummers heard it in opposite senses - you can see we're all laughing.
"But I've got this attitude that if you're going to show guitarists off in their best light, you don't just put them on stage and let them weedle around all night. Some of the greatest guitar songs have been the riff songs, so I immediately thought of Paul Rogers. Sadly, Kossof isn't there but I knew every guitarist in the world would enjoy playing 'All Right Now'."
It must have been some challenge to oversee that. You had to learn some of Steve Vai's stuff too.
"Yeah! My God! What a fool to even try!"
But you played 'Liberty' from Steve's album and that brings it right back to your influence - the tightly arranged, harmony guitar thing...
'He said that 'God Save The Queen' was an inspiration for that."
How did the Ford advert come about?
"I had some time off while I was working in Los Angeles and I was down by the hotel pool. There were these two outrageous guys, splashing about, and they just came up and asked if I'd ever considered doing anything in the advertising world and I said, 'No.' They said, 'Do you want to?' and I said. 'Not particularly,' but they suggested running a few things by me to see if I was interested.
"Anyway, they came up with this slogan, which originally was 'Everything We Do, We Do For You' which was uncannily similar to the Bryan Adams song, which came out a little while afterwards. I thought it sounded a bit slushy and didn't really relate to it. But then they came back and said it was changed to 'Everything We Do Is Driven By You' and my initial thought was 'Yuk, I don't think I can do anything with that either,' because it just sounded like motor cars and I'm not interested in singing songs about motor cars. But then I thought 'Driven By You...' and ping! the lights went on; I thought of it as the power struggle that goes on in relationships. So this song sort of sprang to mind and I could hear it as I wanted it to be and I could also hear a few modifications that would suit their purposes, too.
'It's funny, I've spent most of my life thinking of advertising as a sort of dirty business, but in fact the same mechanisms work: you get input from someone, you get inspired and you give back. So I enjoyed it and they were great to work with. Very quick, very efficient. I produced a first version of that track in a week and they had it on the TV the next night! They really don't mess about and it also gave me a lot of momentum for the album. And it also gave me a hit, which I never expected."
Presumably the next step is to tour with the new material...
"Yes, well luckily for me, Cozy Powell and Neil Murray are into it and we will go out in November and do some gigs. I'd like to start somewhere not too much in the public eye, because it takes the pressure off, so I'll probably go to Argentina or somewhere like that, do some rehearsals and some gigs and see what transpires."
But you're used to doing challenging material on stage. I mean, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' can't have been a picnic...
"I think we copped out with 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. We never really played it all the way through. But we never played to a tape, either. I mean, with the middle bit, we'd put the record on and get off stage so there was never any doubt that we were playing live when we were on stage.
"But you're right, we did bluff our way through almost everything. It's a nice way to be; I don't think you need all these backing tapes and samples. A live show is something separate and you do different things in a live show to what you do on a record. I personally don't get any joy from seeing people reproduce their records exactly on stage; I want to see something which is special for the night."
Queen certainly had a reputation as one of rock's most impressive live acts...
"But I'm not trying to be Queen. Stage shows have become a little formularised, and a lot of things we brought in are now commonplace. But I don't really want to compete in that world; I want to do it a bit differently, something a bit more personal. I say this now, but we'll see how it goes."
I suppose the $64000 question must be, 'Is Queen actually over now?'
"It's a difficult question which we're still tossing around. We had a meeting today and there's a lot to talk about. But there's no reason, in principle, why we couldn't work again together; but in my mind it would be wrong, certainly this soon, to go out and try and be Queen without Freddie. This is my personal feeling, but I really don't want to be out on tour with another singer trying to be Queen. It would be dreadfully wrong. So then you think 'Well, can we do anything together?' and the answer is that we can probably do something. There are some projects which have been offered to us and there are a couple of tracks just sitting there which have Freddie's vocal on - not much, but maybe two or three songs."
Brian sits reflectively for a few moments...
"On the whole, Queen was a good old band, really..."
Interview with Brian May
"Guitar Player" magazine - January 1983
Interview by Jas Obrecht
Typed in by Gonzalo Plaza R. (gplaza@gloria.cnt.cl)
Brian May's quiet, gentlemanly nature offstage gives little hint of the flash he delivers onstage when Queen emerges through billowing smoke and kaleidoscope lighting to the cheers of thousands. May cuts the figure of the quintessential British rocker - tall, lean, and in control. Using dazzling arrays of effects, tones, and techniques, he adds a prominent voice to Queen's skintight sound. Midway through the show, he launches a long solo showcase, battling spaceship-shaped lighting pods and using two echo machines to build three-part harmonies and counterpoints.
On records Brian proves to be a player of imagination and stylistic versatility as well. With a homemade guitar and multi-track recording techniques, he has created one of the instantly identifiable voices in rock; the sweet, sustaining tones prominent in "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", the Flash Gordon soundtrack, and numerous other cuts. During his 12 years with Queen, Brian has composed several international hits, notably "We Will Rock You" "Keep Yourself Alive" "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Flash". And although you'd never know it by his unostentatious manner, he is probably one of the most successful men in rock: According to London's Sunday Express magazine, "Britain's highest paid executives in the year ending September 1979 were the four directors of Queen Productions Ltd. "Those four directors are singer Freddie Mercury, bassist John Deacon, drummer Roger Taylor, and guitarist Brian May.
Born to middle class parents 35 years ago. Brian was raised in Feltham, a small suburb west of London. In the interview below, he recalls his earliest musical experiences and influences, and recounts how he and his father built the guitar he uses today. The Mays stressed the importance of education, and it wasn't until Brian had graduated with physics degree from London University's Imperial College that he began playing semi-professionally. In 1971, May and Roger Taylor formed a band called Smile. When their singer quit, Freddie Mercury, formerly with another London-area band named Wreckage, replaced him. The trio enlisted bassist John Deacon to form Queen.
Escaping the endless pub circuit, the band chose to practice the musical and theatrical aspects of their show in private, performing occasionaly for close friends and invited guests. "If we were going to drop the careers we'd trained hard for", May remembers. "We wanted to make a really good job of music. We all had quite a bit to lose, really, and it didn't come easy. To be honest, I don't think any of us realized it would take a full three years to get anywhere. It was certainly no fairy tale!"
Queen's strategy paid off when Elektra signed them and released Queen in September '73. The debut album contained a pair of singles - "Liar" and "Keep Yourself Alive". Queen was voted Band Of The Year in the Melody Maker reader's poll early the next year, and their follow-up Queen II LP yielded a hit. "The Seven Seas Of Rhye". This was the first project where May began to extensively explore multi-tracked guitar parts. In the summer of 1974 Queen toured the U.S. for the first time as the opening act for Mott The Hoople.
Sheer Heart Attack, realeased November '74, included "Killer Queen", which topped the British charts. The album made the Top 10 in America, and Queen headlined in Great Britain and the U.S. for the first time. Aided by Freddie Mercury's exotic dances and costumes, the band garnered a reputation for being theatrical as well as musically sopisticated. Their 1975 visit to Japan was greeted by riotous scenes of adulation that some reporters compared to the American arrival of the Beatles in 1964.
Queen holed up in various English studios for five months in 1975 to produce their critically acclaimed, meticulosly produced A Night At The Opera. "Bohemian Rhapsody" contained layered guitar solos and an innovate operatic section with numerous multi-tracked voices. The single stayed in the #1 position on the British charts for nine weeks, and a year later the British Phonographic Industry voted it Best Record Of The Preceding 25 years. The album became the band's first million-seller. Queen ended 1976 with the release of A Day At The Races, scoring high in the charts with "Sombody To Love".
The group toured America and Europe in early 1977, and in the summer taped News Of The World. The LP topped the charts in the U.S., Holland, Belgium, France, Israel, Canada, Brazil, Ireland and Mexico. "We Are The Champions" backed by May's "We Will Rock You" became the biggest-selling single in Warner Brothers/Elektra Asylum history. Following a serie of business fiascos soon afterwards, Queen's members decided to manage themself. "We didn't particulary want the job", May recalls, "but we decided it was the best way to get precisley what we wanted and control our own destiny".
Jazz, recorded in Switzerland and France in mind '78 contained the hits "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race". Seven tractor-trailers were required for setting up the band's visually elaborated American concerts that fall. Portions of their subsequent European shows were recorded for Live Killers, a double-disk package that contains a stellar example of May's extended onstage solo.
After a well-earned rest, Queen and their new engineer (known simply by the name of Mack) laid down a few tracks in '79. The first of these - the rockabilly influenced "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" - gave Queen another #1 single. The Game was completed by the summer '80, and when "Another One Bites The Dust" reached the top of the American charts, Queen became the first group of the '80s to score a pair of #1 singles. They celebratred with four-month U.S. tour.
Queen accepted movie producer Dino De Laurentiis' offer to score Flash Gordon, a musical project co-produced by May and Mack and completed in December '80. Afterwards Queen played in Argentina and Brazil, appering on coast-to-coast TV in both countries. Their March 20th Sao Paulo concert drew 131000 fans - reportedly the largest paying audience for a single group anywhere in the world. They trekked south again in the fall for dates in Venezuela and Mexico. The band was back in the studio a month later, collaborating with David Bowie on "Under Pressure", this cut appers on Queen's 1981 Greatest Hits package, as well as their lastest relase, Hot Space.
Recorded in Munich, Hot Space signaled the ban's move to a more rhythmic, economical approach. As always, May's guitar parts are characterized by freshness and impeccable accuracy. The group toured Europe in the spring of '82 before coming to the U.S. and Japan. The following interview was conducted a day before Queen's appearance on Saturday Night Live. In a companion piece begining on page 73, May discusses his studio techniques and specific recodings.
Over The years you've embraced many styles - Middle Eastern, big band, folk, country, jazz, rock, and urban blues. Which came first and most naturally?
- That's a hard question, because I find it all comes naturally. I think everything has to be worked on. When we were growing up in England, we had all that music around us. The stuff that really propelled and excited us was the blues-based material. That was really what us want to play. When I was very young, the only thing thta was on the radio which I actually liked was American pop music. There would be things like Buddy Holly & The Crickets, the Everly Brothers, Little Richard. Those were the sort of records we bought when we got old enough to buy records. The English pop music that was around was pretty much a carbon copy of that. I don't want to do him an injustice, but Cliff Richards in the early days was very much an Elvis Presley sort of figure. But his group, the Shadows, went on to make a lot of very interesting instrumental. When I started playing guitar, I played chords and skiffle for a while.
How old were you when you started?
- I think about eight. My father played a thing called a ukelele banjo, which is like a little miniature banjo. It was made famous by people like George Formby and Billy "Uke" Scott, who played when my father was a kid. My father taught me about six or seven chords on that. When I asked for a guitar for my eight or ninth birthday, I converted the chords from four strings to six strings. I sort of made up chords, and I to strum and sing during the skiffle boom. Lonnie Donegan, who was a big shiffle figgure in England, was influenced by American blues. He would do Leadbelly songs and some stuff he wrote himself. I liked him a lot.
Some of your song - especially "39" on A Night At The Opera - are folksy. Did you ever play in coffehouses?
- No, not really, but that was the skiffle sort of thing. That's quite close to what a lot of the skiffle stuff was like: strum away at great speed and sing and throw a little lick in there someplace. The lyrics of that tune, though, are a long way away from what skiffle was all about.
How did you advance your knowledge of guitar?
- I had those chords to start off with, and then I began to notice on records by Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley thar there were some people there playing some amazing stuff. [Ed. Note: Most of the elctric guitar on early Presley records was played by Scotty Moore, Joe Maphis accompanied Ricky Nelson on his LP and was afterwards replaced by James Burton.] It's funny, but I couldn't even hear it well anough to be able to attempt to play it. People like the Shadows, who were playing quite simple instrumental music, I could lock onto and learn mote-for-note.
So I learned to play what I call "single-note style" - as opposed to just strumming - from the Shadows and the Ventures. Another band was the Sputniks: they were from Sweden. They did a lot of stuff which I was struggling to play, and then I discovered that they were speeding up the tapes to be able to play that fast [laughs]. Speed used to come into it a lot in those days. When I was at the school in fifth and sixth form - I would be about 16 or 17 - there was a kind of competition to see who could play the new stuff quickest. So when the new instrumental records came out, we would all feverishly study them at home until we were able to play them. The Sputniks used to do this incredibly fast stuff like "Orange Blossom Special", and we used to really kill ourselves - make our fingers bleed - trying to play it. That's where I learned technique, really.
Was this on acoustic guitar?
- At that time I had an acoustic guitar whick I made a pickup for and electrifed. I used to play that through an old radio which we had at home. To make the pickup, I got some magnets and wound a coil around them and stuck it under the strings. It worked pretty well. At that time, we thought it would be interesting to make a guitar, seeing as I coudn't afford a Stratocaster. So my father and I started making a guitar when I was 15, and we finished it when I was 17.
Is that your main guitar now?
- Yeah, same one. It's not exactly like any other guitar. We did a lot experiments, and I played some of my friend's guitars, like Stratocasters and Hofners. The body shape came out of my head. It's pretty smal, but the sort of shape which the semi-acoustic guitars had those days, like the Gibson ES-335. But it's not symetrical. I wanted it cutaway more on the underside so I could genuinely get up to those top frets. It has a 24" scale with 24 frets. We made everything totally from scratch with hands tools. The neck was a piece of an extremely old fireplace. We had lots of plans and drawings, and chiseled away. My dad is an electronics draftsman, which means he desings electronic gear. So he was able to give me a lot of help. He also has a good mechanical insight. We made the original pickups, which sounded pretty good except they had one bad fault: When you would squeeze the strings - bend them across the fingerboard - they would make this kind of rushing sound because the polepieces went north-south, north-south, north-south instead of north, north, north, north, north, north. So I eventually bought some Burns pickups. Burns were making guitars in England at the time, and they made some of the stuff for the Shadows.
Did you design the guitar's vibrato tailpiece?
- Yes, and it's better than anybody else's vibrato! The srings lock onto a milled steel plate which pivots on a case-hardened knife edge. The tension of the strings is balanced by two motorcycle springs. There is very little friction in the system. I also designed a special bridge which has rollers that move instread of the usual arrangement where the strings come over a fixed bridge. You can take the bottom string down about an octave and bring it up, and it's pretty close to in tune. It really performs quite well. I'm being very big-headed about it [laughs]. The only big problem comes in breaking a string. If you break a string, the whole thing goes out, a total war. It's hopeless; you just have to put it down. I had a copy of my guitar which was made by a guy in England called John Birch. It was pretty close, but I could never forget that it was a copy when I was playing it. Somehow it didn't quite feel or sound the same. The guitar I made has a warmth, but it also has an edge. It's somewhere between a typical Fender sound and a typical Gibson sound.
After you made your electrical guitar, what were you first professional playing experiences?
- We had a little group when I was at school called 1984. The first gig we ever played was St. Mary's Hall in Twickenham, which is just opposite a little island in the Thames called Eel Pie Island. I remember it well. I was 17, and we played a mixture of adapted soul stuff like Sam & Dave and Otis Redding. It was just pre-psychedelia. We used to try and do a couple of songs of our own. Luckily, as time went on Pink Floyd, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix came along, and we strated doing that.
Were you impressed by Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck in those days?
- Absolutly. Clapton from the very beginning, because I used to go and see the Yardbirds. We did a couple of their songs. Clapton was unbelivable, just so sparking and fluid. He was what turned me away from the Shadows style and sent me back to listening to B.B. King , Bo Diddley, and all those people who I'd heard, but I thought it was all the same: 12-bar blues, and that was it. I didn't realize the depth or emotion there was in it until I saw Eric Clapton doing it. That somehow made it accesible for me. After I went back and listened to his influences, I listened to Clapton very closely and people like Mike Boomfield on the first album with the Paul Butrfield on the first album with all those classics. Jeff Beck was an influence, too - extremely. He succeeded Clapton in the Yardbirds. I coudn't belive what he could do. I remember seeing him put the guitar down, make it feedback, and play a whole tune without even touching the fingerboard. That was the first time I saw a Les Paul guitar. I saw a gig at the Marquee soon after Beck had joined, and Eric Clapton came on and jammed at the end. That was pretty amazing; I'll never forget that.
Did you see Hendrix?
- Yes! I thought after seeing those two, I'd seen it all. I had been playing all that time, and I could play that style. I was beginning to make the guitar sort of talk. I always wanted the guitar to play for people, to talk the same way a vocal did and have feeling in it. I didn't want it to be an accompaying instrument. Then when I saw Hendrix, I thought, "Oh, my God. This guy is doing everything that I was trying to do". He just made me feel like I couldn't play. It's funny thing: It makes you feel very uncomfortable when you thought you knew everything that was going on, and then suddenly somebody comes along who seems to be doing all sorts of things which you hadn't even thought of, never mind find yourself able to play. I heard him play on a single of "Hey Joe", and on the flip side there's an amazing solo on "Stone Free", where he's talking to the guitar and it's talking back to him. I thought, "Well, he can't really be that good. He must have done that with studio technique". Then when I saw him for the first time supporting the Who at the Savoy Theatre in London, he just completely blew me away. I thought, "He's it ". The Who couldn't follow him in those days, and they were really hot, big news in England. Anybody in the world would find it hard to follow Hendrix.
Did you quit performing while attending college?
- It was all going on at the same time. I was pretty serious about the education bit. That was from my upbringing: I was taught that you had to put your education first. I felt very bad about it, because most of my friends had gone off and been in semi-professional groups. I was very jealous of all those people who were doing it at school, because all the pressure on me were to keep on the studies and not go off and play. I was at the university before I was able to indulge in fairly serious, semi-professional playing. I finally got an honors degree in physics from Imperial College, London. I actually wanted to carry on because I thought music would be fun, but I'd never be able to do it professionaly. I actually stayed on at Imperial College to do research in infrared astronomy and some part-time tutoring. I taught for a year at a comprehensive school, teaching kids from age 11 to 17. The group Queen was going on at that time, so I don't think I ever slept for that year.
Since the formation of Queen, have you had a free hand in constructing solos and fills?
- Yes. We generally will talk about it, and very often the author of the song will have an idea of what he wants. But mostly I go in there and we try things out.
Do you have a philosophy of soloing?
- It's different in every case, of course. Mostly the guideline that I've worked under is that the best solos are something which you can sing as well as the melody line. The kind of solos I enjoy are where there's a line which reflects the melody line but subtely changes it in some way which adds to the song. It opens up another little window in the song. It should also have some freedon; there should be some spontaneity there. It shouldn't be totally planned out.
How do you approach solo?
- Generally in the studio, when we've played the acking track a lot of times - there's a guide vocal in there - I usually get something in my head. When it comes to solo time, I go in there and we do two or threee takes staight off. Very often the first take has a lot of what goes on the record. There may be just a couple of notes we don't like, and we'll change them. That's one of the advantages of the multi-track system: You can do acouple more solos alongside and button little things in and out. So very often I like the feel of the first thing I do, which is spontaneous, but there will be a couple of notes in there which I think didn't work, and so I'll change them.
Have you ever come up with a solo before you've had a song to use it in?
- Actually, that happen with the "Brighton Rock" thing, yeah. We used to do the song "Son and Daughter" onstage, and the solo section in the middle of that became what was in "Brighton Rock". After "Brighton Rock" was recorded [on Sheer Heart Attack], that solo evolved a lot more. One facet of it was the way it is on the live album, but it's dropped it because I felt I got stale. I don't like to do excatly the same thing two nights running. That should be a time when you can do something different. Now we don't do "Brighton Rock" anymore, so it's gone full circle. In the beginning, the solo was there and the song was around it. And now the song's gone and the solos' there.
When did you start doing your extended onstage solo?
- The first time we went out with Mott The Hoople. We tourned Britain first, and then America. It wasn't very long in those days. It would be about half minute. Now it's about ten, but sometimes it's not. If I'm not in the mood and I don't feel it's quite right, it'll get short again.
Do you change most of it around night-to-night?
- Yeah, it's never the same. I get very disapointed if I don't get into new territory sometime during the tour. There are usually a couple of notes in there - [laughs] most nights - which will be different and I don't know quite what's going to happen. And one night in five I'll discover a new effect. I try not to get stuck in too many ruts. Sometimes it's terrible. If I know that I'm not getting it together, I do the best I can and drag out a few things which have worked in the past. On a good night, I feel that I can do something interesting. I don't think there's anything left of the actual "Brighton" solo in there now, but I'm using the same techniques, such as using repeats and playing along with them.
Is that now you get several parts going at once?
- Yeah. It's just a delay machine set on one delay rather than a multiple, so it's not a sort of echo effect. It's one line coming back at you. I have two delay machines, so I can do three-part harmonies with that: I can play a lone - maybe two or three notes - and then it comes back and I can play along with it. And then it comes back again and there are three parts. The delays are mostly about one and a half seconds. A lot of things can happen: You can play in synch with what comes back and make the harmonies, or you can play chords and then single notes on top to get a playing-in-rhythm effect. You can also do various kind of counterpoints. Sometimes they work. It all depends on whether I can hear myself well. If it's a good night and I can really hear well, I can do things that I demand very close timing. On this tour I've been experimenting with steps which are not exactly on the beat: so when it comes back at you, they are in a different place each time. I found I could do all sorts of strange things with that, just making them mesh in a different way.
To keep the solo special, do you tend to cut down using the repeat effect at other times in the set?
- I've used different delays for different songs in the past, but we've sort of simplified what we do for a lot of the songs. I used to use echo in lots of songs, like "Keep Yourself Alive" and "The Propher's Song", but nowadays most of the set is just straight guitar, and it's only the solos where I use the repeats. Sometimes I get fed up with them even then, because I feel like maybe they're a crutch, and they shouldn't be. So I switch them off and do a little bit totally straight.
Do you ever have trouble staying in tune during the long solo?
- Usually towards the end of the solo, when I'm bending things a long way, it can get out of tune. I don't really notice it until the next number. If it's something like "Under Pressure", where it's got to be right on, I die a million deaths. Breaking strings is the worst. Sometimes it's happened at the very beginning of the solo, and it just destroy the concentration. I'll have the guitar feedback and grab another one.
Do you foresee the day when a long onstage guitar solo will become obsolete?
- I've thought it was obsolete many times. We've thrown it out. We haven't done it every night on this tour. But somehow it seems to creep back in there. It's weird. I did it for years, and nobody would talk about it. And then when I threw it out, people said, "Hey! How could you do that?". On this tour we did some special things with the lights. We had those pods which can fly about, and I used to do a little battle with those. That gave it a new lease on life. People would tend to notice that. As opposed to not saying anything, they would say, "I like the lights in the solo [laughs]". I've found that people seem to appreciate long solos more on this tour than they did before. I think a lot of people thought our material was veering too far away from the heavy side, and they thought the solo stuff redressed the balance to a certain extent.
Does your mood exert an influence on what you play?
- Oh, yeah, especially in the solo because that's my freedom time. Mood help a lot, and the audience helps a lot.
Do you have to be a certain state of consciousness to play your best?
- No. It grows out of the concert: I don't think it matter how you go on. If the sound seems good to me, and I know that it sounds good out front and there's a lot of feedback from the audience, it grows out of that. Enjoying the sound is the main thing.
How do you discover tones? Do you imagine them first or does the equipment suggest them?
- It's a licky combination of guitar and amplifier. The guitar has very wide range of sound naturally. I know what to do make it scream or to make it mellow. The amplifier just responds in that way. I've never know any other way. There's really nothing else; there aren't any fancy effects or anything. I have a pedalboard with on/off switches for the repeats, an old Foxx phase pedal which I don't use much anymore - it just gives a gentle phase. And these days I've been using a Boss phaser for a lot of things. It gives me a stereo output, which I like; it gives it a little bit more phase.
What is your philosophy of using effects?
- The only effects I like are the ones you can play, that add some sort of voice. I don't really like icing-on-the-cake effects. The only other thing I have is a gadget made by Peter Cornish to work the Harmonizer; it's a device that controls the pitch change of the Harmonizer. It's worked by a pedal. I use that for making silly noises, basically [laughs], in "Get Down, Make Love". But even that became something I could play because I got a feel for the pedal, I can get different musical intervals that are all exact and not just random. I could get a minor third below, a semitone below, unison, a tone above, a minor and a major third above, and an octave above. So you can do all kinds of things. You can gently feel out what's happening in there at a particular time. There's a delay built into that as well.
Do you view the vibrato bar as an effect?
- Mainly for making motorbike noises, although at times it's useful for a very mellow vibrato. For most people, the vibrato most often comes ffrom the fingers of the left hand, but occasionaly, if you want something to really smooth it right over or just to make a chord blend in better with what's going on around, the tremolo bar can be very nice for a gentle effect.
There have been some innovative things done with vibrato bars lately.
- Oh, Eddie Van Halen is superb! He does all kinds of stuff which I can't begin to figure out [laughs]. I like him a lot. I find it exciting listening to him. He's so completely fluid, he makes everyone else look like they're standing still. I would not fancy following him. Allan Holdsworth is very good, too.
Are you a guitar collector?
- No, I've got about half a dozen - that's it. Roger [Taylor] collects guitars. I have one Strat and one Telecaster, and a green sunburst 12-strings Burns. I also have a Flying V, which is a recent acquisition. I got it because I smashed up my Birch guitar. I got very frustrated with it one night and uncharacteristically threw it offstage. It happened to be a very high stage, and it smashed into lots of pieces. Now I don't have a spare. Luckily, the chief designer at Fender came to one of the shows and said he would build me a copy. I am really delighted, because he's going to build me an exact copy of what I have, even down to getting the same woods and building it the same way.
Has anyone ever manufactured a comercial copy of your homemade guitar?
- A Japanese firm called Greco made a Brian May guitar, an exact copy. They called it a BHM 900 or something. They sent me an example. I said, "Thanks very much for sending it to me. It looks nice, but it doesn't actually sound that nice. Why don't we get together and make it sound good, too? Then you can put my name on it properly". They never replied. It would be nice if a real class company would do one for me.(Note: if you don't know there's a copy of the Red Special, see the article of the Brian May Guild Signature Guitar)
Do you own any unusual acoustic?
- Yeah, I have a very old, cheap Hairfred which makes that buzzy sound that's on "Jealousy" [Jazz] and "White Queen" [Queen II]. I've never seen another one like it. I made it sound like a sitar by taking off the original bridge and putting a hardwood bridge on. I chiseled away at it until it was flat and stuck little piece of fretwire material underneath. The strings just very gently lay on the fretwire, and it makes that sitar-like sound.
How do you string your electric guitar?
- I use Rotosound round-wound strings, gauged .008, .009, .011, .016, 0.22, and .034, high to low.
Do you use a pick?
- I play with an English sixpence. It's a coin made of soft metal with a serration on the edge. I hold it loosely between the thumb and the first finger, with the first finger bent down. (Note: actually Brian uses his own coin, because the sixpence it's out of circulation. More information in the article about the Brian May Guild Signature Guitar)
Do you follow any picking patterns, such as circle picking or extensive downstrokes?
- Oh, I never even think about it. I just fairly gently go from one to the other. All the movement is felt: that's why I like the rigid pick. None of the feeling of the string is lost; it all gets to your fingers. So I hold it pretty loosely, and everything gets very controlled.
How do you provide left-hand vibrato?
- I just rock the strings gently backwards and forwards, always in contact with the fingerboard.
How many fingers do you use to blend strings?
- I ussualy put two or three behind the finger holding the note, but not always. It depends where you are bending and what you are bending to.
Do you use all four fingers of your left hand?
- Yes, but the little finger is weak, which is one of my big weaknesses in playing. It restricts me. The new stuff that I play uses the little finger because I've consciously tried to bring it in. But when I'm playing from the head to the fingers, generally the little finger gets left out.
How do you create harmonics?
- Just by playing and touching the string with the back of the hand, the heel. You should ask Eddie [Van Halen] about that! He's the expert.
Is there a differnce between the music you create by yourself and what you play with Queen?
- That's a delicate question. Yes, there is. I haven't found it that easy to accustom myself to the new stuff. A lot of the music which Freedie and John want to do is more R&B oriented, and it's hard for me to do that because my playing is a reaction to that style, in a sence. I used to listen to people plucking away on Motown records, and I really didn't like it. I always thought to my self, "That's the kind of thing I don't want to play. I want the guitar to be up there speaking". So in a way the retur to that was difficult to me. It was a discipline which I gradually worked into, but I find myself wanting to brust out of it all the time and make a lot of noise.
Do you play in any style that aren't represented on any of the albums?
- Most of it's there in some way.
Do you spend much time with the instrument outside of performing with Queen?
- Not a lot these days. In the last couple of years I've spent very little time with it except at sound checks and playing. Which is a shame, but it's just the way it's worked out. Life's been very hectic.
Do you ever have periods where you can't seem to further your playing?
- Yeah. It mainly occurs when I don't like the sound. For me the sound is virtually important. There is really no beauty in guitar playing unless the sound is beautiful to begin with. If the thing is sounding scratchy or distired or just not right, I instantly feel that I can't play. My guitar is very personal. People have said, "Why don't you sit in with us and play something? You can use my guitar". Sometimes I've said yes, and then I haven't been able to play anything because I couldn't make it sing. If the guitar doesn't sustain, I can't play. On the other hand, if I'm in a situation where the acoustics are just right and the sound is great, i feel like I can play anything on those nights.
Can you play most of the music you imagine?
- Yes, I think so. That is central to being an interesting player and felling good about your playing. You have to be able to get it straight from your head to the guitar. So within reason, I think I can. You never quite know if you're fooling yourself. You never know if your head is guiding your fingers, or your fingers are slightly guiding your head.
Will you sacrifice technique to achive emotion?
- Yes, I think the times when I'm playing best are when I'm slowing down and not trying to show off. The nights when I feel I'm playing something worthwhile are never fingers all over the place. It's just a few things which are exactly right, which squeeze up to the note in exactly the right way.
Do you prefer live playing over studio work?
- I enjoy the live stuff a lot more. There are moments in the studio I enjoy, but most of the studio is sheer misery. The writing and the arranging of material is such a painstaking process these days for us. I can get in and play a solo anytime, but that's not the majority of the work that's done. The majority of it is real soul-searching and wondering whether a song is right. It's painful.
How do you compose?
- I generally get ideas on the road or away from the studio. Then when it comes to making the album, I get the idea out - which may be om cassette or paper - and work on them. When the band rehearses them, we just gather round, strum guitar, play piano, and sing. It's kind of a discussion environment.
Are you happy with the way your career is going?
- To be honest, no. I didn't feel that this tour was making me very happy. I've often felt that in the studio, but that's the first time I felt it on tour. I didn't feel happy until the last concert. The last night in L.A. I felt quite cheered up. I was prepared to think, "Well, I don't really want to do this anymore". Somehow when it got to the last one, Freddie was really on form and giving a million precent, and I felt that I was going well. So the end of the tour finished on a good note for me. I felt like I did want to be out there doing it again sometime. But we are going to have a long rest.
Do you get tired of rock and roll?
- No, definitely not.
Do you have any advice you'd give young rock guitarist?
- Yeah, I would say just believe in yourself. Belief is the main thing, because nobody believes in you in the beginning. If you know that you have something to say, just keep on believing it and push and push and push until everyone else belives, too.
Is there anything you'd like to accomplish in the future?
- I'd just like to make better music. Sometime I would like Queen to go back to really hard rock album. I don't know if it's going to happen, but that's one of the things I would like to do.
How would you like to be remembered?
- If I'm honest, I think I would like to be remembred for a few of the songs, none of which were really hits, but some of which had a lot of emotion in them: "White Queen" and "Let Us Cling Together" and "Long Away" off the A Day At The Races album [laughs]. And "We Will Rock You"
BRIAN MAY - ON THE RECORD
Onstage and on record, Brian May creates an amazing array of tones - from the thunderous counterpoint lines in "Brighton Rock" to the slick, rockabilly-influenced fills in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to the sweetly singing multi-tracked tones of "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Killer Queen". Here he discusses his recording techniques and specific cuts.
What tracks contain the essential Brian May?
- Oh, dear! In a way, I'd rather people saw us live because there are always a few moments there of the kind which you don't really capture on record. As far as albums, I suppose I like the heavy stuff - "Brighton Rock" [Sheer Heart Attack and Live Killers]. As far as the melodic side goes, the solo in "Killer Queen" [Sheer Herat Attack] was interesting, the beginnig of an era in a way. Also on Queen II there is a lot of stuff which I like because that was the beginning of doing guitar orchestations, which I always wanted to do. The first track - "Father To Son" - starts off with an introduction. After it gets into the song and a few words are sung, it immediatly it goes into a six-parts orchestral kind of thing. It was really a big thrill for me to be able to do that, because I had never been allowed to spend that amount of time in the studio to construct those things before then. That was the fulfillment of an ambition for me, to get started on that road of using the guitar as kind of an orchestral instrument.
Had you imagined that sound before you recorded it?
- Yes, for a long time. See, when I was a kid, I thought it would be nice to be a guitar player. I thought, "It'll probably never happen, but I"ll just keep playing anyway". And then when the group actually started to look as though it might do something, my whole ambiotion in life was to make an album that people would listen to and actually put something down which was there for all time. So to get in the studio at all and know that it was going to be immortalized, as it were, was a big thing. The fact that we were shoved in there for a couple of hour periods at a half an hour's notice was slightly irritating, but we hardly thought of it as a real hardship. We just thought we were lucky to be in there at all. So that first album was a case of shove everything down quicky and get out before the next people come in because we weren't paying customers; we were sort of in-house boys: "Oh, there half-an-hour free here, stick the boys in". For the second album, we actually demanded and got some real studio time, so we could spend some time doing those things.
Has your approach to recording guitar changed over the years?
- Not very much, really. I generally have a sound in my head which I'm trying to get. I've found I can get it most places; it doesn't really matter what studio it is or what milkes I'm using. If you put the microphone in exactly the right place relative to the amplifier, you're 90% of the way there. And then I just get in there and play. I always use a Vox AC-30 amp, except for those instances where there's a particular orchestra sound and I've used a small amplifier. For acoustic guitar, generally I use one mike a few inches away from the soundhole and very often one a little further away, either in the front or behind. In the studio, you especially need a good fallback sound; it's hard to get that tecnique of playing with headphones. It's not a live situation, so the balance in the sound help a lot. If I can get a good stereo balance in cans, I can forget where I am and ussually get into it. If you get it so you can feel it like it is onstage, there's no problem. It just feels like you've got the band behind you.
Perhaps your most identificable sound is the sweet, sustaining tone used in "Killer Queen", "Procession" from Queen II, Flash Gordon's "Wedding March", and several other tracks. How is that created?
- For those orchestral things, I've usually used a Vox AC-30 as well as a small amplifier which was made by John Deacon. This has a little hi-fi speaker cabinet which is about a foot by six inches, and John put a little transistor amplifier inside it. I use it with a treble booster which overloads it. It just makes a good noise; I don't know why. I've gotten that tone out of all kinds of little practice amps as well - just crank them up, drive them nuts. Vox made a little baby AC-30, and I've used those on occasion. They're quite good. For almost everything else, I use old Vox AC-30s that have tubes instead of transistor. These have a very flexible, identificable sound without much coloration. You can get a wide range of sound from them, and they always have that nice little high fidelity edge to them. They use tubes biased in a Class A range. Most guitar amplifiers are Class B, which means they have more inherent distortion in them at lower levels. The Vox AC-30s are very clear at low level and then gradually and smoothly go into a nice distortion.
How did you process the rhythm strums on the version of "Keep Yourself Alive" on the Queen album?
- That was real tape phasing. This was in the days when you took the tape off the synch head, put it though a couple of other tape delays, and then brought it back with the play head. There is no processing whatsover on the solo in that tune, as far as I remember. I used John Deacons's small amplifier and the Vox AC-30 to do those little three-part chorus thing behind, as well as the fingerboard pickup on the guitar. There is a bit more tape phasing on the end of that track.
What instrument did you use for "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" on Sheer Heart Attack?
- Yeah. I played a toy koto on that. It was a present from a Japanese fan. The normal koto is about eight feet long and huge, but this thing was only about a foot-and-a-half long. [note - Brian played Toy Koto on "The Prophet's Song" and George Formby Ukelele on "Leroy Brown". It is not clear whether the transcription has an error or whether the interview made an error]
Did you run the tape backwards for the psychedelic solo in that cut?
- That was just getting a lot of sustain. I don't think there's any backwards stuff on there. There's backwards stuff on some other tracks, like "Flick Of The Wrist" on Sheer Heart Attack.
Did you learn to play harp for "Love Of My Life"?
- Well, kind of [laughs]. Learning would be too strong a word. I did it chord by chord. Actually, it took longer to tune the thing than to play it. It was a nightmare because every time someone opened the door, the temperature would change and the whole thing would go out. I would hate to have to play a harp onstage. I just figured out how it worked - the pedals and everything - and did it bit by bit.
Were the horn lines in "Good Company" done on guitar?
- Yeah, that's four different kind of guitars. I was very keen in those days on recreateing that sort of atmosphere. I mainly got the sound with small amplifiers. I used John Deacon's little amplifier and a volume pedal. For the trombone and trumpet sounds. I would record every note individually: Do it and then drop in. Incredibly painstaking! It took ages and ages. I listened to a lot of traditional jazz music when I was ypung, so I tried to get the phrasing as it would be if it were played by that instrument.
Who came up with the idea for the vocal harmonies used in "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
- We always were keen on that kind of thing. That was something which we wanted to do from the beginning. We wanted to be a group that could do the heaviness of hard rock, but also have harmonies swooping around all over the place. We thought there was some real power and emotion in that combination.
Was the first solo in that song very difficult for you?
- No, that was pretty much off the cuff, except I think I had plenty of time to think about that one. I remember playing along with it in the studio for a while when other things were being done. I knew what kind of melody I wanted to play.
Did you play slide on "Tie Your Mother Down" on A Day At The Races?
- Yeah, a glass one. That was on standard tuning. The only tuning I've used apart from normal is to take the bottom string down to D, which I've used on "The Prophet's Song", "White Man" [A Day At The Races], and "Fat Bottomed Girls" [Jazz].
During A Day At The Races's into and at the very end of the second side, there's a climb with several parts going at once. Is that all guitar?
- You've been really listening! Yeah, that's all guitar. I'll tell you exactly what that is: It was supposed to be the musical equivalent of that ridiculous staircase going around four side of a square, and it seems to always be going upwards. It's an Escher painting. It's supposed to be the equivalent of that because every part is going up, and each part fades into an ocatve below. It's also backwards, because I played it all descending. You're probably the only person in the world who's ever noticed it.
How did you dial in the violin-like tone in "You Take My Breath Away"?
- There's a particular pickup combination which I use for the violin things: the fingerboard pickup and the middle one. Those two working in phase make a very mellow sound. And there's a point on the amplifier where it's just about to get distortioned, but not quite. Instead of using my pick, I tap the fingerboard with the right hand, and that just sets the thing moving. It sustain itself. you hardly need to even tap it any. If you even stand in exactly the right place, it feeds back in any position so I can just warble around and it's very smooth. I also used that tone for the beginning of "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" on Jazz. For thta, I actually used the studio faders to fade them in, but that was the same sort of sound.
"The Millionaire Waltz" [A Day At The Races] must have taken a long time to do.
- Oh, yes. You've heard everything right: I think that holds the record. Ther's one bit in there which is sort or fairground effect in the background. I think there are three octaves for each part, and six parts. I'm not sure but there must be about 18 or 20 guitar tracks. It's a funny sound. It makes a peculiarly sort of rigis sound. I was really surprised. It sounded like a fairground organ.
How did you have you guitar settings for "We Will Rock You" on News Of The World?
- That is my number one normal sound: I use that on a lot of things. It's the bridge pickup and the middle pickup in phase with each other. They are wired in series.
Is the instrumental break in "All Dead, All Dead" layed guitars?
- Yes. That's one of my favorites. That was one of the ones which I thought came off best, and I was really pleased with the sound. It allways gives me a surprise when I listen to it because it was ment to really bring tears to your eyes. It almos does it to me.
Do you tap on the fingerboard with your right hand in "It's Late"?
- Yes, that was actually hammering on the fingerboard with both hands. I stole it from a guy who said that he stole it from Billy Gibbons in ZZ Top. He was playing in some club in Texas, doing hammering stuff. I was so intrigued by it, I went home and played around with it for ages and put it on "It's Late". It was a sort of a double hammer. I was fretting with my left hand, hammering with another finger of the left hand, and then hammering with the right hand as well. It was a problem to do onstage; I found it was a bit too stiff. It's okay if you're sitting down with the guitar. If I persevered with it, it would probably become second nature, but it wasn't an alleyway which led very far, to my way of thinking. It's a bit gimmicky.
On Jazz was it hard to build up the solo speed in "Dead On Time"?
- I don't think so. That was something I was quite pleased with, but really nobody else was. It's something which nobody ever mentions very much. "Fat Bottomed Girls" I thought was okay, but fairly banal. I thought people would be much more interested in "Dead On Time", but it didn't really get that much airplay. The explosions at the end are a real thunderstorm which ocurred when we were in the south of France. We put a tape recorder outside.
Is Live Killers a fair representation of what a late '70s Queen concert was like?
- Yeah, pretty close. I think we play better now. In retrospects, I don't think it's a very good sounding album. There are some things I like, but on the whole I don't think it truly represents the depth that was there.
There is less guitar on The Game, but your playing seems freer and more experimental.
- Yeah, that was when we started trying to get outside what was normal for us. Plus we had a new engineer in Mack and a new environment in Munich. Everything was different. We turned our whole studio technique around in a sense, because Mack had come from a different background from us. We thought there was only one way of doing things, like doing a backing tracks: We would just do it until we got it right. If there were some bits where it speeded up or slowed down, then we would do it again until it was right. We had done some of our old backing tracks so many times, they were too stiff. Mack's first contribution was to say, "Well you don't have to do that. I can drop the whole thing in. If it breaks down after half a minute, then we can edit in and carry on if you just play along with the tempo". We laughed and said "Don't be sily. You can't do that". But in facts, you can. What you gain is the freshness, because often a lot of the backing tracks is first time though. It really helped a lot. There was less guitar on that album, but that's really not going to be the same forever; that was just an experiment.
Did adding keyboard synthesizers cause guitar's role to diminish?
- No. It complemented it, really. There are things a synthesizer can do these days which are pretty helpful.
Did you use a Fender on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"?
- Yes. I used on of Roger's really old, beat ip, natural wood Telecaster. I got bludgeoned into playing it. That was Mack's idea. I said "I don't want to play a Telecaster. It basically doesn't suit my style". But "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was such a period piece, it seemed to need that period sound. So I said, "Okay, Mack, if you want to set it up, I'll play it". He put it through a Mesa/Boggie, which is an amplifier I don't get on what at all; it just doesn't suite me. I tried it, and it sounded okay.
Was the Flash Gordon project time-consuming?
- Yes, and unfortunatley we didn't have enough time. We were doing The Game and an American tour at the same time Flash was going on, so it was ridiculous. We put as much time as we could in. We would do a week here and a week there. I spent some time with the arranger and orchestra to try and get some coherence to it all. It was good experince, but next time I hope we have time to really pull the whole thing together as a unit.
Did you use guitar for any of the album's strange effects?
- Yeah, some guitar and some synthesizer. I played some of the prominent keyboard aynthesizer parts, but I think Freddie played most of them.
Did the project present any unusual challenges?
- The main challenge was working for a boss who wasn't yourself. We had the director in there the whole time. The only criterion for whether something was good was whether in helped the movie.
Did you use a slide for "Dancer" on Hot Space?
- No, that's guitar in parallel harmonies. Those aren't my favorite harmonies, really. I much prefer guitar harmonies which aren't parallel. There are very few people who have done them. The real interest in guitar harmonies comes from when they're crossing over, diverging, and converging. Somehow on "Dancer" it seemed right to do those parallels.
The rhythm guitar in "Back Chat" sounds unlike most of your work.
- That's because John played that. John has played a lot of rhythm stuff.
Was the solo in "Put Out The Fire" difficult for you?
- Actually, it was. I don't really know why. That wasn't a first take. I had done a lot of solos for that - hated every one of them. And then we came back from a club where we used to go to have some drinks. I think I was well on the way - you know, we were all plucked out and slightly inebriated - and we had ridiculous echo effect with Mack was putting back through the cans. I said, "That sounds unbelivable! I want to put it on every track [laughs]". He said "Okay, try "Put Out The Fire". So we put it on the machine, and I just played though it. That was what we used. It was inspiring, like these huge stereo echo sounds coming from all over the place. I could hardly hear what I was doing, but it was sounding so good and I was so drunk. To be honest, I don't think it's that good a solo. It's got a sort of plodding thing going behind it; I never felt totally happy with it.
How did you get the thicks rhythm sound in "Calling All Girls"?
- that's a combination of acoustic and electric guitar. I think Roger did the feed-back tracks near the end of the break. You never know where things come from. Roger played a lot of guitar. He's always bursting to play guitar.
One last question about your albums. Have you been on projects outside Queen?
- Not very much, no. I get asked if I'm the Brian May who did the music for Breaker Morant and Road Warrior. I spend my life telling people it's not me. I wonder if he has the same problem. He's an Australian conductor. I have played on a couple of albums outside Queen - Lonnie Donegan's come-back album, which featured Ringo Starr and Elton John. I was also on a Larry Lyrics single (Note: I think here Brian make reference of Larry Lurex's "I Can Hear Music" of 1973); Freddie sang the vocal under the assummed name of Larry Lyrics and I played a guita solo on that. I'd like to make a good solo album sometimes, but at the moment there isn't time. Maybe there will be next year.
Queen - A Kind Of Magic
BBC Radio 1 interview - December 1995
Transcribed by Rebecca Makin (r.makin@ic.ac.uk)
Welcome to this Sunday evening special presented by Kevin Greening on a band who can only be described as phenomenal - Queen
[snippets from A Kind Of Magic, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Invisible Man, Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga]
Freddie: We've all had ego problems, like any other group, but we've never actually let it go that far where we actually said OK let's forget it, because I think we've all, the four of us have actually said that this chemistry that's worked has really worked for us, so why kill the goose that laid the golden egg, and, er, the survival instinct that I have in me and I think the whole group has, through any thing we will just carry on, you know, until one of us drops dead or something, we'll just replace. I mean if I suddenly left, they have this sort of mechanism, you know, and they'd just replace me. Not easy to replace me, huh?!
One of the most successful British rock bands ever lost its lead singer in November 1991. With 21 years and 19 albums behind them, Queen had had a phenomenal reign. But there were still some surprises to come. Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and John Deacon were intensely competitive individuals. Perhaps that was the most important part of their chemistry as a band. That, the ir talent, and of course a little bit of luck. Brian May.
Brian: There aren't very many sort of real groups born every day, that's definitely true, and obviously there's a fantastic amount of luck involved. By some strange process we came together, and it was a very efficient little machine, you know, four people who certainly, viewed from the outside, would be seen as a very efficient machine. They're all kicking the shit out of each other inside the ma chine [laughs] but from the outside there's no doubt that everything was there. We had the skills to cover every area, and you couldn't put that together from the outside, make it happen. There has to be a bit of luck.
[Killer Queen]
Queen fought from the word go, the moment they met. It was all argued and highly confrontational, particularly in the studio
Freddie: A Queen album is made up of that anyway. You have to fight. I think that's the best way. I mean, it's like ... I think with me, if it was made too easy, I think I would come up with ...lesser material, if you know what I mean. I like to fight, and I think I make everyone else fight as well. I think because we all fight, it makes it much more interesting and I think then you get the "creme de la creme" , you know, it's the cream of the crop, so I mean, the fighting for the Queen songs has been one of the worthwhile factors, to be honest. So you get the best songs. Some of the ones that were discarded ended up on my solo album, but they're good!
Brian: Everything, almost every note was a compromise [laughs] I remember that famous quote of Freddie's, "we don't compromise", which is true, but he meant we don't compromise with anyone else, you know, which is true, so if someone else comes along, he gets kicked out of the door very quickly, or else can't stand the heat [laughs]. It was pretty hard for anyone to sit with us, you know, as a producer or whatever, and the ones that managed it managed it by having very strong personalities. They sat with 4 very precocious young men becoming old men and sort of made the best of it they could, I guess!
Queen bust up points were usually near the end of albums, when crucial decisions had to be made about tracks and the first single. Freddie was often a compromising force in the studio. Even so there were walk outs.
Brian: Definitely, yeah. I think we definitely all walked out at least once every album I think. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but there was times when all of us thought that it was enough. But we generally came back the next day and negotiated.
It wouldn't be strictly true to say that Queen mellowed with age, but Freddie's illness and his suggestion that they share writing credits eventually had a softening effect on their relationships. With the luxury of time, and money, Queen created a lot of their biggest successes in the studio, sometimes improvising, sometimes stitching two or three ideas together to make one, with the help of their Montreux based associate producer, Dave Richards.
Dave Richards: Innuendo was an improvisation type song where they actually recorded it here in the big concert hall, it's just next door, and we set up like a live performance, and they just started playing basically, and sort of got into a nice rhythm and a groove, and some chords and then Freddie said, "Oh, I like that" and rushed downstairs into the concert hall and started singing along with it, and obviously then, once that initial idea was down on tape, then there was a lot of rearranging and putting extra things on, but the actual beginning of it was like a live thing. It just happened. It was wonderful.
[Innuendo]
Queen's major influences in production were the Beatles. Always experimental, looking to find new sounds, new ways of doing things. They also wanted to make every possible use of technology, and that included being creative with the stereo picture.
Dave Richards: Freddie was very into that. He loved having things swinging from left to right and all over the place. He felt it created an extra dimension of interest.
Roger: We tried to take advantage of every single technical aspect that we could , and especially the stereo feel. It was always a bit magic, stereo, and, I mean, all sorts of counterpart harmonies and guitars and things like that would always come left, right centre, bing, bang, bong. Tome it makes it more interesting
Brian: That was sort of one of our guiding principles, that a record is something that you live with for years and years and years, and it should have all these levels to be discovered. Definitely, yeah, we were very into that. I think we learned it from the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix possibly also, you know. I remember going round Freddie's house when we were young and Freddie putting on the Electric Ladyland album and we would be running around his little stereo finding out which bits came out of which speaker at what time, and finding all these wonderful little magic things that were going on, so we were very conscious of that, yeah. And you'll never find on a Queen record that once you've heard the first verse and the first chorus, you know what's gonna happen, because we could never leave it that way, we always had to introduce new elements as the song went on. It became a sort of obsessive habit I think really. But it does mean that you can listen to it a lot of times and you'll always find something which you didn't perhaps realise was there the first few times you played it. "Development" we called it.
Queen rarely got into "supergroup" situations, recording with contemporaries. In fact, they only did it once, and that was with David Bowie.
David Bowie: That was through Dave Richards, the engineer at the studio. I was in town, in Montreux, doing some other work there, and because I believe that Queen have something to do with the studio on a business level, I think it's their studio or something like that and they were recording there, and David knew that I was in town and phoned me up and asked me to come down, if I'd like to come down to see hat was happening, so I went down, and these things happen you know. Suddenly you're writing something together, and it was totally spontaneous, it certainly wasn't planned. It was, er, peculiar [laughs]
[Under Pressure]
The most famous of Queen's hits, and the one that contains all of their hallmarks in abundance, is of course Bohemian Rhapsody. This epic of operatic bombast grew over a period of weeks from three themes that Freddie had been working on. Their associate producer at the time was Roy Thomas Baker.
Roy Thomas Baker: Freddie was sitting in his apartment and he said "I've got this idea for a song" and he sort of sat down and he sort of started playing the song and it was all going along good, you know, and he had some words missing and some bits of melody that he hadn't quite worked out, but it was just the basic framework of the song. The he was playing away and he stopped and he said "Now dears, this is where the opera section comes in" and I went oh, my god! So we said, "Oh OK, this is the opera section" and it was just gonna be at the time a little brief interlude of a little bit of you know a few little things like Galileos. So we said OK, fine , stick a few little Galileos and then we can get on to like the rock part of the song. It started off as a ballad and then there's the opera section and then it went on and on. As we got into the studio we started formatting the song which we had to record it in sections because it was actually designed in sections, so we recorded it in sections and everything was fine. We did the ballad section and then we did the rock section going back to the ballad section - if you hear the song you understand what I mean. And we left a blank piece of tape to do the opera section. When we started doing the opera section properly, erm, it just got longer and longer and we just kept adding blank tape to this thing and it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Every day we just sort of thought "Oh, this is it, we've done now" and Freddie would come in with another lot of lyrics and say "I've added a few more Galileos here dear" and so we would put on a few more Galileos and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and in the end it became the epic we all know.
[opera section of Bo Rap]
Almost everything that Queen did musically and visually was born out of the name Queen. It was outrageous, theatrical, it was grand and pompous, and clearly open to a variety of interpretations
Roger: I think Freddie had to be the sort of leader in this in the beginning, and he had definite graphic ideas, you know, having been a graphic designer at art college etc and there's this black and white theme, etc, so we always were thinking in terms of lights, presentation, clothes, colours, or lack of colours, and it had to be big, you know, we liked to think big - big, big, big! - very unfashionable now, but .. big, big, big. And we liked to be perceived as big, big, big in sort of every way, you know, and we wanted to .. people came to see the show live, we liked to sort of make them gasp. That'd be their first reaction. There was a very conscious thing, it was very important to us. I suppose it was a mixture of our own personalities as well. And a reaction against what was happening at the time when we, sort of, grew up, or came in to the business.
Brian: We were doing the completely unfashionable thing by being consciously visual. I don't think any of us really had any contact with the theatrical tradition, I mean, people have said this, but we didn't really. It wasn't conscious in that sense. We just felt that if you're on a stage you really have a kind of captive audience for a certain length of time and you should be using everything available to you to get across, give them an experience they'll never forget. That was always kind of the aim, you know. I don't think it was just entertainment, we wanted to just knock people completely out of their sockets, you know.
[Heaven For Everyone]
Queen live were something else. Less technically perfect, but offering a show that dramatically enhanced their songs. Their policy of not using live performance as a profit centre, but to promote their records, meant that their audiences had a no expenses spared experience. For the most part with Queen, what you saw was what you got - four musicians. It was only in 1984 that they incorporated another musician, Spike Edney, into their touring party.[note: this isn't true - they had Fred Mandel in 1981 and Morgan Fisher in 1982] Spike was recruited in a very informal way by a Queen associate. He went to Munich for their first rehearsal, wound up partying for most of the first night, and missed the first day's rehearsal. It later transpired that everyone else had.
Spike: The next day, we all managed to get to it eventually, to the first rehearsal, and all the gear was set up. The stage was huge, and I thought "Oh well, here we go then" and we got to the first song , and what I'd forgotten was that they hadn't actually played together for two years. So they said, OK, let's try one of the new songs, I think it was Radio Ga Ga, and we started playing it, and course, I knew it, I'd been studying it for weeks. You know, 1,2,3,4 and we start and we get about a minute into the song and the whole thing collapses. And they all look at each other, you know, very sheepishly, and they say, "Anyone know how it goes?" and I say "well, actually, I know. I know how it goes" and they said "Ah". And so I started showing them the chords and everything and Fred looked at me and said "You don't know the words, do you?" and "Well, yeah I do actually" so then they all came round the piano and we spent the whole day just going through songs, and I thought, "I'm gonna be all right here, this'll be OK"!
[Radio Ga Ga]
One Queen convert was Trip Khalaf , who became their regular sound man on tour. Assigned to work with them by Claire Brothers in 1976, he laughed at the mere concept of a band called Queen, but then became absorbed in their performance.
Trip: Queen was the last great rock 'n roll tour. Queen was the best fun I've had in this business I think! It was always... they were always ready for wretched excess. The parties were always bigger, the women always had larger breasts, the entire thing was just on a stupendous level, that I could hardly keep up with most of the time, and we actually all wound up having to be dragged around by huge minders just to get us to the next show a lot of times!
Trip probably saw more Queen shows than anyone else in captivity! He observed the strange mesmeric way in which Freddie did his job on stage, winning and holding an audience, and then incorporating them into the show.
Trip: What a strange person Fred was. He was a lovely, lovely person, but he wasn't.... he wasn't "one of us" . He was something...I think it's been said a million times before, but Fred was just a star. If he hadn't've been a star, he wouldn't've been! He was just a fascinating creature. He was funny, he was [laughs], I mean on one hand, he was just completely ridiculous. But he knew he was completely ridiculous and he almost enjoyed being ridiculous.
Although they toured once playing to small concert audiences, Queen were especially suited to the large spectacle, to the arenas and stadiums.
Roger: I think Queen almost specialised in, and helped to invent, the art of playing stadiums. I didn't say we invented it, but I think we certainly helped in dealing with the scale of it, and I think in Freddie especially as a frontman, we had somebody who could actually communicate with the back row of a Wembley or whatever stadium.
[Crazy Little Thing.. live]
Queen material never released on record or CD there - live in Budapest. You're tuned to Radio 1 and A Kind Of Magic. Freddie Mercury was central to Queen. He came up with the name, persuaded the others to go with it, was initially one of the 2 songwriter in the band, was the lead singer, and always conspired to be at the centre of attention on stage. What motivated him? Trip Khalaf again.
Trip: What drives and motivates a pop star is a subject of it's own. I'm, you know, I've seen a million of 'em and they all have reasons for doing what they do. Fred's reason for doing what he did was that he couldn't have done anything else![laughs] I mean, he had no marketable skills! What else could he have been but some sort of huge bombastic rock star .. and the son of a bitch did a great job!
From almost the first moment that he arrived at art college, to study Graphic Art and Design, Freddie began to groom himself for a starring role. The name change from Bulsara to Mercury merely confirmed his ambition. He'd swiftly arrived at the conclusion that it was his only possible role.
Freddie: If I didn't do .. this, I don't have anything to do! I can't cook, erm, I'm not very good at being a housewife! I just.. this is in my blood, I mean, I just .. I seem to have been doing this for so long that it's so in my blood I just don't know what else to do. I'd be very vulnerable, and I wouldn't know what to do so I think I just have to keep doing it.
Roger: He did actually once ask me, "By the way dear, how do you boil an egg?" ... Of course, I didn't know! I said, "well, I think it's got something to do with water and heating it or something" ! But no, he wasn't sort of hands on on the day to day practicalities of life, but that was what made him so sort of special. He was.. I don't know what he would have done otherwise, but you know.. I don't know, he invented himself and then he lived it.
Brian: I think Freddie was always meant to be that, in a way. He certainly never saw himself as anything else. From the days when we first knew him he was completely focused on being what he waned to be..and he acted that way from the start, really. He was always very shy and very private, but there was a side of him which wanted to achieve that sort of huge, other persona and be that mega god or whatever that he kind of became. Quite astonishing to see it, in retrospect, 'cos we always used to laugh, you know [laughs] again a double standard. Part of you believes that the group is the most wonderful thing the world's ever seen, and part of you is just a kid thinking, ooh, let's have a go at this.
[A Kind Of Magic]
One of the most fascinating aspects of Freddie Mercury's life is the contrast between the public and the private man.
Roger: They couldn't be further apart. And in fact he was actually.. he was a strangely explosive mixture of shy, quiet, withdrawn, almost secretive person, terrifically fertile brain though, and then, you know, mixed with this explosive, charismatic..diva![laughs] And, you know, it was a quite unique mixture. I've never met anybody remotely like him, and I know I won't.
In later years Freddie was able to reach a point where he could stand back and view his on-stage persona and sometimes with amusement. He was aware of his stature, but less certain about his legacy.
Interviewer: How would you like to be remembered, in the music business?
Freddie: Oh, I don't know. I haven't thought about that. Dead and gone. No, I haven't, I haven't thought about that. I don't really think about, my god, when I'm dead, are they going to remember me? I don't really think about it. It's up to them. When I'm dead, who cares? I don't!Brian: He was very clever Freddie, you know, you can't underestimate Freddie, you know, he always knew when he could work and when he could play, and he did both to extremes. So, he did well to last the way he did!
[A Winter's Tale]
Of all Queen's 704 live performances, perhaps the most important was Live Aid. It enabled them to show that without all of their trappings, their own light, their own sound, the power of darkness, and only an 18 minute set, they were still able to conquer the world. But did Bob Geldof find it easy to get them to take part?
Bob Geldof: I traced them all the way down to some tiny little beach or some little small seaside resort they were staying at or Jim was staying at and I said, "Oh, for Christ's sake, you know, I mean, what's wrong with them?" And he said, "well, you know, he's very sensitive", and I said you know, like, I mean," tell the old faggot that it's going to be the biggest thing that ever happened and that it's gonna be like, you know, this huge, mega, thing" and so we got back and said OK, we're definitely doing it, and I thought "Great" and then when they did do Live Aid, they were absolutely I think the best band of the day. You know, whatever your personal tastes is irrelevant, when the day came , they played the best, they had the best sound, they used their 17 minutes or whatever to the best, I mean , they understood the idea exactly that it was a global jukebox as I described it. They just did one hit after another, just going one into.. and it was just unbelievable. I mean, I was actually upstairs in the appeals box in Wembley Stadium and I went outside and I heard this sound, you know, and I thought, "God, who's got the sound together?" and it was Queen you know and I just looked out over this crowd of people just going crazy, and they were amazing on the day, really amazing. And I think that they were delighted they did it, I think Freddie in particular was delighted he did it, it was the perfect stage for him - the whole world , you know, and there he could ponce about on stage, you know, doing We Are The Champions, you know.. Great!
[We Are The Champions.. live]
The fact that Queen stayed together for 21 years is testimony to their ability to rub along together, whatever the differences. As Roger Taylor said, "It was a marriage that outlasted some of our others."
Roger: I had very few disagreements with Freddie. He was the one that you would expect would be very difficult, you know, the mercurial one, and he wasn't, you know, he was a joy to work with. I don't know, I suppose we just felt this tremendous group identity, I suppose. I mean, the funny thing was, again in adversity, as before when we didn't sort of have any money, you know, backs were to the wall, I suppose we sort of bonded together again in the adversity of his illness, at the end, and that's why it was a wall of silence and we didn't tell anybody he was ill. Also, we felt very protective, about his privacy and about finishing what we had to do, so again I suppose that made us come in together and be a stronger unit, and .. which is great. I'm quite proud of that really, I think that's, you know... whatever we were, love us or hate us, we were a real group.
And the friction between them? Were their differences also their strength? Their clash of creative forces was a proven success, evidence of the continuing health of the group.
Brian: It's a healthy thing as regards creating something, I think, yes, and I mean this last album is a good example. It's one of the most ridiculously painful experiences creatively I've ever had, but I'm sure the quality's good partly because we did have those arguments. Whether it's healthy for life or not is another matter. I don't think so. And having had 20 years, or whatever, of this kind of very volatile democracy, I don't feel that I need it in my life any more at this point. You know, I've done it for this album because I thought that it was very important to get those last pieces of Freddie out there. If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have wanted to do it, I would have valued my life more than [laughs] more than the process.
[I Want It All]
In the late eighties, the realisation that Freddie was unwell dawned on the band. The signs were there for them to see. It's human nature to deny such things, but eventually it was Freddie who raised the subject.
Brian: We talked about it, and he said ..well, first of all he said, "you probably realise what my problem is, you know, my illness", and by that time we kind of did, it was just kind of, it was unspoken, you know, and he said "Well, that's it, and I don't want it to make any difference." He said, erm,"I don't want anything to be any different whatsoever, I don't want it to be known, I don't wanna talk about it, I just want to get on and work, until I can't work anymore" and that was it. I don't think any of us will ever forget that day. We all went off and sort of got quietly sick somewhere I think.
Roger: Freddie knew his time was limited and he really wanted to work and to keep going. He felt that that was the best way to keep his spirits up and he wanted to leave as much as possible, and we certainly agreed, you know, great, anyway, so we backed him up right to the hilt, and so really I think Innuendo was really made very much on borrowed time, and actually I still believe it to be a tremendously underrated album. It's much better than a lot of the other albums we made I think. The Miracle, he wasn't that well, but he wasn't that ill, and that was more of sort of a bit of an effort, a bit of a long album to make, but Innuendo was, he really wasn't very well, and I think there are some extraordinary performances on that one. I find it a very strong album all the way through, it's quite emotional.
[Somebody To Love]
With the acceptance of his illness came a flurry of recording activity. He lost himself in work. Freddie's best friend, Mary Austin:
Mary: I think it was the one thing that gave him much happiness. It made him feel alive inside through the pain he was experiencing. I think that fed the light inside, instead of things becoming dull and life becoming painful, looking at each morning, there was something else. There was something else he was working for. Life wasn't just taking him to the grave. There was something else he could make happen through that, and he did.
Queen, as in the early years, became a busy, tightly knit unit again in the adversity of Freddie's illness.
Brian: Because the group situation has always been so intense, like a safe place in our lives, I mean, we have conflicts within the group, which we can talk about and that's a different matter, it's insulated from the real, kind of grown up worries of life. You're really in a separate world, and I think Freddie did feel safe in that environment. Things were just as they always had been and probably we all tried too hard, I don't know [laughs] I don't know if I should even talk about it now, but we did, we tried to just make things very normal, and it seemed to work.
[I Want To Break Free]
So there was The Miracle, Innuendo, and, in the can, the makings of the last album, a bookend album, all recorded to some extent or other in their Montreux studio. Queen's manager, Jim Beach:
Jim Beach: I think it was a place which was a place to get away, where you were still really in your own domain. Certainly in his latter years, he came here partly as a refuge, there's no question, because the paparazzi were camping round his house, and he couldn't really go out to a restaurant in London or anything without somebody trying to take a photograph of him. His private life had completely disappeared, and this gave him a haven, without any doubt.
Despite rapid loss of strength and energy, Freddie Mercury drove himself, as always, to deliver the best performance.
Brian: Fred, as normal, got to some point and said "No,no,no,no,no, this isn't good enough, I have to go higher here, I have to put more into this, have to get more power in," so he downs a couple of Vodkas [laughs] stands up and goes for it, and you can hear the middle eight of Mother Love just soars to incredible heights, and this is a man who can't really stand any more without incredible pain and is very weak, you know, has no flesh on his bones, you know, and you can hear the power, the will that he's still got.
[Mother Love]
Mother Love was the last song that Freddie recorded. It's ironic that his swan song should have been recorded in Montreux, the Swiss town that he'd once found boring, and in the recording studio that he'd once said should be under the lake rather than beside it.
Brian: A lot of it was really, strangely enough, quite joyous, you know. It sounds odd to say that, and people are gonna hate me for saying it , but I know Freddie had some very good times in those last periods, and he was able to put it to one side and get one. And I think there was maybe a part of him that thought the miracle would come. I think we all did. I suppose you do, don't you. You never give up hope and Freddie was certainly like that. I never saw him kind of lay down, put his head in his hands, and let it all get on top of him, never ever. He would always just get on with things. And we had some very funny times, we were very focused and very together as a group. And I think we all regarded... we all realised how precious those moments possibly were gonna be.
Despite the media attention - his house was under siege for the last 18 months - he refused to give any press information. Only on the day before his death in November 1991, did he allow any announcement to be made about his condition
Roger: I think the last thing that he wanted was to draw attention to any kind of weakness or frailty , which was all too obvious anyway, you know, "look at me" , he didn't want any kind of pity or anything like that, and he was incredibly brave about the whole thing. Having said that, he didn't want to be usurped by sort of going, popping off and he said "look, I might pop off at any moment", that's what he used to say, erm, by sort of popping off, and then having not announced it, so I think that it was absolutely right to do it at the time it was done.
[I Was Born To Love You]
Mary: It took him a long long time to accept to himself that he had AIDS. How could he tell the world when he couldn't accept it himself? Freddie was all about living. He lived, he wrote, he produced, he was all about living, he wasn't about death.
Queen, A Kind Of Magic, was written by Stuart Grundy and presented by Kevin Greening. It was produced for Radio 1 by the Unique Broadcasting Company
Brian/Roger on VH1, March 1997
Here is a transcription of the interview with Brian/Roger from VH1's "Weekend Review" programme last weekend. The interview was interspersed with short clips of the performance of "The Show Must Go On" with the Bejart Ballet (as well as with the usual video clips of course).
RMT: He was very much his own creation. He made himself and he just got better and better. At first we thought "he'll never get away with this" but he just developed and became a better singer, better and better all the time. He was a great writer from the start and absolutely inherently a musician. He was quite extraordinary.
BHM: He really didn't change, he didn't, in inverted commas, sort of become someone you couldn't talk to, we were always very close as a group, very democratic as a group, we were very much guided by each other in performance and in the studio we would produce each other and use each other to bounce off and I would always play a better solo if Freddie was there saying, "no, no, no, no, no, you can do this" or he would keep something that I was going to throw away.
VH1: The Freddie Mercury tribute was broadcast in 70 different countries and featured contributions from Elton John, George Michael, Guns'n'Roses and many more; and allowed the rest of the band to see Freddie off in a style he would have been proud of.
RMT: I think it's something we had to get out of our systems, I know I did and spent about 3 months on the phone. It was a very difficult thing to get together and we had so much co-operation from all those great artists, some of whom I still haven't got round to thanking.
BHM: I always remember the moment Joe Elliott grabbed my sleeve as we were going off at the end and said, "Brian, you have to stop for a minute and just look at this and think what it is because you're never gonna see anything like this again". And he was right, so it was great to have those people playing with us, very thrilling for us and I think we did the job for Freddie.
VH1: The music of Freddie Mercury and Queen lives on and this year, a ballet performed in Paris was the venue for the first public performance for the 3 remaining members of the band since the Mercury tribute in 1992. They decided to do it after a personal request from Elton John.
RMT: There's a new ballet written by the father of French modern ballet, Maurice Bejart and it's written around our music with a few bits of Mozart thrown in which is quite a flattering mixture isn't it? And it's a wonderful work, it's a great piece and Elton thought that it would be lovely if we just came on at the end with the ballet and performed 'The Show Must Go On' as a surprise which we did and it was great, it was a lovely experience.
BHM: I was surprised that I enjoyed it, because in the interim period, I've very much been trying to get Queen out of my system, and I know that probably doesn't sound very nice but in a way it's unhealthy to be just clinging to the past.
RMT: It's a difficult thing, but having said that, it's been 5 years since Freddie's death now and I think we don't feel quite so precious about it as we did and we accept it as something that happened and it's in the past now and, so I think maybe the future is open to us doing something again.
BHM: I know people would love to see us together and stuff, but it would have to be in the right way, not in some way which would spoil what went before.
RMT: Elton put it very well, he said, "You lot are like a fantastic racing car, sitting in the garage with no bloody driver", which was a great analogy I thought, and very flattering; but you know, we'll see.
Roger Interview from 1991(RT=Roger, and I=Interviewer)
RT: I think it's a very important thing that any group has to be good in live performance, so we attach a lot of importance to that.
I: I remember when your first album came out, and it was all like a Roger Taylor solo project. Did you ever intend or it to last that long?
RT: It was never meant to be a solo project, you see. It was always meant to be a group, and this has been a big problem - I've never been able to convince people that it's a group - everybody writes, everybody shares the money equally, really it's not the Roger Taylor solo experience, and I'm just the singer.
I: When did you want to be a singer?
RT: I've always been a singer. With Queen I've sung all of the harmonies, for many years, before that I was a singer anyway, and a drummer. Live, I would sing in every song, harmonies at least, and in some songs, like I'm In Love With My Car, I would sing the lead anyway, so I'm use to singing, so that wasn't new. The thing that was new was to be at the front, not playing an instrument too much.
I: Why do you never play drums?
RT: Because we have a drummer! And I'm not the drummer. This is what I can't get people to understand - I'm *not* the drummer!
I: And how did you find the other members of the band?
RT: Er... Spike was a friend, who had played the keyboars with Queen on their tours, 'cause when Freddie has to sing, you know, and get up and move and thing, somebody else has to play the keyboards, so I knew him for about three years. And, er - we decided to start this thing up, you know, so we wanted to find three younger people just so it wasn't all older people who weren't influenced by what was happening, or anything. Then we found the guys, we made the band, and we started it - you know. It's been very hard, very tough.
I: Is that because many people still think it's Roger Taylor?
RT: Yeah. You just can't get away from it. Um - It's frustrating really. People like to put you in a drawer - you know - in a box. This is a different thing - completely seperate.
I: This album was recorded at Real World Studios. A studio where there's a lot of world music being done. Did that have any influence on you, or did you just pick it?
RT: Er... when you say world music, you mean music from other countries?
I: African music and things.
RT: Yeah, well Womad is based there, yeah - No, we picked it because we liked the look of it. Our music is like classic hard rock, and I like the idea of the world music thing [laughs] but no, that had nothing to do with it. It was a good studio, a good location, and a nice place and we liked it very much indeed. I've known Peter for many years. Very many years.
I: How pleased are you with the new album?
RT: I don't know. If you want me to be honest - I think it's quite good. We have a producer this time. I think the album is good - have you heard it? Do you like it?
I: I like it.
RT: Good.
I: The second song is the single, isn't it.
RT: I think it's the second one, yeah.
I: It's the second one yeah. It's my favourite anyway.
RT: Really? Oh good, well good. Um - yes it's difficult. I usually have to wait six months before I know, you know, how much I like something, but we've worked hard, and I hope people like it. I can't say a lot more than that really. I hope that the music is real. It's not pretending to be anything. It's sort of, quite grown up rock music.
I: Was it difficult to work with a producer who's ever so young?
RT:No. Ever so young? He's not that young!
I: He's only 31.
RT: Oh - 31 is not that young. He's very experienced, he's worked on The Joshua Tree, U2, and assignments... Jeff Beck, this is all the stuff we like, and so he's great. He's older than three members of the band you know, so - not older than me, but he's older than the others. But he was very good, it's fantastic. I really enjoyed him telling me what to do. I enjoyed that for a change.
I: Really?
RT: Yeah. Nice to receive direction, than give give it.
I: But you produced the others yourself?
RT: Really, yes, and the rest of the band also, so you need someone from the outside to give you that outside direction, I think.
I: To tell you?
RT: Yeah, 'cause you're too invlove, you're too closely involved, and you just can't give an objective view, you know?
I: When you're writing for the Cross, do you write while you're jamming, or does everybody -?
RT: No. I write by myself. I can't write with the others. Sometimes if I write with the guys, it's usually the lyrics, or to change what they already have, or to write a lyric from the beginning. Um... like with 'Bad Attitude', that's one, but the songs I write myself I write completely by myself, and then we bring them in and work it out.
I: Did you have a lot of songs to choose from when you did this album?
RT: Yes, we had about 25, and we sat down with the producer one day, and we said "Which ones do you like?" and he said "I like this one... I like this one..." And we let him choose.
I: So, you are going on tour now? Is it very difficult for you to play in smaller venues than you usually do?
RT: Well the Cross - we've been on tour several times before, so you know, so no I'm used to it now, and I remember it from years ago, anyway, from my very beginnings, when I was a teenager, I used to play in very small places and also the beginning of Queen was in very small places, you know - so no. Although I haven't played in small places for many years. Actually even Queen went back at one time to very small clubs, just to remind us, you know, to remind us to make it interesting. I like playing in small places. It's good, and we're going to play with a band called Magnum, who I know very well - do you know that band? I think they write very good songs, they have a strange image - like us it's difficult to define. but - they write very... in a genre... that style. They write very good songs. I produced an album for them, six years ago, called 'Vigilante'. I thought they were very good. they have a great song writer, Terry, and I think that ther'll be a very good mixture, you know. A good show altogether.
I: Do you think that the Cross and Magnum have a similar audience?
R: Yes I do. I think it's the same audience, yeah. They're the people who like hard rock, but not stupid hard rock, you know. They like people to have good musicians, and also to have intelligent songs. Sung intelligently. They're real. They don't dress completely - like - hair to the waist. Go to America, folks - it's strange - looks like 1973 there. I grew up in that with Queen, and we like to wear all this...
I: Long hair.
RT: Yeah, and so it's very strange to see all that happening again, you know.
I: With the heavy metal.
RT: Yeah. We were the start of heavy metal, and Led Zeppelin, and everybody was like glam heavy metal, you know, whatever. And it's all coming back round again.
I: How do you like the rest of the music scene?
RT:Not good at the moment. There's not enough good stuff. I think in America you can hear more quality music then in Europe at the moment, because it's too dance orietated for my tastes - everything is dance, dance, dance, and the music is - there are no new ideas, they're ripping off all the oldideas - they're recycling all the old good songs, and you hear very little good music. I like EMF. I like that song...
I: Unbelievable.
RT: yeah. that had a great riff, you can hear that they might be able to write really good songs, more good songs, but a lot of it is just electronic crap. It's gone one week. Shelf life one week, you know?
I: So you're an original rock 'n' roller?
RT: yeah, absolutely. The thing is, you see, it lasts - it's timeless. It lasts - there are hits from the sixties now - some of the best soul too.
(END)
MODERN DRUMMER - OCTOBER 1984
A big part of any successful interview is the preparation that's done before the actual interview takes place. It's during this stage that the interviewer gets a fix on the interviewee. But trying to size up Queen's Roger Taylor proved to be no easy task. As the drummer for one of England's biggest rock bands of the 70's - to date, Queen has sold well over 50 million records - it was Taylor's view of his profession that caused me the most problems. Taylor, I sensed, didn't like to view himself as a drummer, even though that's what he's been since his childhood days. In addition, he sort of hinted that didn't know much (or case to know much) about the technical aspects of drumming, even though he's always been a highly respected and wonderfully proficient drummer. But the clincher was that Taylor, at least what I'd heard from friends in the business, didn't even like to talk about the drums. Yet he consented to speak with "Modern Drummer", of all magazines. A difficult interview? It sure seemed that way. On the way to the Manhattan hotel where Taylor and the rest Queen were lodging, I conjured up a mental picture of Taylor dismissing my questions. If he didn't want to talk about drums or drumming, what then would he want to talk about? The assumption that most people who listen to rock either love Queen or hate it? Perhaps we'd discuss the problems Queen has had with the rock press over the years. There was always Freddie Mercury, the audacious and often brazen lead singer of the band. Maybe the interview would revolve around the joys of being a rock star? Who knew? Whatever the case, I braced myself for a long afternoon - or a short one, depending on how I looked at it. As it turned out, Roger Taylor proved to be a most interesting subject. The things I had previously heard or read about him were, for the most part, on target. However, Taylor answered all my questions - even the detailed drum questions - and did so in such a warm, affable manner that it was impossible not to feel comfortable with him. It's true, Taylor doesn't like to consider himself a drummer in the traditional sense of the term. And he doesn't especially like talking about the inner secrets of his instrument and the way he plays it. But he had his reasons, and those, I think, were what made the conversation so interesting.
ROGER TAYLOR - BY ROBERT SANTELLI
RS: You're a drummer who not only plays drums, but sings, writes songs, and plays a vert active role in the direction that Queen takes. Some drummers might think that's an awful lot of responsibility. Is it?
RT: No, I don't think so. I think drummers suffer from a misrepresentation of image too often. Traditionally, drummers have been regarded as the stupid ones in rock bands. It's a bit unfair, and because of it, being a drummer is a thankless task sometimes. There's responsibility involved in what I do, but it's nice to broaden ones horizon. These days it's funny, because I think of myself as more of a musician than a drummer.
RS: Why the change?
RT: Well, it's because I've been spending alot of time in control rooms, I suppose. Also, half my job in Queen is drumming; the other half is singing. I started off as a drummer and then all these things like singing and writing sort of followed.
RS: How do you balance your singing and writing with drumming?
RT: Strangely enough, singing and drumming never bothered me, although I know of drummers who do have problems with the two. See, back when I was in school, the singing bit was forced on me one day when the lead singer in the band I was playing with suddenly picked up and left. We had to do the gig and I had to sing. That's basically how I became a vocalist.
RS: Sounds as if it was a very spontaneous thing.
RT: In a way, yes it was. But before that I used to do some backup singing. I found singing and drumming much easier than I expected. Mind you, that was a long time ago. I never had a time problem, so that was a big plus. But physically speaking, it was very exhausting. I mean just playing drums itself is very demanding.
RS: Do you do anything to keep in shape?
RT: I wish I did. I'm thinking of getting a bit of gym equipment to keep at home because I'm getting older. It's definately time to start shaping up.
RS: How did you get involved with writing songs? Did you always write?
RT: No, I didn't. When we first started Queen and I first met Brian [May, Queen's guitarist], I wasn't really good enough on the guitar to write. You can't really write if you just play drums; you need something else, like the guitar. I enjoyed playing the instrument and eventually, I taught myself to write by watching and listening to other people. It wasn't easy at first, and in the beginning, the songs were far from great.
RS: How accomplished are you on guitar?
RT: Well, I really don't know how good I am on guitar. I know I have a good sense of rhythm. I wouldn't say I was accomplished on the instrument, but I'm not bad.
RS: How do you go about composing a song? Is there any personal methodology you use?
RT: These days, I find it much easier to write melodically on keyboards because piano is more geared, I think, for song writing. than any other instrument. The guitar is quite a difficult instrument, actually, when you're trying to compose melodically. You have to have all your chords together, and then you need something on top. With keyboards, you cam write the whole song right there. So what I've been doing is using a sequencer or something, and keyboards to write material.
RS: How many instruments do you play?
RT: Guitar, keyboards and drum. That's it really, although I do a bit of knob twiddling with electronics. I recently got a Simmons sequencer. Sequencers are quite good. I've been using a Simmons mixed in with my regular drumkit for quite some time now. The trouble with doing that is that you've got to treat them; you've got to go through a lot of boxes to make the drums sound good.
RS: You wrote the single off Queen's latest LP, The Works, "Radio Ga Ga." It's quite an interesting song. Where did the idea to write it come from?
RT: I liked the title, and I wrote the lyric afterward. It happened in that order, which is a bit strange. The song is a bit mixed up as far as what I wanted to say. It deals with how important radio used to be, historically speaking, before television, and how important it was to me as a kid. It was the first place I heard rock'n'roll. I used to hear a lot of Dorris Day, but a few times each day, I'd also hear a Bill Haley record or an Elvis Presley song. Today it seems that video, the visual side of rock'n'roll, has become more important than the music itself - too much so, really. I mean, music is supposed to be an experience for the ears more than the eyes.
RS: It's no secret that songwriters and bands are writing songs with videos in mind, more so than actual musical ingredients.
RT: That's right. But it's wrong. Upside down, isn't it? It's really a bit silly, not to mention ironic, because now a days you have to make a big, expensive video to promote your single.
RS: Back to the album for a second. Besides "Radio Ga Ga," did you play a major role in the creation of any other songs?
RT: Well, the members of Queen contribute in one way or another in the arrangement of songs.
RS: In 1981 you released a solo album,"Fun In Space". From a drummer's point of view, what was the solo record experience like for you?
RT: That album was a bit of a rush job, actually. I thought I'd run out of nerve if I didn't move on it quickly. And I did it much too fast. I spent most of last year when we weren't making "The Works", making another solo album. It's in a much different class than the first one. It's a much, much better record.
RS: In what ways? Can you be specific?
RT: Well, for one thing, I took a year making it. I made sure the songs were stronger and simply better. I threw out a lot of songs in the process. I also did two cover versions of other people's songs that I'm quite happy with. I did a version of "Racing In The Street" by Bruce Springsteen. I've always loved that song. I did it kind of mid-tempo. hopefully the way he would have done it, if he would have decided to do it mid-tempo. His version, of course, is very slow. The other cover tune is a very old Dylan protest song which I did sort of electronically. The song is "Masters Of War." Strangely enough, a lot of the lyrics hold up quite well today. This one is done slower than "Racing In The Street," but it's very electronic. I use a Linn on it. It works quite nicely.
RS: What prompted you into solo recording in the first place?
RT: Well, I felt I was getting more creative, and I wanted a bigger outlet for it than Queen gave me. I wanted, I suppose, to be more than just a member of the band.
RS: When you write a song, how do you decide if the song should be a Queen song or one that belongs on a solo album of yours?
RT: It depends on what we're doing at the time. If I get a song on paper and the others like it, it'll go to Queen.
RS: Have you ever agonised over, say, giving a song to Queen which you knew would have been perfect for a solo record?
RT: That sort of thing hasn't really affected me yet because I've only had two solo albums thus far. My output has never been that big with Queen. I've never had more than a couple of songs appear on any one album. I try to keep the more personal songs for myself, I suppose. "Radio Ga Ga" would definately have been on my own album if that's what I was doing at the time.
RS: You said you enjoy fooling with knobs and dials. Is this something new for you?
RT: We [Queen] got a studio in Switzerland, and I very much enjoy playing with all the new toys that are coming out. I'm certainly more up to date with all the new gadgets out on the market than I ever was a few years ago. I'm also a lot more open minded about them. For instance, when electronic drums first came out, I didn't really like them very much because I never liked the sound of the bass drum. But I've found that the LinnDrum is much better in this department, and I enjoy using it. One of the things I came to find out is that when people say you can't get a "human" sound out of the Linn, they're simply overstating the situation. Of course, there's some truth in it, but most drummers who still hold out against electronic drums are only doing so because they're fearful of losing their livelihood. It _is_ a threat, because now the drums are really good. I mean you can even programme in the slight timing discrepancies that come with nonelectric drums. You can even push the beat or lay it back. It's all there, and you can do it quite easily. You can make it _sound_ human and all because this technology exists, you simply can't ignore it. One can't be retrogressive in this business. It's like the musician's union in England; the union took a ridiculous stand and tried to ban sythesisers. That's like standing in the way of an express train. You can't stop it.
RS: Is it conceivable for you to think that you'll be one day playing nothing but electronic drums?
RT: I think it's quite possible. I mean the solo album I've been working on has a hell of a lot of electronic drums on it. There's also a track on The Works in which we've illustrated that quite well, I think. It's called "Machines." Basically, it starts off where everything's electronic - electronic drums, everything. And what you have is the "human" rock band sort of crashing in. What you wind up with is a battle between the two.
RS: When you're composing songs, how do you set about constructing the drum tracks?
RT: Very often I start out electronically and then overlay the acoustic drums. Of course, each track is different, but usually I'll begin with a Linn or with a Simmons sequencer on it. It doesn't always work, though. Sometimes it's a disaster.
RS: Can you give me an example of a failure using this approach?
RT: Well, if you have on e of those snappy tempos which is done with a box and then you put real drums on top of it, it could wind up sounding dreadful. Actually, it all comes down to miking. Today, it's not uncommon to overmike drums. I mean, putting 15 mic's around the kit is absurd. All the best drum sounds I've ever got came from using four mic's or five.
RS: You mentioned before your interest in the activities in the recording studio control room. What brought on this interest? Was it just a matter of staying on top of your profession?
RT: Not necessarily. I just found out that I was really getting good results on the board. And obviously, I've spent half my life in the last 12 years in control rooms, so I just got to know more about their potential. I couldn't help but take an interest in what goes on inside the control room. But I think recording studios are in the process of changing. Whether people like it or not, the control rooms ultimately wind up three or four times bigger than what they are now, and the actual studio part will be three or four times smaller.
RS: Then surely you must advocate that young drummers coming up in the business learn as much about the recording process as possible, rather than just sitting back and letting someone else in the band soak up all the knowledge.
RT: They're going to have to. Of course, it depends on how broad you want your knowledge to be. If you want to be a drummer and only play drums, fair enough. But I find that very narrow-minded. I could never just sit back and the drummer, if you know what I mean. Young drummers should really learn the technical side of their profession. If you don't, you're going to miss out. And one owes it oneself and one's talent to make the most of things.
RS: Why do you think England has been in the forefront when it comes to electronics?
RT: I don't know. It's certainly true, but I don't know why. Perhaps the answer can be found in the attitude of some musicians there, or in the way kids are brought up there. Generations coming up are sort of force-fed popular music from the age of zero. But then again, I guess that's true of America as well. The English see the music business as a form of release because the standard of living is low - vastly lower than what it is in the United States. For instance, no-one has air-conditioning in England. In America you can't go anywhere in the summer without feeling it. Americans take air conditioning for granted. In England, it's almost unheard of.
RS: Queen began in 1971 - some 13 years ago. What were you doing just prior to the formation of the band?
RT: Freddie [Mercury] and I were trying to scrape a living. I was at college, but I wasn't attending very often. However, I was getting a grant and financing a shop where Freddie and I sold artwork. We sold his work and things friends of his did at the art college. That's how we kept the band going in the first place.
RS: Were you an artist as well?
RT: Not really. I studied dentistry and then did a degree in biology. I never did get a degree in dentistry.
RS: Were you in any bands with Freddie Mercury before Queen?
RT: No. I was in a band with Brian, though, and Freddie would sort of run around with us in those days. He had a couple of band he was in, but he's always had such a forceful personality that he forced himself to develop, because he wasn't such a good singer back then. He's a great singer now - immensely confident. I couldn't believe it. We had a jam session with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck, and Freddie was about four times louder. He has marvelous projection. Anyway, Brian and I played together, like I said. It was a three-piece band called Smile. When it split up, Freddie, Brian and I decided to form a band in 1970. That's how Queen started.
RS: At the time, what drummers inspired you? Who were you listening to?
RT: I always liked John Bonham, although in England he wasn't that fashionable. But to me, he was the best rock drummer who ever lived. I'm sure lots of people tell you that when you interview them.
RS: More people say Bonham that any other drummer.
RT: Well, it's true. There's no-one able to touch him in the rock world. He was the innovator of a particular drum style. He had the best drum sound, and he was the fastest player. Simply stated, he was the best. Although he wasn't the easiest person to get on with, his influence was great. He'd do things with one bass pedal that other drummers couldn't do with three. He was also the most powerful drummer I'd ever seen. Led Zeppelin was actually more popular in America than they were in England, you know. You had to be a drummer to realise how good John Bonham actually was. The average person on the street couldn't really know the difference between John Bonham and the next flashy heavy metal merchant or whatever.
RS: Why is that?
RT: The average person can't understand the subtleties of drumming or just how difficult some of the things he used to do were.
RS: At the time, how much of an influence did he have on you and your drum style?
RT: A lot. I think there are a bunch of drummers in bands today who are nothing but poor Bonham copies. There are so many, and have nothing of their own style. It's just John Bonham's style, but unfortunately they can't come close to his sound. RS: How do drummers make sure that, when they're heavily influenced by other drummers, they don't wind up as merely imitators?
RT: Well, that's up to individual, really. You have to develop your own style. If you're any good, you'll realise which bits work best for you. And I suppose the thing to do is develop them.
RS: What did you do to prevent becoming a John Bonham copy?
RT: Well, I didn't want to sound like him because I knew there was no point in sounding like someone else even back then in those days. This is true no matter how much you admire what they do. So I just tried to incorporate certain aspects of his style into my own.
RS: Anything in particular?
RT: Well, obviously the bass drum. I mean, he invented the whole school of playing the bass drum in a heavy manner. I learned so much just by listening to the first couple of Led Zeppelin albums.
RS: What are your feelings on Keith Moon?
RT: Keith Moon was great. In the early days, he was absolutely brilliant. He had a total unique style; he didn't owe anyone anything. The first time I saw him preform was with the Who on '64 or '65. It was just great. The Who was an outrageous band - real energy, real art. I loved them. I mean, to actually destroy your instruments - it was the most unheard of thing in music.
RS: When did you start playing the drums?
RT: [Pauses] I can't remember exactly. Can you believe it? I'll guess and say nine or ten. I remember banging on my mother's saucepans with her knitting needles. Then, my father found an ancient snare drum in a storage bin where he worked. It was an old wood and brass thing. I started with that. Then I got a real snare drum, and then a cymbal. You didn't just get a drum kit in those days. I wouldn't have known what to do with a whole kit even if I had one. The big moment for me was when my father redid up a cheap set of old Ajax drums. It consisted of one tom-tom, one bass drum, one snare, and one minute Zildjian cymbal. It was about two years or so later that I got a high-hat. Drums were something I naturally felt kind of good at. I found the guitar a lot more difficult to pick up at. With drums, you either have time or you don't. If you don't have it, there's no chance you'll ever be any good, really. You can't teach a person time. I found it very easy to pick up and play things like "Wipe Out". That was the thing to do at the time. But I've never been into the very technical sides of drumming.
RS: I assume you never took lesson?
RT: No, I never did. But I actually used to give them believe it or not! [laughs] I couldn't even read.
RS: And you still can't read today?
RT: Very slowly, but not to play. I've always found it totally irrelevant. I just always felt that what came from within was what I ought to play. Everytime I see Carmen Appice he's going on about all sorts of amazing things. He might as well be talking about cupcakes. No, I'm not really into the technical aspects of drumming at all.
RS: Where did you go after getting your first kit?
RT: My friends and I started a band at school. We were terrible - really terrible. We didn't have any worthwhile equipment. It just sort of built up from school until, finally, the bad bands become good bands. I was always the leader of those bands, for some reason. I must have been a pushy one. We won a few band contests in the mid-60's, which was kind of a breakthrough for me. Then, eventually, I started singing as well. My career just sort of went on from there.
RS: Why the drums?
RT: Well, I used to walk around my bedroom with a tennis racket pretending it was a guitar. But the drums were noisy and I found out that I better at them. Plus, I enjoyed them more.
RS: Did the Beatles have a significant impact on you as a kid?
RT: No, not at all. When they first broke, you just couldn't get around them. Everything was Beatles. But I was never crazy about their music until the release of "Revolver". Then they got me. That album was just brilliant and it really affected me rather strongly. But before that I preferred the Who and the Yarbirds - real seminal British bands.
RS: With such early influences as the Who and Yarbirds, do you find it odd that you play in what many people consider a "commercialised art-rock band"?
RT: No, not really. It's difficult to step back and view the band as other people view it. What's the public's mental image of the band? Do they see a string of album covers? I really don't know. I know I don't see Queen as an art-rock band. When I think of art rock, I think of Roxy music.
RS: Queen has really had it tough with the press, especially American press.
RT: Yeah, that's true.
RS: What do you think brought the friction between the two? I recall some pretty abrasive articles in such magazines as "Rolling Stone" a few years back.
RT: I can't stand that magazine. They're so arrogant - and so are we! That, I suppose, is the problem. I mean, we are a fairly arrogant band. We have had our moments when we were overtly tasteless. But we were also accused of being a manufactured band, which is so untrue. We were just self-generated really. Nobody _ever_ manufactured us. At one point, we were also accused of being fascists. That was during the time of "We Will Rock You." Some people said it was a cry of manipulation. It was no more fascist than Ray Charles' "What'd I Say." One time Rolling Stone tried to write a political piece on us. I think the guy was deaf or his battery had run out. But it was very creepy. They have this very superior pseudo-intellectual approach to everything. They don't approach anything with their senses. They were very nasty, and I wrote them a very nasty letter back, which they did print.
RS: In terms of nonmusical decisions made within Queen - the business decisions, the organisational decisions, things like that - how much of a role do you play?
RT: Queen is very democratic. It all comes down to a vote. If it's three to one, the three win, unless the one says, "I object to this" or "I won't do this." Then we don't do it.
RS: The band has survived quite a long time under that system. That's unusual.
RT: Queen wouldn't be Queen if one of us left the band, or if we did things differently. The sense of unity has kept us strong. It's the same band today that it was when we started. I think that's good. I think that's important. There's an old saying: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts." That applies to Queen.
RS: When Queen goes into the recording studio to record an album, what's your role?
RT: I'm totally elastic. The whole thing is down to the song. "What does the song need?" is the main question. Whatever it needs, I'll do it. If it needs a heavy sound, we'll put the mic's in the right places, but won't use too many of them. The size of my kit is important, too. Sometimes I just use a snare, bass drum and hi-hat. But other times I'll use a big kit with a lot of tom-toms. I try to remain flexible.
RS: So you don't have one particular or favourite set of drums that you usually use in the studio?
RT: No. I have kits I tend to use more than others. I have an amazing Gretch kit in our studio over in Switzerland. It's got three toms, a snare and bass drum. It's a great sounding kit. Some kits sound great; others don't.
RS: What kit do you use on stage?
RT: It changes all the time, but I use Ludwig because they've been sending them to me for quite some time. I have a single bass drum and a selection of toms from small to big. I've always tended to use big drums, which is something I'm getting away from.
RS: Why's that?
RT: They're so difficult to mike. They tend to be somewhat unclear and less defined than smaller drums, I think. Stewart Copeland sort of provided the value of small drums. He gets a nice, snappy sound out of those small drums. It's something I've always argued with Ludwig about. They made their drums wide, but they never made them very deep. Today, virtually all drums are as deep as they are wide. The depth of drums is important. I also usually use a Simmons kit sprinkled around my kit. I use a couple of "RotoToms" as well. Instead of using them as toms, I use them as timbales because they seem to cut through real nice. As for cymbals, I use Zildjian and a few Paistes. I always change my cymbals around on each tour to sort of suit the mood.
RS: What's your philosophy when it comes to cymbals?
RT: It seems to be very fashionable these days to say, "Oh, I didn't use any cymbals on this record." I love cymbals. I think they're great. They provide wonderful dynamics. Quite often, I'll overdub very specific cymbals. Freddie Mercury has a cymbal fetish as well. Cymbals are very important; you have to know which ones to use in which places.
RS: On stage, it seems as if you play your drums extremely loud.
RT: I do in studio as well, unless a song calls for something else, of course. I'm not, however, one of those telegraph merchants. I don't believe you need those massive sticks, because if you've got decent wrists, which I think any decent drummer should have, the snap comes from there. That's what makes it loud. Also, you've got to be able to do perfect rimshots. That's what makes the drums loud, not eight-foot long telegraph poles.
RS: On the song "We Will Rock You", your beat is very loud and hard. What kind of sticks did you use on that song?
RT: Everybody thinks that's drums, but it's not. It's feet. We sat on a piano and used out feet on an old drum podium. It's rather hard to explain in words what we did, but what you hear isn't drums. We must have recorded it, I don't know, 15 times or so. We put all sorts of different repeats on it to make it sound big. There's a catch though. When we do "Rock You" live, I have to do with drums, so everything is slightly delayed. Everything is to suit the song. To have just one way of working would result in the inability to change or adapt. A good drummer must be flexible. It's imperative.
RS: As in the case of successful studio drummers?
RT: Yeah, but at the same time those people are flexible, but only in terms of the material. What they tend to do is use exactly the same equipment all the time. Their kits have probably got tape on them which hasn't been removed for years. I'm not knocking them, but in an important way, they're _not_ flexible. They're good at one particular thing because that's what they do all the time. They might be with Kenny Rogers one week and Motorhead the next, but it's still the same for them.
RS: Have you ever done, or considered doing, session work?
RT: I used to do the odd session when the band was starting out just to bring in the extra cash. When I could get it, the session was usually a percussion thing, you know, standing there and shaking something. But session work in England consists of a select group of musicians . It's very difficult to get into that inner circle. You have to be as good as Simon Phillips to crack it these days.
RS: Why is it like that? Are there so few gigs to go around?
RT: No. It's like a mafia, I suppose. There are a few key people who handle most of the work. Hopefully, that side of the business - the Tin Pan Alley mentality - is dying. The new bands with synthesisers and all, don't really need session musicians to appear on their albums.
RS: Is there anything you can do to get the bright tones out of your drums when you need them, and the subtle, soft tones when you need them?
RT: Well, I don't like using thick drumheads. That I can tell you. As far as I'm concerned, you might as well be hitting a barrel of lard. Heads should be bright and responsive, and for that, you need a thin head. Some drummers use thick heads and just batter them. What's the point? That's not my approach at all, although I do play hard. I like to hear the sound of the drums. That's why I use thin heads. But you've got to pay constant attention to tuning them. I have to retune constantly throughout a concert. After every song, I retune my snare drum. It's absolutely mind-blowing. When it's just right, it's just right. Amazingly, a lot of drummers don't tune their drums - or can't.
RS: How did you learn to tune your drums?
RT: I simply taught myself. I always remember what Keith Moon said years ago, because he was very good at this. The early Who records have great drum sounds on them. He used to say, "Just make the bottom skin a little tighter than the top skin." That's how you get that ringing sound. I hate hitting loose skins. Live, it all depends on what hall you're playing. Like at the Forum in L.A., it's easier to get a great drum sound. But on the other hand, it's hard to get a great drum sound in Madison Square Garden n New York.
RS: How much do you play your drums when you're not on tour or in the studio?
RT: Well, years ago I used to play them a lot. But ever since we've become successful, I almost never play them. I don't really practice, but I know I should. However, last year I did a little bit of work with Robert Plant. I had to practice for that because I had to learn the material. But that was the fist time I actually sat down and practiced for a long, long time.
RS: Do you find it difficult to get back in the swing of things once you have to go back in the studio or on the road?
RT: Oh yeah. It's a horrible shock. I usually wind up saying, "Oh God, I've forgotten how to do this!" But then it all comes back. You never lose the ability to play, but you forget arrangements and things like that.
RS: What about the quality of your drum playing?
RT: Oh that's affected too. I always need a few days of rehearsal before we get into playing seriously. It always come back, though. As for touring, the hardest thing is building up stamina. In the future, I plan to prepare myself physically for touring to make it a bit easier. But there are no exercises a drummer can do to get tuned up to perform except play. You develop certain muscles when you play the drums, and no exercise seems to work them fully that I know of. This is especially true of the legs. Skiing and tennis are very bad for drummers; unfortunately, these are two activities I enjoy doing. But they work against the development of one's drumming muscles for one reason or another.
RS: What are your feelings towards touring?
RT: Sometimes I love it; sometimes I hate it because it's incredibly tedious. We usually have a good time on the road. That always helps.
RS: For a drummer like yourself who has achieved success, is it difficult for you to carry on that special sort of relationship, for lack of a better term, with your drumkit? In other words, is your drumkit your instrument or your business tool?
RT: I know Carmine Appice is just in love with drums to a greater degree than I am or ever will be. As a kid, I just used to love my drums. Now it's just more and more, a tool, to use your term. That's probably bad. But I must say, I also find it quite difficult to talk about drums, because what I know about them I probably learned quite a long time ago. I never did get kicks out of talking about, say, the latest foot pedals. I find it incredibly boring. I just know what I like, so I don't really think about it.
RS: But how you perceive your drums is what I'd really like to get from you.
RT: Well, sometimes I hate the sight of the damn things! [laughs] Other days I look at them sort of lovingly. I mean, I'm not Charlie Watts, who's still in love with his Gretch kit after all these years. One of my problems is that I change kits so often. This makes me figure my latest kit is just another kit - that's all. See, it all goes back to what I said earlier on. I don't really see myself as a drummer in the pure sense. My love of drums has been taken over by my love of music. In fact - talk about ironies - I collect guitars. When I was a kid, I always wanted a lovely drumkit. But I could never afford one. Now I have tons of money and they keep giving them to me. It's crazy. So I collect guitars. I have a reasonable collection of very old Fenders. I love Fender guitars. I could actually get more pleasure looking at guitars than I do at the drums. I do, however, have a room full of drums at home. This is all probably sinful to say since this is a "Modern Drummer" interview, but it's true.
RS: Do you ever exert pressure on yourself to sound better than the night before, or set out to outdo your efforts in the studio or are you beyond that sort of thing?
RT: I used to do that. But I think I've matured in that I concentrate on the overall sound of the band now. I know when I play well. On tour, I constantly have to play well. If I have a bad night, I feel terrible about it. But I can usually kick myself to get it together even when I'm not having a great night. But my main thing is to look at the effect the whole band is having on the audience. I'm really more concerned about that than anything else. That's the most important thing when you really get down to it.