QUEEN - MAGIC MOMENTS (full documentary) FREDDIE MERCURY

you it's all stadium music and it's powerful it's exciting it's in a dynamic it's got all the qualities that kind of get inside you and might lift you and take you out it you know it's it it's entertainment that it's in it most powerful I don't think that we've seen the likes of Freddie Mercury since I can't quite see how we're gonna see anyone like him again the world's changed is a legend that's what I know that's a real funky rock and roll audience going to say to this prancing ballerina coming Ron I talk fine I'll sing my rock and roll songs with the tutu on I don't care whenever there's any sort of poll of greatest you know greatest jeans ever Bohemian Rhapsody always comes up top so there's this credible timelessness about them Queen emerged from the British progressive rock scene of the early 1970s a band that the conservative rock industry initially felt it had no place for Queen quickly found cult status following its inception in 1971 and went on to become one of the most successful British bounds of its era this was largely due to the energy and charisma of the band's flamboyant singer Freddie Mercury whose larger-than-life personality seemed to dominate the band during their 20 years until his death in 1991 but credit for their phenomenal success must also be given to the three surviving members whose unique talents created some of the most exceptional rock music of the late 20th century it was make-or-break career with the first two albums and I think that that comes through really well in the music it stands up to repeat it listens because they've got everything to play for so first thing go keep yourself alive for instance which didn't actually a chart and it's the only one of their singles didn't it's got a lot of life in it as if as if the band really were sort of desperate to reach that level of Fame which was inevitably going to come their way but ham it was still there was still a chance it might not happen but also on the album you've got more tender moments the first time you can really get to grips are Brian May there's some stuff on the first album which is you know they have to do it record it very quickly at night in that everything but it's a second album it's Queen - it's Brian's often being quoted as saying that sees his favorite albums and to me the reason is its color is so heavy you know there's full-on it's full-on prog rock glam rock or whatever you want to call it 7400 ek it was absolutely amazing so Brian wrote all the songs on one side with I think Roger wrote one song on one side and Freddie wrote all the songs on another side Azure side white side that was on growl rock and roll guitar really heavy stuff I remember the first Queen experience I think when had was seeing this 7-inch vinyl emi tune arriving at Radio 1 and the name was very much kind of a stamp of authority somehow I mean Queen could have met all kinds of things it could be very anything but it had just the logo alone seemed to say we're here and you need a lot about us which was very much part of their image whether they thought it all out or not it looked like they had they were very authoritative which was kind of unusual at that time which is some early centers being in here we're still getting over the shock I think that they're 60 and their big party was all over and that this was a whole new decade with all different music and so for a band to come along to have that kind of very positive image from day one was it very impressive for the next album which was sheer heart attack of course had Killer Queen on which is one of the classics certainly one of Queens classic songs and arguably one of the classic songs of all time got to number two in the charts I think had a fantastic solo in there and that's the first time I remember being struck by the harmonies he's struck by the arrangements massive vocal harmonies and melody that hang your hat on Top of the Pops is of the thing The Killer Queen thing and I saw saw that was the the first time and it was a very odd piece of footage but I liked it and it was I mean it I mean when they did those things it was it was call you it was quite riveting because I mean you either look you liked it or you didn't it's it's sort of quite instant thing later on in later music it grows on you and other things but it was quite a bizarre this little half mic and the fingernails and things I would say that on the back of Killer Queen if you hear Brian play he was starting to make his reputation as one of the best UK rock guitar players he's technically fine there are many better guitar players in again he'd be the first to admit it but he's unique and if that's a mark of whether you're a good player or not then he's absolutely one of the best she was ever named there's no doubt about it at all you hear him play you know that it's him Brian is an individual that you listen and you listen to music and you think hang on that's Brian he's got he's got you know the Brian sound I mean and you know he is easy he's recognized as one of the best guitars in the world you know it did as Freddy was vocal esc' when he was alive people knew his voice they'll instantly recognizable sound they was a phenomenal singer voice and it's so strong it's you know what you know the great singers always pitch just under the note just over the night hey because the projections are but that's what carries it all about all for life and that's what he could do that's why it was so strong really it across the bridge between operatic and pop and his technique was incredible I mean he could reach to the highest notes and he used to come home and we put on videos you know in his house and he would show me things like who was the who could reach the top notes in all these opera performances he had endless tapes of opera and and he starts singing along with it and all and reached those notes himself so I think he could have been at what I think his is composing and his singing comes from a classical world and integrated with pop music so it had that wonderful crossover John Deacon is an amazing bassist and he is underrated I think musically and also was a song where things like you're my best friend and brilliant brilliant songs and if it weren't for the fact that they were overshadowed by some of the larger singles of Queens career I think he would in the absolute champions online Queen and all and technically as well I think he's an amazing bassist thing that he can he can play a bass line and make it sound fluid or smooth or just completely natural a Roger of course you know it's just a game like Freddie a shown he loved that whole expressive dramatic performance that they provided him and he's a great drummer you know and even just the vocals of course were a great time with the three of them with their bland Roger and fair it just you know there's just so professional and that's what really made them by the end of 1974 the band had been voted best live act by readers of Britain's tabloids Sun newspaper by September their contracts with Trident had become restrictive and having signed a new contract with John Reed went on to work on one of their most ambitious singles to date a seven-minute Freddie Mercury composition called Bohemian Rhapsody the song that really blew me away which I'm sure it did to everybody was Bohemian Rhapsody and it was almost operatic and coming from the classical world of ballet and opera which I only knew then I thought this is integrating the two together and and it was fascinating the great voices they had as well especially Freddie's of course it was he could have almost sung an opera if he wanted to we went to see Freddie in the studio The Roundhouse to you and he was thrilled you know I bothered touch ha and the guys were really sweet and um but phrase that night I want you to want me to play it's not finished yet but I wanted to hear it and we were the first two people to hear though rap at cyber that I had and you know cuz because it was so long they were worried of course that nobody was going to play air time I just don't know you know I told them not to do anything to absolutely keep it as it how long it was just keep it people will play what they want don't do a shortened version I think me and I were trying to convince them to do that the humor HAP's you had to happen to be it was basically like three songs that I wanted to put out and I just put the three together well and then it had a very big risk factor yes sort of the radios didn't really like it initially because was too long and the record company said you know you can't market it that way and after me having virtually put the three songs together they wanted me to sort of slice it up again I just said look it's either gonna be you know minor hit always gonna be just enormous something because it's safe incredibly different I think maybe you might have something really good on your hands he was the most bizarre piece of music it was like obviously the operatic cleany was coming through by then what on earth I still don't know what it's about I still don't know what this collection was it is almost like you know cutting up phrases and sticking them in but I mean by then and you can hear a lot of echoes of Bohemian Rhapsody a lot of earlier clean tracks you can feel them now with them with the benefit of hindsight you can you can feel them that's what they were edging towards and the main difference between queen and any other rock band is the operatic the operatic feel and the fact that they use their voices as a choir as an instrument but the reason Bohemian Rhapsody is such an amazing song you can listen to it now and it's still valid in 2004 it's got all these different styles and vote the the vocal midsection notwithstanding which hasn't been done since so that standard and that musical standard it's the beginning the beginning bit before the piano there they dead it is all Freddie Mercury Roger and Brian aren't singing on that it's all Freddie that's why it's just gives you goosebumps before the melody even comes in so the first time you hear it you have no idea what's going on the first time I ever heard it probably like most people was vide on top of the pops the impact that that had and they were using techniques which were new to television with the revolving images and effect for a while every director of Top of the Pops cannot resist having these revolving images because like obviously the new towards play with if you think Queen I think Bohemian absolutely immediately think of those revolving the image images you can't help it and but he said I've got this idea for song and he sort of sat down on somebody playing the song and and it's all going long good and so you know you had some words missing and some bits of melodies through and quite walked out but it was just a basic framework of the song then you said he was playing and he stopped and said now dears this is where the Opera section comes in right now my god it's what every songwriter should aspire to whatever any anybody thinks of Queen if you could write a song that can stand in the same room as like track the vocals harmonies in the middle of cadence dela da da doo doo dee doo don't worry about the lyrics to that mean a thing did he did to do that that no that had never been done before that's ten overdubs at least a time that the raw Thomas Baker had to have some hand in it with the production side of it but the whole thing was Freddie Mercury the whole thing had it in his head in its entirety before he even took it to the band apparently that's when they go darling this is when the Galileans come in that's that classic that classic phrase from that time but um it's got the best it sums up why queen are so good the vocal harmonies the amazing melody the arrangements the guitar of course the head banging bit in the back of the car and Wayne's World you know that amongst the heaviest stuff of it the Queen had ever done the iconic solo the little bit at the end the very hood and nothing really mattered to be fantastic it's just it is the best song ever being it just is bohemian rhapsody' climbed rapidly to number one and by Boxing Day Queen had their first British number one album meanwhile the Queen touring machine rolled relentlessly on what one has to realize is that in the early days freddie was not the front he's bright get him Fred it was on the piano it kind of like occasionally getting up and that's it and it really wasn't until when they were touring with a night of the Opera but Fred came forward as the front and this is what began to happen in their first American tour and I just thought you know when you've got this amazing track and this amazing song which was you know doing really well in the States at time yeah it's just a wonderful thing to see you know performed like I mean how were they gonna do it that was what the amazing yes it was number one Here Come but how do you do that live and they did it so well it's so clever I was at home in Plymouth and I just turned on the TV I think it was New Year's Eve and it was a concert they were doing from Hammersmith I saw this guy Freddie Mercury in this white clownish makeup and this long black hair and thought that's outrageous I've never seen a band behave sight quite so off-the-wall in theatrical terms which of course I was with the Royal Ballet at the time and and he was in tights as well I think and I I thought god this is a departure from the normal pop group and so that's what interested me first of all as well as the music and it's just left a lasting impression on me all my life I think he was wearing a white or something and of course the music as well and even the technicalities of the stage presentation I think that's what also made them really quite famous was that they were doing bizarre things with their shows and mostly at this period people were just going on with their the rest of the band you know in jamming away which was great but he made it a whole like a banner experience I like to be entertained and that's what I liked about entertainment and the taking over like you know when Freddy goes away me and Brian will almost comes into stuff like that I like I like that foot of ebb and flow which is which is what drive I find them concepts that I found I can remember I remember Madison Square Garden ones when bicycle remember the that was a big hit and that was that was that was fantastic because that was coupled with fat bottomed girls and I think I was on stage as well as somebody said cuz we were singing some of the some of the and causes factors just like a group but I remember the girl I remember the girls coming down on the fat bottomed girls coming down on the bicycle with and that was great just just that those are the moments of sheer show show magic Queens longevity has often been attributed to their sheer determination to succeed as well as their respect for each other and their passion for producing music you have to think that they were friends first and foremost then you also have to remember that it's a business so try and think of how any company with four CEOs you know it cannot be just one hole those pulling here pushing there because each of them had an equal say that was one thing Freddie's strongly emphasized he hated it whenever he was it was called Freddie Mercury and his band Queen because Freddie was 25% John 25% Roger 25% Bryant went like this and everybody had an equal input equal output equal input a lot of the time they were never in the studio at same time I mean you know Fred go do his bit and viola go do his bit and so on and occasionally of course when they would lick with it in the mixing easy yeah they will be there and they disagreed about certain things and they didn't but it always came out all right so the working relationship would be like any other working relationship I'm working the theatres you you might have a disagreement with your director about how you're gonna do something but you have to get there because that's your unit and and I think they enjoy it actually working with each other and performing with each other I think really other way I don't think they do it because they were strong enough that they were just staying there at the height of the punk scene Queen bounced back in classic style with a harder-edged rock album news of the world released on the 28th of October 1977 the album's lead single was the anthemic we are the champions that's probably one of their most diverse albums things had we had the champions on a wheeeeel rocky which is the two very famous songs in the house but there were things like spread spread your wings which John Deacon wrote and is an absolute epic not quite sure what the lyrics mean to say but that's another fantastic Brian a shadow excellent there's all dead on there which come and with Brian's hang or not I think he did actually which has got in my opinion the best guitar orchestration of his career is fantastic that's who this little battery-powered amp that John Deacon made before Queen or even Queens Fred wrote we are the champions on Jerry Brown's kitchen table you know I remember because I was stay with chariot type and just you know it's so important that song just so came up I'd given him a book on Jassim Japanese poetry and it was called you are my champion and it all came from man we were playing a track which wasn't necessary released as a prophet a sad which we all live in the door now kore we will rock you I was a disc jockey in my own clubs in those days so we were hammering we will rock you you know we will because of his very short which is perfect for the for the club scene in those days we're not talking clubbers I'm talking night club dancing real chart Easter and I want to see any join me for a bus of champagne he still didn't add that wild Freddie Mercury look but it wasn't the curly a kid I'd seen in the early seventies either as the seventies drew on and Queen seemed to just become the biggest band on the planet I think that the songwriting saw became stronger in a way this is the songs had to become more instant and that the earlier albums with their with the more introverted music seemed to fall by the wayside I knew that the album's that came out like jazz you found that the songs were explicitly radio friendly and they more and more anthemic on the 8th of December came the release of the Flash Gordon album although the film was a relative disaster the soundtrack gained rave reviews in the early eighties and after trying to work Flash Gordon which I be it's still a very successful album to listen elucidate it as it without the there's a lot of instrumental passages in it that were quite well but then they moved on to hot space I think in 82 and it was as if they were trying to be disco and and really perhaps a little bit too late but I cried when I heard it believe it or not disco oh my god note and it was no coincidence that their popularity started to come back down to earth especially in America but as Rodgers famously quoted they didn't really notice because they were so effing effing popular everywhere else in the world you Freddie now an a-list celebrity and with an income to match had many interests outside of queen I can't remember when I first met Freddie cuz I feel I've known him all my life really when you meet him he has that impact on you and but I think it must be because I was doing a musical I'm at the mermaid theatre called the point and Harry Nielson the great singer composed this musical and he he was obviously from the pop world and he was my introduction into that life I think he introduced me to John Reed Elton's manager who then introduced me to Freddie at a gay club or something like that and he said Oh mr. sleep I'd love to come and see the ballet and I said by all means you know I was really keen on and you know integrating the arts together so I thought well Mike maybe you'll compose something for us at Covent Garden one day you never know and so then I infused him to all the dancers and he did he used Wayne two-way needling to choreograph one of his videos and and I introduced him to Peter freestone there who became his mind upon us and who was my dresser at the time so we all got to know each other very well you didn't create an impression with me um he was small he was he wasn't trying to be anybody he was he wasn't trying to you know he hadn't he didn't actually have the full Freddy mask on you know he'd done his show he was at a party afterward he still wasn't the Freddy I got to know he still had the you know there was sort of like a wall a mask which also makes it hard to sort of gauge a person you if you were to meet someone like that you think they're standoffish they're arrogant but Freddy never actually gave that impression the charisma of a man was startling because within a short while of drinking a little champagne if you wouldn't those days we were chatting a bit quiet and then it hit me cuz I said Freddy I'd like a photograph there okay and he said yes but immediately started doing his hair nice face like this okay so all we got in those days was a Polaroid so we got started to take a Polaroid of myself and Freddy now I think the polarizer were like maybe 10 to a pack if I tell you we went through three packs before you agreed to let one go and that's my first memory man Casey I like my same face I've a little smile Freddy this way that way that way that way that way that way one after the other and he insisted I'm keeping them all and he chose one let me have and he took the rest and my real respect for Freddie when I first met him came from the fact that he was interested in other people more than talking about himself and he came to see all the shows I did in the West End claim scene in song and dance came to see me in all the ballets at the Opera House and then he started going to opera and obviously he ended up singing for Montserrat caballo that Barcelona number and and also his you know concern for my career even he would say why don't you do a concert at Wembley Arena rather than have to do eight shows a week in the West End you could do two big concerts there you know and you know fill the house and you wouldn't have to do so much he said and put up big screens and he almost choreographed it for me there and then he was just so keen and then he would sit some nights I would go back after a show he would take us all to dinner he was our meal ticket we didn't have that much money in the ballet and she would pay for everything so generous as well freddie was extremely jealous um he wasn't always upfront he wasn't all show yeah he's quite embarrassed about certain things wasn't bashed by his money but he loved giving presents yet course that's why I love giving parties he loved being generous and he went out to dinner with him he got to live like 20 people 30 people whatever and he pick up the pill of course me but he always just you know there's no question yeah he one of the greatest pleasures in his life was looking at people's faces when he you know he bought things for people he if he went shopping he wanted a Cologne something so he'd go to Harrods and he'd buy what he wanted but while he was there he'd buy ten different ones so that when he came home he was able to give a perfume to the cleaning lady something for Mary something for me something you know he would never buy just sort of one of anything he wanted to give his pleasure was in giving and and his generosity went to the point where he actually hired an aeroplane for some of us to be transported from a throw to a beefer for his 40th birthday and put us all up in hotels around his hotel and we paid absolutely nothing it was champagne all the way there and all the way back and they had staggered off the plane afterwards after being up twenty-four hours and when he did something he really put the boat out and he didn't do things by halves Freddie loved entertaining particular garden Lodge there was the two extremes he loved doing sort of dinner parties for 12 people with five courses different wines for each course you know the whole big thing I'm not one of those people that like to go to sort of press receptions and all these because I like to keep myself to myself more than anything or go to places that must be without frequent to be honest that's just me being me but yes I do have friends in in the showbiz world he loved entertaining you Freddie at home was Freddie the Freddie that we knew but as soon as he started ringing around getting people in the entertainment because even though they were friends it was still a different slightly different flavor to the Freddie had come downstairs in his sweat suit you know and sit down watch laying lie down on the city watching television you know countdown the news or whatever um he loved that entertaining bit just as he loved being entertained one of the people particularly stands out in my mind in that was Peter striker I mean he from the very first time I met them together was in a restaurant on the Fulham Road the Meridiana it was a lunchtime and they they complemented each other so well and we used to fool around and just go go out and sometimes drinking and go clubbing night clubbing just that in a way normal things you do lots of eating lots of lots of very good eating and lots of fabulous restaurants and good food which which I think he liked on your light you know Peter could make Freddy laugh constantly he had this wonderful wit he had this wonderful I had to know that they're getting I had this wonderful repartee they could they just go boom boom boom boom and I mean so many nights I remember going into the night just listening I reacted to sit there and trounced because they would always be something we had one night there was this two-hour conversation on the subject of Sarah Ferguson and her beau's her love of bows every dress she had had a bow on it two hours we were just oh no no no this one was bigger and this woman but it was it was brilliant it was it was he was amazing I think what we really did have in common was a sense of humor I used to make him laugh all the time and he loved that as well and we all had nicknames for each other I think I was known as bridget the [ __ ] and he was known as Melina Mercury and everybody had names nobody was spared and the fact that some people liked it some people didn't I think but and so that that was just fun for me once he'd met someone and they were going to be around for a while Freddie gave them a name going back from the theatrical tradition of giving little girls names to boys boys lens to girls um there was I don't know me Phoebe Joe Fanelli was Liza Elton was Sharon Rod Stewart was Phyllis it basically what it was the names were given near enough to a to fit the surname of someone famous everybody everybody got a name if if he didn't like you you didn't get a name so then you knew that you were going to be part of the you could never be part of that sort of inner circle something it was it was something you could never really resent it was it was sort of proof the friend liked you what I love most about Fred was he had the most appalling laugh and he would always cover his teeth up he was so conscious of deep you know because that he always thought there is sort of you know Giants reporters are not his but unfortunately they were you know in the end they were trademark I mean his his teeth you know um but when he laughed of course he always laughed like this we hand over his mother most of the time and I just always you know the laugh still it remains with me I must I must say cos it was very infectious my god we laughed a lot we needed people with him people to react to people to just just just just be there so he made him feel secure he also needed a sort of a clown around him he loved laughing and various of his friends filled the capacity he had a wonderful sense of humor a dry sense of humor and so to be able to go from being absolutely camp and daft and just being silly just for a laugh and and then suddenly be able to just switch to a serious note and talk about art in depth I think that was what we had in common and especially my information that I could give him about the ballet world and and opera and he enjoyed all that immensely so we were able to just jump in and out of serious conversations and have a right out laugh which you don't find often with people they're either seriously minded or they're outrageous and I think that's what we hadn't come the next album the works was released on February the 27th 1984 which included two of the Bands major hits Radio gaga and I want to break free the claim right with the works which was possibly their heaviest album since since the days of sheer heart attack really they came back with these enormous riffs like hammer to fall it's still hear it on the radio today following Freddie's solo album mr. bad guy in the spring of 1985 they were invited to appear at the Live Aid charity extravaganza in July Queen and in particular Freddie Mercury stole the show and they played radio gaga and for the first time he saw 75,000 people doing all those hand movements perfectly and I remember him saying dad doing it better than we ever did in the video and the thing is then he realized the power of video that all these people were doing what they had seen in the video nobody asked them to do it it was just the natural reaction and they'd been doing it for the show's so he had never really seen it he'd see a few people at the front do it that's as far as the vision went you know with the lights on me so I think that I think and again for the band that was an important it showed them that people loved them they were still something in people's mind I did go to the Live Aid concert where I think he really stole the show quite frankly and I remember Elton had a little caravan just outside when we stadium and so I was John Reed's guest and Freddie was there George Michael I met for the first time because he was going to sing you know Elton and we all went in and out we didn't see everything we kept coming out to another glass of champagne and I introduced Freddie to by count lynly and I said if I count lynly this is the Queen and Freddie went oh stop it mr. sleep but so he was quite embarrassed by that but which you'd find rather strange really because you know it was only free laughs but you know that's how modest he really was and and then of course he went on and just brought the house down I remember shivers going up my spine I've seldom been so nervous in fact probably never but I think it was the greatest day of our lines even though we played in a very small part in it I think it's the thing I'll remember above all out of what we've done in Korea it's amazing an amazing thing on March the 17th 1986 the new single a kind of magic reached number three in Britain shot to number one in a total of 35 countries around the world the album of the same name was released on June the 2nd and went straight to number one in Britain kind of magic the song is in the top five of the best songs I've ever done it's poppy got loads of really difficult guitar stuff in it a little bit later those major scales going up and not easy I think pulls them off live obviously pulled them off every time as a tour later on the year food but of course kind of magic was sort of a half a Korean album half a soundtrack for the Highlander film so whatever parameters the Highlander requirements put on the music you could never well I could never exfoli accept it as a whole Queen album even though it had all the hallmarks it was it was again an album at the times in a way the Queen are quite good at a good barometer of what's happening in music at the time although it's the very mainstream end of it you certainly they never dealt in funk or hip-hop or anything like that but but in terms of musical technologies what what they do is quite a good reflection of what's happening here on a more wide scale in the world of movement so kind of magic as an album and the song reflects that very well promoting the album Queen wound down there magic world tour at Wembley Stadium in July 1986 I mean the one show I sort of queen and all the time I was there was the Wembley show in eighty six and that was stunning you know I'd be you can feel Freddie reacts to audience the whole band will react to the audience okay they make their entrance and the audience roars which gives something for the band to feed on and the more the audience gives them the more the band will give and this goes for each of the members they they they feed on this this this this power coming from the audience and to actually and you know even on stage you can see it on every show and you can feel some of it but when you're actually sitting in the middle of the crowd yeah it's in them it's impossible to describe you just you just sort of burst your bursting inside Queen completed that year's magic tour at Britain's Knebworth castle in hartfordshire performing to over 120,000 people Queen were at the pinnacle of their concert form however unwittingly the event was to become an historic one it was to be the group's last live performance Knebworth is such a dramatic arena a huge great bowl with stately home in the background and are they it was the last night of their tour they set it up for their tour party after end of tour party with the all sorts of pair ground amusements backstage and mud wrestling and bouncy castles and and body-painted naked models I mean it was it was there a big blowout party of celebrating them what they said at the time was their best ever European tour and and so yeah they they arrived Freddie arrived by helicopter we went to Battersea heliport and went up and about two helicopters I think just Freddie's in his lot and I don't like flying especially in helicopters Freddie never really enjoyed helicopter flight see that Roger did Brian did John did but Freddie just sort of sits there quiet but then as we were coming in over Knebworth and you saw this vast mass of people it's mind-numbing and all these people thousands of people and landed round the back and that was it and that would that was that was quite as that was something else that was quite a bit this was a huge roar from the crowd as he stepped off the helicopter and walked towards backstage and and then when he came on and yeah just an absolutely fantastic reaction I mean the same sort of reaction that he got it to Live Aid and at Wembley and and you could see how he was responding to it I mean he was just having a ball and you know he was up there saying no this is an enormous place even by our standards and you all look beautiful and this is the best European tour we've ever done and what a great way to end it with this fantastic show at Knebworth one of the songs I remember from that was a Mesa kind of magic which was great and then then all these huge thing is lifted off into the sky and that was great because it's one of the that was one of the goods one of it is such a feel-good song it's a kind of magic there's so much and that that one I did remember very very much one of the things that's always amused me about Queen eat you envisage Freddie's being the outrageous one he turns up in white cloaks and his coronation crown he comes on at the end will actually take a look back at that day and check out the shorts that Brian May was wearing little white shorts that Brian May was wearing were as outrageous has anything Freddy wore that day nobody knew it was going to be the last show but Freddy particularly always went by the maxim that you are only as good as your last show because that's the one that people are at that's what they're going to remember they're going to remember if he plays wrong music on the piano they're going to remember because that was the thing that they were at they he just thought the same about Records you always have to give as good as you can because you don't know when the next one is going to be since the band's inception all of the members had grown and developed their own unique styles both in talent and in personality Brian was a little bit more shy but very he was he was apparently much more quiet and would listen a lot and you know have his own married he changed guitar playing really I mean in my opinion his his guitar it was like a vocalist you know he played some fantastic stuff and and he worked that he was very very meticulous he again he knew what he wanted he knew the sound he wanted he was very sure what he wanted I've heard him discussing occasionally to prefer this sound Freddie or not there but he knew what it what it was because of he wrote a lot of the songs and he wrote there and they wrote songs together especially towards the end in the touring days he would spend his life on the road and I remember there was one time he came home drunk from a van Halen party because he was good friends with them but no none that nobody else went it was it was him and it was a guitar party you know that sort of thing um but as I say now Bryan's now more enjoying that the Brian is Stewie Brian I think out of all of them was the most serious about of his work his music and then John in the bass player I mean John is exactly that a bass player is a solid member of the back you know and John Norris is solid you know he was a very solid character charming guy softly spoken nothing fazed John straightforward and you need that I think you know you need that somebody in the background you know making sure that nothing comes from behind you you know it's like a defense from behind and he provided that and John always think what's the one who said to me oh I just the bass player I'm just so lucky to be in this band you know because he didn't feel this contribution was that great but in fact you know when you look back and he's he did a fine job Prudential he was the one who always wanted to be able to walk into Tesco walk into the supermarket just to go and do shopping and nobody notice him but the thing is he's the one that could also come out because he was quiet with the biggest surprises Freddie could never really surprise anybody because you expected the unexpected from him but then John came out with another one bites the dust totally you know not something that you would think from John John who did spread your wings you're my best friend that sort of thing and all of a sudden another one bites the dust you've got from him so well you know he gave you the unexpected there yes they're very DIF different they're just different people Roger it was certainly when we first met he was apparently the more outgoing person the more easy easy person to get to know and has always stayed that way um over the years Roger was always the party king where it came when it came to parties in the band and you know he would be invited to all the parties or you know and he had he and Brian particularly had friends within the music business and you know whenever there was parties going like that then you would all Roger would go he enjoyed himself he you know it was something he felt he done you know the right to go to pies and enjoy himself and it's true he had in 1987 Freddie began more solo work and released the great Pretender from his third solo album shortly afterwards and having been introduced to the music of a Spanish soprano singer by Peter freestone Freddie was to collaborate with monserrate scabiei and produce the single Barcelona for the 1992 Olympic celebrations I had a an LP of mantra and heeda heeda heeda he just wanted to know what i was listening to well why do you listen to the what what you listening to and so he took it into the studio and played it full blast out of the studio monitors and because mantra has this incredible ability to sing very high very softly so he wanted to turn it up as loud as possible to hear her singing softly and how does she do it and but he did he turned it up so much that you could hear the chairs of the orchestra moving them turning the pages you know of their manuscript you know that was the volume he had a hair and then we went when they were doing in we went to Barcelona with a huge conflict in Barcelona and we had to do some backup singing there that would that was great fun because that squares amazing place and the king and queen of Spain once after they made it the big Barcelona thing which is now famous and that that was great that was good fun that was really good fun monster was surprised monster die Cavalier was surprised when she worked with him because she had only ever heard that voice of Freddy's but when she heard she made him sing in his normal voice for one of the tracks on the Barcelona album and it's a natural baritone but you think of what the you know the stratospheric notes he comes out with with all of Brian's song because it's always Brian's songs that have the high notes who wants to live forever show must go on all of those songs the Brighton songs hammer to fall and their notes are up there but Freddy still manages them um Freddy his voice actually over the 12 years it changed but it gained strength I think he was able to do more with the voice in the last sort of three or four years then I heard in the very beginning it was always a strong voice he he could hit notes that nobody very few nowadays can and nobody can sing the way he say I mean even in the tribute concert everybody except George Michael had to bring the songs down a third or something so that they could actually sing it with some sort of feeling but obviously they couldn't they couldn't sing his notes almost a year later on the 22nd of May 1989 Queen released the miracle which included their first single for nearly three years I want it all by the time and a miracle in 1989 Queen kind of changed again in as much as they didn't really have the presence that they had before and I think part of that obviously with due to Freddie gettin iller and he'll but and this there seemed to be a sense that what they were doing was more of a commercial concern perhaps than an actual autistic concern as if they were kind they were no more tours it was probably for health reasons and there were no TV appearances but the music was as good I think as a kind of magic and I think if they were to have taught the album it would have been a very successful tool it would have been enormous as a new decade dawned Freddie resolved during 1990 to work on what he must have sensed would be Queen's last album innuendo which contained the poignant hit these are the days of our lives and I mean my favorite queen trackers these are the days of our lives and I mean when when that was released in it it definitely hit home to me a particular song I absolutely think it means so few songs actually you know in a lyric can really grab you you meant seeing the last those were David alright I mean that was just tragic David Edison's actually went to the shoot but so I you know when he couldn't you know him bear to have the cloth of his shirt next to his skin you know just that's what remains with me the thought of that but no I try to think of it as a happy time and the laughter the fun the Gaiety of it all um I think more than anything I mean really I was very surprised when he'd already done a video of the last song he sang and it came out after he died I just thought that was a wonderful moment for his fans to have that he was still thinking ahead to the future what was going on and it was almost like don't be sad for me because he would be going soon and and I found it very poignant I still get a little tear jerker when I hear that song whilst innuendo as Queens last album released during Freddie's life Freddie had also recorded enough vocals for a posthumous album made in heaven released in 1995 it went straight to number one I think Queen were huge because they were prepared to give everything when they were onstage whether it's for the person who stand him at the front of the stage there or the person half a mile away at the back they wanted to give everything of themselves and they did give I think the best life performances of many bands have I've seen a few bands over the years and Queen were always the best of the life-forms they wrote music for big arenas and they wrote huge songs and big songs you know like we are the champions and radio Gaga and we will rock you and I mean though it's all stadium music and it's powerful it's exciting it's in a dynamic it's got all the qualities that kind of get inside you and like lift you and take you out it you know it's it it's entertainment that it's you know most powerful and I think that's why you know they'll sort of always be remembered they were always ring you've got to be you're not daring forget it and they always were and um the clothes he wore the outfits you know the outrageousness that's what people want they don't want somebody boring ordinary and it's just how far you you can go with it or not it obviously the more outrageous you are and you get away with it all the public like you as fans like it then you've got to take it another stage further which actually gets really difficult as a huge amount of fresh it's movie were like making making a success but then retain it I think it's much harder you know for Queen for anybody they were always invent reinventing themselves and their concerts I mean you could almost see the money on stage that was spent on them no money was ever spared and it was like a theatrical experience it wasn't just like a band coming onstage and playing their gig and then going off with a few on cause he would arrive in a different costume suddenly and also his inclusion of the audience was second to none you know he'd get them to sing you know we will rock you and all that sort of thing and he would get them going he would lift them and sort of make them feel that they were part of the whole performance you know he was a great performer and I think that was very different a lot of people you know get into their own music and you're just there to hear them play he was definitely a visual artist I don't think that we've seen the likes of Freddie Mercury since I can't quite see how we're gonna see anyone like him again the world's changed is a legend I deserved one within the rock music and the two numbers are always stick with me quite simply our Bohemian Rhapsody and we will rock you they didn't surprise me that we will rock you keeps getting on radio on TV last night this morning next week it's one of those short genius pieces and well dessert they were innovative really I mean they did a lot of stuff in I mean we have to use Bohemian Rhapsody because that is the easiest and quickest one to simulate the whole cross section of the harmonies the layers of harmony that use which weren't used in those days the guitar sound all the vocal songs it from deep down things and Roger has a very good voice as well he sings very high as well and the blend at the time was unique and is still unique and that is why they're there that is the way they're where they are their studio craftsmanship equalled any rival their live shows were visually and aurally stunning and with Bohemian Rhapsody they anticipated the most vital marketing tool of the 1980s the pop video finding favor with fans of all ages queen have come from humble beginnings the students rehearsing in University lecture rooms to becoming stadium rock kings of the world finding fame and fortune and establishing themselves as the undisputed royal family of British rock you

Channel: QUEEN LEGACY CHANNEL

Views: 222,444

Keywords: Queen, Queen (musical band), Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Peter Straker, Peter Freestone, Documentary, Special, Rock group, British, Bohemian Rhapsody, I want to Break free, don't stop me now, Freddy Mercury, Guitar, Red Special, Rock, Pop, Music, Biography, We are the champions, we will rock you, Made in heaven, Aids, Popstar, Legend

Id: 7cUcO8mWq4U

Length: 61min 35sec (3695 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2016