Brian May is the tall, sensitive-looking member of Queen, always seeming a little serious on stage, engrossed in his guitar. But when you speak to him he’s one of the nicest people around. Friendly and talkative - none of the big-time ‘I’m a star’ image about him!
Brian was born in Hampton, Middlesex on July 19, 1947, the only child to his father, a technical civil servant, and his mother, a housewife.
“I was always fairly interested in music and studied piano for a while when I was young,” he told us. “I passed the exams to Grade Four then gave it up.
"I was tired of all the practice and very impatient to stop the lessons. I regret it now of course.
"After the piano I took up the ukelele. My father played the instrument so he was able to teach me a few chords.
"After that I drifted on to the guitar and I’ve stuck with it ever since.”
ASTRONOMY
At Hampton Grammar School, where Brian was educated, he was mostly interested in science subjects. So when he was eighteen he went to the Imperial College in London and studied physics.
“I got my degree but still haven’t completed the thesis for my PhD in infra-red astronomy. I’m about three quarters of the way through but it’s taken me months trying to get down to doing that last bit.
"However, I’m determined to finish it soon.”
While he was at college Brian met up with drummer Roger Taylor and for a while they played together in an outfit called Smile. Before long they met vocalist Freddie Mercury and bass guitarist John Deacon and Queen was complete.
PUZZLES
Queen have come a long way since those early days and now Brian lives in a flat in Kensington.
“It’s a pretty ordinary kind of flat,” he said modestly. “I’m not lavish with furniture - I mostly like simple things. I don’t like a show(?) of possessions.
"But I do collect some things, plastic and wooden puzzles mostly. I’ve got a puzzler’s mentality - I love doing them.
"I also collected cigarette cards and 'Eagle’ comics when I was younger. I have every 'Eagle’ comic from 1954 to 1964, all bound up nice and neat.
"I haven’t a car though I can drive. To be honest I couldn’t afford it. Parking round here costs a fortune.
"But you don’t really need one when you’re on the road most of the time.”
FAVOURITES
When it comes to eating Brian prefers vegetarian foods.
“I’m not a strict vegetarian but I always opt for dishes containing no meat if I have a choice. I like most fruits and vegetables.
"But I have a weakness for prawn cocktails so I guess I’m a bit of a cheat! As for drinks, fruit juices and sherry are my favourites.”
Brian’s taste in clothing is quite formal.
“I mostly go for things like suits and shirts. I like to look smart. I’m far more formal in my [page cuts off] rest of the band.”
For the record he is six foot one and [a half feet? - page cuts off] tall and eleven stone in weight (getting [no? - page cuts off] time from worry!) His hair is dark brown [and his - page cuts off] eyes hazel.
FRIGHTENED
Not many things frighten Brian, but..
“I get frightened at the thought of getting [caught? - page cuts off] up in things that might change me. I like to [have/maintain? - page cuts off] control over my life. The thought of some [one trying? - page cuts off] to mould me into a different person terrifies [me and I? - page cuts off] hope no one tries!
"But I doubt if I’d stay in the music business [if? - page cuts off] Queen ever split up. Music is not my be all [end? - page cuts off] all. I don’t think it’s even in science. I would like [some? - page cuts off] thing to do with people. Not social work [necessarily? - page cuts off], just something that would bring people together.”
As Queen are bringing people together all the [time? - page cuts off] Brian is happy for the moment, and as long as [people - page cuts off] want to see and hear them they’ll be around.
Brian is very fond of animals of any sort. You might be able to guess from the blck and white stage outfits that he always wears that his favourite animal is (guess what?)… that’s right - penguins! He doesn’t have one at home but he does have a pet cat, Squeaky.
Queen receiving gold discs for Jazz at the Alcazar on March 2, 1979, after 3 shows at the Pavillon de Paris, their last run on the European Live Killers tour.
The second night in Paris is one of the best performances of 1979. The fast We Will Rock You opens the show with an incredible amount of energy, and Now I’m Here sizzles as well, particularly in the improv after the second verse. It seems that they’re going to jump back into the vocal section, but Brian responds to the level of energy by soloing again for a few more bars just to keep it going. Freddie attempts to get the audience to sing in larger numbers during the vocal exchange. “Chantez, tout le monde!”
This version of Spread Your Wings is a fine example of Roger’s drumming technique. In the improv at the end of the song, he never plays the same thing for more than 8 bars, ensuring each fill is different.
After Dreamers Ball, Freddie addresses one of the members of the ‘royal family’: “You must be from the worst part of England. I can tell.” He then adds, sarcastically, “They make the best kind of people!” and laughs to himself.
After the first line of It’s Late (You say you love me, and I hardly know your name), Freddie quickly adds, “What’s your name?”
A slight bit of Brighton Rock made it onto Live Killers. See the Live Killers analysis for more details.
In Keep Yourself Alive, Brian palm-mutes the scale run before the final choruses as a fun little change from the norm. He later breaks a string during Sheer Heart Attack (as seen in the tenth picture), so he resorts to making various sound effects for the rest of the song, as seen on the video. The punk element in Queen’s set at its finest. This version of the song was released as a bonus track on the 2011 remaster of the News Of The World album.
Some bits of footage from this show were used for the promo video of Love Of My Life (the bits with Freddie in silver suspenders). The bulk of the footage comes from Japan (see Tokyo ‘79 for details).
This entire show likely exists on film in Queen’s vaults, but much of the footage has become available over the years. Most of the footage from the Paris shows was filmed with a single camera, but there is some exquisite multi-cam footage from the second night. See this table for details).
The first nine pictures were taken by Gillian Parry. The tenth one was submitted by Valery Oganov.
Did
you know that Freddie Mercury wants to make a reggae record? And that Roger
Taylor would be selling flowers if he wasn’t in Queen? Read on for more fascinating
facts
MAYHEM IN Munich! Freddie Mercury is
cavorting with a scantily dressed transvestite and it’s only three in the
afternoon. Are you man or woman enough to read on? Then swallow your vitamin
pills and follow me.
Queen are limbering
up for their forthcoming tour in Germany and to celebrate another single rising
majestically up the charts, they’re holding a little press bash in Munich’s P1
club. A place even more decadent than the South Finchley Whiskey A Go Go.
The ghost of Adolf
Hitler probably wanders around here on dark nights, as The Fuhrer used to store
his paintings and other plunder in the club and the building next door.
Unfortunately there’s nothing left around today.
Instead, the club
has gems of another kind. A selection of Queen’s videos including the notorious
‘Body Language’ — and champagne and wine flowing like Niagara Falls.
The cabaret is
Freddie’s own idea: a group of well passed it drag artists, so outrageous in G
strings and lingerie that they make Divine seem as tame as Marjorie Proops.
Freddie’s more than willing to join in when one of the girls does a rendition
of ‘I Want To Break Free’, but the rest of the members of Queen look on shyly
from the comforts of the bar. Everybody, but everybody is here to witness the event,
including a film crew from the US air force, tramping around in full combat
gear making a nuisance of themselves.
Freddie’s doing well
considering he’s in quite a lot of pain. He remains tight lipped about the full
details but he injured his leg after an incident in a club. A physiotherapist
has been pummelling at it nearly every day.
“This
c+ + + kicked me,” says Fred. “I’m hoping my knee will be ready in
time for the tour, but it’s still giving me a lot of trouble. It might mean I
will have to cut down on some of my more elaborate gorgeous stage moves.”
FRED’S ALSO been hobbling around a Munich
recording studio putting the finishing touches to his first ever solo album
which should be out in January. Gadzooks, could this be the start of a split
with Queen? Is it true Limahl’s going to take over?
“Not at all.
I’ve wanted to do a solo album for a long time and the rest of the band have
encouraged me to do it. Some of them are even featured doing a few bits and
pieces to help me out.
“There are a
lot of musical territories I wanted to explore, which I couldn’t really do with
Queen. I wanted to cover such things as reggae rhythms and I’ve done a couple
of tracks with a symphony orchestra. It will have a very rich sound.”
Fred’s also done
some work with Michael Jackson, but he still doesn’t know when this is going to
see the light of day. They’ve done a selection of tracks together in Michael’s
home studio. For a while, Fred was even in the running to do ‘State Of Shock’.
“I was out of
town at the time so Mick did it instead,” he says. “I don’t mind at
all. I’d like to release something with Michael because he is a really
marvellous person to work with. It’s all a question of time because we never
seem to be together at the right time. Just think, I could have been on
'Thriller’. Think of the royalties I’ve missed out on.
“Michael has
been a friend of ours for a long time. He’s been to our shows and enjoyed them.
We make a great team.”
One of Fred’s songs
'Love Kills’, is being used on the soundtrack of the reactivated 'Metropolis’ film and he hopes to make a 20
minute video using four or five of his own songs.Freddie and all the
members of Queen have a long standing appreciation of 'Metropolis’, which
originally came out in 1927. Their stage set, in the shape of a futuristic
city, has been inspired by it.The
lighting rig measures 74ft by 50ft and the original design was so heavy they
had to change it because it was in danger of bringing theatre roofs down. What
a way to go, crushed by your own equipment.
AFTER THE European tour. Queen will be
taking the whole shebang down to South America, headlining a 10 day festival in
Rio. The place they will be playing is an amphitheatre down by the sea that can
seat 300,000 people a night. It all makes Castle Donington seem like just
another night at the Marquee. A local radio station in Rio held a survey to see
who the most popular bands were and then some local promoters went out and
booked them for the extravaganza. Naturally, Queen came out top.
Queen will also be
doing some shows in South Africa. This is more than just a little bit
controversial. Especially with the memory of Nelson Mandela still very warm.
“We’ve thought
about the morals of it a lot and it’s something we’ve decided to do,” says
Brian May. “This band is not political, we are not out to make statements,
we play to entertain anybody who comes to listen. The show will be in Botswana
in front of a mixed audience.”
The band wanted to play Russia but the authorities
objected. This situation might change now though, considering that Iron Maiden
have been let into Poland to wreak havoc. *
“The Russians
still think we’re very decadent,” confides Roger Taylor. “We want to
play China as well, and Korea. John and I spent a holiday in Korea and it’s a
fascinating place. They’re finishing work on the Olympic stadium for the next
games!
Perhaps the Ruskies
heard about Roger’s high living on Ibiza. He’s bought a house there and enjoys
powerboat racing. Play time is over for the time being, though. After their two
year break. Queen have been working more than 12 hours a day rehearsing.
"It’s strange
how rusty we are, and so we’re trying to blow the cobwebs away,” continues
Roger. “It’s taking a lot of work. Usually we rehearse until about nine
and then we eat together and decide what we’re going to do in the evenings. The
clubs here are really fun. Something to cater for every taste or perversion.
"On the tour
we’ll be playing a lot of the old material and we’ll be giving the audience
what they want. A lot of the music I hear in the charts today doesn’t interest
me. I just can’t see how anybody can get excited over Spandau Ballet. It
doesn’t send shivers up my spine. I like listening to Bruce Springsteen.”
They
might be old stagers, but Roger claims that tickets for Queen’s British shows
sold oul in three hours flat and they could have easily played another 12
nights here.
“We still have
the rock and roil gypsy mentality,” he says. “Even after 12 years
without a line-up change we still really enjoy the buzz from playing live and
the fact that we have hit singles. Some bands in our position might take it all
in their stride, but we’re still like kids, we get very excited.
"You’ve
got to have a laugh haven’t you? If Queen wasn’t any fun, then I’d jack it all
in and go and sell flowers.”
And here is transcription, including missing parts on the photo, from brianmay.com:
QUEEN DESERVES ROCK’S ROYAL CROWN? by Rosy Horid
Freddie Mercury and Brian May Hawk their ‘News Of The World’
Freddie Mercury is no longer the leader of Queen. Has he been fired, you ask, or is he off to pursue a solo career? No it’s simply, with the advent of News Of The World LP (Asylum) the personality of the music and of Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon have come across more strongly than ever before.
Those who have seen them on the recent US tour notice more than ever before that they’re a group comprised of four separate identities, not just a lead singer and background band. Freddie Mercury is delighted to hear it.
‘I’ve never considered myself the leader anyway,’ says irrepressible Freddie. ‘The most important person, perhaps.’ And guitarist May agrees.
‘Our separate identities do come to the fore on this album, on which every cut is completely different from the one before it and there’s no concept at all. Apart from each having contributed two tracks to the album, Roger and John have been much more involved in the playing. Roger plays rhythm guitar on some of his cuts (‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘Fight From The Inside’) which makes sense, because he had a better idea of how he wanted it to go. John plays acoustic guitar on one of his as well (‘Who Needs You’). I played maracas on it. While we may not do it that way on stage, in the studio that makes more sense.’
Brian also does a lot more singing of his own songs on News, but he’s content to let Freddie do the singing on stage.
‘He’s a natural performer,’ asserts Brian. ‘He acts on stage as if he was born doing it. That’s great for us. We wouldn’t want it any other way.’
As May and Mercury emphasize, it’s not just musically that shifts occur in the group.
‘John keeps a very close eye on our business affairs,’ says Freddie. ‘He knows everything that’s going on and shouldn’t be going on. If God forsakes us now the rest of the group won’t do anything unless John says it’s all right.
‘Roger is very important to us in a different way. He’s always been an out-and-out rock & roll fan with no time to stop and think about music and that’s very good for us. Instinct. He’s also the one who is most aware of facets in music, and that’s essential in the band. If you listen to ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ on the new album you’ll see what we mean. It sounds like a punk, or ‘new wave’ song, but it was written at the same time of the Sheer Heart Attack LP. He played it to us then but it wasn’t quite finished and he didn’t have time to complete it before we started recording. That was three years ago and now…almost all these records you hear are like that period.’ And Roger now? ‘He was into punk for a long time, but he’s tired of it.’ More about the album later.
But if you still don’t believe no crown of ladership rests on the mercurial head of Freddie, it’s worth repeating his comment about the composition of the group.
‘If anyone left Queen, anyone of the four, that would be the end of Queen. We are four equal, interwoven parts. And the others just couldn’t function the same without each quarter.’
Queen have just finished a special tour of the states. Not the longest they’ve ever undertaken, by any means, but special nevertheless.
‘It was the first tour we’ve ever done without the support band,’ Freddie explained. ‘There was so much going on on stage that I doubt there would have been room for another band anyway. We have so much material we want to play for people now that it would have been far too long a concert. It’s hard enough anyway to know what to leave out: we’d like to play all the new material, but there are some things we just would not dare leave out or I think the fans would lynch us.’
It was the sort of tour most rock bands dream of doing. Brian agrees: ‘We’ve managed to get some of the most sought after halls there are, even though the tour was short. Most of them are places we’ve played before. In some cities we had to settle for second, alternative choice auditoriums – the thing was set up so fast. It was also a very compressed tour – 35 dates in six weeks. We did very large halls because we wanted to do a fuller show and our rig was about twice as big as ever we used before.
‘It provided a complete stage environment, with an extension stage, three trailers and enormous lighting gimmick not just for New York and Los Angeles. That’s why we booked big halls, so that we could give everybody the complete show. We first used our crown centerpiece at London’s Earl’s Court concert over the Jubilee. At the time, we didn’t envisage being able to take the crown on tour with us, but we managed to have it demounted into a portable object. And so we had it for all the gigs. It made the most ambitious backdrop we’ve ever attempted, but it was worth it. The fans seemed to enjoy it and they are what matter.’
That last remark of Brian’s is typical of the group’s attitude towards their fans, for they have one of the closest rapports with the fans of any in the business. The same cannot be said for their relationship to the music press, however, especially in Britain. In fact, many people thought the chart-popping single ‘We Are The Champions,’ was Queen’s way of telling the press in no uncertain terms that they’ve made it without them. Others thought it an arrogant statement about their rock supremacy. But how do they feel? First Freddie, who wrote the song:
‘Certainly it’s a relationship that could be, but I was thinking about football when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. It was aimed at the masses; I thought we’d see how they took it. It worked a treat. When we performed it at a private concert in London, the fans actually broke into a football chant between numbers. Of course, I’ve given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. You know me.
‘I certainly wasn’t thinking about the press when I wrote it. I never think about the British music press these days. It was really meant to be offered the musicians the same as the fans.
‘I suppose it could also be construed as my version of ‘I Did It My Way.’ We have made it, and it certainly wasn’t easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it’s still not easy.’
Brian concurs, ‘You know, songs aren’t always about what the words say. Messages in songs can appear different. I always see that as the difference between prose and poetry. Prose can mean exactly what it says, while poetry can mean the opposite. That goes for this song. Freddie’s stuff is often tongue-in-cheek anyway, as you know. This song is very theatrical. Freddie is very close to his art. You could say, he’s married to his music, whether it’s ‘I Did It My Way’ or his ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business.’ I must say, when he first played it for us in the studio we all fell on the floor with laughter. So many people in the press hate us because we’ve side-stepped them and got where we have without them.
‘But there’s no way the song says anything against our audiences. When the song says ‘we,’ it means ‘us and the fans.’ When we did that special concert, the fans were wonderful. They understood it so well. I know it sounds corny, but it brought tears to our eyes.’
Freddie and Brian are unanimous on that: the spontaneous responses to ‘We Are The Champions’ really move them. But that is the kind of general response News Of The World has received because, as Brian may says, ‘It’s a spontaneous album. I think we’ve managed to cut through to the spontaneity lacking in our other albums. I have no apologies to make for any of our previous albums. We’re proud of them and wouldn’t have let them out if we weren’t. But I now feel some may have been over-produced, so we wanted to go with a more spontaneous rock & roll based album. It was nice to do something that didn’t need such intensity. For example, with ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’ we did it in one take because it just seemed right the first time. We like to think of the album as a window on an unguarded moment, not a set piece. Each cut seems to do that, from the participation songs to Freddie’s mood pieces. Even his numbers on the album are different, from his heavy ‘Get Down, Make Love’ to ‘My Melancholy Blues,’ which is just what it says.’
Brian admits that his own material is different too. But he still tries to keep his private life separate and out of his songs as much as possible.
‘If you don’t keep something back, it can be very bad for you.’
But for the band both the album and the tour are in the past and they have to look at the future. They got back to England on Christmas Eve.
‘My mother would have killed me if I wasn’t home for Christmas. I haven’t missed one yet,’ says Freddie. And the others felt the same.
It’s time for some stock-taking. We’ve all become businessmen,’ admits Freddie, ‘even though it’s against our better judgment. It’s something that always happens if you get successful. Being a musician is not just cutting discs, unfortunately. I wish it was. We’ve all got companies now, some connected to music, others not. I’m producing Peter Straker, I have my car company… and lots of other fingers in other pies. We must take some time off to get things in perspective, or things will start to go wrong.
‘Then there’s been talk of doing a big world tour – Britain, South America, Japan, and of course the States as well as lots of other places. But that won’t be until later in the year.’
So, American fans will have a chance to see Queen in 1978.
‘You must tell them not to be too greedy, thought,’ warns Freddie. They’ve already seen more of us than any other country.’
And what about a message for the American fans, Freddie?
‘They know we love them. Apart from that, oh, say something outrageous for me.’
Polish BRAVO article about (upcoming then) Made In Heaven
“SENSATION! New Queen’s album with FREDDIE!”
“New CD will be released in November 1994” Red box says
Transcript
“W rocznicę śmierci Freddiego Mercurego perkusista Queen, Roger Taylor wysłał do BRAVO fax z sensacyjną wiadomością. Otóż Queenowie wydają CD z nie publikowanymi dotąd utworami Freddiego. A oto treść faxu: Dwa lata po śmierci Freddiego nadal odczuwamy jego brak. Szczególnie teraz, gdy pracujemy nad nowym albumem, który ma się ukazać w 1994 roku. Zamieściliśmy w nim nieznane, śpiewane kiedyć przez Freddiego utwory. Cóż, życie trwa dalej. Mimo wszystko z optymizmem patrzymy w przyszłość.”
Translation:
“On the anniversary of the death of Freddie Mercury Queen drummer, Roger Taylor sent a fax with a sensational message to BRAVO. Well, Queen makes a CD with Freddie’s unpublished works. Here is the text of the fax: Two years after Freddie’s death, we’re still missing him. Especially now that we are working on a new album to be released in 1994. We put on it unknown songs once sung by Freddie. Well, life goes on. Anyway we are optimistic about the future.”
“There was a knock on our dressing-room door. Our manager shouted, ‘Keith! Ron! The Police are here!’ Oh, man, we panicked, flushed everything down the john. Then the door opened and it was Stewart Copeland and Sting.”
Freddie’s voice isn’t in the greatest shape for this early Live Killers show, but he still uses it to the best of his ability, delivering great versions of Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, and It’s Late. Their vocal harmonies are beautiful throughout the show.
Brian, before Somebody To Love: “Good evening, good folks of Berlin. Welcome to a night of Queen music. We hope you enjoy it.”
Freddie, before the medley: “We have a lot of music for you tonight from all our various albums, and the next song comes from an album called A Night At The Opera. The song in question is dedicated to one of our managers. He was a real motherfucker. Do you know what that means?” Quite a few audience members indicate that they do. “Alright! You can call him anything you want. We call him Death On Two Legs.”
The front of house guy is asleep at the switch tonight, as the echo is not turned off in Get Down Make Love on time. Roger’s whistle and his snare fill leading into the final chorus also echo twice before it’s finally turned off.
An interesting version of Now I’m Here is played tonight, as they go into the jam twice. The first brief jam is a result of Roger prematurely leading the band into it, and the second jam is different from any other version as the band are forced to create something different from the first one.
After Freddie does a few nice vocal adlibs in the intro to Dreamers Ball (which Brian calls “self-amusement”), Roger does one an octave above his. Freddie jokingly calls him a “show off!”
Before Love Of My Life, referring to Roger and John’s absence, Freddie dishes out the blow job joke, but it doesn’t seem to go down nearly as well in Europe as it does in North America.
Freddie’s voice cracks at the end of the middle section of ‘39, revealing that they are using a harmonizer for the upper octave in those last two bars, rather than the voice of Roger Taylor.
Freddie, before Fat Bottomed Girls: “This is from an album, Jazz.” Someone in the audience shouts for Mustapha, and Freddie responds, “No, it’s not Mustapha. We’d like to do that one of these days. Hey, maybe next time!” And they would.
The first set of pictures were taken by Lutz Kölsch, the third by Wolf-Dieter Kuntze, and the fourth by Michele de Nadal. The second set was submitted by Alessio Rizzitelli.
“My third time I had seen Queen since 1973. Sadly disappointed by the extremely bad acoustics in Hall 1. Visually stunning show but spoiled because no matter where you stood there was too much sound be reflected back from the rear walls of the Hall. In those days the hall was not acoustically controlled enough to prevent this. At some points the reflected sound would nearly equal the sound coming from the front. Made Brian’s solo sound interesting and confusing in places though.
Otherwise stunning visual show, Queen at their best, just lousy sound that was not typical of Queen.” - Guy
These two shows in Zagreb and Ljubljana were Queen’s only visit to (what was) Yugoslavia. They were amongst the biggest concerts in the country of the decade.
Three minutes of video footage from this show allegedly exist in the archive of a Croatian television station.
Here are a couple links with clippings and pictures from the show: 12
Pics 1-8 were submitted by Nareg Mikaelian and ‘Donna’, 9-16 were taken by Drazen Kalenic.
Translation (I am not a professional translator):
The Royal Entertainment
With their concert in Zagreb, Queen has shown that it is no coincidence that despite a series of average records, they are still in the narrow circle of the world’s biggest attractions.
I have to admit that Queen were never one of my favourite rockers. Their records, except the initial impression of grandiosity, did not offer a fair enough reason to enjoy them in the long run. This was especially the case with records released after A Night At The Opera when a proven formula of lavish and overcrowded Queen sound was created. However, as the new records were released, the chances that they would be moving away from the paved paths and taking some kind of creative risk, were low. The best confirmation of this is their latest album, recently released in our country, Jazz.
Due to these circumstances, Queen does not take the place they used to announce with the huge circulation of A Night At The Opera. However, their albums have left a significant mark on the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, Europe and Japan. Seeing Queen’s performance in Zagreb, I understood that they owe their current status not so much to the records that the audience buys by inertia, but mainly to stage performances. That is why Queen devote most of their time and attention to touring around the globe.
That part of the globe was in Zagreb on Tuesday, February 6. The huge crowd in front of the House of Sports confirmed the news that the concert had been sold out. The fact that the Yugoslavian tour of foreign groups ends in Zagreb did not bother many to come to the capital of Croatia for two hours of fun at a rock concert. Dalmatian accent dominated among the accents from different parts of Yugoslavia and that was not only because they invaded Zagreb, as my friend from those parts confirmed to me, who recognized many people from his city in the crowd.
Six huge trucks with equipment parked next to the House of Sports showed that Queen was ready to stay at the level of the extravaganzas known from the world rock press reports. Of course, I did not show up at the time that was marked on the tickets. It’s almost like it’s not a real rock gig if it doesn’t start late. I only joined the party at the end of the second song.
The stage was very grand. There were about four hundred spotlights, according to my free calculation. The entire surface of the stage was covered by no less than 320 spotlights. Numerous cannons and about thirty spotlights on the stage are not included in this number. The scene, as expected, was dominated by Freddie Mercury, who strove around and animated the audience in a well-proven tradition of the rock entertainer. This time he put aside his famous ballet leotards and shorts. He was dressed in a black leather jacket, trousers of the same colour made of polyvinyl and an officer’s hat of undetermined origin.
There is no doubt that he was the main character of the band during the concerts and, at times, he shared the audience’s attention with guitarist Brian May, whose stage behaviour fits into the classical notion of a guitar hero. The other two are almost all the time in the shadows, which is especially true for bassist Deacon.
The dramaturgy of the concert is flawless and calculated to the smallest detail. The songs quickly followed one after another and the audience didn’t miss Freddie’s invitation to the party.
The program is based on a well-known recipe. The songs performed are a kind of collection of the biggest hits with materials from the last album. The loudspeaker works perfectly and this has led some people to claim that tapes with studio-prepared recordings have been used at times. I couldn’t confirm that, especially since working in such a way is very difficult when it comes to harmonization. The biggest dilemma was the powerful choir that thundered from the speakers during the Bohemian Rhapsody. Tapes or devices called harmonizers that allow the singer to sound like a choir. In any case, the dominance of technology is important. After all, the illusion is an inseparable part of every show.
Speaking of technology, it’s clear that without it Queen would have been a group with broken wings either at a concert or on a record. The symbolic moment was that at one point the cacophony of electronic sounds reigned on the stage, the spotlights wandered like crazy around the hall, and there were no musicians on the stage. This robotic show did not bother the audience to enjoy it. An example of self-sufficient technology.
The songs sounded firmer and more lively without an ornate studio production. Stripped to the core, the songs unveiled a special blend of pomp, McCartney’s melodies and typical heavy sound.
Obviously, playing the encore was calculated like everything else. After a short break, the program continued as if it had not been interrupted, and ended with the song We Are The Champions in the manner of football fans’ anthems.
When the concert was over, it was clear that there were no surprises. Queen presented themselves as superior rock entertainers who know what they want at all times and they can achieve it without much trouble. For those who do not like their music, performance in Zagreb won’t help them change their minds, but they’re unlikely to find any objection to the show that Queen offered in Zagreb.
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