Released on 4 November 2016, as part of the 'On
Air' deluxe 6 CD set only.
Length 69:22.
1. John
interview, South American tour, BBC Radio 1
2-8. Brian
on 'Rock On' with John Tobler, 'Hot Space' album, BBC Radio 1
9-13. Brian
on 'Saturday Live' with Richard Skinner and Andy Foster, 'The
Works' album, BBC Radio 1
14. Freddie
on 'Newsbeat', 'The Works' tour, BBC Radio 1
15. Brian
on 'Newsbeat', 'The Works' album, BBC Radio 1
16. Freddie
on 'Saturday Live' with Graham Neale, 'The Works' album, BBC
Radio 1
17-25. Freddie
with Simon Bates, BBC Radio 1
26. Brian
on 'The Way It Is' with David 'Kid' Jensen, Capital Radio,
Wembley Stadium, London
Compiled by Greg Brooks and edited with
Wilfredo Acosta
Mastering and audio restoration by Wilfredo Acosta at The
Soundhouse Studios, London
This page includes a transcription of all of the interviews which
were released on disc 5 of the 'On Air' deluxe 6 CD set, which
cover the period from 1981 to 1986.
The set included two other discs of interviews, covering the
periods 1976-1980 and 1986-1992, two discs
containing all six BBC Sessions,
and a disc containing highlights of three live shows.
Most interviews contain excerpts of tracks, which are shown in
square brackets below. In general, these fade out shortly after
the start, and then fade back in towards the end, rather than being
full versions.
John interview, South American tour, BBC Radio 1
Track 1. Length 2:23.
This interview was broadcast in March 1981, and features an
excerpt of 'We Are The Champions'. It begins with a radio tuning
sound effect.
Interviewer: Queen are taking a few days off from their tour, and
we caught up with bassist John Deacon on a flying visit to London
before returning to Brazil tonight. John told me that he'd heard
Queen are packing them in in Argentina
John: We started off the tour with two shows in a football
stadium in Buenos Aires called Velez Sarsfield, which is one of
the ones that was used for the World Cup down there, and we did
two shows there, and they were about thirty five to forty
thousand a night, and then we did these other two shows, Mar Del
Plata and Rosario, and then we came back, and the very last night
in Velez Sarsfield, we did another show in Buenos Aires, and they
had given permission to even have more people on the pitch, and
we got about fifty five thousand on the last night, so that's a
lot of, probably about two hundred thousand people altogether on
those five shows
Interviewer: Now the technical resources you've laid on for this,
this tour, are just staggering, I mean for example you've got
seventy five tonnes of equipment or thereabouts on stage with
you, and you've even taken with you a full football pitch worth
of astroturf, that plastic grass, what's that for?
John: The reason for that is all these shows we've done in
Argentina are all at football stadiums, and they were very
worried about the pitch getting damaged because it's their sort
of hallowed ground, the football turf, and we came up with this
idea of carrying with it this plastic grass and they agreed to
it, because that was one, something that we really wanted was to
have a lot of people on the pitch, because we set the stage up
down one end, I mean they were quite happy to have people in the
stands, but we insisted that we must have people on the pitch
aswell, to give a good atmosphere for the show. As far as the
equipment is concerned, yes we did take one hell of a lot of
equipment, we flew the PA down from America, from Miami, and that
was um, a charter plane solely for the PA because it is
equivalent to doing virtually a festival setup in each football
stadium, and so scaffolding had to be built for the stage, there
was a roof for the stage, all our lighting equipment, and it was
a tremendous amount of equipment to take down there, but I think
it's been worth it
Interviewer: What's it been like standing on stage, you know, in
Argentina, what's the atmosphere been like coming at you from the
crowd?
John: Oh, it, it was marvellous, I mean it was the closest really
to ever, to actually been going to a football match, it was that
sort of reaction, they were tremendously enthusiastic, I mean you
know, there were at, they were quite ecstatic, and they were
singing along in English aswell, and you know, all the chants and
everything, the final encore we usually do 'We Are The
Champions', works very well in a big place, you know, they sort
of can sway along and sing along, it works great
[Excerpt of 'We Are The Champions']
Brian on 'Rock On' with John Tobler, 'Hot Space' album, BBC Radio
1
Tracks 2-8. Total length 11:05.
This interview was broadcast in June 1982, is divided into seven
parts, and features excerpts of 'Dancer', 'Back Chat', 'Put Out
The Fire', 'Life Is Real' and 'Las Palabras De Amor'.
Narrator: Queen are headlining a massive open air concert in
Milton Keynes, supported today by Joan Jett and also The Teardrop
Explodes. When Bow Wow Wow supported Queen however on the
continent, all didn't go well, in fact they even had to quit the
European tour, so when John Tobler met up with Brian May of Queen
to discuss the new album, he first asked Brian for Queen's
verdict on Bow Wow Wow
Brian: We liked them very much, we liked the record and after the
first couple of nights we liked them on stage, now there was a
certain section of the audience who didn't like them, who found
them, I don't know, very modern, it's very, I mean our audience
is, it's a sad comment, but our audience is, is perhaps a little
er, narrow minded in that way, I don't know, I, I mean it's only
a very small percentage anyway, I would think, I think most
people gave them a very good hearing, but there were a few people
there who went so far as to throw things at them, which, to be
honest, I was pretty disgusted at, I, I didn't think that would,
would happen at our concerts, um, unfortunately, the Bow Wow Wow
decided to throw them back, as a matter of policy, and so on a
couple of nights in particular it just snowballed into a, a big
fight, which became very silly, the worst night of all was one
night in Leiden, in Holland, where there were just loads and
loads of cans thrown about, not all empty either, I might add,
which was getting really stupidly dangerous, and I think their
record company advised them that it wasn't doing them any good,
which I think was the wrong decision, because they quit before we
got to Germany, which is where they sold some records. It's a
great shame, I think they're very good, especially Annabella,
who's really very charismatic, you know, a good singer and good
performer. I think with the right management she could be a, you
know and, and someone needs to take care of her and make sure
it's, things happen right for her and the group
John: Do you enjoy playing in the open air in this country?
Brian: Er, I like it for the event, and er, the atmosphere and
everything, I hate it from the point of view of trying to keep
the guitar under control, because there's so many temperature
changes
[Excerpt of 'Dancer']
[Excerpt of 'Dancer']
John: 'Dancer', a track from Queen's 'Hot Space' LP, which was
released very recently. Brian, do you write a song like 'Dancer'
with an obvious space for a guitar solo in it?
Brian: Um, well the stuff that we did for 'Hot Space' had a
different evolution from some of the stuff before, in that we
were thinking about rhythm before anything else this time, very
consciously, so in, in some of the cases, and 'Dancer' is one of
them, the backing track was there a long time before the actual
song was properly pieced together, you know we would experiment
with the rhythm and the bass and drum track and everything and
get that sounding right, and then very cautiously piece the rest
around it, it's really an experiment in many ways for us to do it
this way. No, the solo wasn't there to start with really, after
we'd er, spent quite a few months on it, and we only had about a
month to go because we had to be out on tour, we actually decided
that we had to kick ourselves into shape very quickly, and
listening to all the stuff which we'd done over the last few
months, we managed to get some kind of theme out of it, and we
thought that an interesting common ground for a lot of the tracks
was this rhythm thing, so we thought we'd actually try and do the
thing as an experiment and, and put the thing together that way
John: You mentioned that you had a, a limited amount of time to
complete this album, was that because you personally were
involved in writing, as I gather you have, the score for 'Mad Max
2'
Brian: No, that's not me, in fact it's another guy called Brian
May, which is very strange (John: oh really), it's some
Australian fellow, who I haven't met, I haven't heard the music
either, I'm ashamed to say, no it's not me, so that'll clear that
one up (John: oh, jolly good). It's not me folks
John: There's another track called 'Back Chat', on which you play
a solo which reminded me instantly of the Isley Brothers (Brian:
ooh), I mean it's not a quality that's
Brian: But theirs is phased isn't it, I seem to remember.
Strangely enough I think they cropped up in the conversation,
because we were talking about what we were doing, we, there were
lots of times when we said what actually are we doing, we're
doing this kind of black based music, and we're doing it, it's a
sort of half way stage between that and rock music, which is
where we come from, um, what actually is it, and I think the
Isley Brothers were one of the things we talked about, because
they did have records which were very rhythmic and, well
primarily dance records, but there was a lot of guitar work in,
in fact Hendrix did some of their earlier records didn't he, I
know, and the guy who followed on with the Isley Brothers was a
big Hendrix fan I think (John: yeah). To be honest there wasn't
going to be a guitar solo on there, because John Deacon, whose
song it is, has gone perhaps more violently black than any of us
really, and he, we had lots of arguments about this, and what he
was heading for on his tracks, really, was a total non-compromise
situation, you know, doing the, the black stuff as the R&B
artists would do it, and no concessions to, to our methods at
all, and I was trying to edge him a little bit back into the
central path, and try to get a bit of heaviness into it, and a
bit of the anger that, that rock music puts into it, so it was
just one night I said look, let me go in there and see what I can
do I just feel like it, because I could, you know I didn't feel
that the song as it stood was very, was agressive enough, you
know because it's 'Back Chat', it's supposed to be about people
arguing
[Excerpt of 'Back Chat']
John: 'Back Chat' from 'Hot Space', the latest Queen album
John: The first track on the second side of the album, Brian,
'Put Out The Fire', what is the song written about?
Brian: Um, it was a song about guns really, that's where it came
from, I suppose brought to light by the climate around John
Lennon's death, which brought all that to light again
[Excerpt of 'Put Out The Fire']
John: 'Put Out The Fire', from 'Hot Space' by Queen
Brian: I think putting out the fire in many areas is a good idea
John: Do you think it was a good idea to have 'Life Is Real (Song
For Lennon)' as the next track on the record, isn't it kind of
hammering home the point a little
Brian: Well, you have to be fairly heavy or else you can subtle
out yourself, you know, you can be subtle and nobody realise
what's your, what you're talking about, which happens very often,
you know in the, in the past we've put little gentle hints in
there, and really very, it's very seldom that people actually
pick them up, except the few real close fans who listen very
carefully, no it was deliberate, it was quite deliberate
[Excerpt of 'Put Out The Fire']
[Excerpt of 'Life Is Real']
John: 'Under Pressure's on the album, and of course it was a
number one hit, how did this collaboration actually come about?
Brian: Well he lives near our studios in, in a little town near
Montreux, and when we were there he would often come over and see
us, chat and have a drink, and then we just worked on one
particular idea, which became 'Under Pressure', for a whole
night, a extremely long night
John: How was it written? I mean was it a genuine all five of you
collaboration, or, or did one of you take the lead and?
Brian: Yes, yes it was truly collaborative, particularly in the
beginning, you know I think when we were setting down the backing
track it was um, you know everyone was contributing ideas, and we
were working together quite well. As the evening progressed, it
became more and more difficult because we all had different ideas
of how it should shape up, and we're used to the four of us
arguing together, but when there's someone else there, whose
considerably more pig-headed than any of us, which takes some
doing, I'll tell you, then it, you know, it becomes difficult to
even find any kind of compromise, so, in the end I sort of let
them get on with it, to be honest
John: Yes
John: 'Body Language' was not your greatest success, I think it's
fair to say
Brian: Not in this country, it, it died extremely quickly, and I
think for this country it was just too much of a change for
people to take, I don't think people really liked it. In America
it's doing very well because the climate is a bit different
there, you know you have the sort of solid black market who are
into that kind of stuff anyway, and some of the American groups
like us have wandered into this domain, like Foreigner doing
things like 'Urgent' and using a sax player, Toto have, have got
a very nice brass arrangement on one of their, I think their new
single, and I think we're probably closer to the American music
scene than we are to the English at the moment, just because
we've drifted that way, you know, we, we still live here, but we
spend a lot of time there, and I think we feel that there's more
actual evolution going on in America in the established groups
than there is in England, but people judge you by how your
singles do in this country, more than most other places, more
than say Germany, or um, Argentina
John: The single is one of your songs 'Las Palabras De Amor',
Spanish, which is what they speak in Argentina, now you of course
were, had the entire top ten one week in Argentina, didn't you
Brian: I don't know if it would, if it goes that far, but we, in
the period that we were going there, yes, all the albums started
to, but the fact that we went to the trouble to go there and go
there properly, as opposed to tacking it on the end of another
tour, and the fact that we took a lot of equipment down and did a
proper show as we would do here, um, I think meant a lot to them
John: So they haven't started burning your albums in the streets
yet, as a result of you
Brian: No, 'Under Pressure's number two there at the moment I
think, which is great. It was my little girl's birthday, she was
one year old a little while ago, and I had a card from an
Argentinian girl who said 'some things are more important than
war', and that's how I feel
[Excerpt of 'Las Palabras De Amor']
John: 'Las Palabras De Amor', Queen, and the single from their LP
'Hot Space'
Brian on 'Saturday Live' with Richard Skinner and Andy Foster,
'The Works' album, BBC Radio 1
Tracks 9-13. Total length 11:43.
This interview was broadcast in March 1984, is divided into five
parts, and features excerpts of 'Machines', 'It's A Hard Life'
and 'Hammer To Fall'.
[Excerpt of 'Machines']
Brian: Computer stalks off into distance
Richard: A few words there from Brian May, added to the end of
'Machines' from the album 'The Works'
Brian: Thank you, a gem
Richard: Welcome along Brian
Brian: Thank you
Richard: Why such a long pause between 'The Game' and 'The Works'
then, eh?
Brian: Um, well there's one in between, 'Hot Space'
Richard: That's right, of course, yeah
Brian: But it's still quite a long pause, um, basically we wanted
some time off, and we wanted to regenerate our batteries and not
make an album until we felt we were ready to, you know, not make
an album because it's time to make the album, boys, but to
actually go away and go in the studio when we felt like we had
something to say
Richard: Were the batteries running a bit low then, for whatever
reason?
Brian: Well, we'd been making albums and touring non-stop, and
really nothing else for what was then eleven years, I think, and
it's like a conveyor belt, you make the album, and you say 'OK we
should go out and tour and promote etc', plus touring is fun,
which is what you're really doing it for, and studios are a drag,
generally, in my opinion, er, so you go out and tour every place
you can think of, and, and gradually your horizons expand, and
there's all kinds of places you can go, like we went to Argentina
and Brazil and, and generally we go to Japan and a lot of
different places, and then you look round and it's been a year
since you made the album, you come back to England, and everyone
says 'what have you been doing the last year then, have you
retired', so you think 'oh, better get and make an album', so
that's it, we, we decided we would step off that conveyor belt
and take stock, which is the reason that we're not actually
plunging straight back into touring either now, you know, just
take a little break and then, then plunge back in
Richard: Do you feel the last album was in any way a failure, er,
because this one seems
Brian: Oh yes, absolutely, absolutely
Richard: This one seems much more um, traditional, what you would
expect, very well crafted Queen album, but slightly less
experimental in many ways
Brian: Yes it is less experimental, definitely, the last one, I
don't regret anything about the last album really, except perhaps
there was less guitar than I would have liked, but I think, um,
all that stuff was a very neccessary stage for us to go through
and if you do keep on making records which people expect you to
make, and that are easy for you to make, then you really
stagnate, and you really can't progress, so we generally go off
on these tangents every other album or so, and explore something,
and then we come back with a new perspective I think
Richard: A renewed energy
Brian: Yeah, so you can hear little bits of 'The Game' and 'Hot
Space' on this album I think, but mainly, as you say, it sounds
like what people expect from the traditional Queen group, 'oh,
aren't they that group who did 'Bohemian Rhapsody'', you know,
which we will always be in this country, 'ohh, you did 'Bohemian
Rhapsody''
Andy: You've, you've, you've personally, you've talked about this
album I know, you're saying you've called it 'The Works' because
you consider it really to be the definitive Queen album haven't
you
Brian: Kind of, did I really say that?
Andy: Yes, you did really say that, enough people have quoted it
as well
Brian: I saw that aswell, yeah, well I must have said it, yeah,
in a way, I don't know if it's the definitive, but I think it's
very, very typical Queen yes
Andy: It's strange you should mention there, that this one is a
little, perhaps a little safer, less experimental certainly,
because that's one, been one of the big criticisms, hasn't it,
that in fact the songs fall into, you know, Queen type songs
Brian: Yes, but deliberately, because we got a certain way
through it, and we thought well, you know, we've gone out, very
much out on a limb on the last one, um, perhaps we should be
playing more like we actually are, and sounding like Queen the
group, like the four guys on stage, and as we did it, we sort of
became aware of the ground that we'd trodden on before, and some
of the songs started to come in sounding a little bit like things
before, and we said 'OK, it's a greatest hits album', um, so
that, that's over simplifying a bit, because there was some very
new stuff in there aswell, there's the, the whole sort of
'Machines' and um, synthesisers and all that stuff there
Andy: Yes, you're using those a lot more, aren't you really on
this album
Brian: Yes, they, they've crept in
Andy: I mean that, that last particular track I think is a bit
special
Brian: Yes, and, and that particular track we sort of got down to
talking about the relationship between machines and humans, which
is what it's about, you can hear a guitar player screaming in the
background, getting demolished by a synthesiser, and all this,
there's a lot in that, I'm glad you played that track actually,
because I was afraid it was gonna get lost
Richard: And you wrote it aswell
Brian: Well I half wrote it
Richard: Along the way, yes, it's in fact the only collaboration
as such that I can see, because everybody else it's, it's all in
individual efforts
Brian: Except for the last track on the album, which Freddie and
I did, which is little, a little ballad
Richard: Is this a pointer to the fact that maybe you are more
individualistic nowadays, than, than being a group?
Brian: I think we've gone through the worst of that, and it's an
evil, you know we talk about all these things, which is probably
the reason we're still together, we shout and scream at each
other, but at least we talk, and we were aware that on the last,
actually the last couple of albums, that it was so-and-so's
track, and it didn't really, the others didn't get a look in, so
that, that's another thing which, which was part of the evolution
of this album, we consciously let the others in on the tracks, so
that they would sound like Queen tracks, and there's a lot of
arbitration. What was the question sorry?
Richard: I can't remember now, we'll move on
Brian: Good answer though wasn't it
Richard: The machines then versus guitar, synthesiser guitar
controversy, you come down
Brian: And also sort of drum box versus real drum, you can hear
the real drums kick in halfway through 'Machines' (Richard: yes)
and demolish the track, and, and you can hear a synthesised voice
and a real voice, and, and all that stuff, yeah, it's a little
battle going on there
Andy: Interesting you talking about the guitar here screaming
away in the background, I, I notice one of the big, one of the
music papers in this country has got a, a great big thing about
guitarists nowadays, and you're, you're still one of the great
guitar heroes, aren't you still?
Brian: How very nice of you to say so. I don't know
Andy: Probably, probably the only one sort of not, sort of
blatantly heavy metal either, somehow, I don't know
Brian: I don't know really
Andy: But it's interesting that you should say there's more
guitar on this one than the last, what, couple of albums
probably, yeah
Brian: Well there is a lot more, I mean, physically there is,
yeah, and there's a lot more of the heavy kind of influence
altogether
Andy: And yet not the same sort of, I don't know, the Brian May
tone if you like, that people came to expect, I mean have you,
have you tried to get away from that perhaps a little bit now
Brian: I don't know, I think I'm gradually going deaf, so I tend
to turn it up, and turn it more piercing, I think it's a little
bit more, I, I like more top end on it these days, because that's
the only difference, it's still my guitar, and there's
Richard: You're still playing the one that you made, all that,
yeah
Brian: Yeah, exactly, yeah
Richard: Why didn't you ever put that into mass production?
Brian: It's funny you should say that, in fact, one would think
that I paid you
Andy: It just so happens, yes, oh yes
Richard: Oh my goodness
Brian: Um, no Guild Guitars have come and said that they would
like to make a, a production model of, of that guitar, and
they're making it, I saw the prototype a week ago when I was in
New York, and it looks beautiful, and we're working on various
bits of it, because it has to be just compromised a little bit to
make it into a production job rather than a one-off, but it looks
like it's gonna be great, so it should be
Andy: Have you changed it much over the years, your particular
model I wonder?
Brian: Oh not at all, no, the only thing I did was take the
fuzzbox out
Andy: So it's actually been the same
Brian: Those fuzzboxes became a bit of a pain in the neck
Andy: Yes, those, those were a few years ago weren't they,
fuzzboxes
Brian: Yes, because I could distort the amplifier to get all the
sustain
Andy: Right
[Excerpt of 'It's A Hard Life']
Andy: That's 'It's A Hard Life', a Freddie Mercury song from The
Works, sounds very obviously a, a Freddie Mercury song aswell I
think, doesn't it Brian
Brian: Yes, and very nice too I think
Andy: And we, we, we were making this point earlier on really,
about how much of the band is still there after the solo projects
that each of you are doing
Richard: It's a strange situation, isn't it, growing up with
three other people and staying together so long, most people
never do it in their lives
Brian: It's right, it's a unique situation really, and you, the
only parallel I can think of is if you had four people trying to
paint a picture, all through their lives, you would find some
pretty bad conflicts, and it's the similar, you know it's the
only situation where you have people creating, um, as a group,
rather than as an individual, and there a lot of tensions, and
it's hard to keep together, which is why I can't really think of
anyone who has been together as long as we have, I don't think,
the, the four original members
Andy: I mean The Who obviously were the example, but look what's
happened there
Brian: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there probably are another
Andy: It seems a very introspective album in a way, I mean the,
the, the lyrics of the piece are, it's not exactly depressing but
thoughtful
Brian: In some ways it is yes. I think it's a bit more close to
the heart lyric wise, particularly from Freddie actually, I would
say
Richard: What does Queen do next, do you go back into
experimentation
Brian: Most likely, yes I would think, yes, I mean we're always
experimenting to a certain extent, and I think the 'Machines'
track that you first played is the kind of experimental end of
this album, which is probably why I like it, and I think, if
anything, that encapsulates a direction which we might explore
more, because you have these two camps in music at the moment,
and I think one of the interesting thing that's, things which is
going on in popular music is this sorting out of the human
element verses the, the new machine music, you know you have
people in both areas writing good songs, there's no conflict
there, but you have this very um, very clear definition between
the two groups and it doesn't need to be that way, I don't think
Andy: Is it a real, is it a real conflict I wonder, or, or just
(Brian: well I don't think it needs to be) that novelty
encourages people to write songs on new equipment, you know,
sometimes?
Brian: I don't know, if you read what people say then they seem
to be very firmly ensconced in their positions, you know
Andy: You're either on one side of the fence or the other
Brian: Yeah, yeah
Richard: But that, that's just people sticking up to their image
isn't it, because they're trying to sell a few records along the
way
Brian: I guess so, possibly yeah, possibly
Richard: I love this move back to live performance, we have it on
this programme, a band playing live, live on the radio later, and
I think that sort of live recording, keeping it as spontaneous as
possible is a fantastic move, happening at the same time, you
know
Brian: It's nice, it's nice, I think you need both, to be honest,
I think my 'Starfleet' thing was very much spontaneous, put it
down, put it on the, on the, on the wax, and leave it, but I
think equally, you know there are two kinds of things, you know,
and the business of painting a picture in the studio with a
number of tracks which you can do now I think is equally
interesting
Andy: The other big, I suppose, discussion that's going on really
is how important the visual side is too, and now Queen have been
a band (Brian: yes) that have used video probably for longer than
anybody else I should think really
Brian: Yes since 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which is supposed to be the
first rock video, but actually the form
Andy: It's supposed to be isn't it, that's right, but I mean
'Radio Ga Ga' again surprised people a lot didn't it when that
came out
Brian: Yes, um, and it was worth spending the time on, that's all
I can say, I wish that somewhere on the English outlets it had
been seen in toto
Andy: Was it always faded out?
Brian: It's never been shown in full anywhere, and it does
actually make sense if you see the whole lot
Richard: What's the involvement actually with the Metropolis
idea, because I think they're reproducing a, a new version of
that aren't they?
Brian: Yeah, Georgio Moroder is in charge of it, he bought the
rights to the footage off the East German government, and he's
putting new music to it, completely mechanical music, and various
vocalists, and he asked Freddie to sing one of the tracks, and we
ended up taking one of the tracks and changing it and doing
things with it, and in return he said 'OK you can use some of the
Metropolis footage', which we wanted to, because you can see we
were into machines and stuff, and that is the archetypal, you
know, machines film of all time, I'm sure it's gonna be very
successful when it comes out again
Richard: It comes out again, the original form, but with the new
Georgio Moroder soundtrack, yeah? It's the original film
(unknown)
Brian: That's right, he
Andy: And colour, isn't it, and in colour?
Brian: He's done all kinds of amazing things, he's done computer
reconstruction of some of the images which were a bit duff, you
know, being very old, he's also researched some pieces which have
never been seen since the thing was released, because they were
chopped out (Andy: fantastic) and he's, he's getting involved in
doing some tinting and colouring aswell, so it's gonna be quite a
production
Richard: We're gonna get, we're gonna get sick of Metropolis at
the end of all this, I can tell, thank you very much
Brian: It's a great film, wonderful
Richard: I'm sure you're right, Brian thank you for coming in
today
Andy: Yes, thanks for coming
Brian: Thank you, I've enjoyed it
Richard: One more track, this is one that you said play it
please, 'Hammer To Fall', why do you like it so much
Brian: Umm, it's just the other side, which I would like to see
exposed, the heavy side, which is very, by definition you have to
always release as singles the things which are commercial, and
that always veers you away from, from the heavy side and I think,
you know, luckily we have commercial singles which are, in my
opinion, good, you know, they're, they're good songs, but I still
like the other side to be heard
Richard: It's half past four, and this is 'Hammer To Fall'
[Excerpt of 'Hammer To Fall']
Freddie on 'Newsbeat', 'The Works' tour, BBC Radio 1
Track 14. Length 2:31.
This interview was broadcast on 15 August 1984, and features an
excerpt of 'Hammer To Fall'.
Jingle: Radio 1 news
Narrator: Queen arrived for six dates as part of their European
tour, their first live appearances in fact for two and a half
years. The 1984 stage show from Queen may be a little more
restrained than in the past, because lead singer Freddie Mercury
is still recovering from a leg injury earlier in the year.
Freddie spent the last few months in Munich, West Germany,
working on a solo album, and the rest of the band recently joined
him there to rehearse for the tour. Well, Newsbeat's been there
too, and first, we asked Freddie Mercury whether he's looking
forward to performing live again
Freddie: I think this tour, for me anyway, is going to be
slightly special, because we've stayed away from touring for
about two years, so it, I mean before I think touring became too
much of the norm, and I, I was getting, I found myself in a rut,
that's why I was the first one to actually decide that I wanted
something like six months away from all the entire music
industry. Now after two years I think er, I think it's gonna be a
breath of fresh air, especially for me, my solo project is the
other thing, I mean, sort of side by side, I mean doing a tour is
one thing, but I'm gonna come back to my solo project, and that,
that excites me quite a bit, I was hoping to actually finish it
before the tour, but um, yeah, I ran out of time, and so I've got
to come back just before Christmas and finish it
Interviewer: Tell us a bit about this solo album, will it bear
any resemblance to a Queen album?
Freddie: Yes and no, there's bound to be people saying yeah that
sounds like Queen and that, but I mean I'm not afraid of that,
it's just that I want a batch of songs that sound good, good, or
good enough, and the way I choose them, and um, to the best of my
capabilities I'm, I'm, I'm gonna do a solo album
Interviewer: The shows of course come to Britain within the next
few weeks, does playing Britain mean anything special to you at
all, or is just another big gig now?
Freddie: London I find very, um, I find it frightening, with, I
think it's the familiarity of it all, it's where we started and
everything, and I like playing there, but I hate it at the same
time
Interviewer: Are you actually looking forward to going out on
stage and performing again?
Freddie: I'm looking forward to this tour, the only thing that
I'm worried about is, is, to be honest is, is my legs, I mean I
sort of, you know I had a bit of a mishap with it about two
months ago, there are certain things I don't, I don't think I can
do that, and I like to be sort of a hundred percent fit when I'm
doing these things, and I'm just worried because there's going to
be times where I'm, if I move too fast or whatever, it just seems
to sort of snap. In a way I just don't wanna let people down, and
I don't wanna let the rest of the group down, and myself, because
I mean I know the things that are expected of me, and um, I mean
I'd love my leg to be, you know, a hundred percent, but I just,
maybe it's just me being a bit paranoid, maybe after the first
couple of nights I'll be alright
[Excerpt of 'Hammer To Fall']
Brian on 'Newsbeat', 'The Works' album, BBC Radio 1
Track 15. Length 2:44.
This interview was broadcast on 3 September 1984, and features an
excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye'.
Interviewer: Well, finally, one of the biggest and most eagerly
awaited music events of 1984, the Queen tour of Britain, is
underway, after three dates in Birmingham, the Queen juggernaut
will roll to London for the final gigs at Wembley Arena. The band
have a fifty seven man road crew to look after their set, which
drummer Roger Taylor claims has more light and spectacle than the
Vatican. It's two years since the band last performed in their
home country, and when we spoke to guitarist Brian May before the
tour got underway, he was looking forward to it
Brian: Strangely enough, everybody says 'ooh, is it really hard
touring', it's not, it's not, mentally or physically that hard,
once you get yourself really organised, as we are, it's much
harder to be in the studio with four blank walls, trying to beat
out something and getting no sort of instant reward from it. I
really like touring a lot
Interviewer: Do you never feel the whole business about Queen
touring has got a bit out of control, huge stadia, tonnes and
tonnes of equipment, articulated lorries to take it everywhere, I
mean it's very complex, it's not just rock 'n' roll anymore, is
it?
Brian: No, it's not just rock 'n' roll, but it's, but it is rock
'n' roll, you know, it, it's our own doing, we haven't really
been forced into any situations, we've made everything ourselves.
We like it that way, really, we don't have to be in the stadiums
if we don't want to be, but in my opinion there's, there's fors
and againsts to every way of touring, obviously you don't have
quite the intimacy of, of playing in say the Marquee or whatever,
if you're playing in, in Wembley, but um, you're getting
something too, I mean, for a start a lot of people see you, and
I, I would like to think that after two years away, that we want
to get to the maximum number of people
Interviewer: You of course are a hero to many guitarists
throughout the country, probably throughout the world, but you
yourself, who were your guitar heroes?
Brian: In the beginning, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck,
and I still feel the same about them as I did always, I'm still a
fan, I always forget George Harrison, and people like Tony Hicks
from The Hollies aswell, they were all people I listened to, and
Hank Marvin, of course, because The Shadows were the thing when I
was small, you know, and I still like the heavy stuff, I'm a kind
of closet heavy metal headbanger, so I enjoy all that you know,
and I'm conscious that we're not solely that, we're not a heavy
metal group, and we never would be obviously, but I like the hard
rock element and I try and keep it in there, if it ever looks in
danger of getting lost
Interviewer: What is it that stimulates you still to keep playing
after all these years?
Brian: Well, we certainly missed it when we weren't doing it, we
all went out and did our solo things, and got refreshed, but we
did miss the group, and we all showed it in different ways, and
there's a real feeling of relief now, we've just been in
rehearsals, and playing some of the old stuff just bashing away
at anything to get the feel again, and it feels great
[Excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye']
Interviewer: That's 'Seven Seas Of Rhye', the first hit single
from Queen, will they play it at Wembley, well you'll have to
wait and see, that's if you're lucky enough to have tickets
Jingle: Radio 1, all the music you'll ever need
Freddie on 'Saturday Live' with Graham Neale, 'The Works' album,
BBC Radio 1
Track 16. Length 5:11.
This interview was broadcast on 15 September 1984.
Freddie: I've never let the press worry me, I mean in the early
days you, you think about it and go out and buy the papers and
make sure that you're in it and all that, and um, now it's, it's
a completely different setup because it's, it's your music, and
basically what you worry about is, is the people that buy your
product, that's what keeps us going
Graham: Some of the people that buy the product have frequently
been saying that they prefer the earlier Queen albums to the
present ones
Freddie: True, you'll always get that, you know I like that too,
I mean if everybody prefered just the one type then um, we
wouldn't be selling so many records, the fact that we, we still
um, do different things is to try and um, make sure we get, we
get a different audience aswell, we certainly don't want to sort
of discard our early fans, because I mean they're always with us,
I hope, but you'll always get that, yes, I mean some people like,
you know when you come up with a song or an album, you won't get
everybody liking everything, and the one, the trademark of Queen
which I like is just, happens to be, it's like a coincidence, is
that there are four writers that write very different material,
and so it pleases maybe a wider span than, than most other groups
Graham: Inevitably, with the success that you've had, it's bound
to bring a different lifestyle to yourself, do you find that then
harder to relate to the average people that will buy the records,
in the sense that now you're so much further on than when you
were say twelve years ago, and in bedsits yourselves and very
much on the breadline?
Freddie: Oh yes, I think that's, that's way past, I mean I think,
I think in a way I think I've sort of done a virtually a full
circle, because I mean when you think being in the business sort
of thirteen years, or even like fourteen years, I mean there
seems, there was a sort of a kind of, I mean after the first five
years when we, we had the taste of success, that's the time where
I thought oh my God I was the bees knees and I mean nobody could
speak to me, and I couldn't be seen in these places, but you
learn to live with it, and afterwards you, you realise that it's,
it's also growing up and getting experience, and now I think I'm,
I'm not afraid to go anywhere, before I was taking bodyguards or
whatever, it's, it's just a kind of discipline that you have to
have, and, and kind of awareness, and I think um, there were
times when there was the teeny bop stage where I mean we went to
Japan and places, and there was hoardes of people screaming and
things, but I think most people have grown up. There were times
when I'd love to do shows where they were just screaming and
howling all the time, and you could just play anything, just
because you've got the adulation, now I, I would prefer them to,
to listen to what we're playing, but still have a damn good time,
you know
Graham: Looking back, something else that appears to have changed
is on the 'Sheer Heart Attack' album, proudly saying on the back
cover 'no synthesisers', that is something that has obviously
changed with the years
Freddie: Yeah, that was, oh of course yes. A lot of people have
got that sort of twisted round, because I mean they actually
thought that we hated synthesisers, it was basically I think we
had a guitarist called Brian May who was recreating some amazing
sounds through his guitar, and it was basically just informative,
really, just information on the album to say that, because people
thought my God, you know, guitars don't sound like that, it's got
to be a synthesiser, so basically we were just telling the people
who bought our records that this was not a synthesiser, and that
Brian could recreate these kind of sounds through his wonderful
guitar, so it's basically informative, and the moment that we
started using synthesisers, we said we do
Graham: Coming right up to date with 1984 and 'The Works' which
has been an amazingly successful album for the band, would you
say that, that really it's important these days to have success
for anything other than personal satisfaction?
Freddie: It's a survival test, you know, and I mean of course we
could all just go away and say OK we've had enough and live
happily ever after, but I mean I don't think that's what we're
in, we're in it to make music, and er, the way I think, well what
else could I do, I mean this is the thing that interests me most.
You don't know what it means to, when you write a song which
people actually appreciate, and they say it's a good song, it's
a, it's a wonderful feeling (Graham: it must be), it's a
wonderful feeling
Graham: Does have four writers within the band make life easier
for you to decide what you're going to use on an album, or is it
harder because you've got so much talent?
Freddie: No, it's, it's, it's tougher, it makes it, makes life
much more difficult, but, but I think it's good in the long run
because, in one way it, it takes the strain away from you,
because I mean you don't have to write all the time, the same
time you have to sort of, it's a battle because I mean sometimes
you can have a, a batch of very good songs, but you still have to
sift through and there's a big fight between which song goes on,
and all that, so there's lots of temperamental situations, but
you can never say, you know sometimes you probably er, miss out a
very good song. I mean, I remember when I was writing 'Bohemian
Rhapsody', I had a song called 'We Are The Champions', but I just
didn't feel that it fitted at the time, and, and I just sort of
kept it aside and it's virtually I think about two or three years
later that I sort of, you know, pulled it out the bag again and
there you are, so you, you can never tell
Graham: How do you feel about recording these days, because not
having, and I'm sure you don't have time limits on recording an
album, or indeed a budget that says how far you can go, so how do
you decide where to stop?
Freddie: Well it's, that's a good question, it's, it's a, it's
basically self discipline, really, the budget was endless and we
used to spend enormous amount of time and money in saying we've
got to get it right, but now I, I like to work the other way, I
have, there's enough money to make me, you know, I, I, I could be
in a studio for a year, but I hate that, I like to make decisions
early, it's, it's discipline, it's discipline
Freddie
with Simon Bates, BBC Radio 1
Tracks 17-25. Total length 28:47.
This interview was broadcast on three consecutive days in June
1985, is divided into nine parts, and features excerpts of 'Crazy
Little Thing Called Love', 'Mr Bad Guy', 'Seven Seas Of Rhye',
'Killer Queen', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'I Want To Break Free',
'There Must Be More To Life Than This', 'Under Pressure', 'Love
Of My Life', 'Las Palabras De Amor', 'It's A Hard Life', 'We Are
The Champions' and 'Made In Heaven'.
[Excerpt of 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love']
Simon: Queen and 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' from '79, and
Freddie Mercury's 'I Was Born To Love You'. So on Saturday, we
trolled round to the Queen's offices, and we went to see the man.
Freddie Mercury is very pleasant when he walks in, he looks a
million dollars, I mean, any photograph you see of Freddie
Mercury has probably not got any make-up on it, it's him, he
looks amazingly fit, and amazingly well, until he opens his mouth
and sticks his tongue out at you, and then you see a tongue which
has got a duffel coat on it, probably the most unhealthy sight
I've ever seen in my life, and I suddenly realised that he had
been quite ill, and still wasn't well by any means. So, we
settled down, and I got the tape machine out, got it working,
which was a miracle, and I asked him if the whole illness
syndrome had anything to do with the fact that he's hardworking,
that he's energetic, and possibly, and I was careful how I said
this because he's a fitness freak, he'd been overdoing things
Freddie: That's what I'm all about, I guess, but I think the way
um, people get news, is, is whenever something goes wrong, I
mean, that's, that's, that's newsworthy isn't it, so I mean over
the past six months or whatever it's either I've broken my leg, I
lost my voice in South Africa or um, something's happened, and
you know it does take it's toll, I mean I um, I have been working
very hard, I was doing my solo project and I was also working
with Queen, so basically I was sort of undertaking two very sort
of heavy projects simultaneously, and that does sort of take it's
toll, I mean I was really exhausted, because normally what
happens, I mean if, if I do an album with Queen, OK, we, we go
into studios and you know we work, you know day and night or
whatever, and then you have a rest period, and then you go on
tour, but I had to sort of do it in between times, and there were
so many times when I had to, to stop working and do things with
Queen, like even if it's a video, or do the odd show or whatever,
but then the moment I finished my solo project, I mean I had to
go on, on actual tour with Queen, so I had to go to sort of
Australia and Japan, and I didn't have enough time in between to
actually sort of think about things like that, so I was just
embarking on all kinds of things, you know like press receptions
and things, which I hate doing anyway
Simon: I'd ask you about that, because you don't like doing
interviews, and you've said you don't like doing interviews like
this, and I wonder why?
Freddie: I just hate talking to people about myself basically, I,
when I talk to people I like to talk about, about them, and um,
more interesting things actually. I think after thirteen years or
whatever I just think people know just about everything about me,
and so basically I'm just saying the same old things, you know,
after thirteen years and I think it's not very interesting to be
honest, talking about myself, but there you are
Simon: So tell me about you, tell me whether you are an
egomaniac, hiding under a modest, shy, retiring foreground, or
whether you're actual, in actual fact rather a quiet bloke
Freddie: I'm a bit of everything. I am actually, that, that's
what it takes to be honest, I, I, I can sit here and say I'm a
wonderful person, it's a combination of a lot of ingredients,
actually you know, I can be a real bitch, but I think in the
public eye, you see, what, what's been um, put across of course
is my stage persona which, which is very arrogant, very
aggressive, or whatever, and that sort of comes into light, and
whenever people want to talk about me, or when they see me in
public, they just, they're attuned to what they see and they just
think I'm arrogant or whatever, and, and in one way that's nice,
because I don't want everyone to know about my real inner
feelings, because that's my private life, I think, so I think
there are very few people, basically people who I call very close
friends, who actually know the other side of me, so I mean, you
know, the last thing I want, and the papers will never write
about the fact that 'oh look he's real nice underneath it' and
things like that, you know. But there are two sides to me, you
know, I think there's many sides to, to most people
[Excerpt of 'Mr Bad Guy']
Simon: Title track from the new album which is 'Mr Bad Guy' which
was an album we focussed on quite a lot during the conversation.
Now you heard that first part of the interview, and like me maybe
you thought 'hello, this one's not gonna go terribly well', but
we then had a cup of tea in my case, and a I think it was a vodka
and tonic he was drinking in his case, and suddenly everything
started to relax and we got on, I think, fairly well. Certainly
the stuff you'll hear over the next couple of days is remarkably
frank, er, we started though at the very beginning, because in
the days before Queen, well what was he doing then?
Freddie: I spent about four years um, at Ealing School Of Art,
Ealing College, oh God I mean it was a long time ago, during the
Boer War I think, and I, I got my diploma in graphics and
illustration, which I did nothing with, but I mean I was actually
trained to be a sort of illustrator, which um, I'm glad I sorted
of opted out and (Simon: why?) because I think music is, is, was
exactly what I wanted to do, and it wasn't a very um, a very
risky sort of career to, to embark on
Simon: Did you think of it as a career?
Freddie: Well, at that time no, because I was, I was in semi
professional bands and things, and in the end I mean I just took
the plunge and I said that's exactly what I want to do, and I
think that's the only way to approach this business, is that you
sort of take, you can't sort of do it in half measures, you
really can't, you can't say 'OK I'm gonna give it a couple of
years and if doesn't happen...', because if you have that in the
back of your mind, I don't think you're gonna give it your, all
your energies anyway, and I was quite prepared to starve, which I
did anyway, and, and just make a go of this, and nothing else.
You have to believe in it, and I just believed in it and I just
said it doesn't matter how long it takes, um, I'm going to do
this, and you have to have a certain amount of confidence and
arrogance and all that, you know, and your egos have to be there
aswell, you know, you can't be a nice guy in this business, and I
think over the years, through experience and everything, you
really get, you get into this situation where you put all your
defences up, which I normally wouldn't want to do, but I mean you
just have to, otherwise you get broken down, and it's, it's so
easy to be trodden on, that you have to be hardened to the fact
very early on, so you know how to, you just have, it's like
playing dodgems really, it's rock 'n' roll dodgems, you just have
to sort of dodge those fears at all times and, and the higher up
the ladder you go, the, the more problems you get and the harder
it becomes, and so there are even bigger pitfalls, but I mean
that's what you sort of aim for really, it's the ultimate, you
know that's your goal, so I mean, I'm not sort of asking for
sympathy or anything, I'm just saying that's what it's all about
and if anybody wants to embark on it, don't, it's not an easy
escalator to success, I tell you
[Excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye']
[Excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye']
Simon: Do like to be beside the seaside, 'Seven Seas Of Rhye',
it's twenty seven minutes past eleven, Radio 1 talking to Freddie
Mercury. Now that was Queen's first single from 1974, and I, I
wondered at this point, looking back on those early days of
Queen, the group was a contemporary one of Bowie, what's become
known as glam rock, in those days Freddie was wearing Zandra
Rhodes frocks, and it seems there was a real effort to put on,
you know in inverted commas "a show", and I wondered if
that was a deliberate attempt on Queen's part
Freddie: Yes those were the days, it's like I can actually sort
of parallel that to sort of, in a way to something that's going
on even now, I mean OK when say, um, like Boy George, you see the
sort of, you talk about flamboyance and things like that, and I
think um, every era or whatever is always gonna have a little bit
of that, in those days, it was, it was Queen or something like
that, and David Bowie and Roxy Music and we were all sort of, we
were trying to put across theatre, because before us was like
Eric Clapton and all that, it was all the blues stuff, and people
were just, you know, go on there with their jeans and all that,
and there had to be a sort of, a backlash, the same way as the
Sex Pistols did that to the establishment, and so in a funny way
glam rock, with paint and make-up and lots of theatre was a kind
of backlash to what was happening before, to be, to be
acknowledged, to be accepted
Simon: But it wasn't tacky, and a lot of it was tacky at that
time
Freddie: Oh yes, I mean the moment something um catches on,
you're gonna get everybody jumping on the bandwagon, and then,
and then what happens is that you have to sift the crop and, you
know, the creme de la creme will actually um come across, you'll
always get that. I think I was doing virtually, very similar
stuff to say what Boy George is doing, but I think it's much
harder for him now, because I mean, you know shock value, and,
and being outrageous is, you, it takes more to outrage-, outrage
people now, because um
Simon: Was that what you were trying to do?
Freddie: Oh yes, in terms of shock, outrage and being accepted,
that's the way, you just, and the music was there aswell, but I
think music is not enough, I mean you say talent will out, but I
mean these days talent consists of, of more than just being able
to write a good song, I mean you have to deliver it, you have to
sort of package it, and you have to be there at the right time
and just, you have to sort of take in all these ingredients, I
think
[Excerpt of 'Killer Queen']
Simon: The difference between Freddie Mercury, the private, shy,
retiring individual, and Freddie Mercury, who is self confessed
loud, arrogant and forthcoming, the public performer, so the next
subject we got onto, er, was videos and I wondered whether videos
had played an important part in re-enforcing that image of
Freddie Mercury
Freddie: If you're talking about videos, and we might aswell,
it's big business now anyway, and it's a very good way of, of
showcasing yourself, but there are moments in videos where I
think, um, the buyer can be misguided, because I, I remember the
times when, if you like a piece of music, you go out and buy it,
and you sort of conjure up a thing for yourself, and you think oh
that's the kind of emotion or whetever he's, he's putting up, so
I mean each individual can create his own feeling from that song,
but the moment you make a video, they see it and they say 'oh my
God, I, I take it that's the way he wants to put it across', so I
mean it really narrows you down, and, and sometimes I like to
sort of lose myself in videos and, and make it as free as
possible, so that there are lots of elements, especially when a
song is very emotional and it's a love song, in fact only the
other day somebody came up to me and told me exactly that, he
said 'I'd had a pre-concieved idea of what I thought you were
telling me in the song, but when I saw your video I knew I was
totally wrong', you see
Simon: Which was the song?
Freddie: It was, it was 'I Was Born To Love You', you see, but he
just said that he'd lost all, total meaning of what, what er, I
was trying to say, but there you go
Simon: Were you disappointed with that, I mean were you upset?
Freddie: No, I wasn't upset, I mean there's, the reason I'm
talking about this is, I'm saying that there are, there will
always be some people who are gonna be disillusioned by the fact
that, um, that the video is not cohesive with the song in terms,
in terms of what they wanted to see
Simon: Can I go back to the first promotional film, which was
historic in the sense that you, you established something and the
idea of the video, (a) where did the idea come from, (b) who the
hell put the money up?
Freddie: What our first one? (Simon: yes), well the first one was
'Bohemian Rhapsody'
Simon: It must have cost a fortune
Freddie: You're gonna be very surprised, it cost between three
and five thousand pounds
Simon: Alright, I'm not asking you to be pompous now, but where
you aware at the time that you were really setting a standard?
Freddie: No way, I mean we didn't think that videos would be
accepted, you, I mean you don't think in those terms, I mean you
don't get up every morning and say 'OK I'm gonna try and set, you
know, be completely innovative and, and set a precedent', no you
don't do things like that
[Excerpt of 'Bohemian Rhapsody']
[Excerpt of 'Bohemian Rhapsody']
Simon: Now the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video made quite an impact,
but I suppose the best remembered Queen video really has to be 'I
Want To Break Free', not least because it had the whole of the
band and, and Freddie, dressed in drag
Freddie: I think that's one of our best videos to date, really,
in fact it still makes me chuckle every time I see it and um,
I've seen it a lot of times, and I'm glad we did it. The funny
thing is, is, like, I must tell you, everybody thinks it probably
was my idea because they think I am, but it's not, it, it wasn't
at all, I mean, something like that was at the back of my mind,
but if I'd approached the rest of the group it would have been
disbanded, because it would have looked like OK I'm, I'm trying
to dress them up in drag and all that, because everybody thinks
that that's what I'm tuned to or whatever, but I, so the funny
thing is the others came up with the idea and I said 'fine, I'll
do it', and so it came to fruition, but I was shocked, actually
to think that my God that they, they're expecting to actually
dress up in drag, and I said fine, then I, I, I took the bull by
the horns, and I just said 'right now we do it, now we do it
properly', and for the first time in our lives that we were
actually taking the mickey out of ourselves which is, I think in
the early days people regarded Queen as being very sort of um,
very musical, very intelligent, and they just thought that we
actually lacked humour, but we had humour on the stage shows and
our characters were then actually coming across, and I just
thought why don't we try and do that in a video because that sort
of precis, and, and, you know in three minutes they can find that
out, and yet people were quite amazed the fact that we could
actually fool around and drag up and still be good musicians
Simon: When you saw the final clip, and you looked at it, and you
laughed as everybody did, did you think it was the kind of thing
that would be accepted by the kind of person who doesn't normally
accept that sort of pantomime dame approach?
Freddie: No, so that was a big risk element involved with
everything, I mean, since 'Bohemian Rhapsody', so we're not gonna
change, and I think our sort of staunchest fans are gonna know
that we, we can come with all kinds of ridiculous things, and
some of them will work, some won't. You know in, in terms of
that, I mean especially now the rest of the group actually sort
of, will sort of take my view on this in that we don't give a
damn, what, what, we do what we want to do, and it's either
accepted or not
Simon: There's a great quote about you, er, I think it was
Roger's quote, no, no, no, it was 'if a thing's worth doing, it's
worth overdoing'
Freddie: Exactly, yes, yeah, that's very true, that's very true,
yeah. But I mean we didn't do that video and think 'oh my God,
it's not gonna be accepted here or whatever', we just did it, and
in fact it um, in terms of America, it wasn't accepted at all,
because I mean they, they still regard us as the heavy rockers
and the macho and all that, and they said what, what, 'what are
my idols doing dressing up in frocks'
[Excerpt of 'I Want To Break Free']
[Excerpt of 'I Want To Break Free']
Simon: And we stopped talking about Mercury the solo artist and
Mercury the band member and turned the conversation round to
another side of the career, working with other stars outside the
Queen area
Freddie: 'There Must Be More To Life Than This' was a, a song
that I'd written a long time ago and it was going to be on one of
the Queen albums and er, for some odd reason it just wasn't used
because I'd written something else, and I remember that um, I
mean a couple of years now, and I was working with Michael
Jackson and we were trying to get some stuff together, and we
still have unfinished works of art in the vaults actually, and
they haven't come to fruition, but this was one of the songs
(Simon: why?), well because we haven't had to time to actually
sort of go back and, and finish them
Simon: A lot of tracks (edited) two totally separate people I
would have thought, into working together because you, you, you
seem almost poles apart as individuals, not knowing Jackson
myself
Freddie: Well I guess you're right, I mean that's, that's, maybe
that is the attraction, but I mean um, in the early days he used
to sort of like Queen, and he used to come and see all our
concerts, and so we became friends, and he said 'why don't we do
something together', this was during, just before the 'Thriller'
days, actually, and so I said 'OK we can, why don't we try
something together', so it was just me and him, and I went over
to his house and did about three or four um, demos, you know, to
see how they work out, but I did it in a very different way, I
mean it was um, the way he sang it is just so beautiful, and I
just said I have to put a different approach to it, so I put,
there was more orchestration, and the way that I wanted to do it
anyway, maybe he could still sing it
[Excerpt of 'There Must Be More To Life Than This']
Simon: And er, having talked about working with superstars aswell
as himself, I got onto the subject about the songs that he did
with Michael Jackson
Freddie: One of them ended up as 'State Of Shock' which in the
end I couldn't complete, I couldn't finish, so Mick Jagger did it
(Simon: really?) yeah, that's true, so I mean I actually did the
vocals, but the thing is, this is the thing, timing is
everything, you know, and um, at the time when he wanted me to
finish it, I just said I can't, because I was working with Queen,
I said I really haven't got time, I was in Munich, he was in Los
Angeles, and he said, 'look is it OK if Mick does it?', I said
fine, so Mick did my vocals, and so I think all that remains is,
is a track that we actually wrote together, and um, it's a track
called 'Victory', which then he used the title as, as The
Jackson's album, so it was before that, so I mean, in, in, in a
funny way I guess, that track is frozen, because um, we, that's,
the only track that we actually wrote together as it were and so
we've, we've got a demo, which sounds great
Simon: Well working with other people, is that something you find
hard, or, or do you enjoy it?
Freddie: I enjoy it, and find it harder, actually. It depends who
you're working with but um, I mean I, I love that challenge, I
love that challenge, because it's um, and I think all the other
Queen members would actually tell you that, because um, we now
worked, we have been working together for so long, and we know
each other instinctively what to do, do you know what I mean? I
even sort of write songs, in terms of Queen, I know exactly what
the bass player's capable of, and things like that, so that's,
I'm intuned before I, I even write a song, knowing fully well
what they're gonna do, but to work with an established artist,
not knowing him, then you're just, you're sort of, you're working
from stage one, you know, and, and that's, that's a great
challenge because, so you don't know which way to write, and you
don't know what kind of aggression you're gonna get, what kind of
um, complement you're gonna get, you know, what kind of rapport
you're gonna get, so sometimes I think that working with other
people, the best way is to just go in there and just do it, if it
sparks, if it sparks off you've got it, otherwise you just forget
it
Freddie: With David Bowie, when we did that thing, that was
exactly that way, we didn't, we didn't plan anything or whatever,
he just happened to be in town, we're friends, and he just kept
popping into the studio and we were, we were jamming to some of
his songs and, and ours and we had a few bottles of wine and, and
things and we suddenly said 'why don't we try something totally
new', and out (unknown) this, this song. I remember David half
way through it said 'my God, I mean it's catchy, it's caught
fire, I mean let's, let's take it', so suddenly it then became a
sort of um, a worthwhile project, before we were just fooling
around and we said 'let's grab this while it's happening, because
if we come back tomorrow, we will probably go our separate ways
and, and not think about it', so we just carried on, it was
virtually like a twenty four hour session, we just kept at it and
finally got the, the crux of the song and then when we knew that
was gonna do something we sort of worked on it another day and
then finished it
[Excerpts of 'Under Pressure' and the album version of 'Love Of
My Life']
Simon: When Freddie was talking yesterday about the 'I Want To
Break Free' video, you might remember he said that it, it hadn't
gone down particularly well in the States, and I wondered if the
idea of failure, and failure in America and specifics, bothered
him at all
Freddie: I think we've got to a stage where, where we will do
whatever we want and I think um that's the best way of doing it,
because I hate to conform and pander to even public tastes or as
far as record company people are concerned, I mean it, it's,
because I, in fact I was thinking about that a couple of days ago
in terms of, and I thought my God we were, we were outrageous and
innovative in the days of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and that's why it
worked, for us to start pandering to people's tastes and saying
that, that this is what they want would be such a backlash, or in
terms of, my God, I mean that's what we did before, and that's
how we made it, and that's how we're gonna actually stay, and so
we're gonna do things against the grain, and against people's
ideas or whatever, and if they like it, they like it, but we're
not afraid of the fact that, that we're doing things, it's like
we don't jump on the bandwagon or, OK this is, this is, this is
modern or whatever, let's do it, no, we do it with the Queen
stamp on everything, but we're aware, we're not stupid, I mean we
don't just churn out the same stuff that we did like five or six
years ago, we're aware, that's, we're in tune to what, what's
going on, and, and that's the way I, I, I like to live, so I
mean, I remember we had an album called 'Hot Space' which, which
died a death in America, and everybody said 'oh, yes, Queen took
um, a big risk, now they'll know that's not what, what they
should do', and in fact I said 'if that's what I want to do, I'll
do it'
[Excerpt of 'Las Palabras De Amor']
[Excerpt of 'Las Palabras De Amor']
Simon: 'Las Palabras De Amor' from the 'Hot Space' album, which
of course didn't do very well in the States, and I wondered if
that experience coloured his approach when he was making his new
album, his solo album, called 'Mr Bad Guy'
Freddie: That to me was a bigger challenge, and these are the
songs that I wrote, and I think my solo album, it's like a sort
of, an extension of 'Hot Space' to be honest
Simon: Radio 1 talking exclusively to Freddie Mercury
Jingle: Home of the hits
Simon: It's thirteen minutes past eleven
Jingle: It's Radio 1
Simon: About the business of being a star
Freddie: I remember there was, there was a, a time and place in
the early years where of course I wanted to be looked upon or
whatever, and so therefore you, you did it accordingly, you know
I wore Zandra Rhodes dresses and I paint-, painted my fingernails
black, and I wore eye make-up, and I had long hair, I wore
women's blouses and whatever, and then I would walk into a room
and close it dead, you know, I mean that's the way to make an
entrance, and you can do that, yeah, just like going back to it,
just like what Boy George can do, I mean those things you can do
if you're accepted, and now having gone through a lot of it I, I
do want my privacy, it's like, it virtually it's like, I mean
I've created my own monster really, and there are times where I
wake up in the morning and I think 'oh my God, I wish I wasn't
Freddie Mercury today'
Simon: So will you do when you relax
Freddie: I socialise, definitely, I socialise, I meet people as
long as they realise it's nothing to do with work, 'cos I mean,
which I like, I like the hustle and bustle of life
Simon: But how can you do that, because you're Freddie Mercury,
it's a bit like Prince Phillip saying 'I think I'll go and have
fish and chips'
Freddie: Ah, there you have it, and I think um, I've found a
place, which is called Munich, where I can actually walk the
streets, I mean Munich is like a little village really, I mean I
have a lot of friends over there, and they, they know who I am or
whatever, but they just treat me as another human being, and
they've accepted me that way, and that to me is, is a very good
way of relaxing, because I, I don't want to sort of relax and
sort of shut myself up, that's not what I want, because I'd go,
I'd go spare, I'd go mad even quicker, it's just, it's just that
I like to feel that I can sort of do exactly the same kind of
things like socialise and have parties and whatever, because
that, but not having the burden of knowing fully well that, oh my
God, tomorrow, I mean I can't stay up too late because tomorrow I
have a, a meeting, or I have a, I have a commitment, or, or, or I
have to do a show, I mean if, if I completely remove myself from
that, I can still be in the same town, and just, and that's my
way of relaxing
Simon: What kind of things do you enjoy, what kind of movies do
you enjoy, what kind of television programmes do you enjoy?
Freddie: I, I don't watch too many movies, and I don't watch too
much television, I have a very fastidious nature, and I'm very
sort of, I am highly strung, a lot of people say this, so I'm
very fidgety and everything, I do a lot of research by just
looking, and by looking I mean, um, if I meet people or whatever,
trying to find, or I go to art galleries and things like that,
but I mean I, I'm sort of tuned into sort of very different
things, I go to a lot of more, I go to opera, I, I, I, and I go
to ballet and things like that, but I'm always researching in
that way, it's like people read books or whatever, I just look at
everything in pictures, really
Simon: Where would you like to go, what would you like to do?
Freddie: In London, (Simon: yes), in London, have a nice dinner,
that's basically what
Simon: What would you eat?
Freddie: I'd eat all kinds of things, all kinds of things, I
have, I have a gourmet chef that works for me, so I'm, I'm
absolutely spoilt in terms of food, and, and, and he just makes
up all kinds of exotic um, delicacies and then most of the time
he doesn't even tell me so I mean I just um, yes I'm very spoilt
in terms of that, yes. When I'm on tour or whatever, I just go to
the best restaurants that money can afford, but just to sample
all kinds, oh yes
Simon: Do you go for the food, or do you go with company for the
company and the food?
Freddie: For both
[Excerpt of 'It's A Hard Life']
[Excerpt of 'It's A Hard Life']
Simon: Um, well despite those current health problems, despite
partying, and the expensive restaurants, and the opera, and the
ballet, and generally being a dirty stopout, Freddie looks
incredibly good, ah, 'you look fit and young' I said, er, rather
jealously, so how come?
Freddie: I don't get up every morning and rush to the mirror and
see how many lines I've got, I mean that's the best way to do it
as far as I'm concerned, I don't worry, because I mean if you're
gonna get old, or you look, that's the way it is, no matter
facelifts or whatever, no matter how many creams you use on the,
it's just not, it's just not me, you know, it's just not me, and,
and I know the kind of life I lead sometimes when I'm on these
late nights and everything, I, I can get by with like two or
three hours sleep a night, and I'm fine
Simon: Are you vain?
Freddie: Am I vain? Well to a certain extent, yes, yeah, yeah, I
have those ingredients yes (Simon: unknown question) I like to
feel that I, I'm, I, I look good at all times when I go out, I
think it has, it's inner happiness, you know, it has to come from
within
Simon: It seems to be a very successful way of coming from it
aswell, and apart from that inner well being, Freddie has taken
his fair share of physical knocks, we reported on the broken leg,
I think it happened in Brazil, and in fact the broken leg has
happened on more than one occasion
Freddie: I've actually broken it three times, but it's not
broken, I think broken is the wrong thing, I've just torn my
ligament, which I think is worse sometimes, so it's nothing to do
with bones, it's just my ligaments in the right knee. I used to
do a lot of um, exercises and weight, weight lifting and all
that, and then sort of um, I can't really, because I can't really
put pressure on my, my right knee anymore, so therefore I'm sort
of limited in the kind of exercises on the weight lifting I do,
and one performance on, on a German tour, I actually collapsed, I
just did a wrong move, and, and right, right on the front stage,
I just, in all spotlights and everything, I just collapsed, and
they thought it was part of the show, but of course I couldn't
get up again, but as, you know, the show must go on, I, I sort
of, I was in agony but I just said I'll, I'll do two more songs
but seated at the piano, because at least I can, so they carried
me on again, and, and, it was the only time I've actually done
this, so at the end of the show, I couldn't take my bow, I was
just sat there, because I couldn't move, but I was sat at the
piano, I did, I did 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'We Are The
Champions', and you know the rest of the group had to leave and
then straight to hospital
[Excerpt of 'We Are The Champions']
Simon: 'We Are The Champions'. It's eleven twenty five, we now
know he's been under a lot of strain, so let's talk about the
future with Freddie Mercury on a Wednesday morning
Jingle: The best sound in Britain, Radio 1
Simon: So is Freddie thinking of putting his feet up for a while?
Freddie: Far be it from me to say that, that I don't want to do
nothing, and um, people are saying OK now I've done my solo
project and they think I'm, I'm actually gonna just stay that
way, but no way, I mean I just, I do love working with Queen, and
I think the next project is going to be the next Queen album,
and, but the only thing I, I did sort of point out to them is
that I need a well deserved rest, I mean, I mean, in, in terms of
schedule and all, all that, I mean we should be doing a Queen
album now, you see, but I mean because I did my solo project, it
sort of, I sort of went off on a tangent, and now everything is
sort of coming a bit late, and I just said look, for me to do it
properly, I, I need a little bit of rest, so I mean I think the
next Queen album is scheduled in December
[Excerpt of 'Made In Heaven']
Simon: Freddie Mercury. I was trying to think of a way to sum him
up, er, one thing he said to me that we weren't able to use in
this piece of tape, there's so much material we actually had that
we couldn't use, we were talking about the appearance that Queen
are gonna make at Live Aid, and he said he was delighted about
it, and I said how can you be delighted, it's a mega concert for
everybody, mega's a word I shouldn't use, no-one is gonna be able
to do a voice check, a sound check or a lighting check, it'll be
just Queen exposed, naked as it were, and he said I'm delighted
about that, because it will actually prove to people that Queen
are a musical band, not just an effects band
Brian on 'The Way It Is' with David 'Kid' Jensen, Capital Radio,
Wembley Stadium, London
Track 26. Length 4:38.
This interview was broadcast in July 1986.
David: Brian, I first met you about thirteen years ago, I guess
it was
Brian: In Luxemburg, I remember it well
David: In Luxemburg, that's right, it was a very different sort
of gig there, I guess it was about two hundred people in a club
with a very low ceiling
Brian: Yes, that's right, very strange, I think by special
request we didn't do the second half, or something like that, it
wasn't a momentous occasion
David: Playing live is one of the reasons that people want to be
in groups, I know, I mean do you, do you, has your attitude
changed at all from, from, I don't know, thirteen years ago, to
live work?
Brian: No, not as regards that, no, it still what I regard myself
as doing, definitely, I'm a guy who likes to play guitar on a
stage in front of people, I love it, it's great. The rest of the
business is a little iffy at times, you know, the rest of the
things you have to do, but um, no it's great, that's what I need
to do, there's, there's really nothing like that feeling, if it's
going well, and I just, I just enjoy the sound, I enjoy the
interaction and the whole thing, that's what I do, I do
David: Well, the thing I was gonna say, sorry, one of the things
about being successful, like you are in Queen unlike thirteen
years ago when you were struggling a little bit to, to get
recognition, is that at least you can play quieter songs, and you
can use dynamics now, and people aren't going to be shouting
about, they're going to be listening to what's gonna happen next
Brian: True, that's right, yeah, yeah, that's true, yeah, you can
hopefully go the whole range of emotion. We always did try and do
that, but it's um, you get a little more freedom as you go on,
it's right, yeah, you can, you can take the audience a little bit
further in certain directions, I suppose, but er, we're still
basically the same, you know, we always believed in light and
shade, and in, and in real songs, and doing them in a way that
they, they move people, that's what all the big drama, and all
this, you know this so-called er, you know the, the dramatic show
business is all about, it's not show for it's own sake, it's to
put the stuff across
David: This is why you've employed all these stagehands to um,
erect the biggest stage that Wembley has ever seen, and the
biggest lighting rig, this mass of screens, I mean it's just,
when you walk in, before any, anybody strikes a chord, the show's
on, because it's just, it's visually there isn't it, it's just
part of it you know
Brian: Yeah, I'm so pleased with how it's worked out. We've been
talking about this for months, obviously, and planning and we
have some great people, we have a wonderful team, and um,
everybody's done one hundred and fifty percent to get this up, it
took five days to put this together, just for this one Wembley
thing, and it was very touch and go whether it could be done, but
it's great, I think it looks wonderful, and it's the first stage
ever in Wembley which looks like it fits the place, I think,
usually it gets lost in the corner somewhere, you know, but this
actually, the important thing also is that it gives us the
ability to get out and get closer to the, the people, you know
we're not just in a little picture frame at one end of the, the
place, we can get out and do things, it's very three dimensional
David: Absolutely. I'm as guilty as anybody in the media, or
maybe a little bit less guilty than some, about passing on second
hand information about Queen splitting, and I have since read
denials in the press that you are not splitting, um, having first
got the information from the newspapers in the first place that
you were going to split, I mean, are you going to, are you gonna
call it a quits at the end of this year as some people have
suggested?
Brian: No, no, I don't think there's much chance. We um, we have
our little altercations at times, but er, I think we're
functioning now better than we've done for years and years, we,
we actually like each other, and we enjoy being together, and er,
it's a great moment for us, I think er, we're, we're full of
energy, and the only choice is whether to go back in the studio
after this tour, or else take the tour to some place else,
because we feel like we're hot, we're going on, on all four, you
know, firing on all thirty five
David: It would be easy to say to any interviewer at any
particular gig that this concert is special to you, but I know
that Wembley is special to you, why is that?
Brian: Well, it's the home town gig, apart from anything else,
and it's a place that you grow up knowing is the sort of, the
unobtainable Mecca or whatever, you know, and I've seen a few
groups play here, um, and I've seen football here when I was a
kid, and it's just a, it does move your bowels a bit, you know,
to be here doing this, it is, it's a dream come true to be
honest, I wouldn't say it any other way, it's like a, every boy's
dream to be able to do this and pull it off, we haven't pulled it
off yet, so I'm crossing my fingers, you know
David: I, I think the great trick for playing a concert like
Wembley is to do as Springsteen, who is the only major artist
I've ever seen play here before, make the place feel like that
club in Luxemburg again, you know, you forget that there's no
ceiling on the place, you are at one, it's like a community of
rock 'n' roll fans, you know, with the people they most admire
Brian: That's right, yeah, that's true, and I think that's,
that's our aim too, and it's a very, our show is a very two way
thing, and we need that rapport with the audience, and Freddie is
actually a master of, of whatever it is that it takes to do that,
and he's our natural focus, and it is, he just has that knack,
and wherever, whenever he walks on the stage, the energy flows
kind of through us, through him, to the crowd and back again,
it's a great feeling, I think we're very lucky, you know we're a
fortunate combination, and we realise it
David: Sure, well it happened at Live Aid where for most people
you're the ones that stole the show, whether here or for those of
us that were watching it on television, it was, it was pretty
impressive to see, and I'm looking forward to your concert
tonight Brian, good luck
Brian: Thanks
