Ffloramint - Chopaeng

Is there a memory of Freddie Mercury that will always accompany you, an image that makes it unique to you for eternity?

“The first time I realized Freddie’s extraordinary enthusiasm was when I was once with him at his home when he lived with his mother. He had a tiny turntable with two speakers on either side, he made me listen to Hendrix’s ‘Axis Bold As Love’ … He was out of breath, gesturing all the time, telling me where I needed to be, where I was supposed to stand: "Go, do not move, there, listen here, good, now stand to the left, you hear this bass, and there, come back this drum roll, wait, try to listen to the guitar, no do not move there, on the left … ’. And I said to myself: oh my God, this guy loves Hendrix even more than me, and I thought I was his biggest fan … Freddie did not miss any of his shows, he was following his tours at the time, he was very heavy . He was so passionate at the time, convinced that he would become a star. He would hang out on Kensington Market and then he would say to me, 'Oh, I met Planty (Robert Plant) earlier, we had a little talk. ” And I told him, 'But Fred, you’re not a star yet, you’re crazy’, that was totally him. “

Brian May, Rock & Folk, 1993 (translated from french)

“ It’s very strange.  We met Freddie first of all, Roger and I, because he was one the best friends of our singer in a group called “Smile”, and we met him at Ealing Tech where Freddie was studying Graphic Design.  He spent all his time drawing pictures of Jimi Hendrix and a few other people and I came here and I distinctly remember walking in the gate and going into his little living room  where he had a record player.  It was a Dansette record player and autochanger and the vinyl records that were used on it were quite magical, and I think there’s a nice resurgence of vinyl going on at the moment for good reason - but I distinctly remember him putting the record on and it was a Jimi Hendrix record.  I think it was “Axis Bold As Love”, and he goes, “Brian, Brian, Brian, listen, listen, listen”, and I goes “Yes, Jimi Hendrix, love Jimi Hendrix, he’s magic”, you know.  And he goes, “No, no, no, listen what they do, what they do in the production. See, this guitar comes round here, and you come round to the other speaker, it comes out here.  They’re panning it around, they’re moving around. This is the kind of thing we have to do, you know.  This is what we gotta do”.  And I thought “What?”  He says “Yes, yes, we’re gonna be a group”.

Brian May, at the Freddie Mercury blue plaque unveiling ceremony, 2016.

I love that he’s still cherishing the same memory after all those years.

Excellent article.

huw.substack.com

Nobody Left to Believe

Why are gays so afraid of Freddie Mercury?

Freddie Mercury gives a radio interview after their show in Detroit, January* Boston, February 1977.

It's so lovely oh my god 🥰 He's so toughtful and soft-spoken, chuckling to himself saying "oh dear, oh dear"! Also, the mic must be so close to him! I listened to it with headphones and it was like he was speaking directly into my ear.

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Some interesting bits (time stamps approximate):

6:10 - talking about being business savy and learning from Smile's experience getting ripped off

14:40 - Freddie got the idea of playing the entirety of BoRhap live while rehearsing for the tour in Boston

18:30 - Roger has books about the Marx brothers and Freddie sees some parallels between their and Queen's approach to their art (meticulous)

23:15 - "That's the whole fucking point of doing it!"

23:50 - they weren't confident initially to play the lighter stuff (Freddie at the piano etc.) on stage when they were just starting out, focusing on the hard rock aspect instead

24:45 - Freddie is being served tea

26:30 - They want to do Long Away live and have rehearsed it, but don't feel it's quite right yet [spoiler: they're never going to play it live *cries* I wonder who'd have sung it, Freddie or Brian...]

27:40 - Somebody to Love is 'nerve-wrecking' and 'a killer': "The first time we ever did it we did it so fast - we just wanted to get it over with."

27:36 - "You want some tea?"

29:10 - Freddie munching on a biscuit?

36:30 - How to keep an accurate picture of yourself with all the things written in the press. Lovely bit.

40 - How they write their songs and approach album recording.

43:15 - They are quite rudely cut off because Roger and John are sitting outside waiting for their turn (Brian already had his turn)

Also, this is the interview where Freddie forgets the name of Brian's 'vaudeville' contribution to ANATO (Good Company) and tries to remember it for a whole blessed minute (forgot to note the time stamp).

(Yes, the others' interviews are also on Youtube, and I'll spend the rest of my day listening to them 😊)

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*It seems the date and place on the vid is wrong, since Brian implies in his interview that they're in Boston.

Interview with Brian

Interview with Roger

Interview with John

(x)

Ok in an interview (maybe from 2011?) Brian was asked this; forgive the quality from his old, crusty website:

[in case you can’t see:

Question: What does QUEEN mean to you?

Brian: A White Queen and a Black Queen. Pleasure and Pride. Stress and Pain. A sword in my hand and a chain around my neck.]

There are a few things to unpack but...the two colored queens were always his thing with Freddie. Brian wore white nail polish, wrote “White Queen”, and often wore his white Zandra Rhodes outfit on stage, while Freddie wore black nail polish, wrote “March of the Black Queen”, and more often wore black outfits on stage. Fans used to paint their nails a certain color to support Freddie or Brian, so this color motif was only their thing.

Here’s what strikes me. First, Brian’s response to what Queen means to him is essentially “me and Freddie.” Second, this stopped being a real thing on stage by the mid-to-late 70s and I’d guess most casual fans don’t even know about this dynamic, especially nowadays, but it was the first thing to pop into Brian’s head. This dynamic meant so much to him. I am Emotional

brian may talking about freddie mercury during the early days of queen ❣️

 THE UNSUNG WRITING ‘PARTNERSHIP’ OF MERCURY-MAY

I think what you’ve got with Queen is the Lennon-McCartney, the Buckingham-Nicks, the Townsend-Daltrey… You’ve got the two people in Freddie Mercury and Brian May who actually couldn’t really have done it on their own and needed each other — Trevor Dann

Pls, someone just give him a bicycle😭