[Closed] Queen. (The Freddie, not royal type)

Yeh, I was "too cool" to go to see them when my (wiser) brother went 🙁

Saw them live at the Playhouse in Edinburgh when Bo Rap was #1 in the charts.

DAYOOOOOOOO!

Live Killers (70s) or Live Magic (80s)?

I'm just gonna go check. I hated them when I was a kid, it just clicked one day...

Live magic.

Oh Freddie. I still remember where I was and the moment I heard the news.

Who wants to live forever?

Sometimes wonder what Freddie would have been like had he lived, would he have been a judge on the voice?........... would he hell!

a classic showman, singer,performer,who created some fantastic visual and vocal performances, and one of the first pop videos.

I reckon a recluse.

Not ramming truckers from behind or singing candle in the wind.

Ding Ding

Think I prefer Live Killers to Live Magic - possibly because I trusted my two mates to go and get us three tickets for the Live Magic Wembley gig and the bastards only got two....

Still worth watching the Live Aid videos, especially when you remember that Queen weren't exactly "hip" at the time and then look at the audience reaction.

[url= http://www.earvolution.com/2011/07/queen-at-live-aid-greatest-twenty.html ]Queen at Live Aid: The Greatest Twenty Minutes in the History of Rock 'n Roll[/url]

My uncle was there. He still recalls it as one of the greatest days he's ever had!

my mum took me to see queen at St James Park when I was 10. I'll never forget the rush when they came on, I go picked up and carried 50 yards! what an incredible night

My brother was, as he reminds me often, front row for live magic at wembley. He's even on the vid on his mates shoulders during gaga. One of his greatest experiences looking back at wembley doing the clap.

Disappointed that Sacha Baron Cohen won't be playing Freddy in the biopic of his life!

First ever gig was Magic at Wembley 1986. I'm never going to beat that.

Gutted I couldn't get the day off work for Live Aid. Had I known the significance I'd have just gone.

Still, did see them at Maine Road the next summer with the Quo supporting (and Beleious Some opening).

Bloke in our meeting today was the absolute spitting image of Freddie, moustace and all, only Indian. Bizarre!

Bloke in our meeting today was the absolute spitting image of Freddie, moustace and all, only Indian. Bizarre!

Farrokh Bulsara himself was of Indian extraction.

Just watched the Live Aid footage. Freddie was brilliant but the concert looks so dated without with out big festival style screens. How did they see at the back?

Bloke in our meeting today was the absolute spitting image of Freddie, moustace and all, only Indian. Bizarre!

Young Freddie.

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Yeh, I was "too cool" to go to see them when my (wiser) brother went

This. My mates dad offered to take us the its a kind of magic gig at Knebworth and we turned it down as we were also "too cool"; you live and learn.

Yep, cracking voice - it was the May noodling that put me off..
I loved Flash Gordon ,when I was 13. 🙂

"saviour of the universe"

Soooooo glad I got to see them live before the end.

And it was only just too, saw them at Marbella Municipal Stadium on the Live Magic tour.
The next gig they did after that was the last they ever did together !

I'll never forget that night, and don't reckon I'll ever go to a better gig.

Never saw them live but went to the tribute gig at Wembley, wow never realised at the time just how big some of the names were that played there that day.

I agree he had a good voice.
The music was not to my taste though.
Each to their own I suppose.
I always preferred the dulcet tones of Bonn Scott and Brian Johnson.
Brian May certainally is no Angus young.

Knebworth. Last ever gig. Glad to say I was there.

iolo - Member

Brian May certainally is no Angus young.

No, May's a far better musician. 😉

Brian May certainally is no Angus young.

Brian May certainally is no Angus young.
correct, as he knows more than 3 chords.

I think you underestimate Mr Young. He may not be able to write a symphony but he certainly knows how to write a rock song , and with more than 3 chords.

Bloke in our meeting today was the absolute spitting image of Freddie, moustace and all, only Indian. Bizarre!

Freddie Mercury was Zorastrian so historically of Persian descent. Way back when (don't know exactly) the Zorastrians fled Persia a lot of them ending up in India.

I'm sure someone will be along to correct me if I'm wrong on this. My ex's nan was Zorastrian and I think I got this from her.

I never got to see them live... But, the tribute concert was basically the day I discovered music, I'd never been interested at all before but it blew me away. James Hetfield doing Stone Cold Crazy 8). So cheers Freddie!

A mate of mine (Terry Phillips) got battered at a Queen gig at Cardiff Castle :lol:, he didnt have any interest in Queen but Elvis Costello was opening. The weather was pretty wet and wild and when Queen came on he was standing way off to the side of the stage, believe it or not eating some sarnies his mum had made for him. Towards the end of the set he felt something hit him in the chest looking down he saw it was a tambourine. Freddy had tossed it off (fnar fnar)the stage and the wind caught it. He looked up and was engulfed by Queen fans all fighting to get there hands on Freddies tambourine. When he told us this tale of woe we were pissing ourselves but what really finished us off was "and some bastard robbed my sandwiches as well"

Only saw them once and that was at Knebworth , Belouis Some opened and got bottled off stage, Quo were special guest and brilliant, had a roadie with a huge cardboard guitar on top of the lighting rig and eventually got him down on stage with them, Big Country were support and very good then Queen were amazing headlining. Have seen many bands of many genres and still believe Freddie to be the best 'frontman' of anyone, his stage presence and the way he could work a crowd, in my opinion, second to none.

Don't know why, but the phrase "stuffing badgers" just popped into my head...

I always thought Freddie was a bit of a coward as he didn't reveal he had Aids until the day before he died, guess he was just ashamed. But he could done lots of good for the cause.

What business was it of anyone else? And what have you done with your life that entitles you to make a comment like that?

It's a fair point. Off stage, Freddie was known to avoid the public eye (other than his huge parties) - he didn't actively seek out publicity. Hell of a singer and possibly my favourite band of all time

But he could done lots of good for the cause

He apparently has.

I worshipped Queen in my early teens and then my brother turned up with tickets for the Magic tour at Wembley with INXS, The Alarma and Status Quo in support. I still remember the concert and the flying bottles of piss like it was yesterday, my brother was (and still is) my total hero.
It was also such a shame that they started a Queen song at the Olympics closing ceremony with Freddie and then let Jessie J take over. Fair play to her for stepping up but it would have been such a moment to have heard the original.

What I think sets apart Queen from most (all?) other artists who achieved the scale of success they did was the diversity of their work. You might prefer AC/DC but AC/DC pretty much make one type of song, Queen did everything from piano ballads to hard rock to funk to rockabilly and did a pretty convincing job of all of it (apart from their attempt at disco, that was a bit pants).

The only other artist I can think of that comes close in terms of changing sounds and genres is Bowie.

What's a pity is that since Freddie died and John Deacon retired, the two remaining members who continue to operate under the "Queen" brand are the guitar-rock guys and, fair play to them, they are good at it, but Queen, in their day, were so much more than that.

This thread has kicked off a Queen Spotify session as I sit here modelling various things, great stuff.

"Flash, we only have 24 hours to save the Earth"

What's a pity is that since Freddie died and John Deacon retired, the two remaining members who continue to operate under the "Queen" brand are the guitar-rock guys

Not really bothered to listen to any post-Freddie Queen stuff, it doesn't interest me. Perhaps they're just going in the direction they think the fans/audience wants? I have a lot of respect for Deacon for calling it a day when he did.

"Flash, we only have 24 hours to save the Earth"

I'm not knocking Brian May, and I agree he's a very talented guy, but nevertheless, he and Taylor have very much narrowed the focus to a more guitar rock sound, particularly during the "+Paul Rodgers" period.

And having seen Brian May's solo show during the "Back the the Light" tour, he was very much hard guitar rock back then, with a backing band with people like Cozy Powell, second guitarist ex-Whitesnake etc.

I get the impression from interviews etc. that May and Taylor really regret, even resent, the way Queen and the US pretty much ignored each other from the early 80s onwards and their more recent efforts (especially the Paul Rodgers stuff) seemed to be squarely targetting the American "rawk" audience.

Holding out hope that one day we'll have a reveal all Deacon autobiog, a la John Densmore, but I don't think it'll happen. He could write it and donate all the profits to the Higgins trust as I'm sure he doesn't need the money.

Live Magic is a brilliant album!

One of his greatest experiences looking back at wembley doing the clap.

Live Magic is a bloody terrible album! Cheaply done, short as hell and badly edited. They did later issue a fuller album of the same Wembley concert, can't remember what it was called, but even then, tbh it's not Freddie at his best - he blows his voice out fairly early on and it's not one of his greatest vocal performances on record.

If you want a decent Queen live album, go for Live Killers: late 70s heyday, includes the full Brighton Rock (the track from which May's big solo came - in later years he'd still do the solo but without the song around it) and the "fast" version of We Will Rock You. And Death On Two Legs. And In Love With My Car. And Get Down Make Love. And the big hits (up to that point, obviously).

EDIT: Got confused, most of Live Magic is from Knebworth, not Wembley, which explains why the vocals on the Wembley album seemed stronger (I thought there might have been some sneaky overdubs). Turns out I'm not alone in my low opinion of Live Magic though, according to Wikipedia in 2004 Q Magazine listed it as "one of the top five disappointing live albums from usually great acts."

I've met Brian May a number of times now. He is a knobber of quite epic proportions. I think a good judge of people is how they treat others they can get away with being rude to - he fails that test by some margin. It's a good thing I'm a reasonably passive person who values his job above the short term pleasure of giving a bell-end a kicking.

convert, you're not in the badger culling business are you?

No, but I'd happily be in the aging rock star culling business!

jekkyl - Member
I always thought Freddie was a bit of a coward as he didn't reveal he had Aids until the day before he died, guess he was just ashamed. But he could done lots of good for the cause.

POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

What a stupid post.

I always thought Freddie was a bit of a coward as he didn't reveal he had Aids until the day before he died, guess he was just ashamed. But he could done lots of good for the cause.

What a stupid pathetic post, plus 10,000.

When FM, acquired HIV, it was mostly classed as a gay disease, asd gay people where not as well treated as they are now,probably a lot of pressure was brought by his record comapny and PR people to keep it quiet, so to save upsetting the masses.

Even today people dont announce openly they are HIV positive,due to the stigma that it may be from sexual activity, as opposed to fluid transfer, blood transfusions of years ago or sharing needle.

Someone gets cancer, all love and cuddles, someone gets HIV, and a wall is suddenly put up round them, and its not openly talked about.

The only other artist I can think of that comes close in terms of changing sounds and genres is Bowie.

Er well I'm a big fan of both but Zappa's in a league of his own in this respect.