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Interview
by Scott Sterling-Wilder
5-3-2004
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| Queen at Wembley: the last rocking show |
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Piquant service forever
Lost words of a megastar Justin Darkness can never be like
Pepsi used their song in the Beyoncé-Britney-Pink commercial, the musical based on their catalogue, ‘We Will Rock You’, continues to run in front of a sell-out London/Melbourne/Madrid crowds and opening in Las Vegas, Moscow and a dozen other countries! The Darkness are reviving the glam-interest plainly based on this band’s legend/image/extravaganzas but - laydeez and gents, there was only one Queen and, more importantly, their unique frontman!
Thus, in our newly restored time-machine, we travel to 1988 to recall an encounter with Freddie Mercury and present a profile-sketch. Then, we suggest you go and read a tabloid report on The Darkness. ’Nuff said.
~ ~ ~
During his illustrious career with Queen the greatest showman on earth, Freddie Mercury, had done many a varied thing, created genres, defined styles and inspired an army of imitators, from Dave Lee Roth to Justin Darkness. He was a performer like no other, larger than a couple of lives, as extravagantly entertaining as a troop of cross-dressers that were camping it to the hilt.
Off-stage he was a private person, shy and retiring, avoiding promotion as much as informal encounters. When he did interviews, FM was polite, succinct and often - curt. He never dissed others and was self-effacing to the point of - embarrassing (to reporters) modesty. Mr Hyde was reserved for the stages of the world and when it was unleashed - it was the rock’s equivalent to the Colossus of Rhodes.
One of Mercury’s most brave, outrageous and [seemingly] bizarre ventures was leaving his skimpy dress sense of Queen behind to emerge as a suit-a-bow-tie crusader joining forces with opera diva Monserrat Caballe for ‘Barcelona’ album. They even duetted live at a show to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic flag and to launch the Cultural Olympics in the town of the same name.
There were guest musicians on the record but the only colleague playing on the album was John Deacon, bass-guitaring on ‘How Can I Go On’. Collaboration with Caballe was actually instigated by a newspaper report that Mercury was in Spain to meet Ms Caballe rather than to do a TV show. Nine months later they did meet, Freddie had two songs already written for her, and they “spent the afternoon singing together,” Mercury recalled a couple of years after the event.
A week later he had a surprise when Caballe included one of the songs, ‘Exercises in Free Love’, at a recital in London. Mercury was obviously cognisant of her career while she had some notion about his stature.
“She apparently had heard of me before but prior to our meeting she went out and got all my albums and started listening to all Queen stuff. And apparently she thought she might have had to perform something like that, which was a scream!?”
“I wasn’t going to give her all the Brian May guitar solos... That was the last thing I wanted her to do. I was going to use her voice within the operatic structure It’s not that she wasn’t a game to try things... She was eager to try even more gospel style of
singing...”
Flick of a wrist
Freddie Mercury was born Frederick Bulsara in Zanzibar who, by the age of 13, moved to London suburbia of Feltham. By 1971 (aged 25), Queen was ready to rock but it took a couple more years and their second album, ‘Queen II’, to elevate them to headliners. A trio of groundbreaking albums - ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ (1974), ‘A Night At The Opera’ (1975) and ‘A Day At The Races’ (1976) - established them as the stadium act.
Queen were a powerful music machine but it was its front man who made it a spectacle and, for about a decade, until their final show in mid-1980s, no one could touch Mercury’s onstage mastery, not even the Rock‘s commander, Mick Jagger.
Alas, the band stopped touring after Knebworth Festival appearance in August 1986 and the other members were repeating that FM was reluctant to go touring again. It was hard to imagine him not missing concerts where he appeared to have such fun onstage and being such a great performer to watch.
“Well, thank you... To a certain extent I miss it but there are priorities... You have to have an album to have a reason to tour, to present it in a live situation. Just going out and playing old songs is not that much fun... The trouble is that you can’t do everything at the same time...”
After couple of years offstage, the Barcelona appearance was nerve-wrecking.
“I was nervous but I always am. But it was good that I was with Montserrat who comes from there, loves the city and it had calming effect on me. She was very pleased to be there. The good thing was that there were other artists as well.”
“Dione Warwick was there, Rudolf Nureyev was dancing, Spandau Ballet were there. Earth Wind And Fire, Vangelis... It was just the start of the Olympic feel going. I haven‘t done anything like this since…”
… The charity performance of the musical ‘Time’, starring Cliff Richard?
“True and I did that because I had recorded the title song for the soundtrack album. It was great to be on stage again...”
Out of time
Mercury’s solo stuff was rare because he could achieve everything he wanted within the band. The only real solo LP, ‘Mr Bad Guy’, was released in 1985, although he had a ‘solo’ [pre-Queen debut] single, ‘I Can Hear Music/Goin’ Back’, under the Larry Lurex alias. He also did soundtracks, aside the band’s ‘Flash Gordon’ (1980) - ‘Love Kills’ for the ‘Metropolis’ remake in 1984, and ‘Time’ musical (’85). All leading to his solo work…
“In a way although I was already thinking about it. I thought that the world could be ready for a Freddie Mercury solo record and I was thinking to explore some other musical areas.”
With all these extra-curricular activities, songs written for Queen could never be the same again…
“Well, it is going to be diverse as Queen records have always been. It is going to be different and yet the same... I’ve written some very nice songs for it.”
[The album he was referring to turned out to be ‘The Miracle’ (1989) that wasn’t match to, let’s say, ‘The Game’, nine years earlier.]
Queen songs have been covered by many artists, including Elaine Page, but he never found that either flattering or dissatisfying.
“I don’t really think about it... It almost feels like it is not my song anymore. Anyway, people have the right to do whatever they want.”
Sense of humour and obvious love of parodies was Mercury’s jug and he even found the Bad News cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ bringing a smile to his moustache’d lip.
“Yes, and should have because Brian was involved with it. Great sense of humour those guys!” [Four comedians in a blatant Spinal Tap homage].
On the 23 November 1991 Mercury lost his 2 year silent battle against AIDS, that was announced to the world only the previous day. A tribute concert was held the following Spring at Wembley Stadium, the crop of the music stars paid their respects: Elton John, Guns N’Roses, David Bowie, George Michael…
The music was great but not a patch on the Mercury’s legacy… He’s left the great vacancy behind…
Scott Sterling-Wilder
5-3-2004
Queen catalogue is available on EMI
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