The Queen Story – BBC Radio
One
24.12.77
Interviewed
by Tom Browne
Tom Browne: Hello there. Radio One proudly presents in
two programmes, the members of Queen talking about themselves and their music.
Queen as they are now were formed in February 1971 and have become one of the
most successful rock acts in the world. With six major albums and ten hit
singles. Well let me introduce you now to the members of Queen. First of all,
vocalist and piano player…
Freddie: Freddie Mercury…ha-ha-ha.
Tom Browne: On guitar and arranging and writing…
Brian: Brian May, I’m here.
Tom Browne: On drums…
Roger: And occasional vocals, Roger Taylor.
Tom Browne: Welcome Roger. And on bass and electric
piano…
John: Erm, John Deacon.
Tom Browne: Right, together they’ve sold over 40
million records worldwide, that’s quite something. First of all, let me ask you
Freddie, how did it all begin?
Freddie: Very briefly, Brian and Roger were in a very
up tempo raucous band called Smile and I used to be in another band called
Wreckage or something…
Roger: Even more up tempo with a name like Wreckage!
Freddie: Even more up tempo, and we used to be
friends, going to collage together and met up. After the first couple of years
knowing each other, we decided we’d form a band together and it’s as simple as
that. We thought our musical ideas would blend. Then we met John and decided to
call the band Queen.
Tom Browne: Roger, can we go to the beginnings of the
group. You and Freddie were working on a stall in Kensington market?
Roger: Ah yes, partners in crime. Yes it was really a
social centre at the time. At the time when Queen were at its formative stages,
we were going through all the traumas with trying to find somebody to manage us
and find a record company etc. We slogged our way around, made some demo tapes
etc, through some friends and hawked them around the business as it was and
still is. Eventually securing ourselves with several companies that were
interested. We did a gig I think, was King’s Collage, somewhere down South
London and got a lot of record companies along. We started to try and wheel and
deal a bit in a way into a good recording situation.
Tom Browne: How long did it take you from the time
that you made the demo, to the time that you actually got a recording contract?
Roger: It felt like about 80 years..!
Brian: It was about two years…
Roger: Yeah, about 18 months – two years yeah.
Brian: There was a great dealing of frustration at the
time. The first album was really old songs by the time it came out, as far as
we were concerned. It puts us in a strange position. We were one of the groups
that came along with a show and an idea of a complete production with the stage
show and everything. Which by the time the record came out and particularly by
the time it got played by everyone like all this, as it takes so long to get
things all going. It was all sounding like old news, people were inclined to
tag us as the tail end of ‘Glitter Rock’ or something.
MODERN TIMES ROCK & ROLL
Roger: The erm, fairly sour relationship with the
music press as it’s called in this country.
Tom Browne: You don’t like the music press?
Roger: No, to be perfectly honest no!
Tom Browne: Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Freddie: From the very beginning, as far as the music
press are concerned, they like to put up and coming bands into a particular
bag, to what they think, and we just rebelled and wanted to do what we thought
was right and not go along with what they were saying. Since the early stages,
there’s always been this fracas.
Roger: Yes, from day one with the release of our first
album. Plus the fact that before our actual release, we were virtually totally
unheard of. Then, suddenly we were – not particularly famous, but heard of at
least and they always like to think that they’ve got one up on you and like to
think that they’ve predicted something. Then all of a sudden there we were and
we were playing to an awful amount of people. It took people father by surprise
I think.
Tom Browne: Was the style though which you created,
was that thought out from the outset, or did it just evolve as time went by?
Brian: There were certain ideas which we had in our
heads, certain patterns that we wanted to try and live up to. And I think, to
put it crudely. We started off thinking we’d be a kind of heavy group, but with
good melodies and harmonies and the other things grew out of that. The first
album was really just putting down what we did on stage at that time. It was
quick into the studios and quick out. Even at that time, lots of big ideas were
about what we could do in a studio if we were let loose with the proper time in
the studios. We saved all that up for “Queen 2”. But a lot of “Queen 2” stuff
was written at the time we made the first album.
Tom Browne: Ok, take some music now from “Queen 1”.
The first track that we’re going to play was in fact your first single taken
from “Queen 1” it’s called “Keep Yourself Alive”.
KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE
Tom Browne: The single Brian, were you disappointed
that this didn’t do better?
Brian: Oh yes, it takes me back very vividly to the
time actually because this is just the time when we started. We did a few gigs
on our own, some small gigs. Then went onto support Mott the Hoople and went
around the whole country getting some really good reactions. Thinking ‘yeah,
we’re finally getting somewhere’, and all the time watching the single and
album and nothing appeared anywhere in the charts. And it just seemed like an
impossible wall, how con it be done? We couldn’t get the single played on the
radio at all. There were a couple of people playing it, but it didn’t get any
power playing. There’s no doubt that the beginning is the worst. You’ve got no
track record, no reputation.
Tom Browne: John, can I come to you now, we haven’t
heard from you I’m sorry. You’ve got a degree in electronics. Did this mean that
the group would come and ask you questions when they had complicated bits of
machinery to look at?
John: Not particularly, I used to help out in the
early days when we all started out, just the four of us and our roadie John
Harris who’s been with us right at the beginning. Between me and him we used to
a lot in the early days. But now we have a larger crew of about twenty who look
after it all for us.
Tom Browne: Well being in a pathetic two track studio
with all this marvellous space age electronics around, do you find it difficult
to keep your hands of little buttons and saying ‘What’s this, what’s that’?
John: We do, all of us try and learn what the studio
does because that helps to get the sounds and ideas and to do what you want.
And we’ve all taken interest in what it is possible to do in a studio
technically. I mean, if a musician doesn’t know how to do that, then it limits
their put down on tape.
Tom Browne: Now…you were playing bass, first of all
with Roger?
John: No, I came down to London and was down here for
two years and wasn’t playing at all. I used to play before I came to London in
groups in school and gave it up when I came down. And after I was down here for
about two years I bumped into Roger and Brian and I heard socially because they
were playing in the same collages around London. I heard that they were looking
for a bass player and I said I was interested, and went along for an audition
and it happened like that. I think you’d been together for about six months
previously hadn’t you?
Roger I think longer actually, you mean as Queen yeah?
We were going through about three bass players a week actually and eventually
found John.
John: And I seemed to fit in.
Tom Browne: Did you individually agree on the kind of
music that you were going to play?
John: Well erm, I dunno. They were already formed and
had all the musical ideas then of what they were trying to do and I just fitted
in really at that time.
Brian: He’s very modest.
John: My development came later, it took me a few
years to settle in.
Tom Browne: Well John, It’s your personal choice. What
would you like to play?
John: Ye, I’ve chosen a track by Marvin Gaye “I Heard
It On The Grapevine”. I like a lot of these American ‘Tamlor’ things, the bass
players are very good and it’s a nice atmospheric song.
Tom Browne: Ok, let’s hear it.
I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE – MARVIN GAYE
Tom Browne: John, you are a family man, am I correct?
John: Yes, sort of correct yes [laughs]. I have one
little boy yes.
Tom Browne: Do you find it difficult touring in the
States and being away from family?
John: It can be a strain yeah, but I try and make the
two work together. Which can be difficult, but I try to fit it in.
Tom Browne: How does he react to Daddy being a big
star?
John: I dunno, he can’t talk yet! [All laugh].
Tom Browne: How do you think he will react?
John: I dunno, we’ll see then. He’s just starting to
talk now actually, so I’ll find out what he’s been thinking.
Roger: John’s also the business brains of the group.
Tom Browne: He’s the business brain?
John: I tend to look into that a bit, yes.
Tom Browne: So you’re examining the contracts and
checking the returns etc…
John: It is nice, when you get to the level that we’ve
got to, it’s nice to see what’s going on.
Tom Browne: Brian, you did a degree in physics and
then went on to do a PhD in astronomy. What was the attraction of astronomy?
Brian: Something I’ve always been interested in. As a
kid I used to look at the stars and build a telescope and things. It was just a
thought that if I ever had the chance to be an astronomer, I would give it a
go.
THE SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE
Tom Browne: By the seaside… That was the single that
broke you, that started it all. Roger, why was there a little bit of “Seven
Seas Of Rhye” on “Queen 1” and repeated again on “Queen 2”?
Roger: Well, I think Freddie had half written the song
and we thought it was a nice ‘tail out’ to the first album, with the idea of
starting the second album with the song.
Freddie: With the finished…
Roger: With the finished song yeah. So we’d lead in
nicely. In fact we ended the second album with this song and it had changed a
little by then and we’d released it as a single because we thought it was
fairly strong.
Tom Browne: Freddie if I can go to you, to the man
that wrote it. The lyrics, what does it mean?
Freddie: Oh gosh you should never ask me that! My
lyrics are basically for peoples interpretations really. I’ve forgotten what
they were all about.
Tom Browne: What were the Seven Seas of Rhye?
Freddie: It’s really factitious, I know it’s like bowing
out or the easy way out, but that’s what it is. It’s just a figment of your
imagination.
Tom Browne: You have rather a surrealistic approach,
is that the right word?
Freddie: An imaginative approach I think, yes.
Tom Browne: An imaginative approach, yes.
Freddie: It all depends on what kind of song really.
At that time I was learning about a lot of things. Like song structure and as
far as lyrics go, they’re very difficult as far as I’m concerned. I find them
quite a task and my strongest point is actually melody content. I concentrate
on that first; melody, then the song structure, then the lyrics come after
actually.
Tom Browne: Are you influenced by Salvador Dali?
Freddie: Not really. I admire him yes, it’s not as
involved as that. I don’t take things like paintings too literally. The only
time I did do something like that was with a thing called “The Fairy-Fellow’s
Masterstroke” in which I was thoroughly inspired by a painting by Richard Dadd
which is in the Tate Gallery. I thought, I did a lot of research on it and it
inspired me to write a song about the painting. Depicting what I thought I saw
in it.
Tom Browne: What did you discover in your research
about this painting?
Freddie: It was just because I’d come through art
collage and I basically like the artist and I like the painting, so I thought
I’d like to write a song about it.
Tom Browne: We’re going to play this track.
Roger: It’s on “Queen 2”…
THE FAIRY- FELLOW’S MASTERSTROKE
Roger: That’s one of our first major experiments in
stereo I think.
Tom Browne: Do you sort out which songs go onto an
album, because you all write don’t you?
GROUP: Hmmm, yes…We row….We argue…
Freddie: We do write individually so we go our
separate ways from whenever the tour is over or whatever. Then we have a
teething period when we get together and play each other the new songs. Then
what happens is a huge sifting process which you find out songs.
Roger: Like, 'No way am I going to play that', or
'Forget it'!
Freddie: Things like that, also as far as the
individual song is concerned and also what will go with how the other songs
will sound with each other. So it's basically looking in terms of an album as
opposed to just individual songs.
Roger: Yeah, we have tried in the past to provide a
lot of variety in each album and a lot of contrasts and so we've had a good
cross section of material.
Tom Browne: Alright, well let's hear some of the heavy
side of your music with "The March Of The Black Queen" from
"Queen 2"
THE MARCH OF THE BLACK QUEEN
Tom Browne: Brian, you can say something about
"Queen 2"
Brian: I thought it was a good idea to play that
because "Queen 2" is an album which in some ways is the root of all
that happened thereafter I think. And if people hadn't heard that before, you
could think that was something off the new album really. It still sounds that
fresh to me and there are a lot of things you can still hear. There's a lot of
textured work with the intricate harmonies, the guitar harmonies and stuff. The
pre cursor of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in many ways. So I think that was a
very important album for us. It was also the first which came into the charts.
Tom Browne: How long did "The March Of The Black
Queen" take to record?
Roger: Until the tape went transparent. Genuinely!
Freddie: Those were the days of the 16 track studios
and we have now 24 and 32 track. Before when we did so many overdubs on 16
track. It was like, we just kept piling it on and on. It was like what Roger
means, the tape went transparent because it just couldn't take anymore. I think
it snapped in two places as well.
Roger: It had gone over the heads so many times with
the overdubbing, the oxide had worn off. (Sniggers).
Brian: It was a big step for us, certainly at the time
because no one was really doing that kind of thing in those days.
Roger: In fact when this album came out, we were doing
our first headlining tour. After supporting Mott The Hoople and gaining an
enormous amount of live experience and a large following really. For a
relatively new band.
Tom Browne: So Roger, you went on to support Mott The
Hoople in the States, right?
Roger: Yeah, it seemed the logical step, because it
had worked so well and we got on with them so well with them personally as
well. Which doesn't always happen to us. It's always good when the bands
touring together do get on well. And we really took the logical step and went
to America with them as well. We did learn quite a lot from them, they're a
really good live band.
Brian: Excellent live band, yeah.
Roger: We had a very good American tour up to the point
when Brian got Hepatitis and collapsed and we had to come home. At which point
things looked very black. (Laughs)
Tom Browne: You then did an extraordinary thing,
having supported once in England and having supported once in the States. You
then went to headline straight away in England and you then went and headlines
straight away in the States.
Roger: It was quite rare then yeah, because we did go
to playing The Rainbow by ourselves in one sort of step.
Freddie: We did take a lot of risks actually and I
think most of them paid off.
Roger: Yeah, most of them.
Tom Browne: In the States, you got yourselves an
American manager.
Roger: We already had him in fact. He was taken on by
Trident, who was the company which we were signed to at the time. A production
deal. I think he helped in many ways in our induction to America, being a yank.
He's from California.
Freddie: Basically, I think we'd signed all the
recording deals and publishing deals. So in effect we were signed to Trident
and at a later stage Jack Nelson came in (the person we're talking about), came
in to look after the management side of things. So he was brought in at a later
stage.
Brian: To make it a little clearer. When we came to
the point of signing the record contracts, there were a couple of record
companies that were interested. But instead of doing that, we signed to a
production company. And the deal is; you record for them and they do a deal
with a record company. So you're a kind of 'middle man' and Trident were this
'middle man'.
Roger: At the time it seemed a good idea because, an
established company, a fairly high power established company seems more able to
deal with the fairly high power record companies, than mere novice humble
musicians.
Brian: There is always a huge basic drawback in the
fact that your manager is then your record company. And you don't have anyone
that can represent you to the record company. So you have an impossible
situation where it's basically the band against everyone else. And it generated
friction in every department.
Tom Browne: Alright, we now come onto your third album
"Sheer Heart Attack" and the biggest hit from that which went to
number 2 in November 1974 was "Killer Queen".
KILLER QUEEN
Tom Browne: A lovely lady of your acquaintance then?
Freddie: No, another fictitious person.
Tom Browne: I mean there's wonderful lyrics, there's;
'Dynamite with a laser beam, guaranteed to blow your mind'. 'Gunpowder
gelatine'. marvellous stuff. And we're not getting any clues to this society
(laughs).
Freddie: I think if I was to analyze every word, it
would be very boring for the listeners and it might shatter a few illusions.
I'd rather sort of keep it.
Tom Browne: It’s one that sticks in the mind. So
anyway, it’s very obvious that you’re painstakingly thorough, a very methodical
group, you’re perfectionists.
Roger: God, it sounds a bit boring hehe…
Tom Browne: No, but I think it’s much to be admired
the fact that you go into every facet of production. Not only just the music,
you do it right down to the last dot as we were talking about earlier.
Brian: We always thought that was essential, not only
in production but in every detail we were involved in.
Roger: We’d learnt through bad experience really.
Brian: Yeah, right down to the last bit of print on
the record cover, the way its cut on the album – which is crucial. Right down
to the way the tours are set up. Everything, we try to keep control, it’s not
easy.
Roger: There’s so much money involved these days, it’s
almost sordid to talk about the amounts of money but they are involved and
people are very clever and nothing corrupts like large sums of money…and so we
do have to be very careful.
Tom Browne: Let’s go onto another track from “Sheer
Heart Attack”. It’s “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”.
BRING BACK THAT LEROY BROWN
Tom Browne: “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” with a
ukulele novelty from Brian may there. Brian, what would you describe this
ukulele music as? Barber Shop? George Formby..?
Brian: The ukulele was incidental to that because it
that was Freddie’s song. It had this kind of vaudeville atmosphere and I just
thought the ukulele would go nicely on it and we worked beside it, so it could
be done. And I managed to fiddle a little ukulele solo [laughs].
Tom Browne: You in fact, learnt on a ukulele right?
Brian: Yes, that was the first instrument I played. My
father had a genuine George Formby ukulele. George Formby was the originator of
that style of playing. Which is rhythmic and slightly melodic at the same time,
because he played across the top and bottom strings to make little melodies.
I’m a pretty poor imitator of that style, but I got interested in it…
GROUP Ahhh…, Makes you sick doesn’t it? Modest…
Tom Browne: I believe your father also was
instrumental in making your first guitar?
Brian: Yes, my father and I made the guitar together,
which is still the one I use all the time.
Tom Browne: What was it made out of?
Brian: Lumps of wood, various bits and pieces. It cost
about £8.00 to make.
Tom Browne: I read in the press about something about
an armchair or fireplace...?
Brian: The 100 year old fireplace, the legendary
fireplace! [Laughs]
Freddie: The things that are coming out of that
fireplace…
Brian: The neck was made out of an old fireplace, yes.
Tom Browne: My goodness, you must have been quite a
craftsman.
Brian: We just worked on it for a couple of years. I
was at school then, it was at evenings and weekends.
Tom Browne: I see and it’s still the one you play now?
Brian: Yes.
Tom Browne: That’s terrific, well it must be worth a
fortune in years to come.
Brian: I dunno really. It’s really not much good to
anyone except me, because everyone finds it difficult to play.
Tom Browne: Can we come now to your producer, Roy
Thomas Baker.
Roger: Roy half produced the first album and he went
onto become our full producer and “A Night At The Opera” was the last, we
co-produced it with him.
Tom Browne: Freddie, did you select him or did EMI
provide him?
John: Well it was through Trident really.
Brian: It was all through Trident.
John: Because in the early days, you know the first
album. They stuck us with John Anthony didn’t they, as well? Who we didn’t get
on with, so we gave him the elbow after the first album. The second album was
with Roy and Robin Cable.
Roger: Yeah, Trident was quite a Mecca for producers
at the time. I remember Bowie’s most successful stuff was done with Ken Scott
there.
Tom Browne: Let’s have another track from “Sheer Heart
Attack”, this is “In The Lap Of The Gods”.
IN THE LAP OF THE GODS
Tom Browne: The Beach Boys meets Wagner or something
like that anyway [laughs]. Freddie, was this a sort of pre runner to “Bohemian
Rhapsody”? It has that sort of operatic feel to it.
Freddie: I suppose it could be progressed that way. I
was beginning to learn a lot on “Sheer Heart Attack”, we were doing a lot of things
which was to come on future albums, was to be used on future albums. Songs like
that, yes, I suppose. Working out the harmonies and song structure did help on
say something like “Bo-Rhap”. Somebody said this sounds like Cecil B. DeMille
meets Walt Disney or something. More to the point than The Beach Boys!
[Laughs].
Tom Browne: Talking about Cecil B. DeMille. Can we
come to your colossal stage productions with crowns appearing everywhere,
thunder flashes appearing on the stage, you leaping about. Bringing ‘Ballet to
the masses’ I believe a quote was… [Laughs].
Freddie: Oh, if you’re referring to a certain article,
that’s me taking tongue in cheek. It’s just something that in this point in
time, this is something that interests me. I just try and incorporate it in the
stage act. Nothing more really. It’s basically to enhance the music that we
play, and if it wasn’t working then I wouldn’t do it. It’s also a phase I’m
going through and I like the Nijinsky costume.
Roger: People who come to the show seem to really
enjoy them. Because you have to aim for maximum effect, which we do. Both
orally and visually, however some people don’t seem to like this. The so called
‘purists’ or whatever. They think its techno-flash rock or something I’ve heard
it’s called. Basically we’re just trying to put over the music and the visual
aspect as effectively as we can to as many people as we can.
Tom Browne: Do you carry your own lighting crew around
the world?
Roger: Yes.
Tom Browne: So it’s the same that was in Earl’s Court
that was in the States?
Roger: Yes, it has to be, because the co-ordination
required is quite unbelievable.
Brian: The same for the sound system. The way we
started off, we always had these big ideas and we always thought that it should
be a visual and a sound experience. It should be a complete thing that you
could wallow in, you know. It comes from when we were kids, when we went in to
see a rock band we wanted to be knocked out, to be blown away!
Roger: Stunned!
Brian: Yeah, it’s for that kind of thing we think it
should be a real event every time we play.
Roger: People are paying money to come and see us.
Freddie: Yes, as far as we’re concerned, we’re putting
on a show. It’s not just a rendition of an album, if that were the case we
might as well have had cardboard cut outs and just played the album through the
system.
Tom Browne: Yeah, right let’s have some more music.
The next one from “Sheer Heart Attack” is “Now I’m Here”.
Roger: Call that music?
NOW I’M HERE
Tom Browne: “Now I’m Here”, which went to number 11 in
February 1975. Do you find the single helps generate sales of an album?
Roger: Definitely, that’s what get’s you to the mass
of people. Even if they don’t buy it, even if they don’t like it, they still
know who you are with a single. Whereas I think you could have a number 1 album
for 6 months and people still wouldn’t know who you were. But we never record
any record as a single, it’s always just a track off an album. Which we think
may make a good single after we’ve recorded it.
Tom Browne: Oh I see, so you don’t go into the studio
and say ‘This is going to be the one…’?
Roger: No, never. We never have.
Tom Browne: Do you take advice from other people as to
what would be a good single?
John: No.
Roger: Never.
Tom Browne: [Laughs]
Brian: Next! [Laughs]
Roger: It never works…
Brian: Nobody wanted “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single
really. They said no one would play it as they said it was too long…
Roger: Nobody except us wanted it…
Freddie: It’s not to say that we’re not always right,
because we’re not.
Roger: We’re not always right, we’ve been wrong.
Freddie: The choice of the single is…
John: Yeah, once. [Laughs].
Freddie: I mean there’s no sure fire hit, there’s just
no such thing. I’d say something like “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a big risk and it
worked. I mean with a song like that, it was either going to be a huge success
or a terrific flop.
Brian: ‘But it’s been no bed of roses…’
Brian &Roger: ‘No pleasure cruise…’ [Laughs]
Tom Browne: We’ll we’re talking about “Bohemian
Rhapsody”, so we’ll play it now.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Tom Browne: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, this was amazing for
me because it was such a departure from anything else that was in the charts in
’75, in November it got to number 1 and stayed there for 9 weeks – amazing!
Freddie, can you tell us a bit of how you recorded “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the
actual technical side of it?
Freddie: You want some trade secrets? It was quite a
mammoth task as it was done in three definite sections, and just pieced
together. Each one required a lot of concentration and the opera section, the
middle was the most taxing. Because we wanted to re create a huge operatic
harmonies section between just the three of us. That involves a lot of
multi-tracking and things. And I think between the three of us… [Laughs], we re
created a 160 – 200 piece choir effect.
Roger: Something like that, yeah.
Freddie: Between just the three of us, Brian, Roger
and myself singing…
Roger: There’s a tremendous range of harmonies. It
involves doing it again and again and again… to make it sound bigger and
bigger.
Tom Browne: Can you think how many times to get that
number of people?
Roger: Well, divide 200 by 3 [Laughs].
Tom Browne: Hmmm, 66 or something like that.
Roger: Each little bit has to be done like that many
times, you have to learn all the very different parts. I think some of them
were, what. how many part harmonies..?
Freddie: There was a section of ‘No, no, no’. To do
that kind of escalating things, we just sat in there going ‘No, no, no, no, no,
no, no’! About 150 times.
Brian: Going out of our minds…
Tom Browne: Is there one of you going every now and
then ‘No more’, ‘That’s it’!
GROUP Oh yes! All the time, yes. All the time. Yeah…
Tom Browne: Do the others edge him on and says ‘Well
there’s just one more’.
Freddie: Depends whose track…
RM No, everybody agrees and we leave! [Laughs].
Tom Browne: Well we now come to Freddie’s personal
choice in music. Freddie what’s it going to be?
Freddie: I’ve chosen an Aretha Franklin track. It’s
called “You’ve Got A Friend”, it comes from the “Amazing Grace” album which she
did a long time ago. A live double album set gospel thing, which she did in a
church in California. It’s called “You’ve Got A Friend”.
YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND – ARETHA FRANKLIN.
Tom Browne: Radio 1 presents the second part of Queen.
In the first programe, we covered the musical development of Queen from their
first album right up to their chart topping single “Bohemian Rhapsody”. In this
second programe, we’ll be talking to Queen about their music. We’ll be playing
tracks from “A Night at the Opera”, “A Day at the Races” and “News of the
World”. First of all, let’s go to Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor. I’ve noted down
here Roger, when you’re not playing or recording with Queen, you’re quite
interested in motor racing and cars.
Roger: Well, more cars really. I’m not that up on
motor racing. I have ‘Auto Sport’ every week… [Laughs]. But really, this is a
full time job and it keeps me busy, I never get time to go down to any races or
anything. I just like cars.
Tom Browne: Hmmm, but have driven, haven’t you?
Roger: Oh, only once yeah. It was a very minor thing
really, but it gives you a taste.
Tom Browne: So you’re not thinking of taking on Noel
Edmonds down on Brand’s Hatch or something?
Roger: Oh I’d thrash him! [Laughs]
Tom Browne: Give it, Noel! [Laughs]
Brian: That’s before he’d got in the car…
Roger: Yes, that’s even before he got in.
Tom Browne: That’s our natural cue to “I’m In Love
With My Car” by Roger Taylor.
I’M IN LOVE WITH MY CAR
Tom Browne: John, I believe you are very interested in
stereo photography.
John: Stereo photography, yes.
Tom Browne: Tell us about stereo photography.
John: It’s like the old ‘Weetabix’ things you know,
when you used the two things with the viewers. You used to get two pictures,
both taken in a slightly different position and you’d look through a special
viewer and you’d get a true 3-D perspective effect. And you can have
attachments that you can actually put on cameras, to take three dimensional
pictures.
Tom Browne: Three dimensional slides, I mean you can’t
project it can you?
John: There is a means, you’ve tried it haven’t you
Brian?
Brian: Yeah, I got quite a lot into it. You can do it
with a silver screen, with a wide screen and cross polarize and things. It
takes a lot of setting up and is very interesting.
Roger: Perfect for the average layman…
Brian: It’s very unfashionable at the moment. It was
quite a successful form of photography in the 1920’s or 30’s or so, but it went
out of fashion for some unknown reason.
Tom Browne: Brian, I’d have thought that you’d have
been interested in holograms.
Brian: Yes, strangely enough, holography was invented
by Dennis Kapour who was a Professor at my collage, at Imperial Collage. So we
had a holography course, so yes I was interested in it. I don’t really think it
has as much applications to rock stages as people think.
Tom Browne: You don’t think you could incorporate
holograms into your act?
Brian: You can, but the art is not at the state where
it’s going to be that good at the moment. The Who are the people who got most
into lasers. But holography is a rather dicey business really, even with lasers
and to produce large scale impressive things is more difficult than what people
think.
Tom Browne: Back to John again. You’re playing
electric piano on the next track “You’re My Best Friend”. How did you wrench
the piano away from Freddie?
John: Well, Freddie didn’t like the electric piano, so
I took it home and I started to learn on the electric piano and basically
that’s the song that came out of the thing when I was learning to play it.
Freddie: I refused to play the damn thing.
Tom Browne: Was this a question of ethics?
Freddie: It’s tinny and horrible and I don’t like
them. Why play those things when you’ve got a lovely Grand piano? No, basically
what he’s trying to say is it was the desired effect.
John: It was written on that instrument and it sounds
best on that. You know, often on the instrument that you wrote the song on.
Tom Browne: Well it got to #07 in July 1976, “You’re
My Best Friend”
Roger: ‘Ping’!
YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND
Tom Browne: John, fingering away like fury on electric
piano.
Tom Browne: Now we come to the grand subject of
marketing “A Night At The Opera”. It’s a fascinating subject, how did you
conceive the album sleeve and everything else?
Freddie: Well the sleeve had a crest on it…
Tom Browne: Now you designed that, right?
Freddie: Well it was an adaptation from an earlier
crest that I did. It was done by David Costa, who worked in conjunction with us
and made sure it was what we wanted. Since then, as far as marketing is
concerned, it’s a huge process that covers such a wide area. It’s like what we
said before; you work on an album, then choose a single. This case, “A Night At
The Opera” case, it happened to be “Bohemian Rhapsody”. In that we made a film
which helped us a lot. We did it with Bruce Gowers.
John: Yeah, we made a promotional film in rather a
short time actually. Just before we went out to tour in England when “Bohemian
Rhapsody” was released, we rehearsed the thing up in Elstree wasn’t it?
Roger: Yeah.
John: Yeah, and they just came in one night with a
video truck and one or two little bits and we did it in about four hours didn’t
we?
Roger: The film opened up a new avenue for us, because
the film was used all around the world and worked quite successfully. It didn’t
only just get the record across, it also got Queen across both visually and
orally. Now it’s part of the accepted pattern of marketing a single for any
major, in fact any new band these days who are artists. To make the record,
bring out the record but they always have the film with the record. In fact you
can sell that film around the whole world and literally promote your records
without actually being there. I think Abba have turned that to great advantage,
yeah.
Tom Browne: John, how deeply do you involve yourselves
in the marketing?
John: We involve ourselves artistically with the
product basically. Obviously the album, the cover and the film – which we’re
obviously involved with that. But as far as the actual marketing, a lot is up
to the record company. As long as they don’t do anything that is grossly in bad
taste. We like to keep an eye on what they’re doing.
Tom Browne: Have you ever had a nasty shock? Something
you weren’t expecting?
Brian: Oh yes! [Laughs], there’s been a few bad
things. One particular example was in America where we were very upset about.
They put out “Liar” as a second single and when we heard it, we discovered that
they had chopped a good 60% of it out in a pretty random way. Not even the
edits were done very well, and that was being put out as a single in America
and of course it was a flop. We always try to fight for complete artistic
control throughout the world.
Brian: The normal thing is to send your copies of the
master tapes when you finish the album to various countries and they cut it.
Now in cutting a record, which is actually physically putting it on the disc.
There's a huge amount you can do with it. You can completely ruin a record
which has taken months to produce and we got some of the cuts back from
countries that we didn't know about, and they've been horrific. It's funny, the
first album in America is an interesting example because they put it all
through a very vicious limiter. Which means that everything comes up to the same
level. Everything 'pumps', they call it 'pumping'. So you have a continuous
note and a drum beat on top and the continuous note goes up and down around the
drum beat. In fact, that improved some tracks [Laughs] or made them. [Group
Laughs], it gave them a strange, a peculiar sound on American FM radio. Which
we discovered when we went there, it did get us across very well and we
actually used that on subsequent albums. It's very strange.
Tom Browne: Let's have some more music. Brian, let's
take one of yours, one we're going to play from you in a minute is from "A
Night At The Opera" and is called "Good Company". Which has a
George Formby ukulele on it, and Trad-Jazz. Were you interested a lot in
Trad-Jazz?
Brian: I can remember the Trad-Jazz boom, and I was
very keen on a group called The Tempered Seven, who indeed were in fact a
revival of the 20's arrangements for a Jazz band. That's the kind of thing I
was going after on this track.
GOOD COMPANY
Tom Browne: Brian, we now come to your personal choice,
which is half of one and half of another!
Brian: Yes I'm very greedy.
Tom Browne: Tell us what they're going to be.
Brian: Ok, this is going to bring us onto Jimi
Hendrix, who I'm sure we could talk a lot about. I'd just like to play the
beginning of a track called "A House Burning Down". The beginning of
this is the most amazing, attacking beginning of a song that I've ever heard.
It's the complete production job on the guitars and bass and drums. I've never
heard anything like it.
(INTRO OF) A HOUSE BURNING DOWN - JIMI HENDRIX
Brian: And the other track is "And Your Bird Can
Sing", which is a very simple and beautiful song which The Beatles did.
There's a lot of Beatles in us I think. A lot of influence there, whether it be
conscious or unconscious and that was one of the things I liked. A very simple
song, very well done. And also a little bit of double tracking from George
Harrison, I assume its George, playing the little figures that go around the
vocals. That was an inspiration as well because one of my dreams was to be able
to do multi-tracking guitar on records. At that time, it was unheard of to do
double tracking. I could name about three instances to do proper harmonies with
a rock sounding guitar and George Harrison was quite a pioneer because he had a
go at it on this track.
AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING
Tom Browne: Brian May's choice there, from Jimi
Hendrix's "A House Burning Down" and The Beatles' "And Your Bird
Can Sing". And now, can we talk about Jimi Hendrix, because I know Jimi
Hendrix has been a prime mover in the group and an influence to you all,
Freddie.
Freddie: He was just a beautiful man. I think he was
just a master showman, he's just a dedicated musician. He was just everything
as far as I was concerned. I went to numerous places to try and catch his
shows, it was magic. Magic and it was really quite a treat to watch somebody
come on stage. He didn't have the kind of props and things that we have today.
It all omitted from him, from the first off - just him and the guitar. Very colourful
and it was quite a stage act, you learnt a lot from that kind of thing.
Tom Browne: Roger, I believe when he died you were at
the Kensington market, right?
Roger: That's true actually, yes! [Laughs] How did you
find that one out? [Laughs] Yes.
Freddie: We shut shop in his honour
Roger: We shut up our stall and went home and had a
good bawl.
Freddie: And played all his records
Tom Browne: I also believe that when you did your big
Hyde Park concert last year that was on the anniversary of Jimi's death.
Roger: It was
Tom Browne: Tell us about Hyde Park, how did that come about?
Roger: It was an idea we had when touring in Japan. We
thought it'd be nice to do something different in England, rather than doing
the same old thing and tour etc. the same old places. We thought we'd like to
do a free concert and the best possible venue that occurred to us was Hyde
Park. It's more central than any other. It was an awful lot of trouble to get
permission to play in the park, to hold the event. It cost us a fortune etc.
But in the end, it was worth it. We wanted to just make a good gesture, to do
something for nothing and a lot of people still don't seem to realize that.
There was no percentage from any angle from it, really.
Tom Browne: Well let's have some more music. This time
from "A Day At The Races" and the track is "Somebody To
Love", which got into the top 10 in December 1976.
SOMEBODY TO LOVE
Tom Browne: A very gospel sounding choir. Freddie, was
that choir built up in the same way as "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
Freddie: In a way it was, yes. We had the same three
people singing on the big choir section. But I think it had a different kind of
technical approach because it was a gospel way of singing. Which was different
to us, and this is me going on about Aretha Franklin - going a bit mad. I just
wanted to write something in that kind of thing. Sort of incensed by the gospel
approach that she had on her earlier albums. Although it might sound the same
approach on the harmonies, it is very different in the studio because it's a
different range.
Tom Browne: Can we come now to the territories in
which you’re very enormous. I understand that you’re huge in Japan. Can we hear
about…
Roger: It sounds as though we swell up! [Laughs]
Tom Browne: All that sakki, yes. Well tell us about
Japan. Why Japan? I know Freddie sings in Japanese, right?
John: Only on…
Roger: Only on one song, yeah. That was more of a
tribute.
Brian: That was a long time after, really.
Roger: You know, Japan really caught onto us fairly
early on.
John: “Queen 2” I think was the big one which they
picked up on.
Roger: Yeah, and we knew there was a demand for us
there. So we tagged it on the end of an American tour. We had a holiday in
Hawaii and it was logical, so we went there. We arrived at the airport and
suddenly realized it was on a scale different to that which we had imagined.
Because there was thousands of people there, just to welcome us. You know,
normally you don’t get that sort of thing anywhere. We’ve had two amazing tours
in Japan since then. They’ve seem to have taken us into their hearts and we’ve
had some influences from them, especially Brian.
Tom Browne: Which brings me to the next one, I mean
how do you get on when you’re not on stage? Do you all mix together or do you
all go off your separate ways?
Roger: A bit of both really.
Freddie: In America, we have a limousine each and the
moment we finish we all get into that and do our own things.
Brian: And go to the four corners of the place…
[Laughs]
Tom Browne: So it is then?
Freddie: It really depends, like if there’s a
reception laid on…
Roger: Depends actually. We’ve grown apart a bit more
you know, but we don’t hate each other yet, which I think quite a lot of other
bands do.
Tom Browne: Well this is very apt this next title because
it’s “Let Us Cling Together”, or… Freddie, you pronounce it for me.
Freddie: “Teo Torriatte”
TEO TORRIATTE (LET US CLING TOGETHER)
Tom Browne: Brian, this is a very reflective, quiet
song which contrasts rather to the next song which is “Tie Your Mother Down”.
How can we get two such opposite songs on the same album?
Brian: I dunno, we do tend to be attracted by
opposites, I don’t know if that’s the right way to put it. We tend to, if we go
a long way in a particular direction – then we tend to like to go equally in
the opposite direction. I think we still feel that we’re kind of doing our
apprenticeship, in that we can try anything that comes into our heads. If a
song comes along that suggest a certain approach… you’ve written down a
‘reflective’ approach here, ok. Then we’ll follow that to it’s extreme and at
the same time if another song comes up in the heavy kind of stuff, then we’ll
follow that to it’s extreme. I think it’s one of our strong points.
Freddie: We’re not scared of trying out different
ideas, one of the things that we really steer clear of is repeating the same
formula.
Brian: It’s like light and shade really.
Freddie: It keeps the interest…
Tom Browne: Well let’s have “Tie Your Mother Down”
TIE YOUR MOTHER DOWN
Tom Browne: Your manager is John Reid at the moment.
He also represents Elton John doesn’t he?
John: Yes he does.
Roger: He’s very successful, a good manager, I think
good management is vital. In fact it’s totally vital.
Freddie: Especially, say for a band that’s starting
off. They need the guidance and good management is certainly vital.
Roger: You need somebody to take away the worries that
aren’t to do with the music, away from you.
Freddie: But we are a very difficult group to manage –
we demand a lot.
Tom Browne: Let us progress on this one, now there’s
been incorrect newspaper reports about that you’re going to de-camp to the
States because of tax reasons. Roger, do you want to pick up on that one? How
did that occur?
Roger: Well it’s basically… it must have been
something that I’ve said! But it was…[All Laugh]. It was taken completely wrong
and whatever it was I said, I certainly didn’t say that we were going off to
America err, tomorrow. Which is how the article came out. It’s something that
we might do in the future, but definitely in the future – certainly not
tomorrow or next month or the month after.
Freddie: But we are going to America for a tour.
Roger: Yes, we’re going for a tour, but we’re not
leaving England yet.
Tom Browne: They’ve took it as though you were…
John: Becoming tax exiles.
Roger: Becoming tax exiles, that was the way it was
written up. What I gathered from what it said, you can do an interview – which
is why we’ve learnt not to do many…and you read it back and think ‘Good God,
was I really there’? People just tend to turn things around to say what they
really want to say, whether it the politics of one particular newspaper. The
article will sound as they want it to sound or the editor as opposed to the
interviewee.
Tom Browne: Now when you say something, somebody slaps
a writ on you or sues you, can’t you then sue them?
Roger: It depends, I’d rather go over there and smack
‘em in the teeth personally! [Laughs] I haven’t had any writs served on me yet.
Tom Browne: That sounds the old fashioned way, which
brings us onto “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy”!
Roger: Corny! [Laughs]
GOOD OLD-FASHIONED LOVER BOY
Tom Browne: There were four songs on the EP, but it
was priced as a single I believe.
Roger: Yes, we just wanted to give something that was
quite good value and was a good sample of one track from the last four albums.
Tom Browne: It went into the Top 20 in June ’77, so
was it for the Jubilee? Was it a special release?
Roger: Not really.
Freddie: We wanted something to be released to
coincide with the tour we were doing at the time, as we didn’t have any new
product. The way we did it this time; we did a tour and then go into the studio
and do the new album, which is “News Of The World”.
Tom Browne: Roger, we now come to your personal
choice.
Roger: Yeah, it’s very hard to choose one record by
one of the best bands ever, and still are – The Who. Very exiting, it’s their
second hit single and as far as production in those days are concerned, it’s
the most over the top record I’ve ever heard. It had the first use of feedback
that I could remember. It’s called “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”.
ANYWAY, ANYHOW, ANYWHERE – THE WHO
Tom Browne: Your fan club is one of the biggest fan
clubs in the world, about 45,000 people. I believe that you do a nice thing
that you send them little personal letters that are photocopied…Brian.
Brian: We try and keep in contact, we think it’s very
important to keep that two-way thing going. It’s not the easiest thing to run,
there’s a lot of pit falls in running fan clubs. I think it’s important that
we’re all kept in touch with the reaction and the girls that work for us in the
fan club, and a guy now, who’s doing the organisational side, really make sure
that there is this two-way communication all the time. We try and keep the fan
club as an information service – that’s what it started off for. Rather than as
a promotion vehicle I think any fan club can be tainted with that. If you start
using it as a selling device, the whole thing becomes horrible.
Tom Browne: Roger, in the last week of August you put
out your own personal single which was called “I Wanna Testify” – which you
sang and played every instrument on the single. Tell us about this.
Roger: It’s not particularly big deal. It was just
something, we came back from America and there was a slack period and I was
bored. I had nothing to do and just went into the studio with our engineer Mike
Stone. And did an old song by The Parliaments, whom I’ve got an acapella
version. I just heavied it up a bit and did it all by myself. Just as an experiment
and a bit of fun. However, I found the experiment was slightly more expensive
than anticipated. And a lot of people quite liked it, so it eventually came out
as a single.
I WANNA TESTIFY
Tom Browne: “I Wanna Testify” – sung, played and
everything else [Laughs] by Roger Taylor. But has it given you food for thought
to the future?
Freddie: After five or six albums, a lot of areas have
opened up and there’s lot’s of things we can do, and we’re all branching out
and doing other things.
Tom Browne: With the financial reward of being a
successful pop group… obviously now Freddie, you could open up a fine art
business couldn’t you? Or an…
Freddie: Come and see my gallery, or as they call it –
my museum.
Tom Browne: Has this crossed your mind, you know –
things you now plan to do with the finance and communities?
Freddie: Yes, one must definitely invest – that’s what
my accountant says! I for one have started off a little production company and
have signed to it a person called Peter Straker. So that’s a little venture
that I’ve got myself into alongside Queen, which is the major thing.
Tom Browne: “News Of The World”, alright and I see in
front of me the first track is “Sheer Heart Attack”. Now Roger, you wrote this
one, tell us about “Sheer Heart Attack”.
Roger: Yep, well it might sound vaguely
familiar…[Laughs] It was written in essence not completely, it wasn’t finished
at the time of recording the album “Sheer Heart Attack”. We didn’t have room,
it wasn’t quite finished – for a number of reasons it didn’t get on. Now, it
lives again! Actually I’m quite pleased with it. It’s really, pure energy and
it’s one of my contributions to the new album.
SHEER HEART ATTACK
Tom Browne: “Sheer Heart Attack”, now we come to John
Deacon’s song “Spread Your Wings”. John, we haven’t heard from you in a long
time, tell us about “Spread Your Wings”.
John: Basically it’s one of the two tracks that I’ve
come up with this year, and managed to squeeze onto the album.
Roger: Squeeze is right!
Tom Browne: John, does song writing come easily to
you? [Laughs]
John: Hmmm, no it’s quite difficult actually, but it’s
getting better as time goes on. I only started really on the “Sheer Heart
Attack” album, I had a little track called “Misfire”. But “Best Friend” was the
real proper length song I wrote really. So I’m still new to it, but it’s
improving.
Tom Browne: Do you compose on your electric piano?
John: Erm, piano, guitar… I don’t often compose on
bass. Usually I’m off with an acoustic guitar or perhaps a piano.
Tom Browne: “Spread Your Wings” from John Deacon.
SPREAD YOUR WINGS
Tom Browne: The next tracks are going to be “We Will
Rock You” and “We Are The Champions”. Can Brian, you wrote “We Will Rock You”,
we’ll ask you about “We Will Rock You” and we’ll go to Freddie with “We Are The
Champions”, who wrote that one. So Brian, “We Will Rock You”.
Brian: Right, we have two kind of chantey songs in a
way, “We Will Rock You” is an experiment. The thing is, it’s designed to
simulate the effect of an audience just stomping and clapping the singing and
nothing else. So there’s not supposed to be any bass, drums or guitar or
anything. The guitar come in the end and plays along with it. Just an
experiment thing really we’re waiting to see what’s going to happen once we’re
on stage.
Tom Browne: Can I just ask you, has “News Of The
World” cost you more than “A Night At The Opera” or “A Day At The Races”?
John: It might in fact be less…
Brian: It could be less; we spent less actual time,
which was deliberate. We came back from a tour of Europe, which we hadn’t done
for a long time, in fact we neglected Europe up until last year. We did a
proper tour and came back we had very little time left to make the album.
Roger: It’s really a new departure, it’s a more
spontaneous album.
Tom Browne: Alright, ok. Freddie, “We Are The
Champions”. I know you are, but tell us about “We Are The Champions”.
Freddie: It’s the most egotistical and arrogant song
I’ve ever written! [Laughs]
Roger: Yes, so [Blows a raspberry]
Tom Browne: Was it at all influenced by Elton John and
Watford?
Freddie: Oh no…
Brian: An interesting thing which might be worth
mentioning is, we did a gig on the British tour, which was Bingley – which was
new for us. We did an encore and went off and instead of just keep on clapping,
they sand “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to us. We were completely knocked out by it
and quite taken aback. It was quite an emotional experience really. These chant
things are in some ways connected with that kind of feeling.
Tom Browne: Well gents, it only remains for me to wish
you a very successful 1978, and thank you so much for coming to see us.
GROUP Thanks, thank you.
WE WILL ROCK YOU - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
Tom Browne: Radio One has been featuring in two parts,
Queen and their music. The programmes were produced by Paul Williams.