“Such an enormous rewrite of the universe”
Quotes from Press Association:
Brian spoke to Kerri-Ann at PA Agency yesterday [24 March], praising medical staff dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak – takes his hat off to them every minute, believes the lockdown imposed by Boris Johnson is a “very positive action” and “the only chance we have of curbing this thing”.
“I have felt very fidgety all along because I’m not an immunologist but I am a scientist and someone who is used to looking at statistics and very early on I think it was fairly obvious what was going to happen.
“I take my hat off every minute to the doctors who are in there interacting and risking their own lives, I just can’t believe how heroic they are.
“But for most of us, if we reduce our interactions to as close to zero as possible, we’re striking a blow every day against this horrible virus – so isolation to me is something which you have to accept and not fight against.”
“My whole feeling is if you’re faced with a problem like this where something, a foreign organism, is invading, you have to nip it in the bud very quickly. So I got very fidgety because I was feeling we should have gone to an extreme much quicker.
“Having said all of that, it’s done, and we are where we are. But I do think it’s good, I think that the lockdown is a very positive action and it’s the only chance we have of curbing this thing.”
Brian May: As promised…
– https://youtu.be/jPboWUQNnrM
“How the guitar part goes. Of course I don’t sing it ! Someone else does that ! But you guys can this time ! The slowed down version comes next ! Take care out there !
Bri”
In February Queen, including May, Roger Taylor and Adam Lambert – who performs with the rock group as their lead singer – reprised the band’s 1985 Live Aid set for the first time at a fundraising concert in Australia.
On coming back from travelling:
“The contrast was actually very hard for us. It’s not just the fact that we’ve been very social, we’ve been very free, very in charge of our own destiny – we stride around the world playing to thousands of people and there’s no boundaries, really.
“Then suddenly I’m back home and, to be honest, I always get a post-tour depression thing anyway and for the first week I was back here, I kind of isolated anyway just because I needed to do that to get my head together.
“But then to become aware of what was happening and realising that isolating was actually the only way, I think it’s fair to say I was traumatised for a while. It’s such a wrench, such an enormous rewrite of the universe and the way you see it.
“I’ve been performing because I quickly thought the usual avenues of performance are cut off for me now, as well as for everybody else. So I can’t go in my studio, I can’t create in that way.
“I can’t go out and tread the boards and play to people live, so what can I do? Well I can put stuff on Instagram – so I instigated this – most evenings I go in there and i just play… it’s become various things, it kind of turned into a tutorial at one point.
“I think the important thing is just to play and make that contact and make people feel like life does have some normality, even if it’s a new normality. I’m supposed to be an entertainer as well as a few other things I suppose, that’s kind of what I made my mark doing, so I feel good doing it, it keeps me feeling that I can contribute something.”
Reported by:
Belfast Telegraph
– https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/brian-may-hails-medical-staff-and-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-39075328.html
Irvine Times
– https://www.irvinetimes.com/leisure/national-entertainment/18333579.brian-may-hails-medical-staff-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/
Wilts & Glos Standard
– https://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/leisure/showbiz/18333579.brian-may-hails-medical-staff-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/
Independent.ie, Ireland
– https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/brian-may-hails-medical-staff-and-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-39075323.html
News Locker Ireland
– https://www.newslocker.com/en-uk/region/northern_ireland/brian-may-hails-medical-staff-and-lockdown-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/