– Brian May interview with Richard Allinson – on Saturday 10 July, 7pm.
Brian May with Richard Allinson Magic QGH 10/07/2021
– https://youtu.be/kJ3HLxkw2c4
RICHARD ALLINSON: It’s Magic. I’m Richard Allinson with Brian May. The lovely thing about talking with Brian is that’s all I have to say ‘cos everybody knows who you are, Brian. How are you? Where are you? What’s going on?
BRIAN MAY: Not bad, thank you. And I’m very excited, ‘cos, finally, after all these years, my first solo album is coming out. It’s not been available for years, and years, and year. RICHARD: I mean I cannot believe there is so much music coming from you. I wasn’t going to give you an intro, but if I was, something like because – Queen’s Greatest Hits is still, last time I looked, the number one selling album in the UK.
BRIAN: Yeah, it is.
RICHARD: And it depends who crunched these number, but I think over the 50 years of Queen, you’ve sold around about 300 million records, and I can’t think of another artist, with one guitar, has appeared on so many recordings as you. This must be a record. Looking back, what is it like hearing the words “50 years of Queen”?
BRIAN: To be honest. we’ve been avoiding it, Roger and myself talked about it and people were saying to us. “Oh you’ve got to make a big deal of 50 years anniversary”, and we went, “Do we really want to do that?” So we sort of ditched a lot of artwork that said 50 years. We thought it was more important just for people to realise we’re still around and still doing it than to talk about numbers. Now having said that everybody’s come back and said now you should be proud of 50 years so I guess we’re coming round to it. I’m proud. Yes I am and that we’ve touched the hearts of so many people, and I hope that doesn’t sound kind of overdone but i wake up every morning and I realise that by some miracle all those dreams that we had came true and we did connect with people. We’re in people’s lives.and the songs trigger things for people all around the world – moments in their lives – which is a great thing. You know ‘We Will Rock You’ I never thought you know you don’t know when you’re doing it. I never knew how far that could go and ‘We Are The Champions’ – these songs became a part of everybody’s lives through sports if nothing else but they connect with people’s hopes and dreams. That’s what we always dreamed of.
RICHARD: Proper Queen fans will have the album “Jazz”, probably on vinyl. A song on there called ‘Don’t Stop Me Now, which is so well loved by so many people. tell us about this song. How did it come about and why is there so little of you on there?
BRIAN: That’s a good question. Yeah it was very much a Freddie thing. Freddie was kind of out on his own and he liked the sound of him singing just with the piano. He wanted to go off on that tangent. It’s funny, you see this stuff is kind of told in the story of the film, the “Bohemian Rhapsody” film, Freddie had that itch at that time that he wanted to be doing his own thing and he’d seen Elton and he liked what Elton John did, you know. Elton just sings with his piano a lot of time magnificently well. So that’s the way Freddie saw this and I said to Freddie “Look”, he needs some guitar on there as rhythm, and he went, “No,I just want it to be clear. I just want it to be very open and clear”, he said [you know guitar solo I want]. But I actually recorded some guitar and it didn’t get used. So that’s that could be hard. These are one of the painful things that happen when you’re recording. You don’t always use your fellow band members to do everything and it happened the other way around I’m sure people are gonna tell you or even if O don’t tell you that wasn’t sure about it because I had a feeling about it that it represented us losing Freddie. It’s a strange feeling that I had because he was he was definitely going off at a tangent and I felt that it was a bit kind of reckless I suppose. So I didn’t really relate. Obviously I gave the guitar solo everything I had. But it’s great. It’s a wonderful piece of creation from Freddie. The lyrics are incredible. It really steps out on many limbs so, it’s a case of me eating my hat really. I didn’t think – I didn’t realise what an enormous effect it was going to have on people all around the world.
RICHARD: We’re with Brian May. 50 years of Queen. Here’s a couple of questions that people have asked me to ask you. These are impossible. What do you think is the moment that will stick with you the most? I mean there must be hundreds, but is there one that you just go, “WOW”?
BRIAN: Well, probably standing on the roof of Buckingham Palace. That’s the one that pops into my mind, but that’s an unrepeatable moment. I’m not going to repeat it I’ll tell you that – life changing moment because it could have gone so wrong and I had to face so much fear to pull it off. It was completely live; completely dangerous. It wasn’t the fact that I could have fallen off the roof, it was the fact that I could have fallen on my face and forever been the guy who screwed it up on the roof of Buckingham Palace, live in front of a billion people. So that stands out. Strangely enough it’s once Freddie’s gone, and if Freddie had been around probably I would have been engineering a similar event for Freddie to be up there. I was only up there because I was the the only candidate. I had to be the lone piper standing on top of the Buckingham Palace roof. So that sticks out in my mind. But there’s – you know what – there’s so many moments that do stand out, I’ve got to tell you – Live Aid.
RICHARD: There’s one point when he’s, Fred’s doing the “Hey-ho” and you’re he, he’s in front of you on the stage so he can’t see you and there’s one point when you just look at him and you go “Really ?”, and then you look at the crowd and I’m thinking, “Hang on. This is unique. This will never happen again.”
BRIAN: It was unique and obviously one of Freddie’s finest moments and looking back on it, the finest moment for us all perhaps. I didn’t realise at the time. No, it was it was a real journey of discovery. We just did our job. Bob Geldof had said to us, “Look don’t get clever. Just play the hits”, so we did, and we rehearsed them and we put them all into a little medley and we went on there and did the job. And all the tickets had been sold before we were even announced on the bill so it wasn’t a Queen audience, so it’s like, “Whoa – what’s this going to be like”, but as soon as you saw that sea of hands and everybody knew what to do with Radio Ga Ga, it was a win. It was just – it was way beyond a win. It was an avalanche and I’ll certainly never forget that moment.
RICHARD: Okay Brian, stay right there because got so much more to talk about just after this … You’re listening to Magic. I’m RIchard Allinson and we are with Brian May this Saturday evening.
Now you’re back out on the road again next year because obviously everything’s been postponed. So it’s The Rhapsody tour on the road in 2022. You know which songs everybody expects Queen to play when they’re on the road, but how do you decide which songs to leave out.
BRIAN: Oh – well, it’s not a conscious decision to leave stuff out, it’s just what’s most pressing – what comes up as being something that you’ve gotta do. Now we’re fortunate to have, to be in the position of having a lot of hits, so you’ve got to play a lot of hits, and it’s a terrible thing isn’t it. What a what a terrible problem to have, but you’ve got to play a lot of these because people will get upset if you don’t play them. Now alongside that you try to pull out as many things as you can which will be great in the moment and will, I guess, echo some of the moments that you’ve had along the way. But it’s tough. It’s quite difficult and there are a lot of constraints, and if you start throwing out big hits it starts to feel weird. You can’t do a show without ‘Champions’ and ‘Rock You’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing’, what are you gonna do? So, it’s it’s not easy but really, if we’re making decisions it’s about how it works with the audience. So we’ll put a song in, see how it feels for us, see how it feels for the audience, and make a – take a view from that, and we’ll change a few things from night to night. But it’s about how does it feel.
RICHARD: Brian, your career’s got real staying power. Young artists listening to us now, how do they do what you’ve done? How do they stay at the top for this long?
BRIAN: Oh – difficult question. I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I think it’s in the material. I think if you’re, if you keep your writing fresh, that’s the first pillar, because it’s the songs which connect with people. Yes, you perform it to the best of your ability and we all, we’re all very into our performance as people, but the songs are what get into people’s lives, and you’re writing – if you’re lucky – you’re writing soundtracks to people’s lives – the things which they will always remember. The song you heard when you first got your first date. The song which relates to your feelings about your your Mum or your Dad or your first child – those are the things which are precious, I think in the way that we share music. So I think when you’re writing I would say you have to be honest about how you feel inside and you have to be aware that you’re speaking to other people who want to feel that it’s about them. It’s about what they have inside them. You can make that connection, then you’re lucky and you’re in the right place.
RICHARD: We’re with Brian May ‘cos Queen are 50.I’ve never asked you about this song before because it seems so obvious, but we have to play on a day like today – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, because, by all the rules of the record business, not just in 1975 but even now, this should never have worked – okay- but it did and it is unique. How, why, what – what happened?
BRIAN: I think it’s just good enough. [Laughter]
RICHARD: No one’s ever done anything like this before.
BRIAN: No, and it’s got to be down to Freddie. It’s Freddie’s master plan. Yes, we all contributed but he had most of it in his head in outline and there’s a wonderful story to it. Nobody knows quite what the story is, which is a great thing as well. Everybody relates to it in their own way. Freddie’s very smartly never told anyone what it was about, bless him. So we’re all still wondering. We all have our own ideas – and also in terms of musical style, it encapsulates the full breadth of what we were at that time. We were given free rein to make this album, “A Night At The Opera”, for the first time being able to spend money in a studio properly and flex our muscles if you like. Use all the paintbox colours, and for some reason, yes, it works and I don’t ever get tired of it. I don’t think anyone ever gets quite tired of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. We should by now. It should be, “Oh my God, it’s that track again”, but it’s never, no.
RICHARD: And we’re with Brian May on Magic and Brian’s first solo album, “Back to the Light” is, well you’ve remastered it and it’s out later on this Summer, so we’ve got to buy new equipment and new speakers, but first of all, this week we’ve been asking Magic listeners for their favourite Queen songs, obviously. Here’s one … … get the easy ones out of the way with – right now, which is your all-time favourite Queen song?
BRIAN: Well, I’m probably slightly biased, but the song that comes into my mind is ‘We Will Rock You’ and because it’s all in there. It’s very simple. It’s very short, but the three ages of man are in there and it’s become something which people think wasn’t written. That’s what I like best. I think it’s like, ” No – nobody wrote ‘We Will Rock You’”. It’s just always been there right sort of archetypal. It’s like Stonehenge. So that makes me very proud in a way and wherever I go people will go, “Boom, boom, crrrkk”, and we know we connect and we’re in the same place. So yeah, I’m going to say, ‘We Will Rock You’. You know I shouldn’t be biased. It’s my own song and I love all the Freddie songs, of course. I love ‘Champions’ and there’s a lot of favourite Freddie songs which are not even on the “Greatest Hits” album, but there’s some damn good ones that are, and the nice thing – if I can add one more thing – is that all four of us are represented on the “Greatest Hits”. So Roger’s got great tracks on there. I mean ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ is probably the biggest single – It’s probably bigger than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ still around the world. And John Deacon wrote that all on his own – okay a little bit of help from us – but really to John Deacon track – brilliant. So I think we’re the only – let’s see, Ben Elton told me this first, we’re the only band in which every member has had a number one single around the world, which is nice.
RICHARD: Yeah. Brian, always great to talk. Congratulations on 50 years and the remastering as well. Are you going to be doing any more remastering, because there’s there’s quite a lot to get through?
BRIAN; Yes, I made a decision that rather than putting out a huge box of all my solo material, I’d work through them the same as they were done in the first days, so this is the first of what I’m calling the “Gold Series”. Second one will be “Another World”, which is my second solo album. I’m working on that already and delving into the past – polishing it up. Making it all glittery and beautiful like this one is. I’m very very happy that it’s going to be out there very soon.
RICHARD: Brian, as always a pleasure, a joy, a thrill. Good luck with “Back to the Light”. It is available, remastered and sounding crisp and clear and it’s out on August the 6th and we’ll see you soon, won’t we?
ENDS