NEWS.COM.AU
28 August 2014
Show must go on … Brian May (right) with Adam Lambert in concert at the Perth Arena.
Picture: Jackson Flindell. Source: News Corp Australia
WHEN the late, great Queen frontman Freddie Mercury passed away in 1991, his band mates were understandably left reeling. “At the time we thought it was over,” says drummer Roger Taylor. “We were in shock for about five years.”
Sitting next to him on a couch backstage at Perth Arena before the first show of the revitalised band’s tour with former American Idol star Adam Lambert out front, guitar guru Brian May concurs. “That’s true you know — we had a long grieving process, during which we sort of refused to talk about Queen,” he says. “Looking back on it we can see what it was but both Roger and I thought that Queen was over and it took a while to come back to realising that we were actually proud of what we did with Freddie. The results of that are still here and the fact that we can take it out on the road again is a joy. I feel blessed that we can do this and we are so grateful to Adam for being that person.”
Rocking out … Queen with Adam Lambert in concert at the Perth Arena. Picture: Jackson Flindell Source: News Corp Australia
Filling the shoes of arguably the greatest front man in rock history is no mean feat, but the band that gave the world Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody has endured. They released the Made In Heaven album in 1995, featuring unreleased Mercury vocals, and Taylor and May (bassist John Deacon retired in 1997) have performed sporadically with Robbie Williams, Elton John and George Michael. They also toured and recorded with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers from 2005 to 2009. But in Lambert, who was runner-up on American Idol in 2009, they found a singer whose vocal dexterity and natural flamboyance made him a natural fit for their catalogue of hits. He had piqued their interest when he auditioned for the reality TV show singing Bohemian Rhapsody and creative sparks flew when they all joined together to perform We Are the Champions in that season’s finale.
Popular act … Queen with Adam Lambert in concert at the Perth Arena.
Picture: Jackson Flindell Source: News Corp Australia
“That was the first time we met,” recalls Lambert. “I remember we all kind of looked at each other and thought ‘this feels good, this is cool’.” Taylor says that he and May felt rejuvenated by further performances together at special events, festivals and a mini-tour of six European dates. And when promoters began to see the potential of the combination, an American, Asian and Australian tour soon followed. Lambert suited Queen in a way that Rodgers hadn’t quite and also brought with him a younger generation of fans thanks to his two post Idol albums.
Queen Performance
Fitting in … Queen with Adam Lambert in concert at the Perth Arena.
Picture: Jackson Flindell Source: News Corp Australia
“Paul is a blues-soul singer and I wouldn’t really describe us as a blues and soul act,” says Taylor. “Adam has the whole gamut of what we need — he has that incredible range and that fabulous theatricality which is a perfect match for a lot of our material. And he has a great sense of humour.”
Lambert, an openly gay rock star, had long been an admirer of the band and Mercury in particular. But he was determined to not try to imitate the late singer’s unique style and delivery. “I think it would be a bit cheap and a bit disrespectful,” Lambert says. “That’s not what we are here to do.”
In the moment … Queen with Adam Lambert in concert at the Perth Arena.
Picture: Jackson Flindell Source: News Corp Australia
May says it’s too early to tell whether the three will collaborate on new music. Not only is Lambert working on his own solo album, due for release next year, but he and Taylor are putting together Queen Forever, a coming album that will feature some Mercury vocals, and other curios from the archives, including collaborations with Michael Jackson.
“There’s a couple of things with Michael Jackson, a couple of things with us which had strangely got put in the drawer,” he says. “But there is not a whole album’s worth and the rest of it will be things that we have kind of collected together that are representative of our growth rather than the big hits. We really went to town on the Made In Heaven album and we wrung every piece of juice out of what we could find. And we were all very proud of it. It was one of the best albums we made and Freddie was very much there even though he had already passed on.”
SEE Queen + Adam Lambert, Rod Laver Arena, Friday and Saturday. Ticketek