Brian May & Roger Taylor, The Cage TripleM – 17 March 2003
– youtu.be/YMP141N9ES8
First it’s 6 to 7. I’d like to welcome now into The Cage – here in town for the auditions for their new stage musical, We Will Rock You, co-written by Ben Elton, will you please welcome from Queen, legends Brian May and Roger Taylor. (Clapping, cheering)
Thank. You’re in the business right now of auditioning people for the musical you’ve written with Ben Elton, yes, We Will Rock You.
BRIAN and ROGER: That’s right….
And does that mean you’ve had to perfect the art of saying, of finding nice ways of telling people they’re crap? Have you had to work on that a bit, or what?
ROGER: We haven’t seen anybody crap, actually.
BRIAN: That wasn’t a problem. Now come on you guys there must be some people who think they’re the new Freddie Mercury or whatever.
ROGER: Well we’re not looking for people, because it’s not biographical, we’re not looking for people who’re supposed to be us. We’re just looking for character members. But they are Queen songs, aren’t they?
ROGER: Absolutely.
BRIAN: Queen songs, but the story’s very much not our history or anything like that, set in the future.
Does that mean the songs are different in the musical than we might know them as Queen songs?
BRIAN: Songs are arranged slightly differently, but the flavour of Queen and the spirit of Queen is very much in there. There’s just slight adaptations to make it all make sense.
What was your favourite support band that you played with, so you think, that you went, ‘Hi, these guys might go alright’? Rolling Stones?
ROGER: Well actually, strangely enough, in Europe they are huge, and over here for years, INXS. They were fantastic.
When did the rider change for you when you suddenly realised, ‘They’ll give us anything we ask for’? (laughter)
BRIAN: I think it’s gradual. You just kind of push it as far as you can… at a particular time.
Continues….