Queen BBC Radio 1 Interview 1977 part4-6
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---Queen Interview 1977 (Part 4)----
Tom: 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This was, for me, so amazing, because it was such a departure from anything else that was in the charts in '75, in November it got to number one, and stayed there for nine weeks, I think, didn't it, amazing (Roger: yeah, something like that, yeah), terrific amount of time, anyway, yonks and yonks, and it was fabulous. Um, Freddie, can you tell us a bit about how you recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the actual technical side of it?
Freddie: You want a few trade secrets? It was quite a mammoth task, because it was basically done in three, three definite sections and just pieced together, and each one required a lot of concentration, the opera section, the middle, was the most taxing I think, 'cos er, we just, we wanted to recreate a sort of huge operatic sort of um, harmony section, between just the three of us, and that involves a lot of multi-tracking and things, and I think between the three of us we sort of, we recreated a, a sort of hundred and sixty to two hundred piece (Roger: something like that, yeah) choir effect between just the three of us, that's Brian, Roger and myself just singing it
Roger: There's a tremendous range of harmonies, and it involves doing it again and again and again and again to make it sound bigger and bigger and bigger
Tom: Can you think how many times to get that number of people?
Roger: Well, divide two hundred by three (laughter), something like that
Tom: Yeah, sixty six
Brian: This is for each, each little part so if you multiply that by
Roger: Each little bit though has to be done that many times, and you have to learn all the very different parts, because I think some of them were, what, how many part harmonies?
Freddie: Because I mean like there was a section of 'no, no, no', and we had to sort of do that in sort of different escalating things and we just sat there going (sings) 'no, no, no, no, no, no, no' about, I don't know, a hundred and fifty times (Brian: going out of our minds)
Tom: Does one of you every now and again just say 'no more, that's it, I'm not'
Freddie: Oh yes (Roger: yeah, all the time, yeah) all the time
Tom: And then the others sort of egg him on and say 'well it's only one more' or something?
Freddie: It depends on who's
Roger: No, everybody agrees and we leave (laughter)
Tom: Well we come now to Freddie's personal choice of music. Freddie, what's it gonna be?
Freddie: I've sort of chosen an Aretha Franklin track, I think it's called 'You've Got A Friend', it's from the er, 'Amazing Grace' album which she did a long time ago, it's a live sort of thing, double album set, it's a sort of gospel thing that she did live in a, in a church in California I think, it's called 'You've Got A Friend'
[Excerpt of 'You've Got A Friend']
Tom: Freddie Mercury's choice there from Aretha Franklin
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[Excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye...' from 'Queen']
Tom: Radio 1 presents the second part of Queen. In the first programme, we covered the musical development of Queen from their first album right up to their chart topping single 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and in this second programme, we'll be talking again to Queen about their music, we'll be playing tracks from 'A Night At The Opera', 'Day At The Races' and 'News Of The World'. First of all then, let's go to Queen's drummer, Roger Taylor. I've noted down here Roger that when you're not playing or recording with Queen, you're quite interested in motor racing and in cars?
Roger: Well more cars really, I'm not that up on motor racing, I have Auto Sport every week, but I mean, really, sort of this is a full time job, it keeps us so busy, I never get time to go to any races or anything, I just like cars, they're rather nice
Tom: But you have driven, haven't you, um, round a track
Roger: Oh, only, only once, yeah, it was a very minor thing really, but it gives you a taste you know
Tom: You're not thinking of taking on Noel Edmonds down at Brands Hatch or something?
Roger: Oh, good God, I'd thrash him (laughter)
Tom: Hear that Noel? Ha, ha. Right
Brian: That's before he got in the car
Roger: Yeah, that's even before he got in
Tom: Anyway, that's our natural cue to 'I'm In Love With My Car' by Roger Taylor
[Excerpt of 'I'm In Love With My Car']
Track 22 Dialogue (1:17): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
[Excerpt of 'I'm In Love With My Car']
Tom: 'I'm In Love With My Car' from 'A Night At The Opera'. John, I believe you're very interested in stereo photography (John: stereo photography, yeah) tell us about stereo photography
John: I just like the um, the old weetabix things, you know where you used to get the two things with the viewers, used to get two pictures, you know both taken from a slightly different position, and you look through a special viewer and you get a, a true 3D perspective effect, and you can have attachments that you actually put on cameras on special stereo cameras to take three dimensional pictures
Tom: Three dimensional slides? (John: um) um, I mean you can't sort of project it can you, or?
John: There is a means, you've tried it haven't you Brian, projecting?
Brian: Yeah, I got quite a long way into it, yeah, you can do it with a silver screen instead of a white screen and cross polarize and things (Tom: mmm), takes a lot of setting up, it's very interesting
Roger: Perfect for the average layman (laughter)
Tom: Brian
Brian: It's very unfashionable at the moment, 'cos it did, it was quite a successful form of photography in the nineteen (Roger: thirties) twenties and thirties or so, but it sort of went out of fashion for some unknown reason, because I think it's amazing
Tom: Brian, I would have thought that you'd have been interested too in um, holograms and er
Brian: Yes, strangely enough, holography was invented by Dennis Gabor who was a professor at my college, at Imperial College where I went, so we, we had a holography course, yes I was interested, I don't really think it has as much application to the rock stage as, as people think
Tom: You don't think you could incorporate holograms into your act?
Brian: You can, but it, it's, the art is not at the state where it, it's gonna be that good at the moment. The Who really are, are the people who have got most into using lasers as part of the stage show, but holography is a very dicey business really, even with lasers, and to produce large scale impressive things is more difficult than people think
Tom: I believe they are far more advanced than we are in the States with holograms?
Brian: Um, yes, it's surprising though I mean, I keep vaguely up with the developments, but it hasn't advanced hugely on the large scale, um, the small scale making of holograms commercially has advanced considerably, but the problems are still the same, you need a large source of coherent light, and you need a, a screen to work the thing from, you can't suspend it in thin air yet, the image
Tom: And back to John again, you're playing the 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, because I, I'd never played piano before, I really started to learn on the electric piano, and, and basically that's a song that came out, you know, when I was, I was learning to play piano
Freddie: I, I refused to play the damn thing
Tom: Was this a question of ethics, or what?
Freddie: They're tinny and horrible, I don't like them (laughter) why play those things when you've got a lovely super grand piano? No, I, I think it's, basically what he's trying to say is that there was a desired effect really, and
John: It was written on that instrument, and really it sounds best on that, you know, on the, often on the, on the instrument that you wrote a song on
Tom: Well, it got to number seven, in July '76, 'You're My Best Friend'
[Excerpt of 'You're My Best Friend']
Tom: 'You're My Best Friend' with John fingering away like fury on electric piano
Track 23 Dialogue (2:03):
Tom: 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, and how did you go about marketing it?
Freddie: Well the sleeve had a sort of crest on it, didn't it, that's right, sort of
Tom: Now you designed that, right?
Freddie: Well, it was an adaptation of an earlier crest that I did, it was done by David Costa who sort of um, worked in conjunction with us, and made sure it was what we wanted, since then I mean as far as say marketing is concerned, it's a huge process, I mean it covers such a wide area, it's like we said before, we just sort of work on the album material and then we choose a single, in this case, 'A Night At The Opera' case, it happened to be 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and with that we made a film which helped us a lot, I mean we did it with Bruce Gowers
John: Yeah, we made a film (Freddie: a promotional film) in rather a short time actually, we were, just before we went out to tour in England, when 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was released, we were rehearsing, up at Elstree wasn't it, (Roger: yeah), yeah, and they just came in one night with a video truck (Freddie: we all came in) one or two little bits and we did it in about four hours didn't we?
Freddie: Yes
Roger: The film opened up a new avenue for us, because the film was used all round the world, and worked very successfully, I mean it didn't only just get the record across, it got Queen across both visually and sort of aurally, and now it's really a part of the accepted pattern of marketing a single for any major, or in fact even a new band these days, or artist, to make the record, and then bring out the record, but they always have the film with the record, in fact you can sell that film round the whole world, and literally promote your records with it without actually being there, I think Abba have, have turned that into great advantage, yes
Tom: John, how deeply do you involve yourselves with the marketing?
John: We involve ourselves artistically with the product basically, I mean like the, I mean obviously the album and the cover, and the film, we're very much involved with that, but as far as the actual sort of marketing, I mean, I mean a lot is up to the record company, you know, as long as they don't do anything that is grossly in bad taste, you know, I mean we like to keep an eye on what they're doing
Track 24 Dialogue (1:29): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
Tom: Have you ever had a nasty shock, something you weren't expecting?
Brian: Oh yes (general agreement)
Freddie: Especially now, there are so many, I mean you get posters
Brian: Yeah, there's, there's been some really bad things, there's one particular example in America we were very upset about, where they, they put out 'Liar' as the second single, and when we heard it we discovered that they'd chopped it, they'd chopped a good ah, sixty percent of it out, just in a pretty random way, not even done the edits very well, and that was being put out as a single in America, and of course it was a flop,
--Queen Interview 1977 (Part 5)---なんで、こんなところで切ったのかな？？
and we've always tried to fight for complete artistic control throughout the world, the normal thing is to, to send your copies of the mastertapes 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, the disc, there's a huge amount you can do with it, and you can completely ruin a record which has been, taken months to produce, and we've got some of the cuts back from countries that we've, that we didn't know about, and they've been horrific. It's funny, the first album, in America, was an interesting example, because they put it all through a very viscious limiter, which means that everything comes up to the same level, and everything pumps, they call it pumping, so if you have a continuous note and a drum beat on top, then the continous note goes up and down around the drum beat, and in fact that, that improved some tracks, or, or made them (laughter) it's very strange, it gave them a particular sound (Roger: yeah, we really knew a lot about the studio then), it gave them a particular sound on American FM radio, which we discovered when we went there, that it, it did get us across very well, and we sort of, we actually used that on subsequent albums, it's very strange how things can happen
Tom: Let's have some more music, Brian let's take one of yours, one that we're gonna play of yours in a minute, from 'A Night At The Opera', which is called 'Good Company', which has a George Formby style ukulele on it, and Trad Jazz, um, were you interested a lot in Trad Jazz?
Brian: I can remember the Trad Jazz boom, and I, I was very, very keen on a group called the Temperance Seven, who did in fact a sort of revival of the twenties arrangements for jazz band, and that, that's the kind of thing I was going after on this track
[Excerpt of 'Good Company']
Tom: Well Brian, now we come to your personal record choice, and I believe instead of just having one, you're gonna have half of one and half of another
Brian: Yes, I'm very greedy
Tom: Well, tell us what they're gonna be
Brian: OK, um, this is going to bring us onto Jimi Hendrix, who I'm sure we can talk a lot about, I'd, I'd like to play the beginning of a track called 'A House Burning Down', the beginning of this to me is the most amazing attacking beginning to a song I've ever heard, and it's the complete production job on guitars, bass and drums, I've never heard anything like it
[Excerpt of 'House Burning Down']
Brian: And the other track is 'And Your Bird Can Sing', which is, I think it's just something that's very simple and very beautiful that The Beatles did, there's a lot of Beatles in us I think, a lot of influence there, whether it's conscious or unconcious, and that was one, one of the things which I liked, a very simple song, very well done, and also a little bit of double tracking from George Harrison, I assume it's George, playing the, the little figures that go round the vocals, and that was an inspiration aswell 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 harmony work with a rock sounding guitar, and George Harrison was, was quite a pioneer, because he, he had a go at it on this track
[Excerpt of 'And Your Bird Can Sing']
Tom: Brian May's choice, from Jimi Hendrix 'A House Burning Down' and The Beatles 'And Your Bird Can Sing', and now
Track 25 Dialogue (2:16):
Tom: Can we talk about Jimi Hendrix, because I know Jimi Hendrix has been a prime mover to the group, and a great influence to you all, Freddie
Freddie: He was just a beautiful man, I think he was just a master showman, what can I say, he was just a dedicated musician, I mean he was just everything as far as I was concerned and I went to numerous places to sort of try and catch his shows, just magic, just magic, and it was really, it's quite sort of a treat to watch somebody just come on the stage, I mean he didn't have the kind of props and things that we have today, it all emitted from him, you know, from, from the person, it was just him and the guitar, very colourful, and just um, it was quite a stage act, you, you learnt a lot from that kind of thing
Tom: Roger, I believe that, when he died, you were at the Kensington Market, right?
Roger: That's true, actually yes, how did you that find out? (laughter) um (Brian: I was) yes, I, I remember we couldn't
Freddie: We shut shop in his honour
Roger: Yes, we shut up our stall and went home and had a good ball, 'cos it was (Freddie: played all his records), really, it was dreadful when he died, for me, yeah
Tom: I also believe that when you did your big Hyde Park concert last year, that that was on the anniversary of Jimi's death (Roger: it was) tell us about Hyde Park, how did that come about?
Roger: It was an idea we had while, when we were touring in Japan, we thought it would be nice to do something different in England, rather than do the same old you know, yeah, tour, etc, the same old places, and we thought we'd like to do a free concert, and the best possible venue that occured to us was Hyde Park, because it was more central than any other, it was an awful lot of trouble, to, 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, er, to do something for nothing, um, a lot of people still don't seem to realise that, I mean there was no percentage from any angle in it, really
Tom: Well, let's have some more music, this time from 'A Day At The Races', and 'Somebody To Love', which got to the top ten in December '76
[Excerpt of 'Somebody To Love']
Track 26 Dialogue (1:03):
[Excerpt of 'Somebody To Love']
Tom: 'Somebody To Love', with a very gospel sounding choir, Freddie, was that choir built up in the same way as you did on 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?
Freddie: In a way yes, I mean we had the, the same three people singing on the, the big choir sections, but I think it had a, a different kind of techincal approach, because I mean it was a sort of gospel way of singing, which I think was different to us, and this is me sort of going on about Aretha Franklin, and sort of made them go a bit mad, I just wanted to write something in that kind of thing, I was sort of incensed by the, the sort of gospel approach that she had on her albums, on the earlier albums, although it might sound the, sort of same kind of approach on say the, the harmonies, it is very different in the studio because it's like a different kind of, actually a different range
Track 27 Dialogue (3:17): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
Tom: Can we come now to the territories in which you're very enormous, I understand you're huge in Japan, can we hear about
Roger: Sounds as if you swell up as soon as you, as soon as you arrive there (laughter)
Tom: It's all that sake, yes, well, tell us about Japan, why Japan, I know Freddie sings in Japanese, right?
Freddie: Not all the songs
John: Only on
Roger: Only on one song yeah, I mean that was more of a tribute I think
Freddie: That was afterwards I think
Brian: That was a long time after, really
Roger: You know, Japan really caught onto us fairly early on didn't they
John: 'Queen II' I think was the big one they picked up on really, wasn't it?
Roger: Yeah, and we knew that there was a sort of demand for us there, and so we sort of tagged it onto the end of an American tour, we had a holiday in Hawaii, and then it was sort of logical, so we went there, and we arrived at the airport, and suddenly realised it was on a scale different to that which we'd imagined, because there were thousands of people there, just to welcome us, you know, and normally you just don't get that sort of thing anywhere. We've had two really amazing tours in Japan since then, they sort of seem to have taken us to their hearts, and I think we've, we've had some influences from them, especially Brian I think
Tom: Which brings me to the next one, I mean, how, how do you get on when you're not on stage, do you all mix together, or do you go off your separate ways?
Roger: I dunno, it's hard to answer, a bit of both really, bit of both, yeah
Freddie: We have, in America we have, we have a limousine each, and we just, the moment we finish, just get into that, and do our own bit
Brian: Go to the four corners of town
Tom: So it is that
Freddie: It really depends, I mean if there's a reception laid on or whatever
Roger: It depends actually, yeah (Freddie: we've got to have freedom) we've grown apart a bit more, you know, but I mean we don't hate each other yet, which I think quite a lot of other bands do
Tom: Well this is very apt, this next title, because it's 'Let Us Cling Together', or, now you Freddie, you pronounce it for me
Freddie: Teo Torriatte
[Excerpt of 'Teo Torriatte']
Tom: 'Teo Torriatte'. Brian, this is a very reflective, quiet song, which contrasts rather with the next song, which is 'Tie Your Mother Down', um, how can we get two such opposite songs on the same album?
Brian: Um, I don't know, we, we do tend to be attracted by opposites, if that's the right way of putting it, we tend to, if we go a long way in a particular direction, we tend to like to go equally far in the opposite direction, I think we still feel that we're kind of doing our apprenticeship in that we can try out anything that comes into our heads, if a song comes along, and suggests a certain approach, and you've written down reflective approach here, OK, then, then we'll follow that to it's extreme, and at the same time if another song comes out which is um, the heavy kind of stuff, then we'll follow that to it's extreme, and I think that's one of our strong points internally
Freddie: Yes, we, we're not scared of trying out different ideas, you know, I think one of the things that we really steer clear of is trying to sort of repeat the same formula, write different ideas
Brian: The old thing of light and shade really (Freddie: it keeps the interest there), which all the best rock bands have had on stage, I mean, the rock band which have the most impact are the people who can do a, a slow song, and then flatten the whole place with a, with a (Freddie: completely devastating) a complete contrast, that's what gets me anyway, if I, if somebody comes on stage and blasts (Roger: it's dynamics) twelve bar blues all night, then there comes a point I think where it sags in the middle, although I love it, I mean I love hard rock well played, and I think it's the hardest thing to do, in some ways, but the way to do it is not to sort of rock and roll all night as far as I'm concerned, it's, it's to, to do everything um, in it's right place
Tom: Well let's have 'Tie Your Mother Down'
[Excerpt of 'Tie Your Mother Down']
Tom: 'Tie Your Mother Down' from 'A Day At The Races'. Can we talk about your manager John Reid at the moment, he also manages Elton John doesn't he?
John: Yes he does
Roger: He's very successful, good manager (Brian: will out) I think good management is, is, is pretty vital, yes
Freddie: It is, it certainly is, you need, you need (Roger: in fact it's totally vital) especially, say, for a band that's starting up, I mean they need the guidance and things, so a good manager is definitely vital
Roger: And you need somebody to take at least some of the worries away, that aren't to do with the music, away from you, you see
Freddie: But we're a very difficult group to manage, we demand a lot
---Queen Interview 1977 (Part 6)----
Tom: Let us progress on this one, now there have been incorrect newspaper reports, I believe, that you are about to de-camp for the States because of tax reasons, Roger can we go on that one, how did that occur?
Roger: Well, basically, I, must have been something that I said, but it was (laughter), it was certainly um, it was taken completely wrongly whatever it was I said, I certainly didn't say we were going off to America, um, tomorrow, which was how the article came out, um, it's something that we might do in the future, but definitely in the future, certainly not tomorrow, or even next month, or the month after
Freddie: But we are going to America for a tour
Roger: Yes we're going for a tour (Brian: unknown dialogue) but we're not leaving England yet
Tom: I see, but they took it as though you were um
John: Becoming tax exiles really
Roger: Becoming tax exiles, that was how it was written up, yes, it really was
John: It said we were going to live abroad, yeah?
Roger: What I gathered from what it said, I mean you know, you know, you often, you do an interview, which is why we've learnt not to do many, and you sort of read it back and you think 'good God, was I there?', and er, people just sort of tend to turn things round to, to say what they really want to say, you know, whether it be the politics of one particular newspaper, the article will sound as they want to sound it, or the editor wants it to sound, as opposed to the interviewee
Tom: 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 round and smack him in the teeth personally but (laughter), um, I haven't had any writs served on me so
Tom: Well that, that sounds the old fashioned way to do it, which brings us to (Freddie: oh) 'Good Old Fashioned Loverboy'
Roger: Corny
[Excerpt of 'Good Old Fashioned Loverboy']
Tom: There were four songs on the EP, but it was priced at the price of a single I believe, why was this?
Roger: Yes, er, we just wanted to give something that was sort of quite good value, and that was a good sort of sample of one track from the last four albums, I think
Tom: It went into the top 20 June '77, so was it for the Jubilee, was, was this a special
Roger: Not really, I don't think, um
Freddie: I think it was, it was, we wanted something released to coincide with the tour that we were doing at the time, and as we didn't have any new product, 'cos I mean we were, the way we did it this time was we did a tour and then we were going to go in the studio and do the new album, which is 'News Of The World'
Tom: Roger, we now come to you, and your personal choice, here
Roger: Yeah, it's very hard to choose one record, all I could think of was a record that really excited me at the time, and it's a record by one of the, the best bands ever I think, and still are, The, The Who, very exciting, it was their second hit single, and it, as far as production in those days is concerned, it's the most over the top record I've ever heard, it had the first use of feedback that I can remember, I think, on record, it's called 'Anyway Anyhow Anywhere'
[Excerpt of 'Anyway Anyhow Anywhere']
Tom: 'Anyhow Anyway Anywhere' from The Who. Your fan club is one of the biggest fan clubs in the world, with about forty five thousand people, and I believe you do a very nice thing, that you send them little personal letters that are then photocopied, Brian
Brian: Yeah, we try and keep in contact, we think it's very important to keep that sort of two way thing going, er, it's not the easiest thing to run, there are a lot of pitfalls in running fan clubs, you know, you can become too detached, or you can become too involved and not get any of your actual work done, you know, so you have to, I think it's important that we are kept in touch, with all the reaction you know, and the girls that work for us in the fan club, and, and a guy now, who's, who's doing the organisational side, really make sure that there is this, this two way communication all the time. We try and keep the fan club as an information service, that was what it was started off as, rather than as a promotion vehicle, because I think many fan clubs become tainted with that, if you start using it purely as a, purely as a selling device, the whole thing becomes horrible
Tom: Roger, in the last week of August you put out your own personal single which was called 'I Wanna Testify' which you sang, and you played every instrument on the single, tell us about this
Roger: It's not a particularly big deal, um, it was just something, we came back from America, and there's a sort of slack period, and I was a bit sort of bored, I had nothing to do, and I just went into the studio with our engineer Mike Stone and um, did an old song by The Parliaments I've got a version, an a-capella version, I just sort of heavied it up a bit and did it all by myself, just really as an experiment, and, and a bit of fun, however I found the experiment was slightly more expensive than anticipated, and a lot of people seemed to quite like it, so it was sort of, eventually came out as a single
[Excerpt of 'I Wanna Testify']
Tom: There we go, 'I Wanna Testify', a song played and everything else by Roger Taylor, but ah, has it then sort of given you food for thought to the future?
Freddie: After five, six albums, I think a lot of areas have opened up, and they're sort of, there are lots of things that one can do, and I think already we're sort of branching out and doing other things, just, just for mere
Tom: With the financial reward that (Freddie: comes with it) being a success, you know, of being a successful pop group, obviously now Freddie, I mean you could open up a fine art business, couldn't you, or, but I mean has it
Freddie: Come and see my gallery (Tom: has it) now they call it a museum but
Tom: Has this crossed your mind that, you know, things you can now plan to do with the finance you've accumulated?
Freddie: Yes I think one must definitely invest, that's what my accountant says, I for one have sort of started up a little production company of my own, and have signed to it a person called Peter Straker, so that's a little venture that I've sort of got myself into, you know, alongside Queen, which is obviously the major thing
Tom: Now we come to your new album
Freddie: Yes it's called 'News Of The World'
Tom: 'News Of The World', alright, and I see down in front of me, the first track is 'Sheer Heart Attack', now Roger you wrote this one, um, tell us about 'Sheer Heart Attack'
Roger: Yeah, it might sound vaguely familiar (laughter). It was written in essence, not completely, wasn't finished (Brian: essence was brilliant) at the time of recording 'Sheer Heart Attack', but really we didn't have room, and it wasn't quite finished etc, and for a number of reasons it didn't get on, and now it's been sort of, it, it lives again, and actually I'm quite pleased with it, it's, it's really pure energy, and it's one of my contributions to the new album
[Excerpt of 'Sheer Heart Attack']
Tom: 'Sheer Heart Attack'
Track 28 Dialogue (1:03):
Tom: Now we come to John Deacon song, 'Spread Your Wings'. John, we haven't heard from you for a long time, tell us about 'Spread Your Wings'
John: Um, just basically just one of the two tracks I happen to have come up with, you know, this year and managed to squeeze on the album
Freddie: Squeeze is right
Tom: John, does songwriting come easily to you?
John: No, it's, it's quite difficult actually, but it's getting a little bit better as time goes on, you know I only started really, the 'Sheer Heart Attack' album I had a little track called 'Misfire', but 'Best Friend' was the real sort of first proper length song I wrote really, so I'm sort of um, still new to it, but it's improving anyway
Tom: Do you compose on your electric piano?
John: Er, piano, guitar, I, I don't actually tend to compose on the bass, usually on either on a just sort of accoustic guitar, or perhaps piano
Tom: 'Spread Your Wings' from John Deacon
[Excerpt of 'Spread Your Wings']
Track 29 Dialogue (1:15):
Tom: Before we have our finale, which is gonna be 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions', can Brian, as you wrote, er, 'We Will Rock You', can we ask you about 'We Will Rock You', and then we'll go to Freddie for 'We Are The Champions' who wrote that one, so, Brian 'We Will Rock You'
Brian: Right, we have two kind of chanty songs in a way, 'We Will Rock You' was just an experiment, the thing it's, it's designed to simulate is the effect of an audience just stomping and clapping, and the singing and nothing else, so there's not supposed to be any bass or drums or guitar or anything, the guitar comes in the end and plays along with it, er, just an experimental thing really, and we're, we're waiting to see what's gonna happen on stage
Tom: 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, we came back from a tour of Europe, which we hadn't done for a long time, we didn't mention Europe, but in fact we neglected Europe up until last year and we did a proper tour and came back and we had very little time left to make the album
Roger: It's really a new departure, you know, because it's, it's a, a more spontaneous album
Tom: Alright, OK
Track 30 Dialogue (1:01): ('On Air' loses the song in red)
Tom: 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 (laughter, then a raspberry), you know
Tom: Was it, was it at all influenced by Elton John and Watford, or?
Freddie: Oh, no
Brian: An interesting thing happened, may be worth mentioning, when we, one of the best gigs we did on the last British tour was Bingley, which is new for us (Freddie: Bingley Hall) and um, we, we did an encore and went off, and instead of just keep on clapping they sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (Roger: 'You'll Never Walk Alone') to us, and we were completely knocked out and taken aback, and it was quite an emotional experience really, and I think these chant things are in some way connected with that kind of feeling really
Tom: Well gents, it only remains for me to wish you a very successful 1978, and to thank you so much for coming in
Roger: Thank you
Freddie: Thank you very much
Brian: Thanks a lot
Freddie: Thank you
Brian: Thanks, thanks Tom
[Excerpts of 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions']
.
.
.
---Queen Interview 1977 (Part 4)----
Tom: 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This was, for me, so amazing, because it was such a departure from anything else that was in the charts in '75, in November it got to number one, and stayed there for nine weeks, I think, didn't it, amazing (Roger: yeah, something like that, yeah), terrific amount of time, anyway, yonks and yonks, and it was fabulous. Um, Freddie, can you tell us a bit about how you recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the actual technical side of it?
Freddie: You want a few trade secrets? It was quite a mammoth task, because it was basically done in three, three definite sections and just pieced together, and each one required a lot of concentration, the opera section, the middle, was the most taxing I think, 'cos er, we just, we wanted to recreate a sort of huge operatic sort of um, harmony section, between just the three of us, and that involves a lot of multi-tracking and things, and I think between the three of us we sort of, we recreated a, a sort of hundred and sixty to two hundred piece (Roger: something like that, yeah) choir effect between just the three of us, that's Brian, Roger and myself just singing it
Roger: There's a tremendous range of harmonies, and it involves doing it again and again and again and again to make it sound bigger and bigger and bigger
Tom: Can you think how many times to get that number of people?
Roger: Well, divide two hundred by three (laughter), something like that
Tom: Yeah, sixty six
Brian: This is for each, each little part so if you multiply that by
Roger: Each little bit though has to be done that many times, and you have to learn all the very different parts, because I think some of them were, what, how many part harmonies?
Freddie: Because I mean like there was a section of 'no, no, no', and we had to sort of do that in sort of different escalating things and we just sat there going (sings) 'no, no, no, no, no, no, no' about, I don't know, a hundred and fifty times (Brian: going out of our minds)
Tom: Does one of you every now and again just say 'no more, that's it, I'm not'
Freddie: Oh yes (Roger: yeah, all the time, yeah) all the time
Tom: And then the others sort of egg him on and say 'well it's only one more' or something?
Freddie: It depends on who's
Roger: No, everybody agrees and we leave (laughter)
Tom: Well we come now to Freddie's personal choice of music. Freddie, what's it gonna be?
Freddie: I've sort of chosen an Aretha Franklin track, I think it's called 'You've Got A Friend', it's from the er, 'Amazing Grace' album which she did a long time ago, it's a live sort of thing, double album set, it's a sort of gospel thing that she did live in a, in a church in California I think, it's called 'You've Got A Friend'
[Excerpt of 'You've Got A Friend']
Tom: Freddie Mercury's choice there from Aretha Franklin
---------------------------------------------
[Excerpt of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye...' from 'Queen']
Tom: Radio 1 presents the second part of Queen. In the first programme, we covered the musical development of Queen from their first album right up to their chart topping single 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and in this second programme, we'll be talking again to Queen about their music, we'll be playing tracks from 'A Night At The Opera', 'Day At The Races' and 'News Of The World'. First of all then, let's go to Queen's drummer, Roger Taylor. I've noted down here Roger that when you're not playing or recording with Queen, you're quite interested in motor racing and in cars?
Roger: Well more cars really, I'm not that up on motor racing, I have Auto Sport every week, but I mean, really, sort of this is a full time job, it keeps us so busy, I never get time to go to any races or anything, I just like cars, they're rather nice
Tom: But you have driven, haven't you, um, round a track
Roger: Oh, only, only once, yeah, it was a very minor thing really, but it gives you a taste you know
Tom: You're not thinking of taking on Noel Edmonds down at Brands Hatch or something?
Roger: Oh, good God, I'd thrash him (laughter)
Tom: Hear that Noel? Ha, ha. Right
Brian: That's before he got in the car
Roger: Yeah, that's even before he got in
Tom: Anyway, that's our natural cue to 'I'm In Love With My Car' by Roger Taylor
[Excerpt of 'I'm In Love With My Car']
Track 22 Dialogue (1:17): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
[Excerpt of 'I'm In Love With My Car']
Tom: 'I'm In Love With My Car' from 'A Night At The Opera'. John, I believe you're very interested in stereo photography (John: stereo photography, yeah) tell us about stereo photography
John: I just like the um, the old weetabix things, you know where you used to get the two things with the viewers, used to get two pictures, you know both taken from a slightly different position, and you look through a special viewer and you get a, a true 3D perspective effect, and you can have attachments that you actually put on cameras on special stereo cameras to take three dimensional pictures
Tom: Three dimensional slides? (John: um) um, I mean you can't sort of project it can you, or?
John: There is a means, you've tried it haven't you Brian, projecting?
Brian: Yeah, I got quite a long way into it, yeah, you can do it with a silver screen instead of a white screen and cross polarize and things (Tom: mmm), takes a lot of setting up, it's very interesting
Roger: Perfect for the average layman (laughter)
Tom: Brian
Brian: It's very unfashionable at the moment, 'cos it did, it was quite a successful form of photography in the nineteen (Roger: thirties) twenties and thirties or so, but it sort of went out of fashion for some unknown reason, because I think it's amazing
Tom: Brian, I would have thought that you'd have been interested too in um, holograms and er
Brian: Yes, strangely enough, holography was invented by Dennis Gabor who was a professor at my college, at Imperial College where I went, so we, we had a holography course, yes I was interested, I don't really think it has as much application to the rock stage as, as people think
Tom: You don't think you could incorporate holograms into your act?
Brian: You can, but it, it's, the art is not at the state where it, it's gonna be that good at the moment. The Who really are, are the people who have got most into using lasers as part of the stage show, but holography is a very dicey business really, even with lasers, and to produce large scale impressive things is more difficult than people think
Tom: I believe they are far more advanced than we are in the States with holograms?
Brian: Um, yes, it's surprising though I mean, I keep vaguely up with the developments, but it hasn't advanced hugely on the large scale, um, the small scale making of holograms commercially has advanced considerably, but the problems are still the same, you need a large source of coherent light, and you need a, a screen to work the thing from, you can't suspend it in thin air yet, the image
Tom: And back to John again, you're playing the 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, because I, I'd never played piano before, I really started to learn on the electric piano, and, and basically that's a song that came out, you know, when I was, I was learning to play piano
Freddie: I, I refused to play the damn thing
Tom: Was this a question of ethics, or what?
Freddie: They're tinny and horrible, I don't like them (laughter) why play those things when you've got a lovely super grand piano? No, I, I think it's, basically what he's trying to say is that there was a desired effect really, and
John: It was written on that instrument, and really it sounds best on that, you know, on the, often on the, on the instrument that you wrote a song on
Tom: Well, it got to number seven, in July '76, 'You're My Best Friend'
[Excerpt of 'You're My Best Friend']
Tom: 'You're My Best Friend' with John fingering away like fury on electric piano
Track 23 Dialogue (2:03):
Tom: 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, and how did you go about marketing it?
Freddie: Well the sleeve had a sort of crest on it, didn't it, that's right, sort of
Tom: Now you designed that, right?
Freddie: Well, it was an adaptation of an earlier crest that I did, it was done by David Costa who sort of um, worked in conjunction with us, and made sure it was what we wanted, since then I mean as far as say marketing is concerned, it's a huge process, I mean it covers such a wide area, it's like we said before, we just sort of work on the album material and then we choose a single, in this case, 'A Night At The Opera' case, it happened to be 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and with that we made a film which helped us a lot, I mean we did it with Bruce Gowers
John: Yeah, we made a film (Freddie: a promotional film) in rather a short time actually, we were, just before we went out to tour in England, when 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was released, we were rehearsing, up at Elstree wasn't it, (Roger: yeah), yeah, and they just came in one night with a video truck (Freddie: we all came in) one or two little bits and we did it in about four hours didn't we?
Freddie: Yes
Roger: The film opened up a new avenue for us, because the film was used all round the world, and worked very successfully, I mean it didn't only just get the record across, it got Queen across both visually and sort of aurally, and now it's really a part of the accepted pattern of marketing a single for any major, or in fact even a new band these days, or artist, to make the record, and then bring out the record, but they always have the film with the record, in fact you can sell that film round the whole world, and literally promote your records with it without actually being there, I think Abba have, have turned that into great advantage, yes
Tom: John, how deeply do you involve yourselves with the marketing?
John: We involve ourselves artistically with the product basically, I mean like the, I mean obviously the album and the cover, and the film, we're very much involved with that, but as far as the actual sort of marketing, I mean, I mean a lot is up to the record company, you know, as long as they don't do anything that is grossly in bad taste, you know, I mean we like to keep an eye on what they're doing
Track 24 Dialogue (1:29): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
Tom: Have you ever had a nasty shock, something you weren't expecting?
Brian: Oh yes (general agreement)
Freddie: Especially now, there are so many, I mean you get posters
Brian: Yeah, there's, there's been some really bad things, there's one particular example in America we were very upset about, where they, they put out 'Liar' as the second single, and when we heard it we discovered that they'd chopped it, they'd chopped a good ah, sixty percent of it out, just in a pretty random way, not even done the edits very well, and that was being put out as a single in America, and of course it was a flop,
--Queen Interview 1977 (Part 5)---なんで、こんなところで切ったのかな？？
and we've always tried to fight for complete artistic control throughout the world, the normal thing is to, to send your copies of the mastertapes 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, the disc, there's a huge amount you can do with it, and you can completely ruin a record which has been, taken months to produce, and we've got some of the cuts back from countries that we've, that we didn't know about, and they've been horrific. It's funny, the first album, in America, was an interesting example, because they put it all through a very viscious limiter, which means that everything comes up to the same level, and everything pumps, they call it pumping, so if you have a continuous note and a drum beat on top, then the continous note goes up and down around the drum beat, and in fact that, that improved some tracks, or, or made them (laughter) it's very strange, it gave them a particular sound (Roger: yeah, we really knew a lot about the studio then), it gave them a particular sound on American FM radio, which we discovered when we went there, that it, it did get us across very well, and we sort of, we actually used that on subsequent albums, it's very strange how things can happen
Tom: Let's have some more music, Brian let's take one of yours, one that we're gonna play of yours in a minute, from 'A Night At The Opera', which is called 'Good Company', which has a George Formby style ukulele on it, and Trad Jazz, um, were you interested a lot in Trad Jazz?
Brian: I can remember the Trad Jazz boom, and I, I was very, very keen on a group called the Temperance Seven, who did in fact a sort of revival of the twenties arrangements for jazz band, and that, that's the kind of thing I was going after on this track
[Excerpt of 'Good Company']
Tom: Well Brian, now we come to your personal record choice, and I believe instead of just having one, you're gonna have half of one and half of another
Brian: Yes, I'm very greedy
Tom: Well, tell us what they're gonna be
Brian: OK, um, this is going to bring us onto Jimi Hendrix, who I'm sure we can talk a lot about, I'd, I'd like to play the beginning of a track called 'A House Burning Down', the beginning of this to me is the most amazing attacking beginning to a song I've ever heard, and it's the complete production job on guitars, bass and drums, I've never heard anything like it
[Excerpt of 'House Burning Down']
Brian: And the other track is 'And Your Bird Can Sing', which is, I think it's just something that's very simple and very beautiful that The Beatles did, there's a lot of Beatles in us I think, a lot of influence there, whether it's conscious or unconcious, and that was one, one of the things which I liked, a very simple song, very well done, and also a little bit of double tracking from George Harrison, I assume it's George, playing the, the little figures that go round the vocals, and that was an inspiration aswell 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 harmony work with a rock sounding guitar, and George Harrison was, was quite a pioneer, because he, he had a go at it on this track
[Excerpt of 'And Your Bird Can Sing']
Tom: Brian May's choice, from Jimi Hendrix 'A House Burning Down' and The Beatles 'And Your Bird Can Sing', and now
Track 25 Dialogue (2:16):
Tom: Can we talk about Jimi Hendrix, because I know Jimi Hendrix has been a prime mover to the group, and a great influence to you all, Freddie
Freddie: He was just a beautiful man, I think he was just a master showman, what can I say, he was just a dedicated musician, I mean he was just everything as far as I was concerned and I went to numerous places to sort of try and catch his shows, just magic, just magic, and it was really, it's quite sort of a treat to watch somebody just come on the stage, I mean he didn't have the kind of props and things that we have today, it all emitted from him, you know, from, from the person, it was just him and the guitar, very colourful, and just um, it was quite a stage act, you, you learnt a lot from that kind of thing
Tom: Roger, I believe that, when he died, you were at the Kensington Market, right?
Roger: That's true, actually yes, how did you that find out? (laughter) um (Brian: I was) yes, I, I remember we couldn't
Freddie: We shut shop in his honour
Roger: Yes, we shut up our stall and went home and had a good ball, 'cos it was (Freddie: played all his records), really, it was dreadful when he died, for me, yeah
Tom: I also believe that when you did your big Hyde Park concert last year, that that was on the anniversary of Jimi's death (Roger: it was) tell us about Hyde Park, how did that come about?
Roger: It was an idea we had while, when we were touring in Japan, we thought it would be nice to do something different in England, rather than do the same old you know, yeah, tour, etc, the same old places, and we thought we'd like to do a free concert, and the best possible venue that occured to us was Hyde Park, because it was more central than any other, it was an awful lot of trouble, to, 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, er, to do something for nothing, um, a lot of people still don't seem to realise that, I mean there was no percentage from any angle in it, really
Tom: Well, let's have some more music, this time from 'A Day At The Races', and 'Somebody To Love', which got to the top ten in December '76
[Excerpt of 'Somebody To Love']
Track 26 Dialogue (1:03):
[Excerpt of 'Somebody To Love']
Tom: 'Somebody To Love', with a very gospel sounding choir, Freddie, was that choir built up in the same way as you did on 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?
Freddie: In a way yes, I mean we had the, the same three people singing on the, the big choir sections, but I think it had a, a different kind of techincal approach, because I mean it was a sort of gospel way of singing, which I think was different to us, and this is me sort of going on about Aretha Franklin, and sort of made them go a bit mad, I just wanted to write something in that kind of thing, I was sort of incensed by the, the sort of gospel approach that she had on her albums, on the earlier albums, although it might sound the, sort of same kind of approach on say the, the harmonies, it is very different in the studio because it's like a different kind of, actually a different range
Track 27 Dialogue (3:17): ('On Air' loses the dialogue in red)
Tom: Can we come now to the territories in which you're very enormous, I understand you're huge in Japan, can we hear about
Roger: Sounds as if you swell up as soon as you, as soon as you arrive there (laughter)
Tom: It's all that sake, yes, well, tell us about Japan, why Japan, I know Freddie sings in Japanese, right?
Freddie: Not all the songs
John: Only on
Roger: Only on one song yeah, I mean that was more of a tribute I think
Freddie: That was afterwards I think
Brian: That was a long time after, really
Roger: You know, Japan really caught onto us fairly early on didn't they
John: 'Queen II' I think was the big one they picked up on really, wasn't it?
Roger: Yeah, and we knew that there was a sort of demand for us there, and so we sort of tagged it onto the end of an American tour, we had a holiday in Hawaii, and then it was sort of logical, so we went there, and we arrived at the airport, and suddenly realised it was on a scale different to that which we'd imagined, because there were thousands of people there, just to welcome us, you know, and normally you just don't get that sort of thing anywhere. We've had two really amazing tours in Japan since then, they sort of seem to have taken us to their hearts, and I think we've, we've had some influences from them, especially Brian I think
Tom: Which brings me to the next one, I mean, how, how do you get on when you're not on stage, do you all mix together, or do you go off your separate ways?
Roger: I dunno, it's hard to answer, a bit of both really, bit of both, yeah
Freddie: We have, in America we have, we have a limousine each, and we just, the moment we finish, just get into that, and do our own bit
Brian: Go to the four corners of town
Tom: So it is that
Freddie: It really depends, I mean if there's a reception laid on or whatever
Roger: It depends actually, yeah (Freddie: we've got to have freedom) we've grown apart a bit more, you know, but I mean we don't hate each other yet, which I think quite a lot of other bands do
Tom: Well this is very apt, this next title, because it's 'Let Us Cling Together', or, now you Freddie, you pronounce it for me
Freddie: Teo Torriatte
[Excerpt of 'Teo Torriatte']
Tom: 'Teo Torriatte'. Brian, this is a very reflective, quiet song, which contrasts rather with the next song, which is 'Tie Your Mother Down', um, how can we get two such opposite songs on the same album?
Brian: Um, I don't know, we, we do tend to be attracted by opposites, if that's the right way of putting it, we tend to, if we go a long way in a particular direction, we tend to like to go equally far in the opposite direction, I think we still feel that we're kind of doing our apprenticeship in that we can try out anything that comes into our heads, if a song comes along, and suggests a certain approach, and you've written down reflective approach here, OK, then, then we'll follow that to it's extreme, and at the same time if another song comes out which is um, the heavy kind of stuff, then we'll follow that to it's extreme, and I think that's one of our strong points internally
Freddie: Yes, we, we're not scared of trying out different ideas, you know, I think one of the things that we really steer clear of is trying to sort of repeat the same formula, write different ideas
Brian: The old thing of light and shade really (Freddie: it keeps the interest there), which all the best rock bands have had on stage, I mean, the rock band which have the most impact are the people who can do a, a slow song, and then flatten the whole place with a, with a (Freddie: completely devastating) a complete contrast, that's what gets me anyway, if I, if somebody comes on stage and blasts (Roger: it's dynamics) twelve bar blues all night, then there comes a point I think where it sags in the middle, although I love it, I mean I love hard rock well played, and I think it's the hardest thing to do, in some ways, but the way to do it is not to sort of rock and roll all night as far as I'm concerned, it's, it's to, to do everything um, in it's right place
Tom: Well let's have 'Tie Your Mother Down'
[Excerpt of 'Tie Your Mother Down']
Tom: 'Tie Your Mother Down' from 'A Day At The Races'. Can we talk about your manager John Reid at the moment, he also manages Elton John doesn't he?
John: Yes he does
Roger: He's very successful, good manager (Brian: will out) I think good management is, is, is pretty vital, yes
Freddie: It is, it certainly is, you need, you need (Roger: in fact it's totally vital) especially, say, for a band that's starting up, I mean they need the guidance and things, so a good manager is definitely vital
Roger: And you need somebody to take at least some of the worries away, that aren't to do with the music, away from you, you see
Freddie: But we're a very difficult group to manage, we demand a lot
---Queen Interview 1977 (Part 6)----
Tom: Let us progress on this one, now there have been incorrect newspaper reports, I believe, that you are about to de-camp for the States because of tax reasons, Roger can we go on that one, how did that occur?
Roger: Well, basically, I, must have been something that I said, but it was (laughter), it was certainly um, it was taken completely wrongly whatever it was I said, I certainly didn't say we were going off to America, um, tomorrow, which was how the article came out, um, it's something that we might do in the future, but definitely in the future, certainly not tomorrow, or even next month, or the month after
Freddie: But we are going to America for a tour
Roger: Yes we're going for a tour (Brian: unknown dialogue) but we're not leaving England yet
Tom: I see, but they took it as though you were um
John: Becoming tax exiles really
Roger: Becoming tax exiles, that was how it was written up, yes, it really was
John: It said we were going to live abroad, yeah?
Roger: What I gathered from what it said, I mean you know, you know, you often, you do an interview, which is why we've learnt not to do many, and you sort of read it back and you think 'good God, was I there?', and er, people just sort of tend to turn things round to, to say what they really want to say, you know, whether it be the politics of one particular newspaper, the article will sound as they want to sound it, or the editor wants it to sound, as opposed to the interviewee
Tom: 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 round and smack him in the teeth personally but (laughter), um, I haven't had any writs served on me so
Tom: Well that, that sounds the old fashioned way to do it, which brings us to (Freddie: oh) 'Good Old Fashioned Loverboy'
Roger: Corny
[Excerpt of 'Good Old Fashioned Loverboy']
Tom: There were four songs on the EP, but it was priced at the price of a single I believe, why was this?
Roger: Yes, er, we just wanted to give something that was sort of quite good value, and that was a good sort of sample of one track from the last four albums, I think
Tom: It went into the top 20 June '77, so was it for the Jubilee, was, was this a special
Roger: Not really, I don't think, um
Freddie: I think it was, it was, we wanted something released to coincide with the tour that we were doing at the time, and as we didn't have any new product, 'cos I mean we were, the way we did it this time was we did a tour and then we were going to go in the studio and do the new album, which is 'News Of The World'
Tom: Roger, we now come to you, and your personal choice, here
Roger: Yeah, it's very hard to choose one record, all I could think of was a record that really excited me at the time, and it's a record by one of the, the best bands ever I think, and still are, The, The Who, very exciting, it was their second hit single, and it, as far as production in those days is concerned, it's the most over the top record I've ever heard, it had the first use of feedback that I can remember, I think, on record, it's called 'Anyway Anyhow Anywhere'
[Excerpt of 'Anyway Anyhow Anywhere']
Tom: 'Anyhow Anyway Anywhere' from The Who. Your fan club is one of the biggest fan clubs in the world, with about forty five thousand people, and I believe you do a very nice thing, that you send them little personal letters that are then photocopied, Brian
Brian: Yeah, we try and keep in contact, we think it's very important to keep that sort of two way thing going, er, it's not the easiest thing to run, there are a lot of pitfalls in running fan clubs, you know, you can become too detached, or you can become too involved and not get any of your actual work done, you know, so you have to, I think it's important that we are kept in touch, with all the reaction you know, and the girls that work for us in the fan club, and, and a guy now, who's, who's doing the organisational side, really make sure that there is this, this two way communication all the time. We try and keep the fan club as an information service, that was what it was started off as, rather than as a promotion vehicle, because I think many fan clubs become tainted with that, if you start using it purely as a, purely as a selling device, the whole thing becomes horrible
Tom: Roger, in the last week of August you put out your own personal single which was called 'I Wanna Testify' which you sang, and you played every instrument on the single, tell us about this
Roger: It's not a particularly big deal, um, it was just something, we came back from America, and there's a sort of slack period, and I was a bit sort of bored, I had nothing to do, and I just went into the studio with our engineer Mike Stone and um, did an old song by The Parliaments I've got a version, an a-capella version, I just sort of heavied it up a bit and did it all by myself, just really as an experiment, and, and a bit of fun, however I found the experiment was slightly more expensive than anticipated, and a lot of people seemed to quite like it, so it was sort of, eventually came out as a single
[Excerpt of 'I Wanna Testify']
Tom: There we go, 'I Wanna Testify', a song played and everything else by Roger Taylor, but ah, has it then sort of given you food for thought to the future?
Freddie: After five, six albums, I think a lot of areas have opened up, and they're sort of, there are lots of things that one can do, and I think already we're sort of branching out and doing other things, just, just for mere
Tom: With the financial reward that (Freddie: comes with it) being a success, you know, of being a successful pop group, obviously now Freddie, I mean you could open up a fine art business, couldn't you, or, but I mean has it
Freddie: Come and see my gallery (Tom: has it) now they call it a museum but
Tom: Has this crossed your mind that, you know, things you can now plan to do with the finance you've accumulated?
Freddie: Yes I think one must definitely invest, that's what my accountant says, I for one have sort of started up a little production company of my own, and have signed to it a person called Peter Straker, so that's a little venture that I've sort of got myself into, you know, alongside Queen, which is obviously the major thing
Tom: Now we come to your new album
Freddie: Yes it's called 'News Of The World'
Tom: 'News Of The World', alright, and I see down in front of me, the first track is 'Sheer Heart Attack', now Roger you wrote this one, um, tell us about 'Sheer Heart Attack'
Roger: Yeah, it might sound vaguely familiar (laughter). It was written in essence, not completely, wasn't finished (Brian: essence was brilliant) at the time of recording 'Sheer Heart Attack', but really we didn't have room, and it wasn't quite finished etc, and for a number of reasons it didn't get on, and now it's been sort of, it, it lives again, and actually I'm quite pleased with it, it's, it's really pure energy, and it's one of my contributions to the new album
[Excerpt of 'Sheer Heart Attack']
Tom: 'Sheer Heart Attack'
Track 28 Dialogue (1:03):
Tom: Now we come to John Deacon song, 'Spread Your Wings'. John, we haven't heard from you for a long time, tell us about 'Spread Your Wings'
John: Um, just basically just one of the two tracks I happen to have come up with, you know, this year and managed to squeeze on the album
Freddie: Squeeze is right
Tom: John, does songwriting come easily to you?
John: No, it's, it's quite difficult actually, but it's getting a little bit better as time goes on, you know I only started really, the 'Sheer Heart Attack' album I had a little track called 'Misfire', but 'Best Friend' was the real sort of first proper length song I wrote really, so I'm sort of um, still new to it, but it's improving anyway
Tom: Do you compose on your electric piano?
John: Er, piano, guitar, I, I don't actually tend to compose on the bass, usually on either on a just sort of accoustic guitar, or perhaps piano
Tom: 'Spread Your Wings' from John Deacon
[Excerpt of 'Spread Your Wings']
Track 29 Dialogue (1:15):
Tom: Before we have our finale, which is gonna be 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions', can Brian, as you wrote, er, 'We Will Rock You', can we ask you about 'We Will Rock You', and then we'll go to Freddie for 'We Are The Champions' who wrote that one, so, Brian 'We Will Rock You'
Brian: Right, we have two kind of chanty songs in a way, 'We Will Rock You' was just an experiment, the thing it's, it's designed to simulate is the effect of an audience just stomping and clapping, and the singing and nothing else, so there's not supposed to be any bass or drums or guitar or anything, the guitar comes in the end and plays along with it, er, just an experimental thing really, and we're, we're waiting to see what's gonna happen on stage
Tom: 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, we came back from a tour of Europe, which we hadn't done for a long time, we didn't mention Europe, but in fact we neglected Europe up until last year and we did a proper tour and came back and we had very little time left to make the album
Roger: It's really a new departure, you know, because it's, it's a, a more spontaneous album
Tom: Alright, OK
Track 30 Dialogue (1:01): ('On Air' loses the song in red)
Tom: 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 (laughter, then a raspberry), you know
Tom: Was it, was it at all influenced by Elton John and Watford, or?
Freddie: Oh, no
Brian: An interesting thing happened, may be worth mentioning, when we, one of the best gigs we did on the last British tour was Bingley, which is new for us (Freddie: Bingley Hall) and um, we, we did an encore and went off, and instead of just keep on clapping they sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (Roger: 'You'll Never Walk Alone') to us, and we were completely knocked out and taken aback, and it was quite an emotional experience really, and I think these chant things are in some way connected with that kind of feeling really
Tom: Well gents, it only remains for me to wish you a very successful 1978, and to thank you so much for coming in
Roger: Thank you
Freddie: Thank you very much
Brian: Thanks a lot
Freddie: Thank you
Brian: Thanks, thanks Tom
[Excerpts of 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions']
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