| mickyparise 17.12.2013 03:14 |
'I think people will find it very touching,' he says By David Browne December 16, 2013 12:25 PM ET When Freddie Mercury sang "we will rock you" in 1977, even he probably wouldn't have imagined that the rocking would continue into the 21st century. Mercury died in 1991, yet the industry of Queen continues. A touring version of We Will Rock You, a theatrical production based around Queen songs, is currently on the road in the U.S. through next summer. Founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor are preparing a second posthumous album of Queen material, and both men are eyeing possible U.S. shows with Adam Lambert, who most recently joined the Queen founders onstage at an iHeart Radio show in September. Then there's the long-in-gestation Mercury biopic — which will now star Ben Whishaw (Q in the latest James Bond film, Skyfall) instead of its previously annnounced lead, Sacha Baron Cohen—as well as May's new book, Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell, a collection of reproductions of 19th century cards depicting various devil's-playground scenes. (The book comes with 3D glasses that truly make the roughly 150-year-old images pop.) "My life is anything but relaxing," May says from his home in England. Rolling Stone ran through May's various projects, both Queen–related and not. See Where Queen Ranks on Our 100 Greatest Artists of All Time Tell us about your interest in Diableries. I found the Diableries when I was about 20. I came across one at the Portobello Road market. I was just knocked out. You have to bear in mind there was no TV, radio, films or whatever in the 1860s, so your window on the world was a stereoscope, and stereo cards were made in the millions and sold in Britain and France and actually in the States around 1860. So you got, for instance, stereographs of the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and a few of American Indians. It was an enormous thing. Normally, a family would have a stereoscope. The technology that we think is so brilliant in the 21st century could not do what they did in the 1860s. How many cards do you have? Probably two or three hundred, including duplicates. In the way they take shots at people in power, they're very Occupy 1860. They spoke to me of mystery and imagination and arcane powers. What I couldn't see was the other subtext, which was sedition. They were veiled messages attacking the regime of the time. Sometimes they were attacking them in a humorous way, sometimes in a very serious way. Napoleon III is featured in there as the devil. It's a bit like me making cartoons about David Cameron with horns on his head. But it was very risky. You could have been put in prison for that. They were lucky to get away with it. You realize that their feelings were very similar to ours. We Will Rock You briefly ran in Vegas, then closed. What happened? The London show is still running probably stronger than ever, after our 12th anniversary, and 6 million people have seen it in London. We did have the Vegas production, but we were in the wrong time and the wrong place. It's a shame. It was a show we were very proud of and we had to condense it to fit into the requirements of the theater we were in. The owners were more concerned with getting people on the gambling tables than keeping them in the theater. When it opened in London in 2002, it received, shall we say, mixed reviews. We got the worst reviews in history apart from Les Miserables. And I'm happy to say both of us are still around and holding our fingers up to the critics. They would have loved to destroy us. I think there was a kind of resentment because we came from a different genre and music critics were horrified, like how dare you think you can come into theater and take it over? But we didn't go in and just tear up the rules of musical theater. We've taken in a lot of what musical theater traditionally has to offer and done it from a point of view of people who understand rock & roll. Eleven years ago, that was something pretty new. We got destroyed in the press, but one of those reviews said this is a new kind of musical theater, and I think that guy got it right. Have you seen Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, and other rock Broadway shows? I've seen them all. And American Idiot. I've seen and enjoyed them all. It's nice when I meet the people who created those. They all say they owe something to We Will Rock You. It's a nice feeling that we've contributed something to the river of what rock theater has become. What can you tell us about the "new" studio album from Queen? Well, there's something coming. I'm not really quite sure what it is yet. I don't know if there's a whole album. There's a piece of an album. We were looking at putting together a compilation of the more unusual and yet memorable Queen tracks. Things that weren't singles that have become or stayed popular through the years. That's the way it started and then we unearthed a few tapes of Freddie singing and us in the studio that we never finished off. We thought we got to the end of it with Made in Heaven. But there are a few other things which have turned up. So the album may turn out to be a mixture of some unusual things from the past and some very unusual things which no one has heard at all. With newly recorded backing tracks? Yeah. Roger and I have both been working on tracks in our spare time. A couple of them have Michael Jackson on as well, which adds another layer of interest. Freddie and Michael singing together and experimenting in the Eighties. How did you guys hook up with Michael? Michael used to come see us a lot. He was a big big fan, especially of Freddie, and Freddie and Michael got on real real well. Michael was very impressed with our lighting rig, I remember. I can't remember which tour it was. We had pods of lights that moved above the stage that had pilots in them. He said, "I'm stealing that," and sure enough on the "Victory" tour they had something very similar. But Michael really was very fond of Freddie and sort of idolized him. Michael really felt he wanted to be a rock star. Did he record in the studio with you? No, he and Freddie worked mainly at Michael's studio. That's the tapes we have. Some of the tapes they worked on had us on them as well. But I never actually worked in the studio with Michael personally. Sometimes you come across a spare reel of tape and think, "Well, what's on that?" And lo and behold, here's a tape of Freddie singing something we'd forgotten about. What do the songs with Michael sound like? At least one dancey, at least one ballady one. There's sort of three main contenders at the moment, possibly four. As far as the Freddie biopic, why did Sacha Baron Cohen drop out? There was a story put out by Sacha's publicist -- I think that's where it came from -- that Sacha had walked out in disgust because we didn't want to make a film with the kind of script we approved. But none of that was true. We parted amicably. We're still in touch and we're still good friends. We just came to the conclusions that it wasn't going to work with Sacha in the leading role. He's brilliant. But we felt that having Sacha in there would be so distracting because he's such a powerful persona and the characters he makes tend to stand out in a way that wouldn't be suitable for the film. Freddie has to be, in this movie, completely believable. You have to not question for an instant that you're watching Freddie, and that couldn't have happened with Sacha. When did you realize all that? It didn't occur to us straight away. We were excited by the project because Sacha is such an originator and such an entertainer and he came to us with a lot of great thoughts and great ideas and a lot of enthusiasm. No, it dawned on us slowly as we started to look at what he had done in Hugo. I don't know if you saw it ... and in Les Miserables and in The Dictator. The more we looked at it, we thought, "No, this isn't going to wor |
| Supersonic_Man89 17.12.2013 03:32 |
4 tracks with Michael Jackson?? That's new to me! |
| andyb1968 17.12.2013 06:50 |
So it is the postponed Queen Forever album with lesser known album tracks and just 3 or 4 unheard tracks, Better than nothing I suppose, but we all got excited for nothing, it's not made in heaven 2. |
| jondickens1 17.12.2013 07:29 |
Sorry andyb,but it read to me that the album started out as a compilation (the now scrapped ballads album) and then they unearthed the unreleased material. I'm so looking forward to this. Bollox to the Adam Glambert tour (unless it's in support of the new album),bring on this unreleased material! |
| rocknrolllover 17.12.2013 07:34 |
jondickens1 wrote: Sorry andyb,but it read to me that the album started out as a compilation (the now scrapped ballads album) and then they unearthed the unreleased material. I'm so looking forward to this. Bollox to the Adam Glambert tour (unless it's in support of the new album),bring on this unreleased material!I am totally agree with you! It doesn't matter how it will be present to us, but we want it. |
| matt z 17.12.2013 07:37 |
Sounds great. 4 tracks. So that means a scrapped track Ive never heard of. Complete and scratched tracks.... awesome |
| matt z 17.12.2013 07:39 |
*(psst! It means that John Deacon will be on it. ) I'm guessing two scratched tracks from NOTW, one from the game and the highlander new york new York. ... maybe something from the miracle (or stealin restored to its original length) |
| pittrek 17.12.2013 08:40 |
" There's sort of three main contenders at the moment, possibly four. " - that doesn't mean they have 4 MJ tracks |
| Mr.QueenFan 17.12.2013 09:21 |
pittrek wrote: " There's sort of three main contenders at the moment, possibly four. " - that doesn't mean they have 4 MJ tracksYes it does, Brian was specifically talking about the Michael Jackson tracks. I'm really looking forward to this new project. edit: But it's confusing, because Roger keeps mentioning only two songs with MJ. Either way, i'm excited to the possibility of new Queen songs with Freddie on it. Even if it was just one song, i would be in heaven. |
| scottmax 17.12.2013 10:33 |
In the extended interview he also mentions re recording backing tracks for other songs aside from the unknown ones |
| Band Forever 17.12.2013 11:07 |
I am not impressed with the tinny sound of the drums on Jazz, so a 2013/14 remix of Dead on Time would be interesting. I wouldn't mind hearing a updated version of the NOTW track 'It's Late' an overlooked classic that could have an added dimension with a modern remix. I believe this was released in the USA as a Single but faded badly. Any material with Freddie please release if you can I am sure Freddie's Mum and family plus us in the fandom and wider public would appreciate it. |
| roy_fokker 17.12.2013 11:45 |
Well, knowing that there's possibly a 4th track is interesting news. Better than knowing there's only 2. I guess Brian wants to be cautious in saying there's an album made fully with only unreleased material. But still I take it as the possibility of something really interesting being planned. a) There might be 'rare versions' of songs that have already been released by Queen elsewhere, though in a different version (who wouldn't love to hear a 2014 remix of We will rock you fast, or the duets with Rod Stewart and Andy Gibbs? Both Let me Live and Play the Game are already realeased songs, but a different version, which sounds like Queen in 2014, could be great). b) There might be 'rare versions' of songs that have been released elsewhere outside Queen (imagine a found-again 'Born to rock and roll' or 'Music of the night' featuring Freddie, or, more likely, songs like "Let me in your heart again" and "Man on fire". I would personally love to hear a 'who needs you-style' version of Freddie's "Money can't buy happiness". It would be a nice number. So, summing up, let's imagine: 3 songs with MJ, 2 fully unreleased songs that no-one knows, and 5 other tracks taken from the (a) or (b) categories. Add a 2014 version of some Queen lesser known track (e.g. Life is real or Is this the world we created) and an album is there. Not too bad, for a dream, isn't it? |
| rocknrolllover 17.12.2013 11:53 |
roy_fokker wrote: Well, knowing that there's possibly a 4th track is interesting news. Better than knowing there's only 2. I guess Brian wants to be cautious in saying there's an album made fully with only unreleased material. But still I take it as the possibility of something really interesting being planned. a) There might be 'rare versions' of songs that have already been released by Queen elsewhere, though in a different version (who wouldn't love to hear a 2014 remix of We will rock you fast, or the duets with Rod Stewart and Andy Gibbs? Both Let me Live and Play the Game are already realeased songs, but a different version, which sounds like Queen in 2014, could be great). b) There might be 'rare versions' of songs that have been released elsewhere outside Queen (imagine a found-again 'Born to rock and roll' or 'Music of the night' featuring Freddie, or, more likely, songs like "Let me in your heart again" and "Man on fire". I would personally love to hear a 'who needs you-style' version of Freddie's "Money can't buy happiness". It would be a nice number. So, summing up, let's imagine: 3 songs with MJ, 2 fully unreleased songs that no-one knows, and 5 other tracks taken from the (a) or (b) categories. Add a 2014 version of some Queen lesser known track (e.g. Life is real or Is this the world we created) and an album is there. Not too bad, for a dream, isn't it?If part of your dream will come true, you will be Nostradamus |
| andyb1968 17.12.2013 12:17 |
Let's not get over excited, my feeling is a double album of 1 CD Ballads, 2nd CD 4 or 5 unheard tracks, maybe some remixes, but I really wish they would work on some of Freddie's demos to complete a proper album, still looking forward to it though, my guess it'll be out this time next year ready for Xmas. |
| rocknrolllover 17.12.2013 12:25 |
andyb1968 wrote: Let's not get over excited, my feeling is a double album of 1 CD Ballads, 2nd CD 4 or 5 unheard tracks, maybe some remixes, but I really wish they would work on some of Freddie's demos to complete a proper album, still looking forward to it though, my guess it'll be out this time next year ready for Xmas.Bri mentioned about summer 2014. I suppose will be standard album 1 CD with 10-13 tracks on it. |
| Heavenite 17.12.2013 14:04 |
A double album would be unbelievable,but very unlikely IMO. In any case, it will be great to have it after all these years! :-) |
| andyb1968 17.12.2013 14:52 |
Yes but if it's a double album 90% of it we've heard before !!! |
| brENsKi 17.12.2013 15:42 |
people...please we've been here before we ALL know it'll end in tears or to call it by it's proper name "The Cosmos Rocks II" i really couldn't give less of a fuck these days, hype/bullshit/more hype/more bullshit followed by crap product...fuck em!!!! |
| Sebastian 17.12.2013 18:41 |
roy_fokker wrote: or the duets with Rod Stewart and Andy Gibbs?There's no duet with Andy Gibb. He only sang backing vocals, and that may well be the very same version we've all got. |
| AlexRocks 17.12.2013 23:08 |
Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope! |
| rocknrolllover 17.12.2013 23:34 |
AlexRocks wrote: Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope!Forget about it. Your lover ADAM LAMBERT never will be on Queen album, because he hasn't Queen. |
| the dude 1366 18.12.2013 00:29 |
I remember specifically in 1992 before the Freddie tribute when Brain said on the radio about there only being a maximum of 3 or 4 tracks and then MIH was released |
| vonkeil 18.12.2013 07:36 |
Considering only the tracks recorded after Innuendo, he was right then... |
| The Fairy King 18.12.2013 09:41 |
rocknrolllover wrote:You are a moron.AlexRocks wrote: Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope!Forget about it. Your lover ADAM LAMBERT never will be on Queen album, because he hasn't Queen. |
| rocknrolllover 18.12.2013 10:12 |
The Fairy King wrote:I am not agree with you !rocknrolllover wrote:You are a moron.AlexRocks wrote: Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope!Forget about it. Your lover ADAM LAMBERT never will be on Queen album, because he hasn't Queen. |
| Fireplace 18.12.2013 10:51 |
rocknrolllover wrote:You am not agree with anyone. You am Bizarro!The Fairy King wrote:I am not agree with you !rocknrolllover wrote:You are a moron.AlexRocks wrote: Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope!Forget about it. Your lover ADAM LAMBERT never will be on Queen album, because he hasn't Queen. |
| rocknrolllover 18.12.2013 10:52 |
Fireplace wrote:I'm the hitmanrocknrolllover wrote:You am not agree with anyone. You am Bizarro!The Fairy King wrote:I am not agree with you !rocknrolllover wrote:You are a moron.AlexRocks wrote: Uuummm. I thought about ten more songs with guests or with Adam Lambert or what have you with whatever extra Freddie songs. That's what I hope!Forget about it. Your lover ADAM LAMBERT never will be on Queen album, because he hasn't Queen. |
| princetom 18.12.2013 11:27 |
rocknrolllover wrote: I'm the hitmanso hit the road, man! we all know your point of view. it's kind of boring to read about it again and again (and again). please take some english-lessons and come back when you've learned to articulate in both ways: with a proper syntax and in a respectful way. |
| rocknrolllover 18.12.2013 12:30 |
princetom wrote:Lolrocknrolllover wrote: I'm the hitmanso hit the road, man! we all know your point of view. it's kind of boring to read about it again and again (and again). please take some english-lessons and come back when you've learned to articulate in both ways: with a proper syntax and in a respectful way. |