Spotted this video of Deacy from Sikke Van Der Veen. This must have been recorded a decade ago. link
According to Sikke, Deacy felt overwhelmed with the small number of people surrounding him (around the 0:18 mark) and didn't feel harassed with fans. You can even see him smile at some point in the video.
His quote in the comments: "I have more footage of this in the end he is very open and very very AGAIN VERY (!!!!!!!!!!) happy about this moment... but that we will al see in some TV special later this year okay !"
The first part when he's covering his face and the few moments after are strange. It's almost like he's had a complete meltdown caused by being around too many people he doesn't know. But then he appears to relax. So I'm not sure if he was covering his face kind of humorously, or if he suffered some sort of panic attack, which might be indicative of a greater psychological issue at play (and would go quite a long way into explaining why he's completely disappeared from the limelight). To be honest I think it's the latter, but I shouldn't speculate.
Costa86 wrote:
The first part when he's covering his face and the few moments after are strange. It's almost like he's had a complete meltdown caused by being around too many people he doesn't know. But then he appears to relax. So I'm not sure if he was covering his face kind of humorously, or if he suffered some sort of panic attack, which might be indicative of a greater psychological issue at play (and would go quite a long way into explaining why he's completely disappeared from the limelight). To be honest I think it's the latter, but I shouldn't speculate.
To me it looks a bit more like he's either playing along, feeling a bit tipsy, or possibly just overwhelemed at the attention (because if this is 2002, it could've been 5 years since any real spotlight on him). He seems to warm up quickly so I think it might just be shock mainly.
There could have been many other situations like this where he has been stopped whilst out close to his Home. These won't be on youtube. I feel sorry for John. He just wants to retire peacefully.
Costa86 wrote:
The first part when he's covering his face and the few moments after are strange. It's almost like he's had a complete meltdown caused by being around too many people he doesn't know. But then he appears to relax. So I'm not sure if he was covering his face kind of humorously, or if he suffered some sort of panic attack, which might be indicative of a greater psychological issue at play (and would go quite a long way into explaining why he's completely disappeared from the limelight). To be honest I think it's the latter, but I shouldn't speculate.
If that's the case, then why did he show up without a bodyguard?
He's a celebrity - people want a piece of him.
Costa86 wrote:
The first part when he's covering his face and the few moments after are strange. It's almost like he's had a complete meltdown caused by being around too many people he doesn't know. But then he appears to relax. So I'm not sure if he was covering his face kind of humorously, or if he suffered some sort of panic attack, which might be indicative of a greater psychological issue at play (and would go quite a long way into explaining why he's completely disappeared from the limelight). To be honest I think it's the latter, but I shouldn't speculate.
If that's the case, then why did he show up without a bodyguard?
He's a celebrity - people want a piece of him.
Yes they want a piece of him, but the way he reacted by covering his face is something which a child would do. Most celebrities would politely (or angrily) leave as quickly as they could through the crowd.
Not sure why he didn't have a bodyguard, maybe since he's so out of the spotlight, he's not used to needing one.
antiden wrote:
I become more and more convinced that Deacon is autistic. That pretty much explains his VERY strange behaviour, especially after Freddie's death.
I was going to suggest that he might have an autism spectrum disorder, but I don't know enough about Deacy or autism and thought it would be unfair to speculate. I feel immense respect to all members of Queen, and think it might be inappropriate to enter into their personal issues, especially given Deacy's wishes to not be in the public eye.
The Real Wizard wrote:
If that's the case, then why did he show up without a bodyguard?
Because the onus is on civilised people to leave him alone, not on him to be protected of intrusion. That's like blaming victims of mugging for having stuff, or date-rape victims for dressing provocatively.
At the end of the day, John's been photographed or bothered probably about a dozen times in the last two decades, which means most of the time he can still walk around London no prob. As massively succesful as Queen are in the UK, about 90% of the British population have never bought a Queen record, and of the remaining 10% (enough to make GH the best-selling album ever in that territory), some still wouldn't necessarily recognise him; of those who would, some wouldn't care; of those who would, some would be respectful; of those who wouldn't ... well, some would have the sense to approach him and politely ask him for a photo or an autograph; of those who got it, most would keep them to themselves; the remaining minority ... that's where the extremely limited amount of photos and videos comes from.
antiden wrote:
I become more and more convinced that Deacon is autistic. That pretty much explains his VERY strange behaviour, especially after Freddie's death.
Oh yes, definitely: because seeing a two minute video is more than enough to diagnose. Also, one of the people who asked him for an autograph had an interesting colour on their hand, they must be vegetarian. Noticed how the other person was moving? That's a clear sign their haemoglobin levels are below 12.7 (but most likely still above 9.85).
With so many talented doctors and psychiatrists who can diagnose people under absolutely no controlled conditions, only based on audio or video material plus the odd hearsay, I can only wonder why med schools, clinics, hospitals and studies still exist.
If a man covering his eyes on a 1.48 video and opting out of show biz is enough to diagnose him as autistic, then I guess I could make a case for both Brian and Roger being pathological liars because they both cheated on their wives. Sure!
Costa86 wrote:
I don't know enough about Deacy or autism and thought it would be unfair to speculate.
Exactly, that's the way to go. Speculating about who wrote what or whether 'You and I' would've been a hit is absolutely fine in my opinion. Playing shrink and diagnosing people (that reminds me of Messi a year and a half ago) is a whole other level.