QUEEN – A Night at the Theatre
Queen played a crucial role in the development of the musical taste and career of music friends Leo Blokhuis (music critic/professor) and Roel van Velzen (musician). Leo Blokhuis (1961) saw Queen 's rise to fame first hand, while Roel van Velzen (1978) really discovered the group only after Freddie Mercury' s death. Leo and Roel move through the Queen story, looking for the meaning of this legendary band for pop music and for themselves. link
Fireplace wrote:
I have only ever heard Leo Blokhuis slag Queen off at every opportunity. What an incredible hypocrite!
THANK YOU for saying this.
I was thinking exactly the same. What an idiot.
The way I see it, I think this is what happened:
1 ) Blokhuis was expressing his hate of queen music at every opportunity he had (media interviews) He placed Who Wants To Live Forever in his personal top 10 of worst songs all time (number 7) That was in 2006 or so.
2) Some years later Blokhuis was asked to present an award to Brian May (The Eddy Christani Award 2011) Roel van Velzen was there too. They both met Brian, Roel played with him, and were a bit starstruck I suppose.
3) December 2016 Blokhuis realised Queen was hugely populair among young voters of the annual top 2000 of all time. link
4) 5 months later Van Velzen dreadfully performed a Queen song on a Dutch national holiday. King Willem Alexander and his wife sang along. The whole nation watched. It was quite a success according to some people link
5) Van Velzen + Blokhuis do this theatre thing -> Money.
Van Velzen always expressed his love for Queen and performed several covers during his concerts. Nothing wrong there. But Blokhuis, really. Money grabbing hypocrite.
Fireplace wrote:
I have only ever heard Leo Blokhuis slag Queen off at every opportunity. What an incredible hypocrite!
THANK YOU for saying this.
I was thinking exactly the same. What an idiot.
The way I see it, I think this is what happened:
1 ) Blokhuis was expressing his hate of queen music at every opportunity he had (media interviews) He placed Who Wants To Live Forever in his personal top 10 of worst songs all time (number 7) That was in 2006 or so.
2) Some years later Blokhuis was asked to present an award to Brian May (The Eddy Christani Award 2011) Roel van Velzen was there too. They both met Brian, Roel played with him, and were a bit starstruck I suppose.
3) December 2016 Blokhuis realised Queen was hugely populair among young voters of the annual top 2000 of all time.
link
4) 5 months later Van Velzen dreadfully performed a Queen song on a Dutch national holiday. King Willem Alexander and his wife sang along. The whole nation watched. It was quite a success according to some people link
5) Van Velzen + Blokhuis do this theatre thing -> Money.
Van Velzen always expressed his love for Queen and performed several covers during his concerts. Nothing wrong there. But Blokhuis, really. Money grabbing hypocrite.
Yes, i thought the same thing about Leo Blokhuizen and Queen still being very popular in the Netherlands. But it seems that Leo Blokhuizen is going to address his dislike of Queen. If you look at the promo-video he says he liked the no-synthesizer era (the 70's) and dislikes the 80's stuff to a point. But i must say i never would have thought that he was going to do a theater lecture/show about Queen. Most of Leo Blokhuizen's friends and colleagues despise Queen. But you can't deny that Queen's rise to fame is a interesting story and if told objectively i have no problem with him. Although using the name Queen is a pretty sure seat filler. Van Velzen is a huge Queen fan, so that's a no brainer.
For a list (all in the Netherlands) of dates see link
For a news article (+ interview video) see link
Roel van Velzen went to the same school I went. He was always a Queen fan.
I remember well I was wearing a Back to the Light Tour T-Shirt, the one where Brian is wearing clogs. Roel laughed "Brian May wearing clogs", he wasn't aware of the fact that Brian did / does wear them.
Back to the Topic Roel is a real Queen fan. Leo is a guy that likes everyone to listen to his amazing stories. Don't know Leo but that is the impression I get when I see him on TV.