| Lurker91 05.11.2018 15:53 |
I recently found an article from The Telegraaf (a Dutch newspaper) about the 31-10-78 New Orleans concert and the Jazz album launch & press conference, written almost forty years ago by the late music journalist Jip Golsteijn (link. It contains quite interesting details so I’ve decided to translate it for you. The comments between brackets are mine. Enjoy! :) ================================ Freddie Mercury: “Queen has nothing to say, but we say it so beautifully!” By Jip Golsteijn On the bed lie two balloons, a mask, a handful of confetti, and a note: “Queen invites you to a Halloween Party in the Ballroom Suite of the Fairmont Hotel. The party begins at eleven o’clock and will last until everybody has collapsed. If you want to come dressed up, we can recommend the following address…” Halloween, a partly pagan, partly Christian celebration on the eve of All Hallows’ Day, is vaguely similar to our St. Martin’s Day. Children go from house to house to beg for candy, their parents become drunk elsewhere in the city, dressed up unrecognizable. In a city like New Orleans, trained in celebrating carnival, something like that goes not unnoticed. Of the 10.000 persons who crowd the Auditorium, a quarter is dressed up as gorilla, voodoo-doctor, witch, nun, clown, or 18th century preacher, so your reporter – who has a certain fame in the Netherlands for his Wehkamp [a cheap mail order company] look – begins to feel like the only madman in an otherwise perfectly sane world. But the extravagance in the hall is amply surpassed by that on the stage when Queen has, after some delay, finally arrived there. Perfected The show has been considerably refined since I saw the group in the company of thousands of drunk American soldiers in Frankfurt less than a year ago. The stage which has been taken along is twice as large, so Brian May and Freddie Mercury don’t have to meet each other if they wish to. The light used by Queen is more than adequate to magically transform the far side of the moon into a pleasant artificial village. A complicated system of stairs, equipped with a battery of floodlights that operates independently from the stage lighting, leads to Roger Taylor’s throne which is encased around by the percussion instruments. The simplest part of a Queen concert, the traditional acoustic set, is in itself an impressive show of strength. For exactly two songs an extra stage sinks down, seven meters broad and twenty-five meters long. For the one small refrain that Taylor can’t handle with only the tambourin, a special drum kit is put together. And Freddie Mercury changes his costume yet one more time… But the fact remains that it works. After two hours and three encores the 10.000 in the Auditorium are standing on the seats and if they don’t have switched on the audience lights by now they are still standing there. * * * * Queen themselves would have liked to see the Ballroom Suite converted into a velodrome where the guests could have raced around to their hearts content and the management of the Fairmont Hotel would have gladly agreed if the police had not forbidden it. Now, cycling only takes place on the two gigantic screens, on which footage is continuously shown of a bicycle race with fifty-five nude girls organized by Queen in the summer for a poster. Total costs of this event: 15.000 dollar. This because of putting together a potential leading group from a number of English top models and a system of watertight security measures to keep unwanted visitors out of the stadium. No Risk The Halloween Party is outsourced to an independent publicity agency that has taken no risk with regard to useful entertainment and general amusement. The food is piled so high that the Sahel may be a year out of trouble if it could be shipped out by the Tor[re]y Canyon [a large oil tanker], the stream of booze impresses more than the nearby Missisippi, and as soon as the dance floor and the stage are in danger of becoming somewhat less crowded they are occupied by an army of strippers. Queen, marched inside the Ballroom Suite behind a jazz band, leave after a short while, likely “not amused” by a representative from the recording industry who welcomes the men warmly, but mixes up their surnames. For a small quarter of an hour, Freddie Mercury is standing at the back of the immense room, gloomily taking in the event. Brian May shows himself for a short time on the floor around half past four in the morning. By then, a curious diverging of opinions has taken place. The Americans were greatly amusing themselves, the Europeans are baffled by so much tastelessness and went disappointed (“It’s not their style!”) to their luxurious rooms, elsewhere in the hotel. The day after the evening before. A lunch and press conference in a French restaurant in the Rue Royal[e]. The group arrives late, a wise decision, because they would no more appreciate, as one may fear, the roasted potato in cream and the Eggs Benedictine than the majority of the media people present. Around fifty persons are squeezed into a small side room. Lights of TV crews are increasing the temperature up to more than the subtropical values measured outside. The “reception” is at first a frustrating affair. Spanish, Argentinian and Brazilian journalists ask, assisted by translators who barely speak English, questions in their mother tongue for which even a contributor of Muziek Express [a Dutch music magazine] in 1965 would be fired on the grounds of extreme incompetence. What is their favorite color? What type of girl they like the most (Mercury: “You are surely not talking to me?”). What influences have they underwent (Taylor: “The one of my mother was rather [stifling?] when I was around three years old”)? One of the Argentinians even asks the men casually if they can each tell the most interesting facts about themselves. At that moment, the group intervenes professionally. Brian May promises to send a biography to the South-Americans and invites the British, Scandinavian and Dutch representatives to come closer, because otherwise it’s “in danger of becoming very formal.” A master stroke, because with only a table full of drinks between us we are able to isolate the media from four different continents from the happening. In this way, we can write down quite a lot of information about the new Queen LP Jazz (hence New Orleans). * * * * Roger Taylor: “We have named the album Jazz because of different reasons, but to none of them special importance should be attached. We have recorded it partly in Montreux, which is traditionally rather associated with jazz due to the festival. Furthermore, “jazz” means “mishmash”, which seemed quite nice to us after all those pompous titles”. Brian May: “We will probably never lose the reputation of exaggerating everything, how modestly we would choose our titles. Of course: in a time where everything has to be simpler and cheaper, Queen is becoming more complicated and expensive in everything. Again and again, we come up independently with things that make the whole more perfect or attract even more attention for ambitious projects, but this becomes an increasingly costlier affair. We are already near the maximum of what is financially possible. Break Even For example, we will be fortunate if we break even during this American tour. We have 48 people on the payroll, none of them could be missed and each one of them earns significantly more than the average educated American worker”. Freddie Mercury: “Since we manage ourselves, we have become very conscious of these things. In those nine months, I have learned more than in all the previous years as a professional musician. Just as I learned more from self-producing than closely watching somebody else for years. The reason that we worked again with Roy Thomas Baker is that we are able to realize top sellers ourselves. News o |
| Lurker91 05.11.2018 15:54 |
Freddie Mercury: “Since we manage ourselves, we have become very conscious of these things. In those nine months, I have learned more than in all the previous years as a professional musician. Just as I learned more from self-producing than closely watching somebody else for years. The reason that we worked again with Roy Thomas Baker is that we are able to realize top sellers ourselves. News of the World was our most successful LP. “We Are the Champions” was our top selling single. Our ego, at least mine (and it’s the largest of us all, believe me) is satisfied enough. Maybe it has something to do with looking after our own business. Maybe we will again hire someone to do it. Because to be honest: it’s not much fun, there is almost no creativity involved[…]. Of course, success is an important motivation, but indeed, I probably would have quit if I had not a larger share of compositions on Jazz than on News of the World. At the time, I was pressured to democratize the selection procedures of the repertory and I reluctantly agreed to that. But I found the results far below our capacity, no matter the successfulness. I think that Roger and John, who felt frustrated by the larger input of Brian and myself, agreed with me in hindsight, because they have taken a small step back. Although they are each represented by two songs on Jazz, they did not put up resistance against my contribution of five songs and Brian’s four”. A Joke Roger Taylor: “Rumors about solo careers exist since 1972 and they will continu to exist for as long Queen is together. They concentrate primarily on Brian and Freddie, but I’m the only one who has at some time put my money where my mouth is and made a single, although it was primarily to tide over an inactive period of the band. A joke. At the moment, the mood is better than ever”. Brian May: “I cannot imagine a career outside Queen, just as I can’t conceive somebody joining us. A number of times we were on the brink of taking a pianist with us, to ensure that this part would not disappear when Freddie runs on the stage. But each time we have relinquished it at the last moment and now the whole idea is probably shelved indefinitely. We are so used to solving our own problems that we would feel like a couple with marriage difficulties seeking help from a professional”. John Deacon: “When we had to go into the studio, it turned out that we had nothing, except raw ideas. Of course, up to now each Queen album was made in the studio, but especially this time the homework was badly done. We had all our reasons. I was the one who was most involved in taking over the management, Brian was for a while experimenting with wireless equipment, Freddie was a little bit aggrieved about his small share on News of the World and Roger was busy with his single. Joke or no joke, something like that eats up time. In the nick of time we were writing like madmen, as a result we now have a whole catalogue. We have briefly considered releasing a double album, but actually the four of us were all against it, because we have already the reputation of being an expensive group. Unjustly, because we were informed about the fact that News of the World was priced two dollars higher than the average album in a plane above the Atlantic Ocean, just on the eve of our American tour. This time the price is lower than average, as a service, so to speak. And all this while there is almost fifty minutes of music on Jazz”. Live Album Freddie Mercury: “Our next record will be a live album. Firstly, we will be totally empty after our world tour, which ends in the summer of 1979, and secondly, it is really time, because all the live versions differ greatly from the record versions, while the public massively appreciates both of Queen’s renditions”. * * * * “Would you like to repeat that?” It becomes quiet in the room. In a few seconds the temperature seems to have been increased by a couple of degrees. Cameras are turned to me, microphones are held in my direction. Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Brian May, and Roger Taylor are looking at me combatively. The gathered press watches along. “What do you mean? Nothing to say?” “Well…” I hear myself say. “Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle Race… If you hear that sound and see all that sophisticated light, you think that very important subjects are brought up, but meanwhile it’s about things which you can discuss in a pub within a minute”. Silence. Mercury looks at me expressionless. “Do you think that Queen has nothing to say?” “Actually, yes.” Muttering. The English grin sneakily, the Germans stare grimly straight ahead, the Argentinians and Brazilians don’t know where to look after this paragon of sacrilege. Silence. Then, Mercury’s face splits from ear to ear into a grin that gives the party a magnificent view of his famous tusks. “You are right” he says. “Queen has nothing to say. But we say it so beautifully!” Reference: Golsteijn, J. (1978, November 11). Freddie Mercury: “Queen heeft niets te zeggen, maar we zeggen het zo prachtig!” De Telegraaf, p. 27. Retrieved from: link |
| Chopin1995 05.11.2018 17:31 |
Thank you! Really interesting read. |
| dysan 05.11.2018 19:51 |
Yeah that's great. "Jazz” means “mishmash” = I like the album even more now |
| The Real Wizard 06.11.2018 07:11 |
Until now we've never heard or even seen a transcription of the press conference. Rarely were they this open and candid. This is gold. Thanks for posting. |
| Makka 06.11.2018 07:34 |
Great article. Thanks for putting this up! |
| Double-U 06.11.2018 08:24 |
What a fantastic post. Thank you very much for your time with translating and writing it. kind regards, W. |
| on my way up 06.11.2018 10:36 |
This is pure gold! And Freddie's remark about having nothing to say but saying it so beautifully is what Freddie Mercury is really about. A genius. Not the man that is portrayed in some film that's currently doing very well... |
| Lurker91 06.11.2018 14:43 |
Thanks for the thank you’s! Over the years, I have visited Queenzone quite often (if you ignore the trolls, it’s a very good source of information/music) so it’s nice to be able to give something back. The journalist is (obviously) not a big fan of the band, but at least he wrote down some insightful information about the album. A lot of other articles from that time are mainly about the extravagance of the launch party, Freddie’s personality or are just hateful denunciations. What I found interesting is that Freddie did not rate News of the World very highly and resented the fact that he could only contribute three songs… This was new to me. And Freddie’s reaction when he was asked what type of girl he likes is IMHO priceless! :) |
| Vocal harmony 06.11.2018 17:56 |
Thank you for posting this. |
| Rick 06.11.2018 18:56 |
Great album, shitty production. A huge step down from News of the World. |
| dysan 06.11.2018 20:15 |
I prefer it. It's a mish mash. |
| Chief Mouse 06.11.2018 20:27 |
Brilliant post! Thank you :) |
| The Fairy King 07.11.2018 11:38 |
Great start! Thanks! |
| Jazz 78 07.11.2018 11:42 |
FANTASTIC!!!! With all the reporters and film crew around, hopefully there is a chance someday of seeing some of the footage if any of it is still survives 40 years later. |
| imfanqueen 29.08.2020 18:55 |
Interesting interview, but was it interesting translated by experts? because sometimes, due to incorrect translation, we receive distorted information. It would be cool to read the original interview. |
| Sebastian 29.08.2020 23:13 |
Interesting to see Frederick was a bit sore after having had a smaller contribution earlier on. And keep in mind 'Champions' was a reject from the 'Opera' era, so he actually only wrote two songs on 'News of the World' and then pulled another one out of the recycling bin. |
| imfanqueen 30.08.2020 00:04 |
Sebastian wrote: Interesting to see Frederick was a bit sore after having had a smaller contribution earlier on. And keep in mind 'Champions' was a reject from the 'Opera' era, so he actually only wrote two songs on 'News of the World' and then pulled another one out of the recycling bin.Did you like Bohemian Rhapsody? I looked at the translation into French, so I did not really understand some points. |
| imfanqueen 30.08.2020 18:23 |
I wanted to add that in "Bohemian Rhapsody" Freddie Mercury revealed a new side to me. I saw him as a person and not just as a musician. And the fact that the impression of the film was distorted only suggests that the translation was not professional. After all, real professionals https://thewordpoint.com/languages/korean-translation-services provide a wide range of translation services, including transcription, I think that the film about the legendary Queen deserves a professional approach in everything. And what do you think? |