Brian May live at the Fat Tuesdays, New York, NY, USA (with Les Paul) [25.03.1991]
Basic information
Artist
Brian May
Date
25.03.1991
Venue
Fat Tuesdays
City
New York, NY
Country
USA
Additional info
with Les Paul
Comment
The gig was played at Fat Tuesdays, a small nightclub that Les Paul played once a week for many years. On this night, they were filming part of a home video called Guitar, narrated by guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan fame. But the released video included only part of Early Morning Blues.
The gig was played at Fat Tuesdays, a small nightclub that Les Paul played once a week for many years. On this night, they were filming part of a home video called Guitar, narrated by guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan fame.
Al Di Meolo also played that night and I believe Les Paul intros him at the end of Brian's set. It was a truly amazing night for me and the other people there. You can hear the excitement in the crowd, made up of an older, jazz crowd, including regulars that came each week to see Les Paul, and the Queen fans that had heard about it on the radio that afternoon and from friends. When we arrived at Fat Tuesdays, not knowing what to expect, there were only three other people there to see Brian. By the time he went on, though, another 50 or so people had shown up. Before the gig, I had the honor of meeting Brian, hanging by himself at the bar. I was even able to buy Brian a beer, as he had just finished the one he was drinking! Then the subject of live recordings came up (my friend blurted out, about me, 'he's got 100 live shows', to which I was a bit weary of having Brian hear. I mentioned to him that I thought he might not be too happy for fans to have unauthorized recordings, but he said no, as long as I enjoyed them, then it was fine. I even made sure to let him know that a decent portion were of excellent quality! We talked about Queen and other stuff. It was an incredible night and he was one of the nicest and most gracious people I've met.
At the time, some of the Hollywood remasters had just been released. I know News Of The World was out (Brian even asked what I thought of the Rick Rubin 'remix' of WWRY... I said it was 'interesting'!)... well, I asked Brian if they had already started work on the remaster for Queen II and he said that it wasn't finished yet or they were working on it. So, I mentioned that if possible, they should include 'See What A Fool I've Been' as a bonus track, since The Game remaster had been released without 'A Human Body' (as I can remember!). He said something like 'you know, we hadn't thought of that' (what???)... and at one point, even took out a pen and paper and wrote down these ideas! Well, as we know, the Queen II remaster came out a few months later, with 'See What A Fool I've Been,' sure enough on it! Maybe it was already planned that way, but who knows! Brian also mentioned that the Queen I remaster would include an unreleased tune, which turned out to be 'Mad The Swine', but I couldn't understand what Brian was saying, so I thought he said 'Madness Wine'.
After talking a bit with Brian, we realized we still weren't sure if we were even going to get into the gig, so we kindly asked him if there was somehow he might help us get in... he told us to follow him as he went into the club through the back entrance, down past the kitchen! Once inside the tiny club (where we dutifully paid our way), my friend Mike had a classic line, meant in jest (though I'm not exactly sure how Brian took it!)... he said to Brian: 'Not quite Wembley, huh Brian?'. I hope Brian took it as a joke!
There was a guy after the gig that presented Brian with a homemade guitar... it didn't look like the Red Special, but supposedly sounded like it and on a subsequent in-radio 'live' performance from Brian's 'radio tour' for Innuendo, Brian wound up playing it! I can't remember which radio performance this was from, but I know he mentions it on the program.