| YourValentine 24.10.2007 10:36 |
Hi folks, Italian Queen fan Andrea (Skizzo on QZ and elsewhere) had the chance to ask Morgan Fisher a couple of questions and wrote up the answers for the forum of link: Q: Where, when and how did you first meet Queen? A: Probably when they joined the Mott the Hoople UK tour in '74. I had already met Brian and Freddie before that. Brian came to see my Morgan band play at the Marquee Club a few times in '72/'73. Tim Staffell introduced me to Freddie at his home, as "the new singer in Smile." Q: You worked with Mott from '73 to '80 and Queen, in the early years, Queen was one of your support-bands. Did you see them performing in that period? What do you remember? A: I was with Mott from '73 to '77. Of course I saw Queen play on our UK/US tours. They were enormously energetic, almost frantic. And their clothes became more and more outrageous. Brian's guitar playing was unique - very impressive. They were trying to make it more than anyone else I had seen. And as we all know - they did. Q: How good were they, in your opinion? A: Well at that time I was completely into rock as we played it in Mott. We were already successful so we could lay back sometimes and not try to impress all the time. By contrast, Queen seemed desperate to make it, and sometimes I felt that they were trying too hard. But we didn't feel any rivalry because they were quite different to us. Q: Can you tell us any anecdotes of that period? A: Freddie was so hung over one morning on the US tour, that in the hotel cafe he fell forward with his face in his fried eggs - and stayed there! Q: There's an old story about Queen and Aerosmith in 1974. What do you remember about it? ( look this: link ) A: Don't remember that - but then I drank a lot in those days too! I can't remember Brian drinking heavily, he always seemed such a gentleman. Q: During the Morgan Band period one of your members was Tim Staffel: has he ever told you anything about his ex-band Smile and the new band, Queen, born just after he decided to leave Smile? A: No he didn't say much about Smile. Perhaps he didn't feel good about leaving them - who knows? Many years after being in my Morgan band he said in an interview that he wished we had been playing R'n'B instead of progressive rock, which surprised me - he was so good at it! Q: Who asked you to work with Queen in the Hot Space tour? A: Brian sent me a telegram, when I was living in Brussels. I had decided to get back into music after a couple of years' break, and had written to several friends (including Brian) asking if they knew of any work I could do. I never expected to receive such a big offer! Q: What were the band's indications about how to play their songs? A: Very little. They just sent me all their albums and a list of songs for me to learn. I figured them out by myself, did the audition in Los Angeles (they had also asked Roger Powell to audition), got the job, then rehearsed with them for two weeks in Coppola's Zoetrope Studios in Hollywood. During one of the quieter songs Brian ran over to me and yelled "play more beautifully!" That's all I can remember! Q: What kind of keyboard did you play in their concerts? A: A grand piano and an Oberheim synthesizer. Q: What do you remember about the two months you spent with Queen? Any anecdotes? A: Freddie travelled with his boyfriend. At nearly every after-show meal he would insist that Freddie stopped smoking. Freddie would always tell him loudly to "shutup and leave me alone!" During one of Brian's long guitar solos (when the rest of the band would go and sit in a little backstage tent) Freddie looked really bored, then raised his eyes to the ceiling and said "Ohhh, let's go shopping!" After I had been on the tour for a while, the ban |
| Micrówave 24.10.2007 11:03 |
Sounds like Morgan still doesn't get it. It wasn't just about being a decent keyboardist, he obviously didn't fit in in '82 and he sounds a little bitter about receiving a telegram termination. He can directly quote Freddie to his "boyfriend" but doesn't remember a fully drunk Brian May at all? Hmmmmm....... Thanks for posting, though. |
| pittrek 24.10.2007 11:31 |
Thank you YV VERY MUCH ! This is the type of posts which was the reason why I joined Queenzone |
| steven 35638 24.10.2007 11:56 |
That was quite enlightening. Thanks! |
| Rami 24.10.2007 13:46 |
Very interesting indeed. Thank you! |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 24.10.2007 14:20 |
Micrówave wrote: Sounds like Morgan still doesn't get it. It wasn't just about being a decent keyboardist, he obviously didn't fit in in '82 and he sounds a little bitter about receiving a telegram termination. He can directly quote Freddie to his "boyfriend" but doesn't remember a fully drunk Brian May at all? Hmmmmm....... Thanks for posting, though.Remembering 1982 when you were fairly sober, versus remembering 1974 when you were a raging drunk are two very different things....being fired via telegram is probably the same today as being fired via e-mail - just a bad way to do business. A phone call would suffice. Great interview, great find!! Thanks! |
| Sebastian 24.10.2007 16:22 |
Thanks, it was very interesting. |
| August R. 24.10.2007 16:32 |
Thanks for this. Interesting to hear his side of the story. |
| AC 24.10.2007 17:41 |
Many thanks to Skizzo, YourValentine and all the people at QueenItalia involved in this, it was very interesting. |
| Daniel Nester 24.10.2007 20:02 |
I have the two Morgan albums on CD, and there definitely interesting -- one of them has a note from Brian! Tin's singing is really beautiful and in the moment--I would side with Morgan on that score. Their version of Earth is really great. |
| Winter Land Man 24.10.2007 20:15 |
That was entertaining. Love reading something new all the time. |
| Knute 26.10.2007 02:08 |
Oh wow, this guy played with Queen? I know he was in Mott the Hoople who toured with them. Here is a collection of 8mm film reels he made back on tour in 1974. It has a shot of a record store with Queen II posters all over it, and he even mentions that other singer who generates controversy here..lol. Did Queen open for them on this US tour? link |
| Knute 26.10.2007 02:19 |
Oh wow, this guy played with Queen? I know he was in Mott the Hoople who toured with them. Here is a collection of 8mm film reels he made back on tour in 1974. It has a shot of a record store with Queen II posters all over it, and he even mentions that other singer who generates controversy here..lol. Did Queen open for them on this US tour? link |
| YourValentine 26.10.2007 04:40 |
That's an amazing video, thanks for posting it. He does not even mention Queen but it's very interesting to listen to Morgan's stories. Yes, Queen supported Mott in 1974 and Morgan played with Queen in 1982, you can see him on the Milton Keynes DVD. Freddie introduced him before CLTCL making fun of his pink outfit. |
| PieterMC 26.10.2007 07:13 |
It's strange because when I contacted him a couple of years ago asking if he would do a Q&A for Queen Archives he was less than interested in talking about Queen. He gave the indication that he would have nothing good to say about them. |
| Pim Derks 26.10.2007 09:42 |
I guess no one is interested in Mott The Hoople anymore :D |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 27.10.2007 09:22 |
Mott the Who? |
| Raf 27.10.2007 13:45 |
During one of Brian's long guitar solos (when the rest of the band would go and sit in a little backstage tent) Freddie looked really bored, then raised his eyes to the ceiling and said "Ohhh, let's go shopping!" After I had been on the tour for a while, the band and road crew all knew that I was involved in Indian spirituality and meditation. One night when I came on stage, I saw that one of the crew had written in chalk, on the floor by my stool, a big arrow pointing left, and the word "EAST!"Those two anecdotes made me laugh really loudly here! :D Thanks, YV! |
| musicland munich 10.02.2017 23:26 |
Call it some sort of Necrophilia... but Mr. Fisher's mind was working fine at that point. Yes, the auditions taken place at the Zoetrope Studios In a little Interview ( BRAVO Week 17 /82)Brian revealed that they aren't sure about picking an extra Keyboard player for the Tour but confirmed that they were doing rehearsals with a Keyboarder. ( as a side note Brian mentioned problems about the Cover Art or better how to get an agreement with all members about it) |
| dysan 11.02.2017 02:52 |
Good bump. I was reading that thinking it was new :) Morgan should be thanked for being in one of my favorite Queen shots: |
| dysan 11.02.2017 02:57 |
ALSO - does anyone have a bigger version of the main group shot in Musicland Munich's picture? |
| The Real Wizard 11.02.2017 20:28 |
musicland munich wrote: Call it some sort of Necrophilia... but Mr. Fisher's mind was working fine at that point. Yes, the auditions taken place at the Zoetrope Studios In a little Interview ( BRAVO Week 17 /82)Brian revealed that they aren't sure about picking an extra Keyboard player for the Tour but confirmed that they were doing rehearsals with a Keyboarder. ( as a side note Brian mentioned problems about the Cover Art or better how to get an agreement with all members about it)Great post ! And I love how properly German you are, capitalizing all of the nouns !! I'm 3/4 German, so I get it. |
| Sebastian 11.02.2017 20:51 |
The Real Wizard wrote:Just to nitpick, not all nouns were capitalised: 'rehearsals', 'problems', 'agreement' and 'members' were all lower case :pmusicland munich wrote: Call it some sort of Necrophilia... but Mr. Fisher's mind was working fine at that point. Yes, the auditions taken place at the Zoetrope Studios In a little Interview ( BRAVO Week 17 /82)Brian revealed that they aren't sure about picking an extra Keyboard player for the Tour but confirmed that they were doing rehearsals with a Keyboarder. ( as a side note Brian mentioned problems about the Cover Art or better how to get an agreement with all members about it)Great post ! And I love how properly German you are, capitalizing all of the nouns !! I'm 3/4 German, so I get it. |
| dysan 12.02.2017 00:12 |
I think I get Sebastian now. |
| The Real Wizard 12.02.2017 03:03 |
dysan wrote: I think I get Sebastian now.And that's why we love him. |
| cmsdrums 12.02.2017 04:15 |
I think Sebastian is slacking - I'd have expected him to tell us the exact percentage of un-capitalised nouns! :-) |
| Sebastian 12.02.2017 06:38 |
Life's too short :) In fact, it's 56.78% shorter than I thought it was. |
| Sheer Brass Neck 12.02.2017 07:49 |
^^^ :) |
| Sebastian 12.02.2017 10:51 |
Alright, I couldn't resist. The following (common) nouns were capitalised: - Necrophilia - Interview - Week - Keyboard - Tour - Keyboarder - Cover-Art (compound noun) The following nouns were not capitalised: - sort - mind - point - auditions - place - player - rehearsals - note - problems - agreement - members That amounts to eighteen common nouns, of which eleven (61.11%) were not capitalised. |
| Chief Mouse 12.02.2017 12:29 |
Ha! |
| Oscar J 12.02.2017 12:35 |
Sebastian wrote: Life's too short :) In fact, it's 56.78% shorter than I thought it was. Are you dying? :O |
| musicland munich 12.02.2017 13:43 |
Actually for me the fun starts with Necrophilia :) Wich is called Ne-k-rophilie in german. Just a little brainfart or misapprehension and you'll type Ne-g-rophilia. And then you will have a lot of trouble to sort things out :) link But to be serious...I think that Bob just noticed my tendency to do so ;) |
| Sebastian 12.02.2017 15:08 |
Oscar J wrote: Are you dying? :OAren't we all? |
| The Real Wizard 12.02.2017 18:13 |
An innocent little comment has suddenly created one of the greatest Queenzone threads ever. |
| Sebastian 12.02.2017 20:00 |
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| The Real Wizard 12.02.2017 20:01 |
Morgan Fisher said: I had already met Brian and Freddie before that. Brian came to see my Morgan band play at the Marquee Club a few times in '72/'73. Tim Staffell introduced me to Freddie at his home, as "the new singer in Smile."Back to the topic... This is a very interesting anecdote, something which I initially missed. Morgan formed in 1971, which would mean Queen were still using the Smile name colloquially at that time. We know they were still using the Smile name to book/market gigs in 1971 (see attached photo), so it makes one wonder how long they kept using that name before they finally settled on Queen once and for all. |
| Sebastian 13.02.2017 05:05 |
My take: Cornish tour '71. The name 'Smile' would've barely meant anything elsewhere as time progressed, so I imagine they'd just go as Queen (with no mention of Smile) when they played the rest of England. Next time they went to Cornwall, AFAIR, they'd already released two singles and two albums as Queen as they'd already played outside England a few times (West Germany, Luxembourg, Scotland, Wales and Australia), so I don't think it made sense to keep reminding the audience half of them used to be in Smile. |
| Costa86 13.02.2017 08:40 |
^Can't fault the logic. |