APOLOGIES IF THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN POSTED. THIS STORY APPEARED IN THE LAST PRIVATE EYE MAGAZINE. IT'S NOT ONLINE SO I TYPED IT OUT. CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE -- WELL DONE ROGER! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yet more collateral damage from the hacking scandal, this time at the Sunday Times.
This year the ST magazine was due to serialise 40 Years of Queen, an official and lavishly illustrated biography of the rock band written by former Melody maker hack Gary Doherty, with introducti9ns by Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Alas! When publisher Goodman sold the serial rights it quite forgot that Taylor has been an enemy of Murdoch ever since the Sun published long-lens photos of the dying Freddie mercury 20 years ago. "Dear Mr Murdoch, you play hard to see," he sang on his 1994 album Happiness. "But with your bare-arsed cheek you should be on Page Three."
Four years later he gave £10,000 to the campaign that thwarted Murdoch's plan to take over Manchester United. Last month, with his rage rekindled by the phone-hacking revelations, he released a new version of his anti-Digger song. "Dear Mr Murdoch, what do you know, / With your minions like vultures and carrion crow..."
As soon as he heard of the deal with dear Mr Murdoch's Sunday Times, Taylor demanded the serialisation be pulled. And so it was.