Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May is a busy man these days. His hugely successful Queen musical We Will Rock You comes to Boston in November, celebrating its 11th year in production with over 15 million people having seen the show. May joined our friends in Boston, WZLX, and talked with on-air host Chuck Nowlin about the play and other future plans regarding Queen.
The musical, built of course around the music and “spirit” of Queen, tells a satirical tale on music and the influence of new digital technology on rock and roll as it takes place in a dystopian future where everything is programmed and nothing sounds human anymore.
Even though it’s purely fictional the satirical approach of the show paints a picture of what many cynics might see as the path rock music is taking.
“It’s a fantasy, but it’s based on the history of rock and roll where you are, and the future of rock and roll,” he said. (Listen to the entire interview at WZLX).
May also spoke at length about the idea of another Queen tour featuring a hologram of Freddie Mercury, who would “perform” right along with the band. May doesn’t like the idea, mainly because it would make him, Roger Taylor and the others feel more like an exhibit at the Museum of Science than a rock concert.
“I don’t want to be touring with a hologram,” he said. “It makes you feel like museum pieces, and we’re not fossils, we’re alive.”
May added that it “just wouldn’t feel right” and that he finds it more interesting to tour with a similar-sounding live singer like Adam Lambert anyway. Speaking of Freddie Mercury, some unreleased recordings of him have reportedly surfaced and could be part of a future album or compilation from Queen. May confirmed to Chuck that the recordings do exist and indeed have never been released, but will be in the near future. Another important piece of Queen news surrounds the long-in-production Freddie Mercury biopic, which has cast an unknown actor to replace Sacha Baron Cohen, who everyone working on the film agreed wouldn’t work in the main role. They have yet to figure out whether the new star will sing his own parts or lip-sync over Freddie Mercury’s vocals.
– Matt Dolloff, 100.7 WZLX link
Before they do a new studio l.p. with the Freddie recordings they ought to do a news studio l.p. as Queen + AND release a live audio recording from 1973 that does NOT correspond to any film!
Lets see, tour with a hologram Freddie Mercury, or a real Adam Lambert, ......huuuuummmmmm, Holo FM, real Adam Lambert, FM , AL, ...............
I'm thinking FM for the win!
Hell, I would go see them in a second with the hologram Freddie as I never got to see the real thing back in the day. I would bet a number of young people who never even had the option of seeing Queen back then would also be on board for a show.
Here is an idea, why not just do ONE show with hologram FM, post the show on YT, and gauge the results from that.
What's the point of a holographic Freddie. Watch the DVD's of gigs when they were at their peak, and they were all putting something into what they were doing, to produce real energy.
Freddie used the whole stage, and interacted with the other band members. A hologram needs to be projected on to something and their fore in reality would be nothing like watching a real Queen gig with Fredddie anyway.
I'd rather see Brian and Roger play with a flesh-and-blood singer, with the proviso that they be actually good.
At the 2012 Olympics, I got more of a kick in the spine from seeing Freddie's ghost going daaaay-oh than that squeaky cow trying to ruin WWRY.
There's a level of shittiness at which the benefit of live > recorded music is undone. Thanks for helping me figure out where that line is drawn by the way, Brian.