QueenZone discussion #1364888
One of Freddie's telling comments in Budapest
| Costa86 05.12.2013 14:40 |
I was just watching this interview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z0N5NZo5c4, with Queen in Budapest which I'd never seen, funnily enough. Apart from the awful spelling (Roger TaylEr, John Deacan...), it was interesting to hear Freddie respond to some question about returning to Budapest with "If I'm still alive, I will come back". He then looked kind of annoyed, and buggered off. I know most people here despise talking about Freddie's illness, and that the topic has been discussed ad infinitum in other posts, but I think that line pretty much confirms what most fans (and indeed Brian and Roger) think - that Freddie knew almost for certain that he was sick by 1986. So that line is just another one of his small comments, which, with hindsight, tell us that Freddie went through the Magic Tour knowing his life was soon going to change forever. And yet he still gave it his all. |
| Costa86 05.12.2013 14:45 |
Hmm, seems a post on this already exists. Note to self: search for similar topics *prior to* not *after* posting. My sincere apologies. |
| i-Fred 06.12.2013 06:52 |
I think you might be reading just a little to much in to this. Try Paul is dead if I'm not making sense |
| The Real Wizard 06.12.2013 10:31 |
There are plenty of other examples from 1986 that suggest Freddie knew he wasn't well. Of course it's speculation, but hindsight is 20/20... link link link Not to mention that by July his goodbyes at the end of gigs were much more heartfelt than they were on previous tours. Compare "let's all go home and get fucked" to "thank you beautiful people." Myself - I'm absolutely convinced he knew during the tour that it'd be his last. |
| Fly away 06.12.2013 10:54 |
And at Wembley of course he states that they will stay together until they "*&^% well die" and then play Who Wants to Live Forever right after that. |
| kosimodo 08.12.2013 00:00 |
He knew, more interesting: did the others? |
| The Real Wizard 08.12.2013 09:01 |
At this point we don't even know if they knew during the making of The Miracle. Any thoughts on that? |
| pittrek 08.12.2013 14:37 |
Didn't he tell it to the band during the Miracle sessions? I think Brian said something like that during an interview (maybe even on the 2011 documentary?) |
| pittrek 08.12.2013 14:38 |
We can be sure Freddie knew "something" is wrong in 1986. He didn't know he's got HIV in 1986 yet according to Peter Freestone |
| Chief Mouse 08.12.2013 15:35 |
pittrek wrote: Didn't he tell it to the band during the Miracle sessions? I think Brian said something like that during an interview (maybe even on the 2011 documentary?)I think it was on DOOL doc or Greatest Hits DVD commentary track. Leaning towards DOOL though. Brian quoted Freddie. Something along these lines "you know what I'm suffering with. But let's not talk about it and carry on." I think that Brian also said that at that time they decided to share the writing credits so that sort of helped the creative process or something. |
| kosimodo 08.12.2013 16:11 |
Johns reaction at the end of knebworth says it all.. Is my guess |
| The Real Wizard 08.12.2013 21:40 |
John was going through a rough spot in his own life at that point, too. The things we'll probably never know. As the old adage goes, "what happens in the band stays in the band..." |
| Sebastian 09.12.2013 07:03 |
kosimodo wrote: Johns reaction at the end of knebworth says it all.. Is my guessJohn's life didn't revolve around Freddie. He probably had scores of other things that were bothering him, and the mortal illness of a friend (actually, co-worker), while sad and all, was barely a priority at that point. Regarding when Fred told them, etc., remember that a lot of what they say goes through a process of artistic licence and making it sound as dramatic as possible. As commented elsewhere, Brian said Fred'd been recording in the last few weeks of his life, which is technically true but didn't mean the last 2-3 weeks, just the last 28-30 weeks (the last 27 of which were inactive in terms of material that wound up on MiH). So if they say that Fred told them around the time of 'The Miracle', that could easily mean any point from late 1987 (when they had meetings about the possibility of recording again) to early 1990 (when the video for 'The Miracle' was first broadcast on telly). |
| brENsKi 09.12.2013 13:21 |
Costa86 wrote: , it was interesting to hear Freddie respond to some question about returning to Budapest with "If I'm still alive, I will come back". He then looked kind of annoyed, and buggered off. .i don't think that was about him talking in the context of his "illness" - whether known or not at that stage - because remember, it was a closely guarded secret until at least 1989 i think this is more a case of how long it took queen to go there, and if it took that long again then any of them could be dead - through old age/rock excess |
| Bad Seed 09.12.2013 14:51 |
I've mentioned this a few times now but in that recent radio documentary (Mark Goodier, Smooth Radio?) Mary clearly state's that both she and Freddie were well aware of his health situation at the Knebworth show. |
| brENsKi 09.12.2013 16:13 |
i don't dispute this ^^^^ what i am saying is - it was a closely guarded secret so he (Freddie) is not likely to leak his own secret by making cryptic comments about "still being alive" |
| Saint Jiub 09.12.2013 19:45 |
Good catch, Bad Seed ... Is this BBC 4 interview the one? link In this interview, Mary Austin mentions at about the 23 minute mark that Freddie knew on the last tour. |
| LilKing22 10.12.2013 10:53 |
He performed great on that tour despite his illness. I think his performances from '86 are a testament to his strength and devotion to giving fans everything he had. |
| Martin Packer 10.12.2013 13:32 |
I always thought he looked a bit anxious on The Magic Tour, compared to previous years. But that could be 20 20. |
| The Real Wizard 17.12.2013 14:41 |
Panchgani wrote: Good catch, Bad Seed ... Is this BBC 4 interview the one? link In this interview, Mary Austin mentions at about the 23 minute mark that Freddie knew on the last tour.Indeed, well spotted. |
| Queenfanrach 20.12.2013 16:43 |
Don't you need to pass a health and insurance test before big tours though? |
| Thistle 20.12.2013 23:27 |
There are a million and one versions of the story regarding Freddie's health. There is, also, the truth. Whilst speculating over the whole thing may make for some interesting discussion on a forum, I still don't get the need to delve into it all. What happened happened. We all love Queen. We all love the music, the performances, the magic and the memory. Of course the death of Freddie is part and parcel of the history, and will be touched upon in the endless documentation of the Queen story. But where's the line between fandom and morbid fascination of a personal life? Why do we NEED to still be guessing, 22 years down the line, the whys and the wherefores? Leave it be. Freddie left a lasting legacy of fine music and entertainment: focus on that! C'mon - be happy :-) |
| Saint Jiub 21.12.2013 21:34 |
I am more interested in how Freddie's illness affected "the path" that Queen followed. Those "there's been a lot of rumors" statements during the Magic Tour ... seemed to imply that Freddie knew he was ill ... and now Mary Austin has confirmed it. Later tours just were not in the cards (possibly because of insurance companies and health tests as mentioned before). I am glad that Bob gave this topic "an aura of authenticity" so that another poster (Bad Seed) can mention the Mary Austin interview. Too often the "When did Freddie know?" topics get to have a voyeuristic quality about Freddie's personal life, but in my opinion this time this "Topic" did not cross that line. It only took a little digging with Google for me to find the actual Mary Austin interview and post the link here. |
| The Real Wizard 22.12.2013 10:15 |
^ and there we have it. Lovely post. Indeed, I don't have the morbid curiosity about his health providing some kind of enjoyment of watching his appearance deteriorate in the photos. In fact, the latest round of These Are The Days Our Lives video outtakes were a bit too much for me. I would've been better off not seeing them. |
| brENsKi 22.12.2013 11:21 |
^^^ this i was late knowing - my working life at that time meant leaving early and home late - sleeping all weekend - basically missing everything going on in the real world even the music awards where FM wore the blue suit - i thought it was cancer. first i really heard was travelling to london on the monday morning and hearing it on the radio - i was so shocked - but personally, i preferred to hear it that way - the same way i heard about Bonham, bon Scott, Randy Rhoads, Dio and others....always better than watching your heroes fade away - i'm being selfish |
| Thistle 22.12.2013 12:06 |
Yeah guys, I get what you're saying: this topic didn't cross any lines, but at the same time it is just another discussion about when he knew. I didn't mean to offend anyone,point the finger or call any contributor to the thread "voyeurs". I just see it as another in the long line of "how, when and why" type threads, which is by no means me being disparaging to the OP. Rather than dig up all of the others (threads, I mean lol), I just finally aired my personal POV here, whilst there was something fresh and relevant on the subject. I don't see what knowing when he knew he was dying achieves, but that's more my preference not to know because it still upsets me (yes, I'm a big soft, sensitive dafty) even to this day. |
| ploughman 22.12.2013 13:00 |
Bad Seed wrote: I've mentioned this a few times now but in that recent radio documentary (Mark Goodier, Smooth Radio?) Mary clearly state's that both she and Freddie were well aware of his health situation at the Knebworth show.That's right. The official thruth is that he got the test results in 1987. But other members of the band and sources close to him have confirmed that he must have guessed, that something is wrong or that he was not terribly well already in 1986.... |
| The Real Wizard 22.12.2013 15:24 |
Walter White wrote: Yeah guys, I get what you're saying: this topic didn't cross any lines, but at the same time it is just another discussion about when he knew. I didn't mean to offend anyone,point the finger or call any contributor to the thread "voyeurs".Nah, it's all good. Nobody's offended by this kind of inquisitive chatter with good intentions. But there are other threads where it has gotten pretty morbid. |
| The Real Wizard 22.12.2013 15:24 |
ploughman wrote: The official thruth is that he got the test results in 1987. But other members of the band and sources close to him have confirmed that he must have guessed, that something is wrong or that he was not terribly well already in 1986....Well, if we can read between the lines here ... it looks like Mary was the only person he told early on. Remember that interview from 1986 where he's dressed in the white and red outfit and says Mary is his only real friend ? I wonder what the timeline of that interview is compared to when he found out about his illness.. |