When you watch the live shows of Queen and in particular, the handful of shows recorded out of the 700 odd that they have done. You quickly realize that there is very little interaction with that guy in the "your left!!" right hand corner of the stage from the other band members..
Apart from the Liar years of singing into Freddie's mic or the occasional Freddie's arm over Johns shoulder like on Killer Queen video and the regular hang out with Roger on the drums and that rare scene on Wembley where John is jamming with Brian during the song one vision. Has anyone have any interesting sightings watching the band live or some interesting video footage of Johns interaction with Freddie and Brian...? Was there ever any interactions with them outside of those recorded shows that we have.. If not.. Are there any reasons apart from the obvious ones why there was very little in the way of interactions with Brian and Freddie IF... most of the 700 shows where always like that?
Towards the end of the Hammer to Fall video shot in Brussels, Freddie, Brian and John are all quite close together in the middle of the stage, jamming through the outro. I can't think of many specific examples, but I think it's a bit exagerrated in peoples minds how distant John was on stage - he and Brian did interact often enough.
I think John preferrred to stay in the background most of the time during live shows. to me it always seemed like he did not have an ego as big as the other 3. he has been the only one not to play a solo section with his instrument onstage; while Freddie had his 'vocal thing', Brian had guitar solo and Roger had the drum solos to show off.
During the liar years John did in fact have his own little solo spot under the spotlight, with his little bass solo. And during the 80s when anbtd was released, he had again his own little part
It would have been cool though to see a jam between john and Brian going up and down the scales, something similar like those guitar duels you see from other bands
fras444 wrote:
During the liar years John did in fact have his own little solo spot under the spotlight, with his little bass solo. And during the 80s when anbtd was released, he had again his own little part
yes, but they were part of the original songs and had to be played. I was talking about a bass solo improvised for live shows only, (without other instruments) rather than the solo as a part of the song. And I agree with you on a guitar duel between Brian and John. That would have been magnificent.
There is a bass solo on the current tour, a little improv and then a Hot Space songs melody. Neil seems to be enjoying himself doing it, so I guess John just didn't want to as I can't believe a hired hand would have more input into the make up of the show than John did.
coombsb wrote:
There is a bass solo on the current tour, a little improv and then a Hot Space songs melody. Neil seems to be enjoying himself doing it, so I guess John just didn't want to as I can't believe a hired hand would have more input into the make up of the show than John did.
That doesn't necessarily mean John had less input. It probably just means he didn't like playing bass solos.
John could very well have had much input in the technical aspect of Queen's shows. Considering he was their electrical expert, I'd say that was pretty likely.
There's not a chance Neil Fairclough has any input in that regard - he's a hired gun.
I feel as if Freddie was a brother figure to John. Like he would have John's back.
But, I feel as if Brian & John were kind of rivals in a sense. I mean, you barely see them interact together on stage, which is what some bass & guitar players do on stage, and even in interviews they give each other a cold look.