QueenZone discussion #1436562

musicland munich wrote: I could add some speculations why he was more fit during the Headlong Shooting...but what would it be good for ?

Costa86 wrote: Post-1988, Freddie wouldn't have been able to do any live performance - at least not at any level approaching the standards which he required of himself. And if he couldn't perform at a certain standard, he wouldn't perform at all. He certainly would not have been able to pull off a song at the Brits - not Bo Rhap, not Love of My Life, not anything. I think it's a bit telling that he limited what he said when receiving the award to just "Thank you, good night". Brian might well have still been the one to speak even if Freddie were in good health, but somehow I think it was a rather conscious decision to let Brian be the main man that night.

Costa86 wrote: And if he couldn't perform at a certain standard, he wouldn't perform at all.

Sebastian wrote:

Costa86 wrote: And if he couldn't perform at a certain standard, he wouldn't perform at all.

A few concerts (especially in Japan) disagree with that claim.

cmsdrums wrote: I'm amazed that Freddie had the strength, and pleased he had the courage, to face the Brits aftershow party, knowing how his first public appearance in a long while would be torn apart because of his appearance. I can only speculate that he saw the party as possibly his last opportunity to catch up with old friends that were there (other artists such as Rod Stewart, old Queen crew like Ratty etc..) and to 'celebrate' what he had acheived with Queen.

Supersonic_Man89 wrote: I was curious as to whether Queen were invited to play at the Brits '90 to celebrate the Outstanding Contribution Award they recieved. Much is made of Freddie's health at that point in time but i was curious as to whether he would have been fit enough to perform a song or short medley at the ceremony. This would have been 9 months before he shot Headlong looking very spritely and energetic, although obviously in a video shoot he could have rests in between individual shots and didn't need to sing. I wonder if he would have been capable of performing Bohemian Rhapsody, as it's mostly sitting at the piano. Sorry if it's a bit of a macabre thread.

musicland munich wrote: Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82' link

luthorn wrote:

musicland munich wrote: Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82' link

Hard to draw a comparison. Back in 1983, AIDS was hardly known (no diagnosis, no tests, etc), so you just dropped dead once the full blown stage went exponential, as your doctors pocked and tested you in confusion. Freddie's conditions was known and he was medicated, which bought him a few years of time, but also made him a walking corpse for much longer than anyone in 1983 could dream of.

musicland munich wrote:

luthorn wrote:

musicland munich wrote: Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82' link

Hard to draw a comparison. Back in 1983, AIDS was hardly known (no diagnosis, no tests, etc), so you just dropped dead once the full blown stage went exponential, as your doctors pocked and tested you in confusion. Freddie's conditions was known and he was medicated, which bought him a few years of time, but also made him a walking corpse for much longer than anyone in 1983 could dream of.

Ok, fair point on the AIDS Drugs, but as far as I know Klaus was "diagnosed" with "Gay Cancer" in 1982. He lived in New York most of the time, so the Doctors and Klaus himself were aware of the situation I guess.

miraclesteinway wrote: It's too hard to compare between Klaus Nomi and Freddie Mercury for the simple reason that the disease is different for each patient. Aside from the actual disease, I imagine that there would have been the psychological implications of giving a performance in that situation, and of having to rehearse for it. Freddie looked better in Headlong, musicland has already suggested he may understand why this might be the case, and someone else has suggested it's because it was shot in little bits. It could also be that Freddie went through periods of feeling better on certain days and worse on others. The fact is he didn't perform, and people just seemed to accept that he wouldn't without asking too many questions. He'd already said himself quite openly that he didn't want to tour, and from that we can deduce that what he was saying was he felt unable to give a live performance at that point. He probably did actually want to tour but couldn't. I'm sure there's a whole thread on here, a lengthy one about whether Freddie could have toured after '86, and the consensus was that he couldn't. He was already very ill by the time of the Great Pretender. He was probably pretty ill at times on the Magic Tour. Someone on the forum commented that Queen had thought about arranging a small scale small venue tour for the Miracle album, but I can't remember if that turned out to be a hoax comment or if it had basis in truth.

Biggest Band On The Planet wrote: What about the barcelona concerts did they not require insurance ?

Biggus Dickus wrote:

Biggest Band On The Planet wrote: What about the barcelona concerts did they not require insurance ?

Probably not, they performed only few songs and it wasn't a tour. And they mimed as well. But weren't they supposed to sing live but didn't for some reason?

musicland munich wrote:

Biggus Dickus wrote:

Biggest Band On The Planet wrote: What about the barcelona concerts did they not require insurance ?

Probably not, they performed only few songs and it wasn't a tour. And they mimed as well. But weren't they supposed to sing live but didn't for some reason?

Yes, it's true. The story is quite well explained in Jim Hutton's book. Freddie's voice was in bad shape at one Event, so they decided to mime the gig. I think it was the one were he met Juan Carlos backstage...but I'am not sure about that detail.

Supersonic_Man89 wrote: This would have been 9 months before he shot Headlong looking very spritely and energetic, although obviously in a video shoot he could have rests in between individual shots and didn't need to sing. I wonder if he would have been capable of performing Bohemian Rhapsody, as it's mostly sitting at the piano. Sorry if it's a bit of a macabre thread.

miraclesteinway wrote: It's interesting about insurance. I'm also amazed actually, that Freddie was well enough to make those public appearances for Barcelona in '87 and '88, and sing live for the Time musical. He was obviously lucky in some sense that his strength held out, and that he had an amazing strength of will to do that. If they'd planned a few small gigs for the Miracle it was probably going to cost far less than a tour, particularly if these gigs were in smaller venues, so the cash involved wouldn't necessarily merit an insurance policy considering how wealthy they were by that time. The Magic Tour, had it been cancelled without insurance, could have sunk them but of course the story went the right way. Yeah I know it depends how much notice is given etc etc.... My guess is that by the time the Miracle came out, with Freddie undergoing various gruelling treatments, that there was no way he would be able to commit to any gigs, and if he couldn't give it his all, then he wouldn't want to appear and either give second best, or have people speculate further about his health. I would think that by 1990, it would have been too much for Freddie to perform a set live. Given that already by that time he was suffering from Kaposi's sarcoma (pictures from as early as 1986/1987 show this, sadly), he must have been in constant pain, and moving around a stage with this condition would have probably been very painful for him. For the Barcelona concerts, weren't there other people on the bill as well? So had Freddie pulled out, the concerts wouldn't necessarily have stopped would they? Or am I wrong about this? Was it just Freddie and Montserrat? Woody - regarding that fan club magazine article, that's the kind of article that we'd really like to be able to read here, so if anybody has a copy of it or can quote from it, can they let us know? It's possible that in 1988/1989 Freddie still felt well enough to do a live video performance (that could be edited and filmed over several days), and it's possible that Jim Beach or someone had said something to the fan club about this video being made. It's also possible that the video in question is, or ended up being, the Rare Live video. I want it all kind of looks like a live shoot, even though it's not, so there are all sorts of things that could have been said, or misquoted. The fan club has been known to talk a little B.S. in the past it must be said, but generally they were good at getting information from the horse's mouth.

miraclesteinway wrote: If they'd planned a few small gigs for the Miracle it was probably going to cost far less than a tour, particularly if these gigs were in smaller venues, so the cash involved wouldn't necessarily merit an insurance policy considering how wealthy they were by that time. The Magic Tour, had it been cancelled without insurance, could have sunk them but of course the story went the right way. Yeah I know it depends how much notice is given etc etc....

RafaelS wrote:

miraclesteinway wrote: If they'd planned a few small gigs for the Miracle it was probably going to cost far less than a tour, particularly if these gigs were in smaller venues, so the cash involved wouldn't necessarily merit an insurance policy considering how wealthy they were by that time. The Magic Tour, had it been cancelled without insurance, could have sunk them but of course the story went the right way. Yeah I know it depends how much notice is given etc etc....

A little bit off-topic, but they made zero money from The Magic Tour. There was no sponsorship at the time so they broke even.

Chief Mouse wrote:

RafaelS wrote:

miraclesteinway wrote: If they'd planned a few small gigs for the Miracle it was probably going to cost far less than a tour, particularly if these gigs were in smaller venues, so the cash involved wouldn't necessarily merit an insurance policy considering how wealthy they were by that time. The Magic Tour, had it been cancelled without insurance, could have sunk them but of course the story went the right way. Yeah I know it depends how much notice is given etc etc....

A little bit off-topic, but they made zero money from The Magic Tour. There was no sponsorship at the time so they broke even.

Of course they could be lying, but Brian and Roger stated in interview(s) that it was actually their first tour from which they made some money.

ok.computer wrote: I have not posted here for some time; this thread underlines why. Constantly macabre.

cmsdrums wrote: Wasn't the Wembley show(s) sponsored by Harp lager??

Supersonic_Man89 wrote: I was curious as to whether Queen were invited to play at the Brits '90 to celebrate the Outstanding Contribution Award they recieved. Much is made of Freddie's health at that point in time but i was curious as to whether he would have been fit enough to perform a song or short medley at the ceremony. This would have been 9 months before he shot Headlong looking very spritely and energetic, although obviously in a video shoot he could have rests in between individual shots and didn't need to sing. I wonder if he would have been capable of performing Bohemian Rhapsody, as it's mostly sitting at the piano. Sorry if it's a bit of a macabre thread.