In his latest book there are not only photographs but also his nice stories/memories ... One of them is here:
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'SOUTH OF THE BORDER'
„I'm writing this while on a flight from Los Angeles to Brazil, where I'm going to tour with my friends Roger Taylor and Brian May. We start with two days of tech rehearsals and a warm-up gig in São Paulo. Then Queen and Adam Lambert will be the opening night headliner of the 30th Anniversary Rock In Rio festival, which will be a huge honor for the band.
I'd forgotten just how long a flight it is. From the moment I boarded. I knew it was just a mater of time before I started to get emotional. Coming back down here is triggering an overwhelming flood of memories.
In 1981 Queen hired me to document their South American tour. I was in my late 20s, and the flight from LA to São Paulo might as well have been a pudle jumper from Barstow to Bakersfield for all I cared. On one level it was just another flight and another job, but on another level, this job was special. I've always felt close to this band and their crew, and we all climbed that mountain in '81 together. The band took Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico by storm and the fans treated the band - and all of us - like The Beatles. The shows were killer. Freddie was in rare form, magnificent on stage as always, and so much fun to photograph. The band worked as hard as any band I've ever seen. It was the toughest yet most creatively fulfilling tour of my life. In Brazil we played shows with fully armed soldiers toting machine guns on stage and throughout the venues. In Argentina some of our security personnel were rumored to be part of the Death Squad. The food in Mexico was so bad the crew refused to eat it ... which tells you everything you need to know.
In 1981 Queen hired me to document their South American tour. I was in my late 20s, and the flight from LA to São Paulo might as well have been a pudle jumper from Barstow to Bakersfield for all I cared. On one level it was just another flight and another job, but on another level, this job was special. I've always felt close to this band and their crew, and we all climbed that mountain in '81 together. The band took Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico by storm and the fans treated the band - and all of us - like The Beatles. The shows were killer. Freddie was in rare form, magnificent on stage as always, and so much fun to photograph. The band worked as hard as any band I've ever seen. It was the toughest yet most creatively fulfilling tour of my life. In Brazil we played shows with fully armed soldiers toting machine guns on stage and throughout the venues. In Argentina some of our security personnel were rumored to be part of the Death Squad. The food in Mexico was so bad the crew refused to eat it ... which tells you everything you need to know. The media chased us day and night, they were relentless. I ended up using a photo lab in São Paulo that wasn't even a lab; it was actually in the home of a fashion photographer I'd met. When the job was ready I was taken to an apartment building somewhere on the outskirts of town. I was mortified to find out this guy had processed all my color film in his own kitchen. I sat down at a lightbox to look at everything while he extolled the virtues of young girls and even younger sex, while his 16-year-old wife sat obediently at his feet. Mr. Sleazeball did a perfect job on my film but the topic of conversation made me extremely uncomfortable so I abruptly paid him and walked out the door.
In Venezuela I went to a party where I walked into a room and saw a fellow wearing a green visor at a drafting table with a rock of cocaine the size of a volleyball in front of him. He held a knife with a long sharp blade and with an even-handed, staccato „whoosh“ would slice off chunks for anyone who asked. 'Yes please!' It was a thing of rare beauty, like watching Arnold Palmer sinking a 40 foot putt.
And I'm fairly certain that in Mexico, the Federales held on to a few of our passports a bit longer than necessary, so we couldn't leave the country until a certain amount of money changed hands. You play, you pay.
So now, after all those years, I'm on my way back and I know it's going to be surreal. When Brian does „Love of My Life“ alone in front of 110,000 people, I'm sure they'll all sing along and I'm gonna start crying and, knowing Brian, he will too. We will cry for Freddie, for the love and warmth all the people showed us, and for ourselves - to honor our amazing shared experience of 1981 and all the years gone by.“
- Neal Preston, 2015
/Quoted from his book 'EXHILARATED AND EXHAUSTED' (Reel Art Press Ltd, London; October 2017)./
jozef wrote:
On one level it was just another flight and another job, but on another level, this job was special. I've always felt close to this band and their crew, and we all climbed that mountain in '81 together. The band took Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico by storm and the fans treated the band - and all of us - like The Beatles. The shows were killer. Freddie was in rare form, magnificent on stage as always, and so much fun to photograph. The band worked as hard as any band I've ever seen. It was the toughest yet most creatively fulfilling tour of my life.