| k-m 20.10.2018 23:07 |
It's subscription only, so I have copied it in below. I hope you'll enjoy and I would obviously welcome any comments. Would be great to hear what those who knew Freddie / the band think of this. = = = = = The real Freddie Mercury: why the Queen biopic only tells part of the story The new film Bohemian Rhapsody dodges the gritty details of Freddie Mercury’s life, says his biographer Lesley-Ann Jones The Times, October 19 2018, 12:01am Inside the bijou boozer known locally as the “Blanc Gigi”, the White Horse, Freddie Mercury was holding court. At the only tavern in Montreux he was a regular. We found him hanging towards the back in the company of strangers; half his age, male, trim and tightly belted, they jousted in French and dangled from his every word. I’d met Freddie before. Many times. In the absence of PAs, PRs and gofers, I was not shooed aside. “Ciggie,” he said, as if it were my name. Having only wet vices, I wasn’t armed. My fellow-pressman companion proffered a Marlboro Red. “I prefer Silk Cut,” Freddie said with a frown, snatching one. We smiled and withdrew to flirt with our friends. He was soon back for more. We’re talking 32 years ago. 1986. Queen were again the toast of the world, having stolen Live Aid the previous July. Kicking retirement in the testicles, they hit the road. Widely criticised for cashing in on the plight of Ethiopia’s starving millions, they advanced from Stockholm to Slane to Stevenage on a last hurrah with their fearless frontman. That 26-date Magic Tour was attended by more than a million fans. The fat lady warbled at Knebworth that August. Five years later Freddie was dead. Cut to the biopic. It was always on the cards. Many who were outraged by the jukebox musical We Will Rock You, which cleaned up in the West End between 2002 and 2014 and still packs them in around the world, warned that the movie of the musical was only a blink away. Never knowingly predictable, the band and their management went one better, summoning an autobiographical picture, Bohemian Rhapsody, out of Queen’s real-life story. Or should I say Freddie’s? For no aspect of the existence of Brian May, John Deacon or Roger Taylor could ever rival Mercury’s gasp-inducing tale. What a feast of control-freakery and dissent this rose-tinted spectacle has been. So far, so Queen — who, as Freddie once told me, “argue about every little thing, even the air that we breathe”. Since he’s not here to throw his weight around, and since the bassist Deacon is a hands-off recluse, the guitarist May and the drummer Taylor have had free rein. The film is their take on what happened rather than the warts-and-all account of Freddie that we craved. Did people really start pledging money in droves at Live Aid as soon as Queen came on? I don’t remember that. And this niggled: the character played by the Wayne’s World star Mike Myers, the record label executive Ray Foster, is fictional. Why? There were enough real music biz monsters from which to choose. Despite the decade-long ranting that led to the sidelining of A-list screenwriters and the dropping of directors and leading men, the flick got filmed. Instead of the born-to-be-Mercury Sacha Baron Cohen, who demanded to play the shock’n’roller, but who quit in frustration in 2013; instead of Ben “Q in Bond” Whishaw and Dominic “Mamma Mia!” Cooper, we get the 37-year-old Egyptian-American actor Rami Malek, the star of Mr Robot and Twilight, whose vocal performance is enhanced by the Canadian Freddie Mercury impersonator Marc Martel. Not that they are advertising this. Has Malek really captured Freddie’s nimble stage skip, his fist-clench, the pouting, the beckoning finger, the flickering tongue? He has, you know. He is great. The miming and posturing are spot-on, but I still wish I’d seen the film Baron Cohen wanted to make rather than what essentially amounts to a band advertisement. The picture’s saving graces are its evocation of the Seventies/Eighties vibe, and its Live Aid sequence, which is breathtaking. The band, not so much. They project as complete dullards, which they were not. The sex and drugs are toned down. They ought not to have been. And Freddie’s former girlfriend, Mary Austin, was never quite as saccharine as she is portrayed. After Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects), the original director, was fired after absences and clashes with the crew, the actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher (Eddie the Eagle) finished the film, although Singer retains the directing credit. And instead of a script crafted exclusively by Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen, Frost/Nixon and The Crown, there is input from Anthony McCarten, Justin Haythe and Christopher Wilkinson too. Morgan’s name is still there, writ large. It should be. I had dealings with him. After reading my first biography of Freddie, published in 1997, he flew to London from Vienna to entice me to schnitzel among society blondes at Daphne’s restaurant in South Kensington. He wanted to know the truth about Freddie. “Read it again,” I said. He’d devoured every Freddie and Queen book, but had found in mine, he wooed, “the meat, the bones, the broth of his wrath. His oscillator, his battery, his mainspring.” Charmed? Cat got an ass? I consulted for him. Music biopics are the danger zone. Get it right and the world karaokes. Fall short and you’re torching alone. We have our favourites. I’ll take The Rose, sort of about Janis Joplin, for which Bette Midler bagged the Golden Globe; The Runaways, with Joan “jailbait” Jett portrayed by Kristen Stewart; Ken Russell’s Lisztomania, featuring Roger Daltrey as the world’s first rock star and my pal Rick Wakeman as Thor; The Doors, in which Val Kilmer is sublime, ridiculous and poetically constipated as Jim Morrison; and Ray, with the Oscar-winning Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. Could Queen possibly live up to these? Because, get this, the Queen story was never about the band. It was about a misfit boy born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946, in those days a British protectorate, today part of Tanzania, who suffered extreme separation anxiety when his Zoroastrian Parsi parents dispatched him to a British-style Indian public school thousands of miles away when he was eight. Thereafter, he saw them and his sister, Kashmira, only once a year. The void in him yawned. He filled it with western pop. Freddie and his family ran for their lives during the Zanzibar revolution of 1964, and landed in London. He discovered Jimi Hendrix, and worked in Heathrow’s catering department and as a nude life model while sketching a new identity at art school. He immersed himself in the Swinging Sixties, but couldn’t decide which way he swung. He squatted, dossed, ducked in and out of groups, flogged threadbare garb in Kensington Market, met some egghead academics posing as rockers, inveigled his way in, insisted on the name Queen despite his bandmates’ almost embarrassing blokeishness, conjured up their magnum opus, Bohemian Rhapsody and never returned to east Africa. He was the greatest of pretenders: vivid and arrogant in public; raw and uncertain behind locked doors. He wasn’t hard to read. He wore his heart on his bicep. Emotionally addicted to the soft affection of women, he preferred hard sex with men. Irrefutably though the gay community has claimed him, “bisexual” was my take. Austin is portrayed as the grieving widow. I have a problem with that. The woman he worshipped, who got him best, and with whom he shared an apartment in Munich, was the Austrian-born “German Jayne Mansfield”, the actress Barbara Valentin. She features in the video for Queen’s It’s a Hard Life. Yet she is not so much as hinted at in this film. The Freddie I knew was the Freddie she knew: flawed and frail and flamboyant. A cursed exotic, a damaged diva. They mirrored each other perfectly. She and I remained close until her death in 2002, aged 61. I went to stay with her again after Freddie’s funeral. She flew |
| k-m 20.10.2018 23:47 |
She flew to London for my book launch. He harboured a death wish, she said. He strode defiantly into the eye of the Aids storm, doing “everything with everybody”. On this, the film needed much more. I rewrote my biography of Freddie after meeting Peter Morgan. The revised biography was published in 2011. Of any movie, not yet a whiff. The memories, meanwhile, were mushrooming. Much of the gossip and rumour about him is apocryphal. I trust what I saw with my own eyes. Not usually in professional circumstances; he could be clipped and monosyllabic in interviews, with which he couldn’t be bothered. Besides, he was shy. However, blend with his entourage and fold into his schedule for a few days and nights, and the crop could be gold. There were wondrous dawns with him, down by the lake in Switzerland where Queen owned Mountain recording studios, and where towards the end of his life he acquired a luxurious home. Peering out into the black, he would let his guard down. The waspish Freddie inclined to tell pushy female interrogators where they could shove their reproductive parts receded. He no longer reached for the narcotics that had fuelled debauched capers in the company of rent boys. I sometimes struggled to recall outrageous Freddie, he who once orchestrated album launches at which canapés were served on the torsos of naked dwarves, who storyboarded video shoots depicting hordes of naked female cyclists. The supply store refused to take back the bikes because “the leather saddles are contaminated”. “I sniffed them, darling,” Freddie snorted. “They were right!” Who commissioned hookers to mud-wrestle and perform live lesbian sex acts backstage for the delectation of liggers; who unnerved a young Michael Jackson by chopping out lines of coke in front of him when Freddie visited him in Encino, Los Angeles, the pair having decided to record together. Eccentric he was. It came naturally. He never set out to shock or amaze. He wrote Crazy Little Thing Called Love in the bath, demanding a piano tub-side. He dedicated an album to his cats, with the postscript “screw everybody else”. He sent the Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé the complete works of Queen when the pair were toying with the idea of a duet. When she arrived for an engagement at the Royal Opera House, he lured her to dinner at his home in Kensington, Garden Lodge, then kept her up until dawn at the piano with the producer of their album, Barcelona, Mike Moran, jamming on Queen hits. She knew all the words. He had calmed down by the Eighties, when I came in. He no longer insisted on separate hotels from the rest of the band, to facilitate his precarious nightlife. He had a live-in lover by then, the Irish former barber Jim Hutton. He excelled at reverse Scrabble and worked on his stamp collection. I once found him in his Budapest suite in a velvet smoking jacket and cravat. He was hosting a cocktail party for us. A global superstar, he was hopeless at face-to-face. Only when we were in place did he emerge, grabbing two bottles of champagne and going round topping people up, so that he didn’t have to converse. I adored him. He held me in his spell. I cried and cried the day the news of his death came, in November 1991. He was 45. “It’s an arduous thing to tell someone’s life in just two hours,” Rami Malek has said, “but . . . if you wallow in the sadness of what he endured and his ultimate death, that could be a disservice to the profound, vibrant, radiant nature of such an indelible human being.” Indelible he is. Freddie was a dreamer. It was his flair and creativity that elevated a competent band to stupendous heights. No wonder I still find myself yearning for what Sacha Baron Cohen would have made of Freddie. They kind of deserved each other. Twenty-seven years on, I am left with an overwhelming sense of melancholy. END OF ARTICLE |
| Daniel Nester 21.10.2018 00:14 |
Enough with this "Sacha Baron Cohen would have told the real story" business. He's not Quentin Tarantino, he's not even Paul Verhoeven. He's an improv comedian who is six feet, three inches tall whose last couple of movies have been flops. If anyone saw the actual script he was going to work with, I'd love to see it, and I wonder if it's the Scarface meets Cruising story he had hyped it to be to Howard Stern, or if he was just talking a lot of smack, which is what I think he was doing. |
| splicksplack 21.10.2018 00:19 |
She's full of shit and the majority of the interesting 'facts' have long been in the public domain (and many proved to be incorrect) before she put her flashy spin on them. Of course she's right to say that this is not the real story of Freddie, We all know it's just another money spinner for QPL (the cynical marketing going into overdrive with a pop-up shop of over-priced tat is just one example). But please do not get fooled into thinking this woman is any kind of authority. Avoid her books. |
| Daniel Nester 21.10.2018 01:49 |
It's actually sort of interesting she's all boosting for SBC and carving out an opinion, when, really and truly, she's a middle-of-the-road entertainment book writer. And I guess I would dine out forever if I met Freddie, like, a couple of times as a journalist. But she's by no means any more an authority on matters Queen than many people on these boards or otherwise. You might say it takes a special talent to put together clip-job books, but still. The Cohen opinion is complete BS. And Barbara Valentin as the main confidante? I'm OK with the idea of the movie for whatever it's worth. And movies are going to get hyped and marketed, that's OK, too. |
| bucsateflon 21.10.2018 09:16 |
Lesley-Ann Jones is a dumb twat |
| bucsateflon 21.10.2018 09:16 |
Lesley-Ann Jones is a dumb twat |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 12:24 |
We know how type of journalist she is. I agree with some things she said in the article, but her book (the part from Brazil, the prostitute telling her about Freddie's sex preference is really rubbish) is really easy to read when you are waiting in the airports. Nothing more. I can't understand why so magazines or newspaper gave her so many great reviews, honestly. I talked once with her. She was nice, but...in her new book about Bowie she wrote Bowie was the best from Live Aid. In her Freddie book, said Queen. What's the frequency Kenneth? |
| Thrill Yeti 21.10.2018 12:42 |
Completely agree that Sacha Baron Cohen's version of the film would have been poor. He likes shock humour. In his last film the main characters hid inside an elephants vagina before being ejaculated on by a male elephant. And it was a flop. He would have had Freddie in some sort of debauched orgy. So what? Why are so many people acting like that's 'the real story of Freddie'? |
| Fredfan 21.10.2018 13:09 |
The SBC version would just be another way to shock, not really to capture Freddie's essence. I agree that this current version might be too mild for some, but there's a different purpose (which is to reintroduce Freddie and Queen to the new generation). I read her biography of Freddie and I thought the writing was quite poor. (Don't get the whole thing with Barbara Valentin either) |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 13:20 |
I think, not Cohen itself, but Cohen directed by David Fincher....Cohen alone would be a disaster, having a filmmaker like Fincher telling him what to do, is a different story. |
| splicksplack 21.10.2018 14:06 |
Exactly. SBC as actor, not director or scriptwriter. And obviously, as befits an actor of his status, he can pick and choose his parts. I think he made the right decision to walk away as it is quite obvious that this is a bland family movie that all but straight-washes Freddie and avoids the any difficult subject matter. I admire his integrity. BM, RT and JB could do with some. |
| Dr Magus 21.10.2018 14:10 |
splicksplack wrote: She's full of shit and the majority of the interesting 'facts' have long been in the public domain (and many proved to be incorrect) before she put her flashy spin on them. Of course she's right to say that this is not the real story of Freddie, We all know it's just another money spinner for QPL (the cynical marketing going into overdrive with a pop-up shop of over-priced tat is just one example). But please do not get fooled into thinking this woman is any kind of authority. Avoid her books.Completely agree with this. |
| dudeofqueen 21.10.2018 14:27 |
Jones is a cunt. Her bio of Freddie was a piece of typical tabloid shite jazzed up to cash-in on the usual bandwagon. I'm sure we'll see a re-print in the shops soon to cash in on the movie. Wonder who she fucked to get this latest piece printed....... |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 14:41 |
dudeofqueen, she did the re-print two weeks ago. |
| Daniel Nester 21.10.2018 18:00 |
I think placing "Sacha Baron Cohen" and "integrity" in the same sentence is kind of laughable. That's kind of like saying the team behind Jackass were the French New Wave. I'm curious to see the Venn Diagram of people who didn't want to know anything about Freddie's private life at all throughout the years and those bemoaning SBC's leaving the Freddie movie project. |
| Holly2003 21.10.2018 19:04 |
There was never going to be anything other than a family-friendly film released while Fred's close relatives are alive. I think Rog and Brian wouldn't allow SBC or anyone else to do something that Fred's family would be uncomfortable watching. |
| Daniel Nester 21.10.2018 20:53 |
Yep, that Venn diagram is pretty big. |
| Fireplace 21.10.2018 21:24 |
Barbara Valentin was the love of Freddie's life. Deal with it. Just as Adam Lambert was his favourite singer. |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 21:45 |
That's right Fireplace. Barbara was very important in Freddie's life as a friend, but not in a good way. Mack, Mike Moran, Jo Dore, Ingrid Mack, Peter Freestone, Roger Taylor....everything told me she was selfish and a very bad influence. |
| splicksplack 21.10.2018 22:12 |
Mr Nester, regarding your comment above I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at re the Venn diagram. I know that I was interested in Freddie's private life because I was curious about his clubbing habits having seen him in Heaven and Copa's in London during the early 80's, and his wearing of a "Mineshaft' t-shirt in the 'Don't Stop Me Now' video. I was intrigued as to why he wasn't totally 'out' while making no attempt to hide his proclivities. If this film is not going to be an honest biopic (and from what I can gather it is far from honest) then why bother. As they clearly do not need the money I can only see it as a vanity project for BM and RT. SBC seems to have thought the same and chose not to be involved. On another matter, the whole Paul Prenter issue once again raises its ugly head. I am aware of many people who were involved with the band during Paul's time that have a very different opinion than the popular one that is apparently perpetuated in the film. The reasons for Paul's behaviour and the famous story-selling are personal and complex and there is definitely another side to this. Obviously he is no longer able to put forward his side and his surviving family have to live with their relative being publicly condemned in what is likely to be a very successful world-wide movie. So it certainly doesn't wash with me that maybe one of the reasons that the full details of FM's life are held back is to protect surviving family members because the Queen organisation seem to have no similar qualms with regard to someone who is not even the subject of the film. |
| Fireplace 21.10.2018 22:21 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote: |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 23:28 |
Yes, Fireplace, I get it ;) |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 21.10.2018 23:29 |
The rest I said Fireplace, was what I think about Barbara. |
| The Real Wizard 22.10.2018 05:12 |
Thrill Yeti wrote: Completely agree that Sacha Baron Cohen's version of the film would have been poor. He likes shock humour. In his last film the main characters hid inside an elephants vagina before being ejaculated on by a male elephant. And it was a flop. He would have had Freddie in some sort of debauched orgy. So what? Why are so many people acting like that's 'the real story of Freddie'?Because it is. Research the 1970s-80s gay scenes in NYC and Munich. That was Mercury's life from about 1978-85. He found his identity, and music became second place. There's a reason why most of Queen's hits in the 80s were written by the other band members. It eventually hit the point where he wasn't even at the mixing sessions for his own songs. But the biopic isn't going to be nearly that transparent. Nor should it be, as the band have a legacy to protect. But the reality is - Mercury leaving that scene is what resulted in him consistently creating great music again. |
| The Real Wizard 22.10.2018 05:14 |
splicksplack wrote: On another matter, the whole Paul Prenter issue once again raises its ugly head. I am aware of many people who were involved with the band during Paul's time that have a very different opinion than the popular one that is apparently perpetuated in the film. The reasons for Paul's behaviour and the famous story-selling are personal and complex and there is definitely another side to this.Anything you care to elaborate on? I've spoken to plenty of people who were in their circles in the early 80s, all of whom say Prenter may well be the worst thing that happened to them. And some of these people post on this forum. So I'd be curious to hear the other side. There always is one. |
| splicksplack 22.10.2018 08:48 |
Hi RW, yes there is always another side. I cannot claim to know the validity of what I have been told and the people involved certainly don't want a public cat fight about this. I mention it for 2 reasons. Firstly, I am concerned at the lynch-mob mentality that quickly snowballs on here when PPs name is mentioned. While there are individuals closely associated the majority would have no first hand knowledge of the man yet are happy to condemn him without knowing his side of the story. He isn't around to offer it and I understand that the people who can are long since distanced from the Queen organisation and feel that any public defence of PP may well result in a nasty retaliation from not just fans but possibly from the outriders of QPL. The only public defence I have seen was when PPs god-daughter made a dignified plea on this forum not to post hateful posts such as "I hope he suffered" etc. Secondly, I keep hearing that the films story-line does not show FM warts and all to protect his family and loved ones. If such altruistic reasons are true they obviously don't stretch to the innocent surviving members of PPs family. They are not related to FM so fuck them and their feelings. It is also worth noting that BM once gave quite a detailed 5 point explanation of how the band lost touch with the US. Sure, PP and the US radio stations was alluded to but that was just one of many reasons and again there may well be another point of view (acting under instruction from FM??? - we don't know but it's a possibility). There are certain gay men, like PP, that have a bitchy and waspish sense of humour and if you are not on the same playing field it can be very difficult to deal with. BM is the antithesis of this and I cannot in a million years see how he and PP would ever have got on. To a lesser extent RT. It does seem to me that the film is partly a settling of old scores. A cheap shot when it cannot be counterbalanced. Without the blessing of the protagonists I am afraid I cannot divulge personal conversations and anyway would only encourage them to do so themselves (which I have). I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for PP or to believe everything said about him is a pack of lies. I just think people should step back bit and realise they are not in a position to judge. And the ones who are responsible for the line this film has chosen to take should take a few lessons in dignity and bow their heads. |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 22.10.2018 09:26 |
Mack told me Paul was an influence to left Queen if Mr. Bad Guy was successful. But, he wasn't an influence so strong than May and Taylor said to do an album like Hot Space. |
| sahm 22.10.2018 11:07 |
thank you to k-m for taking the time to post this.most interesting. |
| Arnaldo "Ogre-" Silveira 22.10.2018 11:30 |
Thanks for posting the article! It led to a great discussion thread. Cheers, Ogre- |
| Thrill Yeti 22.10.2018 11:40 |
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| Thrill Yeti 22.10.2018 11:49 |
[quote=The Real Wizard]Because it is. Research the 1970s-80s gay scenes in NYC and Munich. That was Mercury's life from about 1978-85. He found his identity, and music became second place. There's a reason why most of Queen's hits in the 80s were written by the other band members. It eventually hit the point where he wasn't even at the mixing sessions for his own songs. But the biopic isn't going to be nearly that transparent. Nor should it be, as the band have a legacy to protect. But the reality is - Mercury leaving that scene is what resulted in him consistently creating great music again.[/quote] I mean, that's an interesting and kind of valid point, but if you think the thousands of, at best, casual fans saying they want Sacha's version are saying so because they want a film that represents why the quality of Freddie's songwriting dropped a bit in the 80s, I think that's pushing it. My point wasn't so much that Freddie's party lifestyle shouldn't be a factor in the film's narrative. Of course it should be. It didn't just lead to him being distracted, it essentially lead to his demise. I was more saying that we don't need to see an R-rated orgy scene in order to understand this. Which is what Sacha would have pushed for, I think. |
| Daniel Nester 22.10.2018 13:39 |
@splicksplack If those are your views and curiosities regarding Freddie's life, then you wouldn't fall inside that Venn Diagram. I share those curiosities! I'm talking about a different thing: those who over the years have been all like "who needs to know about Freddie's [private life matter topic here]," and are now bemoaning the lack of some SBC-helmed Freddie biopic that allegedly would have-could have depicted same. As far as the film that we have, and it prospectively sucking, it's stating the obvious that the movie industry is a whole other animal, and to think that this is some vanity project because Jim Beach and Brian and Roger have producer titles is, I think, a little naive. There's a huge studio behind this, along with another, higher-ranking producer involved, along with countless executives and collaborators, and so the idea that this is purely some whitewash hagiography is just too lazy of a conclusion. Will the movie be good is another subject. Whether the movie will "straightwash" or "heterowash" or not show enough cocaine being snorted on the Musicland Studios soundboard is another, too. I just don't think the Brian-Roger-Beach power trio ultimately had final cut or say. I'll gladly concede if someone can provide a photo of Roger sitting in an AVID suite, telling them to cut out this or that scene with naked mud wrestlers or whatever. But it's literally a corporate endeavor at the end of the day. And, frankly, that may be to the movie's detriment. A more realistic scenario might be that the presence of Brian and Roger et al--on set, at meetings--over the years has watered-down the decadence narratives, as has always been the case in biopic-making (see Jimi Hendrix, Eagles doc, Doors movie, Dead docs). Rare is the band that wants that to get it all out--maybe Motley Crue's The Dirt is the exception that proves the rule? Drugs and sex doesn't make a story--it's character and plot. So maybe we'll get one orgy scene, and one line of nose candy in a Minshaft t-shirt. We can only hope and pray. The WWRY making-of clip posted recently didn't light up my world. I do have tickets for the first screening at my local mall Thursday night... |
| k-m 22.10.2018 14:28 |
I agree there is no need to show any orgies in graphic detail, but I do think a 15 rated movie would be very welcome. I suspect it would be a good compromise between what it actually was and what Brian and Roger would want us to see... And no, I don't get the whole "introducing Queen to a new generation" argument as an excuse for avoiding any controversy. Let's not forget that's how they often got attention in the first place, no need to play it so safe now. |
| Daniel Nester 22.10.2018 21:14 |
We'll see, I suppose, since no one has seen the film here yet? You'd be surprised what you can get away with showing with a PG-13, as it's rated in the States. Used to be you'd get an R just for having two boys kissing. And there definitely will be some sort of man-on-man action in the movie. |
| The Real Wizard 23.10.2018 02:22 |
splicksplack wrote: While there are individuals closely associated the majority would have no first hand knowledge of the man yet are happy to condemn him without knowing his side of the story.His side of the story was pretty clear when he sold out Mercury to the press in 1987 for 40,000 quid. I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for PP or to believe everything said about him is a pack of lies. I just think people should step back bit and realise they are not in a position to judge.Fair enough. But speaking for myself, I'm not "judging" anything per se - I'm just going by the evidence I've seen. Roger Taylor once referred to Prenter as a very subversive person. Not a single person close to the band has ever had something nice to say about him - and that's pretty telling. Thanks for your thoughtful and level-headed post, all the same. |
| The Real Wizard 23.10.2018 02:23 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote: Mack told me Paul was an influence to left Queen if Mr. Bad Guy was successful.Wow - that's quite the revelation. And not surprising in the least. But I wonder how Mack even became aware of it. Does that mean Mercury opened up to him about it? Were they that close? |
| Sebastian 23.10.2018 03:11 |
They'd spend time with each other socially and one of Reinhold's sons was called John-Frederick (or Frederick-John?), so yeah, they were fairly close. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think, had Paul tried to persuade Frederick to leave Queen if his first (and last) solo album sold well, Frederick would've told Reinhold. |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 23.10.2018 10:57 |
Frederick John, yes. Mack was close friend. Mack saw how Paul was talking to Freddie trying to left Queen, but Freddie was very loyal to his partners. The Live aid and a reunion were what makes Freddie left and gave money to Paul Prenter. Mack told me Paul was a cunt. Other persons like the wife of Mack, said with her Paul always was a gentleman with them, and Jo Dore said he was very funny. But Mack, Mike Moran and Peter Freestone don't have very goods about Paul. I remember Mike told Prenter a svengali. |
| The Real Wizard 23.10.2018 19:33 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote: Frederick John, yes. Mack was close friend. Mack saw how Paul was talking to Freddie trying to left Queen, but Freddie was very loyal to his partners. The Live aid and a reunion were what makes Freddie left and gave money to Paul Prenter. Mack told me Paul was a cunt. Other persons like the wife of Mack, said with her Paul always was a gentleman with them, and Jo Dore said he was very funny. But Mack, Mike Moran and Peter Freestone don't have very goods about Paul. I remember Mike told Prenter a svengali.That all makes sense. Even the worst people can be nice sometimes - especially if they're seeking allies wherever possible. |
| Vocal harmony 24.10.2018 13:12 |
The Real Wizard wrote:This more than anything in the public domain is what points the finger at Prenter.splicksplack wrote: While there are individuals closely associated the majority would have no first hand knowledge of the man yet are happy to condemn him without knowing his side of the story.His side of the story was pretty clear when he sold out Mercury to the press in 1987 for 40,000 quid. slicksplack had made the point about thinking about Prenter's family being the innocent party in this. It could be argued that he didn't share this view/ thought when he took the money and spilled details which until then had remained mainly "in house". One could justifiably name Prenter as being the person that the Queen camp claim him to be |
| Day dop 25.10.2018 00:36 |
Why do you folks here take such issue with Lesley Ann Jones? |
| The Real Wizard 25.10.2018 00:59 |
Day dop wrote: Why do you folks here take such issue with Lesley Ann Jones?Because people tend not to like their emotional connections to their favourite musicians of their youth to be tampered with by new information or ideas. |
| MisterCosmicc 29.10.2018 11:43 |
Lesley Ann Jones claims Barbara Valentin and Freddie Mercury had a very active sex-life together, that they were inseparable. |
| MisterCosmicc 29.10.2018 11:52 |
I mean, let's be realists. Lesley Ann Jones even claims Barbara cared for Freddie in his last dying days, when the reality is that she was pushed out of his life by that point and couldn't get through to him. link |
| thomasquinn 32989 29.10.2018 11:58 |
The Real Wizard wrote:Still, the fact remains that she has demonstrated herself to be a very flawed and unreliable source in the past.Day dop wrote: Why do you folks here take such issue with Lesley Ann Jones?Because people tend not to like their emotional connections to their favourite musicians of their youth to be tampered with by new information or ideas. |
| dudeofqueen 29.10.2018 17:16 |
Day dop, re:: >Why do you folks here take such issue with Lesley Ann Jones? Because she's a typical, shameless, tabloid hack who will do pretty much anything to get to talk to a "star". Christ, The Daily F(M)ail uses her ad infinitum, so that ought to tel you a decent amount.......... |
| The Real Wizard 29.10.2018 23:05 |
thomasquinn 32989 wrote:This is also true.The Real Wizard wrote:Still, the fact remains that she has demonstrated herself to be a very flawed and unreliable source in the past.Day dop wrote: Why do you folks here take such issue with Lesley Ann Jones?Because people tend not to like their emotional connections to their favourite musicians of their youth to be tampered with by new information or ideas. |
| FreddieDearie 17.03.2019 07:39 |
I'm sorry. But Barbara was NOT who knew Freddie best. She only knew his self-destructive side best and cajoled him deeper into damaging behaviors than he would've done alone, IMO. |
| Sweetandtenderhooligan 21.03.2019 18:42 |
Leslie is an unreliable source who claimed Barbara slept with Freddie and that he tried to kill her. Crystal Taylor asked Freddie about Barbara himself and Freddie said no, he didn't sleep with her because he didn't sleep with women. Crystal did confront Leslie online and she promptly blocked him. |