MusicFan15, re:
Love this section - did you get this first-hand?
"Tiffany Murray was just a six-year-old girl living at the country house at the time Queen were there and once told The Guardian that her family was struggling to make ends meet and were renting out their house to make money. She remembers the advertisement her mum put in The Times: “Country house available. Rehearsal space for bands. No heavy rock.”
Tiffany also told them that she was in the garden and recalls seeing a truck and a limousine arrive on the drive and hairy men coming to her house to make noise. These hairy men are Queen. According to her, the band had set up their gear in the main hall as the band chose that room because of the acoustics in the room. She remembers roadies running around with amps and cables before waking up one morning to a crash of drums and a stab of guitar. She went into the hall and sat halfway up the 20ft staircase. She remembers the band stopping and staring at her with Freddie smiling. Her mum walked into the room asking the group where she was and acted apologetic when they said she was in the room. Brian shook his head and said “she’s not hurting. Leave her”. Every day the group were in there performing, Tiffany kept watching and listening to the group. They often performed loud rock ‘n’ roll and with the whine of guitar this close, her ears would ring on her pillow.
Her mum said that Freddie was always the first one up and was playing the piano and singing. This girl sneaked into the room once and upon sensing her in the room, Freddie stopped and asked her what she thought about what he was playing (which was “Bohemian Rhapsody” though unnamed at the time). She replied, “it’s fantastic”. And he then said, “it’s a bit long” and continued playing. Her mum described Freddie as being lovely but shy who didn’t mind the cats in the room. Her mum also cooked for Queen and all the other bands which would come and go at the house"
Everything else is pretty well documented already.......
Oddly enough, i almost NEVER visit QUEEN ONLINE ....unless they're hawking some ridiculous new item and I've just gotta see it. (Hot sauce, beer, China set, folding chair, monopoly)
Brilliantly written, Nathan - you sure know your stuff. Very thorough and engaging.
And the quote from Roy Thomas Baker is helpful. 180 overdubs does not mean "180 voices" in any particular spot. It means there were 180 edits of some sort that involved adding something on top of something else throughout the duration of the piece, which is completely feasible.
EMI2565 wrote:
Ive heard that story many years ago in a Queen book, so basically old news .
Old news is not necessarily bad news. We have read and enjoyed the fan written piece.
There is room for everyone who is not negative. Learn from this.
The Circle of Eidolon has spoken
Thank you to most of you for lovely feedback, it's certainly motivating me to write some more.
For those who didn't like it because you've heard it all before, where do you think I got I got the information from? The idea of the article was to combine all the complete information from Rockfield and Penrhos so to achieve that so I used at least 15 resources including books, online and here on QueenZone. So yes, you're right.
If anybody has got an suggestions for what I could write next, let me know!
Really enjoyed it: thanks for writing & sharing Nathan & a lovely time to write about.
What a beautiful area you live in too. I live in Liverpool & sometimes think about Freddie starting out, pre-Queen playing in this area, long before I was born. Gives it an extra-level of interest to think & wonder about & imagine, doesn’t it! :)
EMI2565 wrote:
The circile of eidolon: Old news is boring news so get that.
EMI2565 has spoken sit up and digest that!
Your view has been understood.
That which you view as old and boring has been presented in a different way and in context to the other activities of the band at the time.
It isn't just old news and was enjoyable to read.
Look further than you believe you need to, there is always more to see.
The Circle of Eidolon has spoken
spiralstatic wrote:
Really enjoyed it: thanks for writing & sharing Nathan & a lovely time to write about.
What a beautiful area you live in too. I live in Liverpool & sometimes think about Freddie starting out, pre-Queen playing in this area, long before I was born. Gives it an extra-level of interest to think & wonder about & imagine, doesn’t it! :)
Exactly! I've been to places where I can say "Queen have been there".
I know Queen are only humans but it's a nice thought that they have appreciated our surroundings - where our lives take place.
And the best thing is I didn't know until two or three years ago! I wish I knew before.