Was Freddie Well Enough to Perform at the Brits '90?

Yes they did Vocal Harmony....sorry, when I referred to 'Brits after show party' I wasn't referring to the official one, but meant the Queen one (which most decent artists seem to have attended anyway!)

I think it was brave enough to face the onslaught and just appear that night. We've all seen the frail photo of him in his vehicle.

[QUOTE] [b]Supersonic_Man89 wrote:[/b]

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.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure Freddie could have possibly played something short like lazing on a Sunday afternoon

Yes, I suppose in theory that if he was still recording incredible vocals (albeit probably in small snippets) until a few months, or even weeks, before his death, then vocally he may have been able to sing a song; to physically perform and entertian in the manner which people would expect would sadly have been asking too much I'm sure, and so I respect his decision to not publicly perform again if he felt it would sully the public's memory of him and his brilliance.

Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGQNkVxT8-A

I think Queen must do a Magic Tour in Japan and America maybe in November 1986 or begin 1987 there were the only opportunities.

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGQNkVxT8-A[/QUOTE]

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.

[QUOTE] [b]luthorn wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGQNkVxT8-A[/QUOTE]

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.
[/QUOTE]

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.

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.

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]luthorn wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

Here is Klaus Nomi. He died eight month after this Live appereance ( AIDS wise ). The Performance is from December 82`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGQNkVxT8-A[/QUOTE]

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.
[/QUOTE]

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.
[/QUOTE]

I have never heard of Klaus until you mentioned his name. I have been listening to his music and reading some about him last few days. A very tragic figure, indeed.

The Nomi song gives it all. the anxieties of an outsider. Not just a German in NYC, but also being a homosexual in Bavaria must have been hard. This man carried some baggage, but also had a soul.

The HIV virus was not isolated until 1984 and test soon followed. Until then, you were basically a medical test monkey for much confused medical community. Once symptoms really kicked in, and kaposi's sarcomas showed, you were a walking dead with 12 months to live at best.

There are many layers we can discuss on the subject. let's remember Freddie wanted to be remembered as gay Freddie (adjective use of gay) not a walking corpse, so whether he could have physically done a concert in 1990 is secondary. His primary wish was to leave a certain legacy.

Klaus, on the other hand, had no legacy and had to use whatever limelight he could muster under extreme duress to reach immortality. Klaus could afford to perform with less than a year to live and I thank him for it.

I think Klaus Nomi was a genius. He had a really beautiful voice, and he managed to find this outlet for what may have been a failed career had he not created this character to sing through. I suppose that's what all singers do really, but Klaus was more pronounced than most.

I have been thinking since writing my reply, is it terrible that we sometimes talk and wonder about Freddie in his last year or two, and how he was affected and afflicted by AIDS? I don't particularly like it, because it was a horrible time for him. The way I see it now though (at least at the moment, and I reserve the right to change my mind), is that it is a part of Queen's history, of Freddie's history, and as dark as it was, it did impact Queen's and Freddie's creative life at that time. It is one thing that we remember about Freddie, but it's far from the whole story. As long as we're still talking about Freddie Mercury the human being and musician, and still being respectful, then it's OK in my view. If we're just being morbid and reducing him to the status of "AIDS victim" for the sake of it, then it's neither very interesting nor healthy, except for perhaps from a medical research point of view, but this is a music forum.

This whole thread reminds of my reaction to Freddie's announcement that he had AIDS...

... My reaction was "we'll get more material out of him before he dies". Not a good reaction, entirely selfish, not loving towards Freddie at all. :-( Now I'm much more concerned with what he went through and how he handled it.

This feels the same.

The four of them handled it the best they could. That's all that matters here.

[QUOTE] [b]miraclesteinway wrote:[/b]

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. [/QUOTE]

We deeply discussed this topic with Peter Freestone years years ago - this is what I remember: the real reason why Queen didnt tour after 86 was change of conditions for almost all insurance companies who gave the insurance for concert tours - they started to request HIV/AIDS tests for this (the reason is already mentioned there - people suffering the illness are able to work properly without any issues on good days, but they are unable to work or do anything physicaly demanding on bad days) and Freddie knew (at least since early 87) how it would end up. The risc of revelation of this news because of this touring insurance was way too high - that´s why they could not tour after 86. The only hypothetical type of "tour" would be really small couple of gigs type of tour without this insurance - which is necessery for any large tour. BTW - when they got the insurance for Magic Tour, if I remember this correctly, the HIV test wasnt among required.

^^ I somehow seem to remember reading about talks of doing some gigs for The Miracle? I wonder if that's just a rumour.

A Dutch promoter said in a documentary for the Dutch TV that there were some talks for a show in The Netherlands in 1989. No idea how serious those talks got though.