Dave Clark article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2035367/Dave-Clark-reveals-Freddie-Mercury-chose-die-life-stopped-fun.html


I know it's the Daily Mail (they couldn't even spell Dave's last name right in one spot), but this is a really interesting couple of quotes:

"Not even the band knew at first, and his family didn’t know."

"Raising money for AIDS charities is close to Clark’s heart. Even before he knew of Freddie’s status, he organised a benefit performance of his musical Time at London’s Dominion Theatre with Cliff Richard, the show’s star, and Freddie performing on stage together."


If this is all true, this means Dave didn't know in April 1988 - which would mean that Freddie didn't tell the band by The Miracle sessions, which were already underway.

For those of us who are interested in these timelines, I'd say this is a pretty important little tidbit.

I'm not into the morbid curiosity thing - I'm into what band morale must have been like during those times. And it looks like The Miracle was just another album for the band, and perhaps they aren't lying through their teeth during that interview with Mike Read in 1989. Maybe it wasn't until the Innuendo sessions that they finally had the chat.

Thoughts?

Nice spot.

The piece doesn't say when the evening that Freddie told him took place, but it was presumably not too late i nthe chain of events as he says there were no obvious signs of the illness. It could be lazy made up and presumptive journalism when it says that Clark didn't know by the time of the Time benefit in 1988, but assuming that's right then we know he had told Montserrat Caballe by at least October '88 (could be as early as the Barcelona sessions in 87) as she has said in interviews she could see how brave Freddie was onstage when they performed at La Nit festival in Oct '88), so perhaps he told Clark (& Mike Moran?) and the Queen guys around that same time, so after the TIME gala in April, but before La Nit in October?

Even if Freddie hadn't told the band by the time they started recording The Miracle, my guess (and it's only that), is that they would have known by the time the album was released as they would have had discussions about booking tour dates well before that point.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

I'm into what band morale must have been like during those times. And it looks like The Miracle was just another album for the band, and perhaps they aren't lying through their teeth during that interview with Mike Read in 1989. Maybe it wasn't until the Innuendo sessions that they finally had the chat.

[/QUOTE]

MOJO Interview with Brian May 1999

...the three other band members were confronted with the news that Freddie Mercury had AIDS. "We discovered about Freddie in 1987 or '88: we were in Switzerland. We'd all known that something wasn't right, but that really did bring us together, knowing that he was on borrowed time. There was nowhere to run, so we just went on and did what we could. He was getting tragically frail towards the end."

in full

http://www.brianmay.com/queen/mojoaug99/mojoaug99d.html

I`ll add a few things later,but that´s all I `ve time for right noiw.

Great responses, guys.

So it looks like it was 1988. That makes the most sense.

Jsut to counter my earlier comments, there's an Interesting piece here suggesting 1991 could be a possible timeline for when the band knew the worst: http://www.nedrock.org/freddie-mercury-ill-keep-on-singing-till-the-end/

The key stands outs are the following quotes from interviews which seem to indicate from Brian's mouth that Freddie only told the band "a few months" before he died; is this right? perhaps it is though, and whilst they clearly knew he was seriously ill during the 'Innuendo' sessions, it was unspoken because Freddie hadn't formally told them or discussed it?


Brian May told Rock Power magazine, “We didn’t know actually what was wrong for a very long time. We never talked about it and it was a sort of unwritten law that we didn’t, because Freddie didn’t want to. He just told us that he didn’t feel up to doing tours, and that’s as far as it went. Gradually, I suppose in the last year and a bit, it became obvious what the problem was, or at least fairly obvious – we still didn’t know for sure. He’s a very private person, Freddie.”

Brian May told Rock Power magazine that, a few months before his passing, Mercury did “sit down and talk to us about it, and from that point on it was openly talked about among us. But we still didn’t mention a word to anyone, not even our families, which is very difficult. When your friends look you in the eye and say, ‘What’s wrong?,’ and you say, ‘Nothing,’ it’s very hard. So it was a big strain; it did something awful to our brains for a while.”

Brian has definitely said that at one point he sat them down and told them "you know what I have", or something to that effect, and that he didn't want it mentioned again and just wanted to get on with it. I always assumed it must have been around 1988/89. I think it's pretty certain that he had told them by the time they were making The Miracle.

One thing always struck me: By the time The Miracle was released, statements were made, that Freddie didn't want to go on tour "I don't feel like running around in leotards anymore". While the other 3 stated, that they'd love to go on tour, but it was Freddie who did not.
They would not say that if they had known about Freddie's illness.

[QUOTE] [b]JomaDuckSoup wrote:[/b]

One thing always struck me: By the time The Miracle was released, statements were made, that Freddie didn't want to go on tour "I don't feel like running around in leotards anymore". While the other 3 stated, that they'd love to go on tour, but it was Freddie who did not.
They would not say that if they had known about Freddie's illness.[/QUOTE]

That could've been them lying to protect him already by that point.

No doubt they got creative about it.

I find it hard to believe the band were told any later than 1989. You don't work with people so closely, with your tremendous physical decline in full view, without saying anything. The year he started to look really ill was 1989, when he grew the beard to hide the KS. He had lost weight by late 1988, but for most of 1988 and for all of 1987 he looked pretty good. In fact, in 1987 he looked fuller than in 1986 (which has been speculated to be caused by the drugs he was taking)

'Miracle' sessions lasted about fourteen months. Fred could've easily told them at some point *during* those fourteen months.

.

As you can imagine...I had some different shit on my plate the last hours ;)

But anyway...

At least John Deacon had a good idea in 1987 that something is wrong. He asked Jim Hutton in Ibiza about Freddie`s (KS) Stains...

Jims answer ( Sun Stains) !!!

Quite sure that John was smelling the BS cause he was on Tour with Fred for about 15 years at that point.

And one big factor when people talk about Freddie`s AIDS is that we don`t know if they seperate HIV and AIDS properly. So maybe the Band was in knowledge that something could happen to Freddie ( Roger`s comment that Freddie was unsure for The Magic Tour/ TATDOOL-Doc) but at that point it wasn`t sure.

The doctors simply didn`t know at that time that a HIV status will turn into AIDS in about 99 Percent.
I `didn`t have the correct numbers on hand, so this is just an example.
In the beginning of HIV / AIDS in the early 80`s, Doctors belived that maybe 30 Percent of HIV Patients will develop full blown AIDS. At the end of the 80`s numbers were rising dramaticlly .

Interesting topic. I browsed through Hutton's book. In his book Jim is talking about May 1989. Direct quote: "Around the same time the same group (this being the band and their partners) met up for a quiet supper near the studio in a restaurant called the Bavaria. That was the night Freddie admitted to the band that he was not well." He then goes explaining how somebody was complaining about having a cold and Freddie then raised his leg to the table to show an open wound on the side of his calf. Quote continues: "I think the band had all been well aware that Freddie was seriously ill, and his leg that night was the confirmation they had all been expecting."

Can you imagine what it must be like being Dave Clark right now? Dining out on a song from nearly 50 years ago... poor fucker....

[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]

Can you imagine what it must be like being Dave Clark right now? Dining out on a song from nearly 50 years ago... poor fucker....[/QUOTE]

I'd happily swap with him....he's a multi millionaire, and one of the very first to own the rights to his own material and handles it very well.