1996 book re: last Barcelona performance

"Later, when he finally gave up drugs, Freddie appeared in Spain to perform in a spectacular to mark the run-up to the Barcelona Olympics.

Without coke, his nerve failed and he ended up by miming his hit song Barcelona.

A technical hitch made the tape play slowly and he and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballe failed to synchronise.

It was an embarrassing last public performance for one of rock's legendary showmen."

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Just+months+after+finding+out+he+had+AIDS+he+threw+the+biggest+and...-a061620222


Is there any truth to this whatsoever, or is this just sensationalizing and revisionist history?

I don't remember seeing a video of the song playing back slowly. I thought they just mimed it because it was just yet another show that gets mimed ... ?

I recall stories of the tape speed, but surely they would have been able to hear it and adjust their miming accordingly? I would be surprised if Freddie was still taking coke - especially prior to performing - when he knew of his illness at that point.

Is this performance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkskujG0UYc

Newspaper advert of the show.Very Rare mix of artists :)

I remember mentions that the video edition tried to hide the tape speed problem. I would not buy the idea of the coke connection.

Cheers,

Ogre-

The issue of the speed problem was known to me.
Freddie being less than his brilliant self NOT.
He did great as always (even if it was only mimed, the charisma was there!).

The tape speed issue was well known. I remember discussions around it when the Freddie boxed set came out.
If you look closely you'll see the video cuts quite frequently so that the effect is not as noticeable.

Freddie and Montsy were still great, though.

It's mentioned by Gavin Taylor in the comments section of The Video Collection DVD. Has anyone seen the original footage?

I found some time ago in youtube the footage from original broadcast of La Nit, via TV3 (local tv):

The Golden Boy and How Can I Go On:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u36Kalqfgr8

Barcelona and the end of the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g_dCV4tfxQ

In all songs you can hear the tape running at slow speed, especially in The Golden Boy. They fixed it when they put these videos on the FM DVD

How could they play it so low it's unbelievable to me. I mean, it could be one or two semitones lower, but THAT low? The Golden Boy and How Can I Go On: Barcelona and the end of the show:

Blimey - I didn't realise the playback was that bad!!

Can't say I'd have noticed TBH.

Good job it wasn't speeding up and slowing down or Freddie could've gone full Freddie Starr.

[QUOTE] [b]BETA215 wrote:[/b]

How could they play it so low it's unbelievable to me. I mean, it could be one or two semitones lower, but THAT low?

[/QUOTE]

It was only a semitone lower (or perhaps, the tiniest bit lower than that), but tempo-wise it seems slower still, oddly.

[QUOTE] [b]Bohardy wrote:[/b]

It was only a semitone lower (or perhaps, the tiniest bit lower than that), but tempo-wise it seems slower still, oddly.[/QUOTE]

Yep, it's a semitone.

And that's analog tape for you - if you slow it down, both pitch and speed are affected. You can only separate the two digitally.