Beware Who Owns the Story

Mmmmm, there are a few sides to this and I'm sure we all believe what we have been told by anyone 'close' to the action' at the time.

For what it's worth I have a friend that I went (as part of the Royal Family) to many gigs with in the 70's and 80's.

This person went on to work for the band on the South American tours and was very close to Prenter, Freddie and Roger in the 80's

He/she reckons the whole ultimatum story is bollocks. Not because he/she was party to any private meetings but because he/she knew the individuals involved very closely.

Basically Fred would have told them to fuck off. and try their luck without him and it certainly would not have come from close friends Roger or John. Sounds more like a Brian May insecurity confection for the film.

Of course without the blessing of the person involved I can't offer any more evidence (in the same way others on here can't).

I find it really funny how the movie dwells on the non-success of Mr. Bad Guy (Uk chart position no.6) totally ignoring the Roger Taylor flops Fun in Space (Uk no. 18) and Strange Frontier (Uk no. 30) from the same period of time. But then you cannot blame the life style and the bad influence of the evil gay man.

I wonder why we are supposed to believe that this scene had happened when everything else around it is so blatantly untrue. Freddie did not live in that villa in Munich, he did not fire John Reid for suggesting a solo project, he was not tested HIV positive before Live AID, the band had not been separated for months before Live AID and the list can go on ad infinitum. Even if the scene had happened which I do not believe for a second, it would be still a low point in the lives of Brian and Roger to allow this scene into the movie and even defend it. After all, they both stood on the shoulder of Freddie Mercury for their whole carreers until today. There would not have been the band Queen without the brilliance and genius of Freddie Mercury.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]

I remember that period very well: I went nearly 2 years without reading hardly anything about Queen in the press, the music mags, or hearing them on the radio. Then Queen did some massive promotion of The Works with lots of interviews. BBC Radio One began playing Radio Ga Ga on regular rotation. Combined with the fact that fans like me bought the 7 and 12 inch versions, it charted immediately .. and thus began the reignition of their career. You really had to live through that few years in the UK of Hot Space through to The Works. After HS, Queen were seen as old news: HS was a laughable attempt to stay relevant. Everyone bought the Greatest Hits LP instead. Wearing a Queen t-shirt was really 'uncool'. Then The Works dropped, and suddenly Queen was everywhere again. Having experienced that, I find it hard to believe they were in any real danger of disbanding in 1985.[/QUOTE]

Very insightful.

But public reaction isn't always enough to keep a band afloat when it's falling apart internally. Cozy Powell left Rainbow the day after their biggest ever gig, for example.

[QUOTE] [b]splicksplack wrote:[/b]

Mmmmm, there are a few sides to this and I'm sure we all believe what we have been told by anyone 'close' to the action' at the time.

For what it's worth I have a friend that I went (as part of the Royal Family) to many gigs with in the 70's and 80's.

This person went on to work for the band on the South American tours and was very close to Prenter, Freddie and Roger in the 80's

He/she reckons the whole ultimatum story is bollocks. Not because he/she was party to any private meetings but because he/she knew the individuals involved very closely.

Basically Fred would have told them to fuck off. and try their luck without him and it certainly would not have come from close friends Roger or John. Sounds more like a Brian May insecurity confection for the film.[/QUOTE]

I heard the story about a decade ago, so it's unrelated to the film. But thanks for the insight.

As ever, this will remain one of those bits of Queen history that we'll never know for sure. What happens in the band stays in the band.

@Holly - the 3 years between AKOM and The Miracle seemed like a lifetime. Sure there was other stuff happening but it felt like a huge thing having new product.

[QUOTE] [b]dysan wrote:[/b]

@Holly - the 3 years between AKOM and The Miracle seemed like a lifetime. Sure there was other stuff happening but it felt like a huge thing having new product.[/QUOTE]

Yep, and The Miracle turned out to be a return to guitar driven melodies, which helped a bit. For me, there was a lot going on in that period. Finished my A levels, got my first job, off to Europe inter-railing every summer... Plus there were always decent bands touring. I was just looking at my old collection of concert tickets and that seemed to be a time when at any stage you could go see see Alice Cooper, AC/DC. Aerosmith, Scorpions, and many more. So I don't really remember that as a barren Queen period in the same way I remember the couple of years following Hot Space because there was so much else going on. Plus we had Live Magic to fall back on until the next studio album came out (ahem).

Yeah and the Magic Years. Happy days.

Trying to remember what last tapes I had to gather up in that period...

I forgot about Magic Years. It was a massive release, and almost forgotten about now. Also, A Concert Through Time and Space video was maybe their first attempt to do something 'archival', albeit DoRo completely destroyed it.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

Yeah hindsight is a powerful thing, but at the time Rare Live was super. A real eyeopener even after the Magic Years. Me and my pals still quote much of it to each other.