New Book about Freddie by Greg Brooks and Simon Lupton
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rockchic65 · Member since
Don't think this has already been posted
Dear ALL…
Finally, I can announce our brand new book on Freddie.
My friend and colleague Simon Lupton and I have been working hard on a project this year, which we recently finished and are rather proud of. Rather than me trying to explain what it is, and how it came about, perhaps it’s better if I offer some of the text that will circulate as of Sept 1st....
Freddie Mercury: A Life, In HIs Own Words is the nearest thing to a Freddie autobiography as it is possible to achieve. A collection of moving, witty, and often irreverent quotes and interview transcripts from the man himself, meticulously compiled and edited by official Queen archivist Greg Brooks and Queen visuals producer Simon Lupton. An essential read not just for fans of the band, but anyone intrigued to know more about one of music’s most endearing and enduring performers.
Freddie rarely talked about himself to others, and so the interviews he did undertake offered an intriguing insight into a man who outwardly exuded confidence and arrogance, but whom, behind the public perception, spent long periods alone searching for happiness. The truth was that Freddie was painfully shy and uncomfortable of anyone new to his company of close friends and invited guests. He lived an extraordinary life in his 45 years, and as he said himself, he lived life to the full. It is hard to believe he has been gone for nearly 30 years. There will always be more to learn about the little boy Farrokh Bulsara, who became Freddie, and then Mercury, and there will never be a time when we know it all. All we can do in his absence is to gather together the words he left behind in his various conversations and articles and present them in a way that we hope he would have approved of.
This comprehensive insight goes some way to endorsing the fact that as well as being ‘a singer with a song’, Freddie Mercury was a very great deal more than that! For a man so generally reticent to talk, he certainly covered a lot of ground in his twenty years of interview encounters. Through 20 chapters over 194 pages, this is Freddie’s life, told in his own words - 70,000 of them no less! - and all from his unique perspective and delivered in his own inimitable, unpredictable, invariably funny, often poignant, and always entertaining way.
Some of you may remember we briefly put out a version of this book back in 2006, but there was so much happening at that time, it was only available for a short time and it was largely overlooked. This is a radically updated and restructured edition, with more than 8,000 additional words from Freddie, much of which has never been published before - because they came from unused interview out-takes, as well as from extremely rare interviews from 1975/76 that we only recently found.
Simon and I had some crucial help with this book from Adam Unger, Richard Guilbault, and other fans I'll mention soon. There will be much more detail to come about this book, and I’ll keep you fully posted.
Freddie Mercury: A Life, In HIs Own Words will be available to pre-order on Amazon and Kindle from Sept 1, and then the worldwide Amazon publication is Sept 5th. I’ll make the details clearer as soon as it goes live.
....We briefly put out a version of this book back in 2006, BUT THERE WAS SO MUCH HAPPENING AT THAT TIME, it was only available for a short time and it was largely overlooked.”
This stood out to me as a strange explanation as to the book not taking off when it was previously released compared to now....surely there is FAR more going on in the world of Queen now than there was in 2006?
Galileo1564 · Member since
It’s especially strange given that until recently one could buy a kindle version on amazon.com, at least in the US.
There was some discussion a while back of the poor scholarship in this book. I don’t know what else to call it. There are no sources given for any of the quotes. Some of it is from well-known sources such as the Wigg interviews. In some cases sentences are patched together from different sources. Given the complaints about GB on QZ I’m not holding out hope that things have improved.
Makka · Member since
Would rather they get back in the archives and look at more releases.
badboybez · Member since
As above
runner_70 · Member since
Lame rehash of an old book which was not too great. No quotes no nothing.
dudeofqueen · Member since
Re:
>This is a radically updated and restructured edition, with more than 8,000 additional words from Freddie, much of which has never been published before - because they came from unused interview out-takes, as well as from extremely rare interviews from 1975/76 that we only recently found
Re-hashing material that is already available. Genius. Keep squeezing that stone you fat bastard........
pittrek · Member since
Boredom, boredom,budum budum
Dr Magus · Member since
Greg's efforts with the 2005 War Of The Worlds boxset were admirable.
But this is shite.
matt z · Member since
Damn, another rehash. Pretty disappointing....but it's old catalogue and sourced from many things they wish to advertise within.
Expect a forward with glowing praise for QAL
haven't read it- never will. Prob seen/heard/read most of it.
^if the above is true, It's sad to read a book of quotations that doesn't have it's own annotations.
There are a couple of posts from mika251 about this lack of annotations and other issues. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, they are there. I haven’t seen her post in a while. Maybe she’ll finish the project, but from the way she describes things it seems like way too big a thing to do just for the love of it. I wouldn’t, anyway.
Agr123456 · Member since
I bought the first release...I read it and I have to say that...The next day i sold it. Useless.
people on streets · Member since
Beatiful picture of Fred. Other than that nothing interesting about this book.
matt z · Member since
I guess GB doesn't know annotations and ibid's.
What's the point of a thoroughly researched resource book/paper if it doesn't retain documentation on sources?
That's trash work and very frustrating.
Comparable thing was Steve Lukather's "auto bio" which had no index. Never mind the astonishing omissions (probably for legal reasons) and TECHNICAL omissions (who he admired growing up, why, What influence it had on his playing, why he designed his "LUKES" the way he did, scenarios for practice, insights etc")
That's just shitty writing.
Go start a petition.
CMatt, Chief Mouse and The Real Wizard need reassignment on these projects. They need to be in charge of this archive
inu-liger · Member since
Richard here. To attempt to bring something positive to the table here (a difficult task considering such a thing is discouraged on Queenzone! ;) ), I had a blast helping put together the new edition of the book. There were some very insightful quotes and some incredibly funny ones as well. It was very interesting learning even more about Freddie during the research process for the book, which is saying something as a 22 year long fan (and counting), and I hope at least some of you will feel the same way when you read this book :)
