As it began ' or any other books

Thanks JB! Hope I knew my fellow QZers would understand my temporary angst!

Here’s a funny Thanksgiving story for you all....one I hadn’t heard before in relation to the infamous Freddie vs Sid Vicious story. Too lazy to retype so hopefully the attachment turns out well.

Amidds. Haha. Who was asking not to do again. Which book? Thank you.. that was good!!

That’s a great plan for a Montreux trip Amidds! I wish I had known about Montreux and the Freddie connection a few years back, I used to work for a company in Paris and was over there nearly every 2 weeks, I easily could have hopped up there for a visit. Kicking myself now! My reading schedule has been severely slowed down by the holidays, still halfway through AIB and holding....

Oh my gosh MHZ! What a golden opportunity to have missed, so sorry! How are you liking AIB so far? I don’t remember...did you get it from your library or did you get a good deal on it somewhere?

JB, the Johnny Rotten story was from Complete Works. It had been recommended by Doughnut a while ago. It’s quite informative and organized by album then songs, concerts, etc so really easy to look stuff up. I find myself picking it up every time a song or concert is mentioned to see if there’s any good or new info.

I am liking AIB a lot so far, I like that it is more informative and less relationship focused (as in affairs and boyfriends/girlfriends). I can’t wait to get back to it, I just need a stretch of time to read uninterrupted, which isn’t happening lately! I got the book through a friend of mine who has connections to a type of book outlet. It is pretty much new, doesn’t look like the older versions I’ve seen in pictures. It has a green cover and says it is a first US edition.

This is a very interesting book, I advise everyone to read it) I recently read the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and analyzed this book by writing an essay, you can find it on my site studydriver.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/, I already wrote a lot of essays, I think you will find what you need.

Wow MHZ, lucky you to get your own copy of AIB!!! Hopefully that makes up for the whole Paris/Montreux thing???? I would highly recommend Complete Works to you as well since you like the "fact" type of reading better. While the book does include anecdotes, it is not filled with personal info or boyfriend/girlfriend info.

Welcome JoshuaGill! Are you referring to As It Began?

Thanks Amidds! I have downloaded Complete Works on my Kindle, started in on it just to get a feel for it and quickly realized it is a book you must have in your hands. It just doesn’t have effect electronically, so I’m going to order a copy. Yes, the AIB book makes up for Montreux a bit, especially since it was much cheaper, lol! Welcome Joshua!

Amidds. I do have complete works. Just have to dig in further. :))

Hope everyone is having a nice day.

Oh JB, you probably mentioned that before and I forgot. I’m really enjoying the book but it’s so full of info, I find myself putting it aside and squeezing in other reading when I have time.

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, Life on Two Legs is free on Kindle right now. I wouldn’t have bought it, but since it’s free, thought I’d check it out. I literally skipped to the sections on Freddie and Queen because I don’t have a strong interest in Sheffield. Kinda interesting to hear his side of the story and he is very fair and generous in his opinions on his time with Queen so it might be worth a read to you all. One little nugget that I don’t remember hearing before...

Hi Amidds!!!!! Sorry for the delayed reply. Not sure if I mentioned it. Haha. I liked how everyone was listing what they had, was going to do that, but hadn’t yet. That’s good to know! It’s the one I haven’t spent Too much time in. It’s great to know where your finding info.

Thank you so much for letting us know about this. I’m I’ll take a look see if I can still get it. I am now on Peter’s book but haven’t gotten too much reading in. Maybe over the holidays.

Happy New Year to all! I finally finished As It Began today....I liked it a lot. Great detail on albums/songs/videos released and the band’s feelings about many things. Could have had a bit more detail about some things, for example having read many books I knew that Freddie got quite drunk (unusual for him during performances) at the New Zealand show, resulting in some entertaining things. There was no mention in AIB about that, just a recounting of a great show in New Zealand. That being said though, I suppose it was hard to draw the line between relevant detail and salacious stories that the band may not want to have told! So I can see why they didn’t include certain things. The end was certainly sad, especially the final paragraph. It must have been incredibly hard to write that!

This book is already on my re-read list. I need to decide which book will be next. I’m going through The Complete Works now but that is one that I cannot sit and read for lengths of time, I have to do a bit and digest it. I think I may read Phoebe’s first book again.

Hi MHZ!!! Great to hear from you. Way to kick off the new year!! I join in your happy new year to all wishes!!

It has dawned on me that next year will be a major year, Freddie would have turned 75, and 30 years since the world had to say goodbye.


Wow. That’s so great that you finished at New Year!!! :)). Mine went back to the library but I will be keeping my eye out to buy one, hopefully there is a re-release. I agree really good details. . I really like your deep compassionate notes about the end. I didn’t get that far. I know, anything we read, even though we know, it’s gut wrenching. I agree, can’t possibly know what it was like for those close to him, hopefully there was some comfort in the process of writing, if even a little.

I smiled when you said you are on to Peter’s first book.... me too!!! I read pieces, couldn't get the book, then saw it online and now have it. Will be great to discuss here!

AIB— I recall Amidds and I wondering if there are any clips or images of the concert mentioned in the book with Santa on stage, think it was Australia, when Freddie had or got out of Santa bag. Would love to see them if anyone has come across them. :))

Happy 2020!!

Hello JB! It’s funny about Peter’s book, I tried and tried to find a copy reasonably priced a little over a year ago. I couldn’t find it on Kindle so I figured I needed a real copy (couldn’t get one through libraries either). The copies I found were so expensive, I finally decided to get one as a Christmas present from my husband (lol! He always has trouble picking stuff for me so this was perfect!). Ordered it from Amazon, and maybe 3 weeks later got a message that it was out of stock. Grrrr. Ordered it from another supplier and a few weeks later got a note that it got “lost in shipping”. Ordered another one and same thing happened. I did always get my money back, but realized this was some kind of scam going on through Amazon. Of course I reported it and Amazon could care less. Great, just figured I’d never get one (tried EBay and others too but seemed like a similar situation.). I was searching online for some other Queen related item and saw Peter’s book come up in the results through Google Play electronic books! Downloaded it and paid maybe $5! I didn’t even know Google Play was a thing. Just goes to show you have to scour through the weeds to find what you want!

I looked through AIB to see if there were pictures of Freddie and Santa in Australia in it, but there are not any. There are quite a few pictures of that online if you want to see them, I belong to some Facebook groups related to Freddie and Queen and many people posted those last week. So it would just take a bit of looking around. I would grab some for you and put them here but I don’t know how to post pictures on here!

[QUOTE] [b]Amidds wrote:[/b]

Oh JB, you probably mentioned that before and I forgot. I’m really enjoying the book but it’s so full of info, I find myself putting it aside and squeezing in other reading when I have time.

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, Life on Two Legs is free on Kindle right now. I wouldn’t have bought it, but since it’s free, thought I’d check it out. I literally skipped to the sections on Freddie and Queen because I don’t have a strong interest in Sheffield. Kinda interesting to hear his side of the story and he is very fair and generous in his opinions on his time with Queen so it might be worth a read to you all. One little nugget that I don’t remember hearing before...

[/QUOTE]
Sounds like May wrote it.