brianstrousers

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I've been a Queen fan since I was 17 -and God knows what number this is that I'm watching the Rainbow concert but despite all that, I still cannot fathom how one guitarist can be so stunningly beautiful

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Happy Birthday to Brian May 🎂🎸 Photo by Koh Hasebe Scanned from Queen 1975-76 Photo Library Series [クイーン 1975-76 フォト・ライブラリー・シリーズ]

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Listen, Brian May fucking hated Hot Space and sat by and felt like he was slowly losing his place in their music and watched while everybody else started moving into new roles when he felt like he couldn’t ok, like he hates Hot Space for the music but you can’t tell me he doesn’t also hate it for the era it represents, and the fact that Freddie turned around and wrote a gospel love ballad about how he thought Brian was the best thing since sliced bread and then presented it to him and told him it wouldn’t be complete until he wrote a guitar solo for it, and then made it the b-side to Under Pressure, a song that Brian was miserable while writing and hated for all the fighting it caused??? That makes me feel things okay???

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Freddie: When [Brian] tells people he made [the Red Special] himself, people expect it to be sort of uh.. a quick um, sort of knock-up but he has spent quite a few years so it looks like you can just go out and buy it in a shop. He's taken a lot of care over it and it's the one he played all last night.

Brian: I took a lot of care to make it, took about two years to make.

Interviewer: The wood, two hundred years old. [Is it] true?

Freddie: A hundred-year-old fireplace. And um, he... Brian, you wanna explain how you knocked it up together?

Brian: Ohh yes it was, I made it from scratch. From things which I found around. It was very cheap to make, it costs me about 8 pounds. But I put a lot of trouble into it, and uh made sure it was exactly what I wanted. I always play it on records, on stage.

---

An excerpt from a Japanese interview, broadcasted on April 26, 1975 “Young Kodama” (Young Echoes) (x)

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Thanks to these amazing guys look at that quality 😭

Live in Philadelphia 20 Nov 1978. He’s utterly beautiful I have no words.

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hes beautiful, heaven-sent, ethereal, godly, I love him

Still haven’t recovered from these photos btw, he’s just so pretty

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THE EMINEM ONE MADE ME SNORT 😭 I miss george very much

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happy birthday geo, we miss you every day 🤍

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💥 originals by Watal Asanuma, Ridge Farm 1975

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(×)

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I apologize for the light glare in some of these! I took them out of a book at a local shop, but these were some of the gems I found of the boys (and some solo brian shots) enjoy loves!

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george edition

get back: beatles textposts [2/?]

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Suppose I exist here now, hiya! (I'm sorry I'll probably never post here ever again 😅)

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A chronological account of Music Life's visit to Queen at Ridge Farm, 14/07/1975 (accompanied by photos)

Written in Chinese by 走路带风的Mia, then translated to English by the very amateur yours truly

Music Life’s visit to Ridge Farm

Date: 14/07/1975

Writers: Kaoruko Togo, Keiko Miyasaka

Photographer: Watal Asanuma

The following piece of writing is a first-person compendium of Kaoruko Togo’s reports in the September 1975 issue of Music Life. The author’s notes will be indicated in the bracketed, italicized text.

Queen was rehearsing their new album A Night At The Opera at Ridge Farm, which is in Dorking, a town that's two hours drive away from London. We arrived at around 2pm. Surrounded by trees, the beautiful farm has a main building, a swimming pool, a tennis court, a small storage unit, a soundproofed rehearsal hall, and a lawn with well-maintained roses. Into the main house, we were led to a dining hall, with a huge dining table and dignified paintings on the walls. It was easy to spot the band amongst the seven or eight people in the house. Freddie first came forward and shook our hands, then the other three also greeted us.

(This photo illustrates the band’s outfits on this day.) When we saw Brian in Tokyo (a few months ago when Queen first toured Japan), he tanned to a light brown colour. He was shockingly pale on this day.

We then gave the band our June issue with Queen on the cover. Everyone gathered around and started talking about their visit to Japan.

At this point, Freddie took out a jacket embroidered with gold and silver threads. He told us he received it as a gift in Japan.

Roger made us cups of tea. With his back to us, the perverse Miss Kaoruko (Kaoruko Togo referring to herself) saw a 15cm tear in Roger’s jeans near his bottom. (The split trousers can be seen in the photo of Roger sitting on the diving board by the swimming pool.)

The band was staying at Ridge Farm together, preparing to record the next album. A maid at the farm and producer Roy Thomas Baker’s wife Barbara cooked for them. We were treated to a late lunch, and Brian was kind enough to serve us soup.

Next, everyone walked to the tennis court. Freddie was the most energetic and adept at tennis. He looked particularly impressive and striking serving shots left and right with agility. Concerned with his appearance, he naturally tidied his hair whenever it got unkempt.

John chuckled as he chased after shots. To everyone’s surprise, he made a stunning stroke which earned him a round of applause and cheers.

(The clogs Freddie was wearing were technically sandals + heels, the heels on John’s boots were quite high. I’m honestly shocked at the fact that they could still play tennis.)

Roger was very energetic as usual, he seemed to have well-developed motor skills. In the match where Roger and Freddie were playing opposite each other, Freddie seemed to take it much more seriously, he insisted the ball Roger served was out. Roger stood firm: “It’s definitely not out this time.” John just delightfully looked on with a blasé attitude.

What about Brian? He’s taking everyone’s pictures with the camera he bought in Japan. When Freddie noticed, he shouted: “Brian! Why aren’t you playing?”

After a stretch of hand-wringing, Brian awkwardly walked onto the tennis court with a racquet in hand. He looked on and prepared to receive with hesitation as Freddie made a stroke, but ended up missing multiple serves. We cheered him on from the sidelines, but producer Roy Thomas Baker did not hesitate to cackle every time Brian missed. Brian tried to defend himself: “This racquet is strange, and I’m wearing a scoop neck top, I’m worried.” All in all, it was a loud animated scene.

After a few intense tennis matches, we came to a spacious courtyard and conducted our interview on chairs. Before the interview, we gave the band traditional Japanese masks on behalf of Music Life.

Brian, Roger, Freddie and John respectively received the masks of Hyottoko, Hannya, Tengu and Okame.

Each of their personalities are evident at a glance. Roger has a clear idea of right and wrong. He is frank and straightforward, talkative, a mischievous prankster with a lot of charisma. Freddie is tidy and organized, he tends to do a bit posturing and is extremely meticulous about his appearance. Although John is quiet, he speaks with earnestness on important topics when necessary. Brian is sensitive, considerate and attentive.

After the interview, we went back to the dining hall to play billiards. We used the dining hall, because the dining table was so big that it could serve as a pool table. Freddie, John and Roy Thomas Baker first started playing; Freddie was very good at it, Brian and Roger soon joined the game.

After billiards, they finally started rehearsing.

A smaller house with a complete set of soundproofing equipment is just a short distance away from the main building. The band and the producer started rehearsing new songs here. Their innocent ingenuousness gave way for a sober working attitude.

Freddie stepped into the leadership role. He sat at the white piano, intensively listening to the band’s playing, seeming poles apart from himself moments ago.

After the rehearsal, we came to a vast lawn. The band sat down and started talking about new ideas and concepts for the new album and their memories in Japan.

(The first photo of them sitting on the grass looks like it was taken either before or after the tennis playing, so I think what Kaoruko was referring to is the photo on the bottom.)

(According to the report, Kaoruko and her fellow reporters left after 7pm. The photos used here more or less describe the itinerary of that day. The placement of the rest of the photos in the timeline could be deduced from the band’s outfits. Finally, I’ll conclude with a group photo of everyone at the tennis court.)

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GWILYM LEE Cool America, 2021

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I truly hate to inform everyone of this, but Bri has tested positive for COVID-19. He says that he is okay, and that he will get better, I hope that that is true, and I thought I’d share it with you all so we could collectively send Brian our well wishes. Get better soon Bri 🖤

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Credits to the founder and editor of the Mexican Magazine "Conecte!", the most important magazine to these days there, Victor Manuel Alatorre Camara.