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happy anniversary to Freddie and Jim

Souce: Rudi Dolezal 'My Friend Freddie'

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(x)

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this is the best thing I’ve read all week, oh my god

13 - The Boy with the Green Hair

Hi one and all! Winter is finally amongst us Aussie’s, so I’ve not got much news on my social life, not that you care. In my last ramblings I asked if anyone knew how Deaky got his nickname of ‘Birdman.’ (Pauses while he checks his trendy biography that Jacky sent him so he could try and get some dates right for a change) Got it. Ok, it’s early August '79 and we’re in rehearsals for a festival in Saabruken, Germany, and John walked in one day with his hair cropped really short. Everybody was amazed at this new person, and once again, credit where it’s due, I said “He looks like a convict, it’s 'The Birdman of Alcatraz.” From that moment Birdman was born. The show was Aug 18th (this little book’s great) the day before Deaky’s birthday, so Ratty, Jobby and myself bought him some pyjamas with arrows on them, geddit like a convict, clever eh! When they came on to do the encore the Birdman was wearing them and he looked hysterical.

Another highly amusing aspect of that show was that Roger turned up with his hair dyed green. He looked ridiculous and I had to sit behind him for a two hour show trying not to giggle. I never imagined I would ever work for a parrot. Let’s stay in Saabruken for a while. We had just secured a new sponsorship deal with Ludwig Drums, and for the first time ordered a massive black kit. It was my pride and joy and after rehearsals had finished we had a few days off, so I took the whole kit home and took it completely apart and polished every drum, cymbal, stand, nut and bolt. When we got to Germany and I had it set up I gave it another clean, and during soundcheck everybody was saying how good my 'baby’ was looking. The Germans like their rock music, and I can’t remember every act on, but there was Molly Hatchet, Rory Gallagher, Ten Years After and Gary Moore. There was one more, and somebody in their ultimate wisdom put The Commadores on the bill with us. I have nothing against them. I saw them at Wembley Arena and they we great, but not on a Queen gig.

I was standing on the side of the stage watching them when a punter took a dislike to the singing biscuit, Lionel Richtea, and hurled a missile at him and of course, missed. The missile turned out to be a huge tub of ice cream and landed straight on the top of my spotless bass drum, spraying the rest of the kit in vanilla ice cream. If I had got my hands on that person, with good behaviour I’d be getting out about now.

I was chatting with the Birdman over the weekend and he’s in great shape and good humour. For all you people out there that enter chat rooms and newsgroups you could be 'speaking’ with JD. He told me who he chats with, but hasn’t told them who he is, so it could be you. I have his 'chat’ nickname and I can assure you it’s NOT Birdman. Anyway, I asked him if he had any good stories about himself that I could do for this fab little site, and would you believe we couldn’t come up with a printable one between us, and Berlin was top of the NO list. He did come up with an idea for a story, so from the mind of John Deacon, here it is.

Germany gets a good name check today, but now it’s our second home, good old Munich. A hell of a lot of misbehaving went on at Musicland Studios, the Sugar Shack, the Munich Hilton and just about everywhere else we set foot. After a heavy days recording a few hours of relaxation was needed in the Shack, with a few bottles of Stolli. After there we went back to either Freddie and Phoebes suite, the PPP (Presidential poof parlour) or Roger’s and my suite, the HH (Hetro Hangout). It was winter and about 4am and we’re all back in the HH goofing around, when we found one of those little jam’s that you get with hotel breakfasts. It’s usually this time of the morning after a few slurps that we would get inventive, and JD and me went into Rogers bedroom and put a dollop of jam on the earpiece of his phone, and another dollop on the bulb of his bedside lamp. I then used another phone and booked him a wake-up call for 6am, and we all cleared off. The next morning we all had a good laugh when he was telling us how when his phone rang, he switched on the lamp, and the jam got hot and burnt, and the room stank, and when he answered his wake-up call, his hair stuck to his ear. He did take it in good humour, but was not that impressed when he found his awful green shoes in the toilet that we tried to flush away.

The following day we thought it was so good it had to be repeated. So after another night in the Shack, when we get back to the hotel Roger says he’s going straight to bed, and off he goes. We get another pot of jam, different flavour though, and make our way to Rogers bedroom door. Ratty and Jobby lean against the wall so he can’t see them through the peephole, and I knock. “Who is it” he bellows. I reply “It’s me, you left your coat in the car, I’ve bought it up for you.” Lame excuse but it worked, the door opens and we’re in. A few dollops in the correct places and out the door. As we’re heading to my door for a nightcap we notice a rather large roll of carpet. The inventors are at it again and we drag the roll of carpet down the corridor and lean it against Paul Prenters door, then head back for that well earned drink. An hour or so later I dial 9, or was it 0, and get an outside line and ring the Hilton. When the operator answered I told her who it was and could she phone Prenter urgently and tell him that Roger Taylor had been arrested for drink driving and to get to the cop shop and bail him out. Over breakfast the next morning when the previous days stories were told, Paul said he thought it might of been a hoax call, so before rushing out he phoned Roger to check if he was in his room. Thanks Paul, smelly room and jammy ear. Phase two also worked 'cause when he opened his door in the morning the carpet roll fell on his head.

That’s it, catch you all soon

Crystal

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the video the link goes to doesn’t appear to be there anymore 😭

but ohhh my god

So, apparently when the final version of Queen’s Flash Gordon soundtrack had been put on tape, Brian May went round to Howard Blake’s house (who composed the orchestral bits of the soundtrack) to play it to him there, because Brian didn’t have a working stereo at his own home. Turns out, Howard didn’t have one either, but he was like “so, my little kid has one”, anyway, long story short, they both ended up on the floor of this child’s bedroom listening to Flash Gordon on a shitty little Mickey Mouse cassette player (lying under the bed because the cord was so short), and when I tell you I am howling with laughter–

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American Politics Alert 🚨

when you were campaigning to get Queen into the Kennedy Center and got a bunch of people to fill out the recommendation form but then Tr*mp becomes President, declares himself the head of the committee, fires a bunch of people, and wants to ban all things that have to do with “woke” which just means

*checks notes*

immigrants

people of color

queer people

and specifically targeted: drag

Me:

no but on a serious note, I hate him so much

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(I swear I was already thinking about this and it wasn’t inspired by my previous reblog)

Brian and Freddie’s stage dynamic should be studied

I feel like it was so…not simply physical because he was physical to a degree with all of them, but risqué on a level not at all typically seen between two men, ESPECIALLY between gay and not gay men, at the time. The only other example I can think of is Bowie* and Mick Ronson, but I don’t know if even they rose to Brian and Freddie’s level of…consistent suggestiveness.

and not only was Brian clearly a willing participant but it only amped up even more AFTER Freddie came out. Watch a Queen show, you’ll be like “what’s Freddie doing?” “Oh he’s just got his face in front of Brian’s crotch the guitar, miming certain activities.” “Oh he’s just over there straddling Brian’s legs. Grinding on his thigh. Nothing out of the ordinary”

I’m not implying anything, I know it was just them being entertainers, but it’s still kinda crazy (in the best way) if you think about it

*I know Bowie was bi, not gay, I was generalizing

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Phoebe’s comments aside NOT ONLY did Brian disclose he’d been tested (yeah and to THE SUN of all people) he also said he’d been TERRIFIED to get the results and when five minutes after the phone should’ve rang came and went, he about lost his mind

god, that. Him disclosing that was so important for counteracting the stigma. Not only was a…not gay…man saying he’d been tested but that he was afraid it could come back positive. Emphasizing that AIDS was not just a Gay Disease. I mean I’m sorry he got so stressed out about it but sooo many props to him for that

Don't mind me, I'm just thinking about how Brian Harold May put his entire career on the line by disclosing his AIDS test to The Sun in 1992 because he wanted to defend Freddie and millions of other victims against serophobic discourse.

And I'm thinking about how he went on live television and paid respect to the gay men who took care of Freddie in his final days (Does it ring a bell, Peter?).

But no, there was no closeness there :)

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thinking about changing my blog name to something less movie-related but also don’t like change, and value consistency…

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Back Chat lyrics: and you always get your way 🎵🎵

The guitar solo Deaky didn’t want but Brian insisted they put in: *begins*

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I wish I were half as photogenic as John Deacon

Pinterest keeps serving this to me

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𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: November 25, 1978

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆: Richfield, OH, USA

𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: Coliseum

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿: Janet Macoska

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FINALLY DONE. There’s a couple I couldn’t find atm but when I see them again I’ll be sure to add them

Okay so it’s occurred to me that when I added the sources to the Chaotic Queen Moments posts, I could’ve been more thorough so I’m going to go through again and actually link the stuff this time

Nothing annoys me more than when I read something and am dying to see the primary source only to find it’s not there and I’ve realized that I have become the very thing I swore to destroy. And now I have free time so I’m doing it.

It’s gonna take me a HOT minute but I do value credibility (ESPECIALLY in this fandom) so. Yeah. It’ll take some time but that’s happening because “source: audio file” is not helpful

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It has been an hour. I have done one. This is like the world’s worst scavenger hunt. I have more tabs open rn than I’ve ever had in my life. But still I carry on

Okay so it’s occurred to me that when I added the sources to the Chaotic Queen Moments posts, I could’ve been more thorough so I’m going to go through again and actually link the stuff this time

Nothing annoys me more than when I read something and am dying to see the primary source only to find it’s not there and I’ve realized that I have become the very thing I swore to destroy. And now I have free time so I’m doing it.

It’s gonna take me a HOT minute but I do value credibility (ESPECIALLY in this fandom) so. Yeah. It’ll take some time but that’s happening because “source: audio file” is not helpful

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Okay so it’s occurred to me that when I added the sources to the Chaotic Queen Moments posts, I could’ve been more thorough so I’m going to go through again and actually link the stuff this time

Nothing annoys me more than when I read something and am dying to see the primary source only to find it’s not there and I’ve realized that I have become the very thing I swore to destroy. And now I have free time so I’m doing it.

It’s gonna take me a HOT minute but I do value credibility (ESPECIALLY in this fandom) so. Yeah. It’ll take some time but that’s happening because “source: audio file” is not helpful

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According to Crystal:

Roger’s Ferrari burst into flames while he was driving it in France

his Aston Martin also burst into flames (unclear whether he was driving it or not)

and somebody in the notes mentioned it but there’s also that time a new roadie accidentally took his stool away while he was standing so when he went to sit back down, he fell backwards off the drum riser

HOW is this man still alive

Roger and injuries

from when he started drumming to now

blisters on the fingers and bloody hands (probably looking like this)

(from Rufus’ IG (x) - thanks @bohemiansweede​

1960 (ca.) ‘During one long summer Roger was shot in the back of the leg as the gang scampered through fields pursued by a zealous farmer’s son. “It was only a pellet but it left a bit of a mark,” said Geoff (Moore).‘ ~ from Mark Hodgkinson’s book “Queen - The Early Years”. (thanks @quirkysubject​)

1967 (February) car accident in Cornwall (x)

1974 fell down the stage and knocked himself out (x)

1974 hit on the head with a full can of lager (x)

1974 (November) severely bruised his foot when in anger he tried to kick down the panel in the dressing room (x)

1975 (Hammersmith) “Roger Taylor was really sick – he looks pretty good, but he was feeling really bad. I think he threw up afterwards, but you wouldn’t know [from watching].” - Brian May [x]

1976 (March) cuts his foot after missing a step while getting off the stage. (x)

76-03-22 Tokyo (blood on Roger’s trousers???) (x)

1976 got blown off his drum stool while filming the video for TYMD… (x)

Not sure when those happened and if the black-out bit is the same as the TYMD accident.

Also, thanks @let-roger-get-a-lunch​ for mentioning the many car accidents. We are not sure if he ever got hurt though.

Can you all help me complete the list … please?

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It is 1:30 in the morning so I apologize if this isn’t my best writing but Literally, the way the interviewer KNEW Brian and Freddie were close, he was like “yeah they were close and I know they shared rooms in the early days, was there a closeness in the studio” and Phoebe just said no. Like.

Okay look, I don’t hate Phoebe or anything, he seems nice, and obviously none of us were there either but. My guy. They’d already known each other for a DECADE before you started working for them. Freddie brought Brian to meet his parents. Freddie stayed up all night in the studio making a mixtape of Brian’s solos. Freddie said (“agreed” would be more accurate actually) Brian was the greatest guitar technician in the world. Brian was at Garden Lodge a lot in the late ‘80’s. AND! The extent to which Brian has gone to bat protecting and defending Freddie is bonkers, be it his musicianship, his sexuality, his HIV status, his partner, his personality etc. not to mention the songs he wrote for/about/with him

It is abundantly clear they loved each other. You don’t stick with the same people for 20+ years if your baseline attitude towards them is dislike or distance, you just don’t

People have brought up envy potentially being the reason Phoebe is saying this and that didn’t make sense to me until I realized: Jim was Freddie’s partner. Joe we know Freddie trusted with like almost everything and they go back farther than Freddie & Phoebe do as well. Mary was Mary, I mean you don’t have to like her to acknowledge they had a deep, meaningful friendship. And the band was The Band, the center of their world. So maybe Phoebe does feel envious of those relationships? (But literally why tho)

But it just doesn’t make sense how he has no problem describing the closeness Freddie had with Roger and John (with seeming accuracy) but stop at Brian. It’s possible he doesn’t know the extent of Brian and Freddie’s sort of…emotional relationship/understanding…which is fine! But if you don’t know, just say that! The only people who are truly experts on Queen are Queen!

I didn’t really add anything here that hasn’t already been said in the notes but ach. It irks me so much. Because it’s just…incorrect and contradicts everything else ever

Phoebe doubling down on undermining Freddie and Brian's dynamic is baffling. He even denied that they had a close working relationship... What's his problem???