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Jazz Web exclusive interview

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Stevie:
Just to introduce us all. I'm Stephen Strahan and I'm here with Sam Prosser and Paul Culmsee and of course Brian May. We're here on the eve of the Australian leg of the Another World tour. How's the tour been so far? Are there any standout experiences? And what can we expect from you this time, the thing is it's been 22 years since you were here last.

Brian:
Is that all? Yeah. (general laughter)

Paul:
Does it make you feel old?

Brian:
God yeah - I've met a lot of people who weren't alive at that time who were very enthusiastic about me being here which is great. I'm surprised to find so much of a buzz here which is really nice, you know, I didn't know if anyone would even remember who I was, you know. Tour's been going great, really good. The band is really hot and everyone's in good health and it's been a lot of fun. It's very free.
You know we've changed things a lot as time's gone by so each show has had generally something new in it. And I suppose the standout part of it for us was the new territories, like we did Prague for the first time ever which was really good. We did Warsaw which I'd never done before and St Petersburg in Moscow which was really outrageously different and new.

Stevie:
You've had pretty much a reputation for breaking new territories, I mean you did South America...

Brian:
That's right, In the Queen days, yeah and it's still a great feeling. You know I was just thinking that at my time of life I am very fortunate to be able to do something that I've always dreamed of and break new ground. I think Russia particularly was very exciting because they'd been Queen fans all that time and yet they'd never had a chance to see any of this and I met people with tears in their eyes saying they'd been kind of with us for the last 25 years and they'd never dreamed that any of them would be able to see this.

Stevie:
That's kind of it for me too. I'd never actually got to see Queen live.

Brian:
Is that right?

Stevie:
I met you in '82 but it was right at the very end of the Hot Space tour and so I didn't get a chance and then the airfares were so expensive and when you came here you were only on the east coast and it was like $800 or $900 to get there...

Sam:
And I was pregnant at the time, so it wasn't really an option...

Brian:
Were you?

Paul:
And I just started primary school so I was out...

Sam:
We're showing our age now, we should stop this...

Stevie:
So those kind of things stopped me... so getting to see you now is just a totally exhilarating experience

Brian:
But for me too, I'm very excited, it was a long shot for me. You know, you're sitting in London and you think, well what can we do kind of thing and I said to our agent there I would really like to go to Australia because we didn't manage to do it the our last leg of the Brian May Band thing and he said "oh well, I don't think there's enough interest, I don't think it would really happen" so we almost didn't do it and it's only because Tripp, our sound engineer knows Nick Pitts, who's permanently out here now, he's an old friend, used to do Elton's tour and stuff and he did a couple of our tours and Tripp said "I'll make a call just suss it out" and Nick said "no, it's absolutely, very possible, we can get some good offers for you here and come, if you can!" So we went, yeah, well that's cool...

Stevie:
So, I mean everybody knows about Queen, but you've got your solo career. How's your life and the solo career? Has it gone the way you expected. I mean, it's changed a lot over the last 10 years or whatever.

Brian:
Yeah, I don't know about expected. Nothing's ever how you expect it is it really? really nothing. I don't think I knew where I was going. It's the same as the early days of Queen, I had no idea what would happen to us really. We all had this great bravado and confidence on the surface, but underneath we're thinking how far can we go with this? Is there any future? Are we really as good as we think we are? So I think when I started out as a solo performer I went through all that again and I'm still going through it really.

Stevie:
So what's "Madison Square Garden" for you now? I mean you always said Madison Square Garden was that first peak for Queen. What are you looking forward to now?

Brian:
I don't know. I don't really want to repeat the Queen experience, because we did that. I'm looking for my own place in the world I suppose.

Paul:
Is that happening?

Brian:
Yes. Most of the gigs that I've been doing on this tour have been theatres and occasionally clubs. This is a large club tonight, isn't it? I haven't seen it yet but everyone says it's wild. And I think, you know in the beginning, there's a part of you that's, well, I had to make a choice really you know, because there's always offers for John and Roger and myself to go out and do anything. You know, it's like 'name your thing' you can do football stadiums around the world... and for a moment you're tempted but I really made my choice that I didn't want to do that and so I thought, OK, I'm really going back to those early days in Queen where you go into a place and you're not quite sure what you're going to get, you know. But almost without exception, 99% of the gigs that I've been doing have turned out really great because there's a certain intimacy. And, I mean we have a big load of gear. We have a big production, big lights, big sound, everything, everything's done to the max, the way I believe it should, as always. So in places like these 2000 seaters you can do in the old days, like in the old days you could totally envelope people, take them over and blind them and deafen them but in a strange way that gets lost in the arena gigs, you know the stadiums and everything and I enjoyed all that stuff. I had a great time doing that, but there was always that slight feeling that you couldn't do the sort of devastation job on the audience that you could in a smaller one.

Stevie:
Yes, I think that's what the Rolling Stones found with the club gigs on the Bridges to Babylon tour and now they're going out on the No Security tour next year and shrinking it down again.

Brian:
It's an odd thing, I mean if I tell you the truth, all kinds of things go through your mind. There's that old kind of pioneering spirit thing, or sort of waging war kind of spirit. You know you think, well if we do a 2000 seater and it's great we'll come back and do a 4000 seater next time. So you feel like you're building it. So I'm trying not to slip into that mentality, I'm trying to enjoy what I'm doing and I'm realising that some of what we're doing is actually the optimum. There was one very big gig in England that we did in one of these sort of aircraft hanger type places and I thought 'oh great', I've sold lots of tickets, this is going to be great but it was by far the least enjoyable gig of that whole tour. I just didn't feel enough contact I couldn't see people's eyes, I couldn't get the sound I wanted. But having said that, we played a big gig in Moscow, about 8000 or something and it was great. There was that feeling of 'this is what we should be doing'

Stevie:
I guess too, somewhere like that where it's a new territory, they're so, like we are now, so totally wrapped in the experience of seeing  you again, or seeing you for the first time that it makes a big difference.

Brian:
It's a weird thing. I also don't really want to trade on the Queen thing absolutely. I don't want to go out as that Queen guitarist and I've tried to keep that off the posters. I'm very proud of Queen, in every way, but it's nice to feel that you're moving on and I don't want people to expect to see Queen, I mean it's different, it's very different as you will see.

Paul:
Does that cause an issue where the promotional people and the people who are responsible for getting people in and making it and that sort of stuff. Do they want to push that angle?

Brian:
Occasionally, yeah. I mean in fact in Russia we gave in because they said none of us have ever seen Queen, so what are you going to do here. You know this is the closest anyone's ever going to see so let us do it. So we in fact did. We let them do it there. We had a Queen tribute band as well as the support band which was pretty strange. I didn't actually see them which was probably a good thing.

Stevie:
Look on each of your solo albums I've noticed you've written a message to the fans. And it kind of feels like an on-going conversation with us. How do you feel about all that?

Brian:
The fans? The reason that I do this is that contact thing I think. (Burst of laughter from Sam and Stevie as Paul reaches out and prods Brian in the arm)

Brian:
What happened?

Sam:
When you said contact he reached out and touched you...

Brian:
Ohhh ( looks at Paul oddly).

Brian:
But actually it's been great here in Perth, everybody that has come up to me has been really nice. That's what it's all about. It's great to talk to people and see the look in their eyes.Autographs are OK when there are a few, but sometimes it feels like that people aren't interested in you at all and simply want you to sign your name. Sometimes people come up with a stack of record this high (indicates). You know they are collectors and they want you to sign absolutely everything and can't understand why this sometimes cannot happen. It's like I cannot look up and talk to anybody, just sign my name.

Paul:
Do you have any problems with fans?

Brian:
No, generally not, but sometimes when 300 people want to meet you it's a bit scary.

Paul:
Do you use the internet much?

Brian:
Well, I have it in my studio and I got into it for a couple of months, but then I got kind of bored with it when the novelty wore off. It's like I get all these messages and I think, oh God, I'm not going to answer all of them. I only correspond with 6 or 7 people.

Paul:
Have fans ever managed to find out your email address and abuse it?

Brian:
No, that's hidden away very carefully.

Stevie:
Online there is a vast community of fans and websites and there are some perpetual myths about Queen that have never really been settled. So maybe some Yes/No answers to these questions:

Brian:
Sure, OK

Stevie:
Is there a studio version of Hangman?

Brian:
Not that I know of. There's a guy called Gary going through the archives now who should be able to come up with the answer for that one.

Paul:
Brian, if Gary needs any assistance at all in this task I'd be happy to help...

Sam:
We all would, we'll just jump on the plane and fly over to England...(laughter)

Stevie:
What about Silver Salmon?

Brian:
Hmm Silver Salmon? I think that was one of Tim's songs. I don't think Freddie ever sang that one.

Stevie:
Polar Bear with a Freddie vocal?

Brian:
No, that was one of mine from Smile, but I think there is a version with Freddie singing the bridge.

Stevie:
Assassin from the Innuendo sessions?

Brian:
(blank look) Pass... no clue.

Stevie:
The rumoured Freddie solo album of cover versions?

Brian:
I don't know anything about that one or I haven't been involved in it. Never heard of it.

Stevie:
Is there a full-length version of New York New York.

Brian:
No, unfortunately. It's a pity.

Stevie:
Was there a full-length soundtrack for Highlander different from the versions that ended up on A Kind Of Magic?

Brian:
No.

Paul:
But the Highlander end credits state that a soundtrack is available.

Brian:
Really? I didn't know that. We just decided that the songs were better suited as part of a Queen studio album rather than the
soundtrack.

Sam:
Back on to the internet, we've all spent many hours on-line looking at the official sites and I have to say that your site and Roger's make good use of the medium.

Brian:
Thank you. My aim was to make my site as simple and easy as possible for non-computer literate people like me.

Sam:
Did you ever think of getting together with Roger and John to do something just for the net?

Brian:
No. These days life gets complicated when Roger, John and I are in the same room (laughter). Decisions take like 50 times longer to make. It's just not something I really want to be a part of right now. Things are a lot simpler at the moment.

Paul:
But Roger said in the latest fan club mag that you would be getting together again after this tour?

Brian:
(Rolls his eyes and nods). Hmm, yes, well that's just Roger. He has his own agenda.

Paul:
So it won't be happening?

Brian:
Not right now. I've spent the last 30 years of my life devoted 100% to Queen. Don't get me wrong, I'm hugely proud of everything we did, but I've moved on now and I'm really enjoying what I'm doing at the moment.

Sam:
Do you have any plans to develop the official Queen site and provide the same sort of interactivity that you have on your sites?

Brian:
Yes, possibly down the track... (Tape cuts out)

Brian:
You can remember what I said...

Sam:
We'll make something up, don't worry.

Stevie:
Well as Freddie always used to say, "Say something outrageous for me dear"

Brian:
But that's good as a one-liner as it got him out of doing interviews.

Paul:
Speaking of one-liners, actually, there was something we were joking around. We were going to get you to say "Hi, I'm Brian May, welcome to Jazz Web" and we were going to sample it and stick it on the front of the web site so that when someone gets there...can you do that for us?

Brian:
Yeah, sure... This is Brian May and welcome to the ?

Stevie:
Jazz Web, because that's our web site

Brian:
Hello folks, this is Brian May, welcome to Jazz Web

Paul:
(prompting) The greatest Queen site on the internet....

Brian:
The greatest... (mumble mumble) he says. (Laughs) I'm reliably informed  (General laughter)

Sam:
And speaking of Jazz Web, we've actually got a bonking poll on there...

Brian:
Bonking poll sounds very strange to us. It sounds like something er, sounds like weird sex to us. Bonking means something different in England.

Stevie:
Oh, the idea of the bonking poll is what songs would you bonk to.

Sam:
And fans nominate their favourite song to have sex to.

Brian:
Oh, is that what it is?

Paul:
Yeah, cause a radio station here had a competition to determine the top bonking song in Australia.

Brian:
I see, which is?

Sam:
Well the top one is Bohemian Rhapsody.

Brian:
You're kidding?

Sam:
2nd is You Take My Breath Away and 3rd is The Show Must Go On. Do any of those surprise you?

Brian:
Don't know really, I kind of thought it would be Body Language, you know, maybe people don't know about that. It wouldn't be for me but it would be for some people.

Paul:
Well, that's what we were going to ask next. Have you ever bonked to a Queen song?

Brian:
Ahhhhh, (pause) that's not what I thought you were going to ask me. Um I thought you were going to ask me what I would bonk to

Paul:
No that was next...

Brian:
No, I don't think I've ever bonked to a Queen song. I think my first sexual experience was actually to The Hollies first album, which I will never forget.

Sam:
What, the album or the experience?

Brian:
Both!

Paul:
So are you a musical bonker or a non-musical bonker.

Brian:
Mmmm. I don't think you can generalise can you really?. You have to keep an open mind on those things.

Paul:
And do you normally get asked these sort of questions?

Brian:
Not exactly... I've had variations. I've been asked things close to that.

Stevie:
So what's up next for you and Queen. Are there any live albums? I suppose there are trillions of things that we could bore you with asking you like Live at Milton Keynes, Live at Earls Court, Live at...

Brian:
Big don't know to all of it really. That was quick wasn't it?...

Stevie:
Oh one other thing I know I did want to ask you... The Crown Jewels, the new Hollywood box set - did you guys issue a new set of remasters? Because the web site says you kind of remastered it all.

Brian:
Yes, yes, I didn't personally go to any of the sessions. But my engineer, Justin, went to most of them. In fact all of them I think. And yeah, it was done to a very high standard with a lot of love and care in Abbey Road studios. Our guys went to a lot of trouble to find earlier tapes to get the stuff off. The original master wherever possible. I think it's a very good piece of work, yeah.

Stevie:
Great. Thank you very much then Brian.
 

Very special thanks to Sam Prosser and Jazz Web for this wonderful exclusive interview with Brian, made in Perth in November 1998. Please check their site for much more information about Queen. Jazz Web is of course also the original source of this interview.