The recently restored 1988 song is tender, moving, defiant – and should have been released years ago
Translation of Cologne Review
https://www.report-k.de/queen-mit-magischen-momenten-das-war-der-olymp/
Queen with magical moments: “That was Mount Olympus!”
By Frank Neusser
(Picture) Queen and
Adam Lambert gave rise to goose pimple moments in the Lanxess Arena. Photo: David Fischer
Cologne: What a
magnificent evening in the sold-out Lanxess Arena! Queen with Adam Lambert
brought about magical moments on their ‘Rhapsody Tour’ in front of 16,000 fans.
Actually, the band
formed around guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor should have appeared
in summer 2020 in Cologne; however, the concert had to be postponed for two
years due to the Corona pandemic.
That didn’t dampen the
delight of the attendees: even before the start, the atmosphere in the seated inner
floor area as well as in the stands, full to the very last seat, was marvellous.
When, at 20.06, Queen stepped on to the grandiose stage, which looked like a theatre, there were already the first storms
of enthusiastic applause. At this point, Lambert entered his workplace to the
tones of ‘Now I’m Here’ in a black glitter jacket and an enormous black top
hat.
(Picture) Adam Lambert
was on the stage of the Lanxess Arena in a glitter jacket and top hat. Photo: David Fischer
The singer, who has been
deputising for Freddie Mercury - who died in 1991 - since 2012, spread a good
mood from the first of the 29 songs and repeatedly called upon the audience to
sing along: “You could be louder”.
However, the singer
wasn’t the sole headliner on the stage. The interplay with May was perfect. On
his guitar solos, Lambert stayed in the background; on Lambert’s singing
passages, May did the same.
Queen – One of the
Greatest Rock Bands in the World
Lambert, who in 2009 took
second place in the eighth season of ‘American Idol’ and therefore attracted
the attention of Queen, still shows the utmost respect before the English rock
legends. "Before, I was a fan like you. Now it fills me with pride to appear
with the greatest rock band of all time!"
There was a first goose
pimple moment when Brian May turned to the fans: "Cologne, how are you? Kölle Alaaf! (Local dialect: ‘Cheers,
Cologne!’) We’ve often been here in the city and love Cologne!" He added: “the next song is for everyone who loves someone
and for Freddie”. Then he played an acoustic version of ‘Love of My Life’.
But that wasn’t the only moment when the former singer was remembered. At
the classic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ there were clips on the huge screen from the video made back then
with Mercury; before ‘We Will Rock You’, a silhouette of the singer was
projected on to the catwalk.
(Picture) Brian May
inspired the fans in Cologne with his guitar solos. Photo: David Fischer
Another highlight was a
guitar solo where May was elevated on a hydraulic lift, which looked like a
comet in outer space, with the stage set showing many stars as in the universe.
A lavish and perfect
light and laser show was also convincing, and the sound exceptionally good. After
135 minutes and countless world hits like ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ ‘A Kind of Magic’, ‘I Want it All',
‘We are the Champions ‘ , a great music evening was concluded - as befits
their standing - with ‘God Save the
Queen’.
Arena boss Stefan Löcher was proud of the concert
“That was incredible, that was Mount Olympus! Even I have rarely
experienced such a show here at the Lanxess Arena. Everyone who was here today will talk about
the show, the sound and the amazing effects for a long time to come", said
Arena boss Stefan Löcher proudly.
https://www.bz-berlin.de/unterhaltung/queen-adam-lambert-in-berlin-nostalgie-sause-ohne-patina
Mercedes-Benz
Arena
Queen and Adam Lambert in Berlin -
Nostalgia Bash with no Layer of
Rust
By Ralf Kühling
(Picture)
Guitarist Brian May
and singer Adam Lambert stand on the stage of the Mercedes Benz Arena at the initial
concert of Queen and Adam Lambert’s European tour. Photo: picture alliance/dpa
With
old recordings, Freddie Mercury was brought to life twice on Friday evening in
the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
High
up, from the large video screen under the ceiling, he laughed, he joked. and
could be perfectly satisfied with the way his old band-mates Brian May and
Roger Taylor, their accompanying musicians and singer Adam Lambert were
managing his legacy down here.
Lambert
pointed out early on the show that Freddie is actually
"irreplaceable." But it is precisely this burden of making the
impossible possible that the American has been carrying on his shoulders for
ten years now. And in doing so he has established himself as a discrete entertainer
who knows exactly how to interpret the Queen songs and how to animate the fans.
And they, as it also seemed on Friday, see him anything but a stopgap solution.
As
for May, 74, and Taylor, 72, the joy in playing could be seen in their eyes.
They weren't here to top up their pension plans. They were hot. Consequently, Queen
anthems such as "Another One Bites the Dust", "Crazy Little
Things [sic] Called Love" and "Love Of My Life" (May: "For
Freddie!") all sounded very fresh, never once as if from yesteryear. And, with
impressive, but never overlong solos, May liked to keep on demonstrating why he
and his guitar have created a sound for eternity.
Queen
is also always about optics, and so they were on Friday. A massive load of
videos rained down on the audience, whisking them off into space and other
beautiful worlds. It was never cheap sensory overload, no: it was of artistic
value.
But Queen is rock and roll too. And why, then, did even
the interior floor area have to be seated? We weren't at the opera here, after
all. And for Brian May, who, with his guitar, liked to sprint repeatedly to the
front edge of the catwalk, it should become very heart-warming if surging
masses of fans receive him there. He will know why chairs are the solution.
The
sound in the hall could have been a tad louder for rock fans, but that's a
matter of taste, of course. And when the fans sing along themselves, as they
did so often this evening, the problem is eradicated anyway. Of course, there
was also a singalong to "We Are The Champions", which was obviously the
final song.
Champions – that was Queen this evening. With a
nostalgia bash where the songs haven’t developed a trace of rust. The show must
go on - and were that so for years to come, it would certainly be no mistake.
So the news is out - Queen and Adam Lambert are to open the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on the first weekend in June. I had a feeling in my blood that they would be there. Maybe Brian had dropped a few hints too - yes, I think he probably did! Most likely that's one you can see in his recent video, 'On My Way Up', when today's Bri dresses up in the same coat as in the 2002 rooftop performance. Also, prior to that, there was an episode of 'Queen the Greatest' towards the end of that series dealing with the 2002 Party at the Palace i that seemed a little out of sync chronologically; it still makes me wonder. Or maybe it had nothing to do with it. But the seed was planted in my mind at that point and never left it.
I can lay claim to having my life punctuated by two past Jubilees. Let's go back to the one twenty-five years prior to 2002: in 1977. It was then, on the occasion of the queen's Silver Jubilee, that I, along with some schoolfriends, had a vantage point next to St. Paul's Cathedral to watch the comings and goings. This was a privileged position we were granted through our school, the nearby City of London School for Girls. The only real significance of this is the year itself, actually. Only two months later, I, aged 15, would lose my mother, aged 49, to the cancer she'd been stricken by for the previous eighteen months.
In 2002, I didn't see Brian's performance at the time it happened. This was no doubt because I was extremely busy finishing my teacher training course. I was living in Kent at the time and based at a school called Bullers Wood in Orpington, which previous teacher-trainees had dubbed 'Bullies' Wood'. Yes, I was badly bullied by teachers who should have been mentoring me. There were, surely, other ways of doing this. If they thought that I wasn't up to the job in any aspect, they could've told me to my face. True, I've no doubt I was quite unlikeable - I overcompensated for my lack of self-esteem, rather trying to hide it with a show of apparent overconfidence. The truth was that I was trying to gain the self-confidence I'd lacked for so long, and had made some inroads into doing so - but these things are rarely linear. I'd taken a big knock in my previous job at the bank - passed over for a promotion when I'd previously been pretty much in my element. My marriage had broken down too, which didn't help. In a way, things had fallen to pieces in my life all over again by 2002: 1977 rather repeating itself. Nonetheless, I'd decided to become a teacher as a careet change in middle age and was determined to succeed. Yet I inevitably had my own insecurities about the decision.
As will be the case this year, the Golden Jubilee in 2002 was a bank holiday weekend in the UK and I no doubt wanted to take advantage of this in order by taking my daughter out on the days off. We probably went down Chatham Dockyard to enjoy the holiday entertainment. So that was how I completely missed the Party at the Palace broadcast at the time. In fact, I didn't catch up with it until December, when it was on one of those review shows that are broadcast to round off the year. What happened then was a life-changing experience, which I've handled in my book, 'Bohemia Place'. All I can say that, by the end of Brian's rendition of 'God Save the Queen', I'd been sent back to that previous Jubilee year, 1977, and before...I've explained why in the book.
Now I live in Germany so I wonder if this year's Platinum Jubilee performance by Queen and Adam Lambert will hold anything special at all. I can't see any such thing on the horizon, except that I hope to write about the event, along with the two Queen and Adam Lambert concerts I'm seeing in Germany later this month, even though it's unlikely that anyone will read them. But life has a habit of throwing up surprises...so you never know!
“I dream of
talking to Putin”
Brian May
Interview
by Stephan Rehm Rozanes – May 2022 edition of ‘Musikexpress’, Germany.
Translated
by Alison Sesi.
(Translator’s
note: This text is back-translated so the quotes are not necessarily verbatim).
Like
Harrison Ford, who has again been firing shots around him as Hans Solo, going
back to the future as Rick Deckard and even soon to dig out the whip as Indiana
Jones, Brian May has been increasingly using the 21st century to
return to his iconic roles. That’s how it’s been since 2005 – back on stage as Queen
with different singers and due success, and finishing – after 37 years – his
doctoral thesis in 2007, he is now reworking his solo career album by album.
He started
off in 2021 with a lavishly endowed re-release of his solo debut BACK TO THE
LIGHT, with which, in 1992, he lifted himself out of the depression that had
been triggered by the deaths of his father and Freddie Mercury. In 1995, after
concluding, for the time being, the Queen chapter together with drummer Roger
Taylor and bassist John Deacon and his band’s commercially most successful [sic]*
studio album, MADE IN HEAVEN, he assembled songs from the widest variety of
projects for his second solo work, ANOTHER WORLD, a title that fits into
today’s times much better than into 1998, when the album rather sank. We’re connected
to May in London, where he receives us in the way he’s known from his almost
daily Instagram and YouTube videos: with distinctive silver mane and the slightly
cranky little glasses chain which prevents his sight aid from going astray. It’s
the classic look of the absent-minded professor, which May, with far-sighted
responses, certainly belies in every way.
Can you
hear me okay?
I can
see and hear you well.
At least
the hearing should surely not be possible at all – you played your first
concert 57 years ago; the so-called the ‘Wall of Death’ -with up to 15
amplifiers coming out of the backline - is legendary.
Well,
your own voice doesn’t hurt you like everyone else’s does. In fact I do have a
bit of hearing loss and I also know where it comes from. It’s in my left ear
and was caused by the snare drum, which is simply very loud. I have problems in
the range of 2000 to 3000 hertz, which is a little unfortunate, because that’s
the range you need to be able to distinguish voices from each other in a
crowded room. So you don’t catch everything that people are saying to you any
more. But I don’t want to complain. It isn’t serious.
What’s more
than serious, on the other hand, is the current situation in Ukraine. You in
particular, having played two of your biggest concerts there, in 2008 with Paul
Rodgers in front of 350 000 people in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, and in 2012
with Adam Lambert in Kyiv’s Independence Square – just the irony of those names
- must be deeply upset by the news these days.
It
breaks my heart. There’s also a terrible feeling of helplessness which keeps me
awake at night. It’s simply awful to realise that you can’t do anything about
the unbelievable tragedy that’s unfolding there. It stuns me that the world has
made such a huge mistake in allowing it; that the whole world can’t do anything
against a man who’s losing it. It does my head in that we’re in this situation
at all. Every day I see Ukrainians, who are very close to us, losing their
homes, their livelihoods and their security; families are being torn apart. And
I am involved in some aid projects – you just do what you can. But I have a
feeling that it’s just a drop in the ocean. I dream of meeting Putin and telling
him to his face: “Come on, hell, do you really want to do this, seriously?” It’s
beyond the power of my imagination that a person wants to cause all this
suffering. I can’t get my head around it. And as an animal protectionist I’m
dealing all the time with people who have absolutely no compassion. There are
people who can look on as animals are tortured to death and don’t feel
anything. But here you have a person who can look on as people are tortured to
death without feeling anything. Unbelievable that something like this can happen
in the 21st century.
In the
bonus material of the ANOTHER WORLD re-release there’s a radically reworked version
of ‘Hammer to Fall’, being the only song from the Queen days, with lines like,
‘For we who grew up tall and proud / In the shadow of the mushroom cloud’,
which, in the face of the threats of this war, sadly seem very contemporary
once more. And don’t we want to accost Putin shouting: ‘What the hell we
fighting for? Just surrender and it won’t hurt at all?’
I’ve
been thinking about that often over the past few days. My generation really did
grow up under the permanent fear of nuclear destruction; we also saw the beginnings
of the policy of détente; the balance of power, always assuming that it could fall
apart at any moment. Crazily enough, that didn’t happen -that’s how it worked
at the time. I think that there was still some restraint back then on all sides
– I don’t like to say decency, but perhaps commitment…logic. But as soon as you
have one lunatic, to whom nothing means anything, it breaks down. Many
are saying that we’re experiencing the return of the Cold War, but that isn’t
true: we’re dealing with a very Hot, real and destructive war. It does me in to
see that another generation has to grow up with the fears that troubled us. Now
the situation is even worse than it was for us.
The name ANOTHER
WORLD expresses a painfully topical wish. Thus the title track also deals with parallel
universes. Have you, as a doctor of astrophysics, and as a guitarist who on
stage delivers spectacular solo-duels with yourself using echo devices, ever
considered what it would be like to play along with another version of yourself
in another universe?
I’ve
actually already done that! In a video for the new edition of my first solo
album BACK TO THE LIGHT I meet my 1992 self. Then we play guitar together. That
was a really fascinating experience. It’ll also be continued in the forthcoming
videos, this duality. I like to play the old Bri off against the young one. Something’s
coming your way there soon!
In the song
‘Business’ it says ‘It’s a hard business to make it on your own’; at the end of
the album there’s the instrumental hidden track, ‘Being On My Own’ – were these
about taking stock after the 20-year Queen frenzy?
Somehow
yes -also you see here again that songs inevitably have various potential
meanings. I wrote ‘Business’ for a British comedy series about an eternal optimist:
‘Frank Stubbs Promotes’ (1993-1994), but as soon as you start the music-making, you invariably come across things
inside that are just waiting to get out. So for a moment I merged with this
very insecure character who’s always trying to make it but is constantly
experiencing setbacks…so it can be claimed that I’m a successful rockstar - yes,
okay. But as a human being, as a person, I find life really difficult. I don’t
want to be ungrateful; I’m actually very grateful for a lot that’s happened to
me. But every day, every hour and every minute I feel life’s hard. I think that
it’s the same for everyone, regardless of whether you’re rich and famous or
not. You constantly have to make decisions, manoeuvring yourself through your
own doubts and fears. That’s what it’s about in the song – for that reason it’s
not written from the perspective of a rockstar, but from that of an average member
of the public - someone who’s constantly analysing themselves. That’s me - and
I can’t do anything about it.
In the past
you’ve repeatedly spoken openly about your spells of depression. Having already
collated your many interests like the guitar, stereoscopy and astronomy in book
form, I’m asking myself, and hence you too – if a written summary of your
experiences with mental health couldn’t be a project in the near future?
I’m in
contact with a lot of artists on Instagram – with other musicians, designers,
poets – and recognise myself in a lot of them. An amazingly large number of
them consider themselves worthless, as rubbish, and are about to give up. In
direct conversations, person to person, I’m even able to help sometimes. I find
ways that I can talk them out of striving for perfection and constantly punishing
themselves for not achieving set goals. But I can’t provide guidance as to how to
get over depression. If I knew the way out, I wouldn’t be depressed. But I do
get depressed. Just a moment – I just have to move - the battery’s about to go
on my laptop (walks
from a living room into a conservatory) - in my view the closest to a guide is a book
by Melody Beattie called ‘The Language of Letting Go’ – it’s a miracle. Then
there’s the serenity prayer of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, which consists of
just a few words – but for me is the most powerful text in the world to help
you cope with all your crap. (May is referring to
this passage: ‘God, grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change /
courage to change the things I can / and the wisdom
to know the difference’).
Parallel to
the re-release of BACK TO THE LIGHT, a coffee table book was published with
illustrations of you by the artist Sarah Rugg. A special edition of the new
ANOTHER WORLD comes on to the market with a book which is a collection of fan art
from all over the world. At the beginning of January you invited your Instagram
Community to make contributions. What has been created is a further declaration
of the enthusiasm that has been shown towards you for decades. How does someone
with strong self-doubts handle this admiration?
(laughs)
I don’t know if I can answer that question. It surprises me all the time and
sometimes I wonder if I’m being narcissistic by encouraging these activities. But
it simply allows people to be creative in a wonderful way, so that’s why I got involved
with it anyhow. Besides, in this way, artists receive the attention that they normally
don’t have in any other outlet besides Instagram. So they become a bit more
visible. The fact that I’m their inspiration makes me proud – it feels good. Of
course, it’s strange – now and again I leaf through and think to myself: “My
God, you’re looking at pictures of yourself!” But they aren’t just portraits,
they’re also pictures of my work, my channels, my journeys – experiences that
I’ve shared…that they’re encountered in this way makes me realise that the
communication has worked, that it’s sincere. I also have this theory – please
interrupt me if I’m getting boring – I often wonder: what is art, actually? And
why should I of all people have the answer to that? In any case, many people
associate art with purity; art is supposed to occur in a vacuum and for its own
sake - and of course, it mustn’t be commercial. I think that’s all wrong,
though. For me, art means conversation. You produce it because you feel it
within you, but also because you long to communicate with the people out there.
You have this urge to give and analogous to that arises the urge to take. And
that’s conversation. Instagram has changed and extended my view of my art. It
makes me very happy to get reactions and to be able to react in turn to the
reactions. That didn’t exist before. As Queen we paved the way to the acceptance
of the fact that the audience at a show is just as important as the band. That’s
how it must be. But this personal feedback that I now receive via Instagram has
broadened my horizons and enriched my life.
In an old press
handout from the early 70s you already listed under ‘dislikes’: ‘liver, noise,
cold feet, non-contact’. Did Instagram save your neck through the pandemic?
The
worst thing about the pandemic was that I couldn’t leave my house. I couldn’t
go to my studio; I couldn’t record music in the way that I wanted to; of course
I couldn’t tour or give public performances. What do I do as a musician, then?
The only platform that was available to me was Instagram. It’s international
and works on two levels, so I went in as if it were the most natural thing in
the world. That was, for me, the place to be. I was really glad to go on
there evening after evening during the lockdown, to jam with others - that got
me through this time – this terrible time.
You’re
wearing a T-shirt with the logo of your series of re-releases, the ‘Gold
Series’. You only have two solo albums – in my estimation a series would have
to consist of more than two items.
The immediate
next follow-up will be ‘Star Fleet’ (Allstar EP from 1983: May spontaneously
recorded songs in L.A. with Eddie van Halen, Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon, session
musician Phil Chen and the Queen keyboardist Fred Mandel., among which was the title
track, being the theme tune of his son James’s favourite Sci Fi series at the
time) – at least that’s what I’m planning. This’ll be exciting
because I’ve never done remixes before, but this material should be remixed. I
also want to fish out a few outtakes.
Across the
board there’s still a lot of diverse, partly obscure material which could be put
together in a kind of anthology: your release of the theme tune of ‘The Amazing
Spider-Man’, your hit ‘Rockstar’ with Rapper Dappy, a song collaboration with
Soundgarden...
Yes, I’ve
really got a lot of stuff. When I look to the horizon there really is still a
lot that I can pack into this series. That’s plainly a good feeling too. It’s
like clearing up at home: you put the whole stuff in order, stow it in boxes,
perhaps tying a pretty ribbon around it. What’s more, it’s important to me that
everything’s available again- so far it hasn’t been on Spotify, Apple or
anywhere else. This recycling, bringing things full circle, gives me a great
deal of pleasure.
Not all of your
projects with other stars passed off as harmoniously as ‘Star Fleet’ did – in
1982 you opted out of the collaboration with David Bowie for ‘Under Pressure’
before the last mixes.
Yes,
that wasn’t easy – that wasn’t a straightforward relationship. But I’m very
fond of him and, above all, have a lot of respect for him. I’m very sad that
he’s no longer with us.
On the one
hand you work in a very academic way – in science as well as on the guitar- on
the other, you’re very spiritual. Does that become inevitable when you occupy
yourself in-depth with the universe?
I’ve
never believed that science and faith contradict each other – unless the belief
is a fake one. I don’t adhere to any earthly religion. But for me science
reaches a limit at some point, and everything that goes beyond that can only be
explained in a spiritual way. In this I’m different from Stephen Hawking – he
thought that the acceptance of a God would contradict the laws of physics, but
I don’t believe that. Stephen Hawking is naturally much cleverer than me. Even
so, I have my own instinct and my gut feeling. Life consists of more than the
physical world – I consider that almost undisputed.
*(Translator’s
Note: The second best-selling studio album after ‘A Night at the Opera’).
HE WILL ROCK
YOU
Brian Harold May was born in 1947, and like Freddie
Mercury, his subsequent fellow band member, grew up in the London suburb of
Feltham, without ever having met him there. Mercury developed into a fan of
Smile, the band of guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, and replaced
its singer Tim Staffell in 1970. Together with bassist John Deacon they became,
as Queen, one of the most successful bands in history. May wrote such rock
classics as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Who Wants to Live
Forever’ and ‘The Show Must Go On’ for the band. He put his already started doctoral
thesis in astrophysics on ice in favour of his career as a musician, not taking
it up again for completion until 2007, and has been allowed to call himself Dr.
Brian May since then. He has published scientific books about the universe and
his other passion, 3D photography. But most important to him is his commitment
to animal protection. May supports over 25 aid organisations. His second
marriage is to actress Anita Dobson and he has three children. Since 2012 he
and Taylor have been touring throughout the world, together with their new
singer, as Queen and Adam Lambert. At the end of June they’re to be seen in
four concerts in Germany and Switzerland.
It was reported in the media this week that Brian will be making another couple of videos to accompany the release of ‘Another World’, which is very exciting. Talking of videos, one of the directors behind Queen’s later videos, Rudi Dolezal, has just celebrated his birthday. He’s planning to bring out a book this year called ‘My Friend Freddie’, recounting his experiences of working with the band. Having found out about it soon after I’d started writing my book, ‘Bohemia Place’, I’ve had my copy on pre-order for some time. However, I know more than most that you can’t rush these things!
We have to
ask a serious question, though: does anyone appreciate the written word very
much these days? IG may be an interactive experience for some, but I haven’t
found it so – at least not very much - maybe that’s a good thing: a way to avoid
the trolls! So far, I’ve found one other person who’s into writing and may do
some Queen stuff in the future. Let’s be honest, though – IG might just as well
stand for Instant Gratification. It’s easy to like a picture / work of art /
video, without necessarily reading the post (even if it’s in a language we don’t
understand, we can get it translated) - I
know I’ve done that. “That’s great”, you think, and move on. The sheer volume
of visual content can be overwhelming, whereas writing takes time to read. In
fact, reading involves coming off IG for quite a while. Is that even manageable for
some people, when there appears to be some kind of unspoken expectation that you
give your feed a frequent feed? Seems like a lot of pressure to me. And food for
thought. Just saying.
There was another
birthday last weekend, that of Adam Lambert, who’s been in a collaboration with
Queen, performing as their frontman, for around ten years now. I took the opportunity
of posting a ‘portrait in
words’ of him, which is a small excerpt from my book, ‘Bohemia Place’. I wanted
to show that we can regard writing as an art form – maybe we think of
non-fiction as being purely journalistic? But even journalistic writing can be
an artistic endeavour. One of my favourite newspaper journalists is The Guardian’s
Rafael Behr, whose pieces are creations packed with figures of speech. Why, at
school, do we read literature, plays and poetry? Do we not think of those as works
of art?
Also coming
up this coming week: that other Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – seventy years on the
throne! Of course, as usual, the official celebrations will be in the summer. I’ll
miss them this time as I now live outside the UK. In ‘Bohemia Place’, I’ve
written about two significant jubilees in the past: the Silver one in 1977 when I
was at school, and was able to watch it from a special vantage point near St.
Paul’s Cathedral; and the Golden
one in 2002 which was the start of an ‘Amazing Journey’ (the second time
this week that I’ve had cause to quote a song title from The Who) which is also
very much part of the story of my book.
Most of my
posts this week have concerned Chinese
New Year; we’re now in the Year of the Tiger, which is my animal in the
Chinese horoscope (although I appropriately used Queen’s ‘Dragon Attack’ as a
musical accompaniment). Therefore I’m hopeful that it’ll be a great year, not
the least because, hopefully, we can finally settle down to living with this
Covid thing that’s dominated our lives for too long. With this is mind, I’m
planning some more posts of pictures of Wuhan like the one that appeared about a
fortnight ago, showing the day I visited in October 2019. This is very much
on the theme of ‘Another World’, ie the last of the old world we knew before
Covid arrived on the planet, changing our lives forever.
I’m fairly
pleased with the work on my next e-book so far. I have a title, which includes
the words ‘Another World’; of course, and have an idea for the cover. I would’ve
liked it to have been a collaboration between me and different writers, but I
haven’t found any who can produce anything right now. Thus I’ll continue alone
in this venture – let’s see if anything else changes. It doesn’t bother me much
at the moment – I still have ideas, which I hope can be realised in this series
of stories.
At least
there’ll hopefully be a story book for re-release of Brian’s second album – by
necessity totally unofficial - although we don't know the release date yet, and I may find that my book has to come out later.
Appropriate
for the forthcoming Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), this weekend I’ve been
working on a story for ‘China Belle’, who’s described as living in ‘Old Beijing’. As we’re entering the Year of the Tiger, an idea concerning this
enters the story. I thought this may be one of the easier stories to compose, as I have
first-hand experience of living in China (mainly 1981-2 and 2017-9), which I recount
in my book, ‘Bohemia Place’.
However,
I’ve had to do some research on pre-modern China, as I feel this era best fits
the description in the song. There are very few vestiges of the old residential
city of Bejing left, but you can still see what remains of the hutongs, those
winding alleyways where there was always a lot of activity of many different
kinds: shopping, refreshments and leisure.
I was intrigued about some information I found online concerning the status of prostitutes in high-class Shanghai brothels in 1917. I’ve transposed the story (but adapted, ie not lock, stock and barrel ) to Beijing, to fit the song. The idea in the song that she ‘ain’t love for sale’ fits perfectly. I was also intrigued by the ‘diamond on her finger’ and I’ve elaborated on the story around that idea. There’ll be a little twist at the end, which befits a short piece. At the same time, I shan’t keep to all the ideas in the song - there are too many. I've also had to rewrite the story from my original plan, so it isn't quite finished yet.
I admit that I haven't been sleeping that well lately - I've been waking up in the small hours and struggling to get back to sleep. However, it has been productive time in terms of ideas - and, as a result, I've completed my first fiction story for my 'Another World' collection - the one that connects with the track 'Cyborg'.
It's actually the idea of 'Cyborg' meeting an Edgar Allen Poe short story - to find out which one, you'll have to get hold of the E-book once it comes out! If you've read the title of this blog post, you should be able to work it out, though.
It's very different from Brian's original idea behind the song, in which the narrator is a broken-up robot, apparently (according to an article I found online from 'Total Guitar', Dec 1998). But I do have a Cyborg who's full of self-doubt about the soundness of his judgement. I guess I'm showing that you can be physically enhanced and it can really sharpen at least one of your senses, but you're still never quite sure that you've read things right.
The 'Total Guitar' article features a page about the track, mentioning the tapping technique that's used. This technique also featured on the 'News of the World' track, 'It's Late', which I mention in the 'Queen and Adam Lambert' section of my autobiographical book, 'Bohemia Place' (already published).
I know things won't fall into place immediately for a fledgling writer. I mentioned in my last blog that recognition is something that I've rarely received in the past - but I still hope for it in the future, of course. I think the best thing I can do is to carry on writing. This will definitely support 'Bohemia Place'.
Another thing that I've done in this 'Cyborg' short story is incorporate a mention of the Instagram 'Bri artists', many of whom will feature in the forthcoming 'Another World' artwork book. Up to now, I've felt that I've been working on a different plane from the artists - they have their community, of which I can never be a part, of course. But couldn't my writing complement their work? I hope so - it's certainly something that I explore in this 'Cyborg' story.
I'm really pleased with my progress with the 'Another World' stories, and I feel I've unlocked an area of writing that mightn't otherwise have been touched, although I've always intended to write in the fiction genre. The 'Another World' compilation, though, will be a mixture of non-fiction and fiction.
In the meantime, I have over a couple of hundred followers on IG, for which I''m grateful. Others have thousands, but I guess it's down to the flawed nature of the platform - like Facebook, where I've never had an account. Quantities aren't a big deal at my age anyway. The important thing is that I continue to tell my truth.
I recently read a story about a letter written World War II that was delivered after 76 years. Its writer, who died a few years ago, was an American stationed in Germany at the time and had written to his mother back in the US. The letter was recently delivered to his widow (nobody knows the reason for the delay), who stated, “It’s like he came back to me, you know?”I've had a similar feeling about my mum since writing my autobiography, ‘Bohemia Place’, which I published as an E-book on Amazon at the end of last year.
Now I’m starting a new project to accompany the re-release of Brian's second album, ‘Another World’. The track I’ve chosen to start with is ‘On My
Way Up’, What better song to start us off, to get energised, propelling ourselves into this New Year? A way to feel invigorated, and to ‘Januarise’ your life, if you like? The
most important of our time frames is the present, of course, but January is
named after the Roman god Janus, who looks both backwards - into the past - and forwards - into the future. There’s
a problem with him, though: he appears to do both with equal weight. We can’t
dwell on the past - it’s finished. At
the same time, though, it shouldn’t be forgotten: that’s also very damaging, hence the
way I’ve remembered mum, preserving her in my book. Nevertheless, the present
and the future are all we have some control over. So Janus’s forward-looking
head should, in fact, be bigger.
Let's look at the title of this song, 'On My Way Up'. We associate
‘up’ and ‘down’ with our moods. The latter is a synonym of ‘depressed’, whereas
the former provides us with the word ‘upbeat’, implying the opposite. The up-down theme
is something else that came up in ‘Bohemia Place’, when I recalled (my memory
jogged by one of Brian’s Instagram
posts) a quote I used to have on my wall when a teenager, which was in
German, and translates as ‘The way into the valley always leads me back on to
the summit’. This spawns the idea that the ‘way up’ is unlikely to be easy: it’s
an ‘uphill struggle’, as we say.
Brian recently put out an appeal for artists to contribute to a book to accompany the re-release of ‘Another World’. As a writer who’s working towards a book to go with this album too, I’m on my own. I never set out to be exclusive – but that’s just the way it is: everyone has their unique story to tell, choosing their own way to tell it, according to their talents. I’m alone here in my writing, but, like that mountaineer returning again and again to the summit, it’s a life-affirming thing for me - I’m not in a lonely place.
I suppose that I’ve never needed recognition in order to write, although it would’ve been appreciated, of course. Back in the days when I wrote pieces for the Queen Fan Club magazine, I only remember one person complimenting me. If I dwelt on that, I’d simply give up. I suppose that I could at least say that I was ignored rather than criticised, whereas Queen themselves always had a great deal of negative press, especially at the beginning. Yet the musician plays to be heard, the artist paints to be seen, and the writer writes to be read.
Just as I was about to start writing this blogpost, Brian posted on Instagram that Mazz Murray, (formerly ‘Killer Queen’ from the London ‘We Will Rock You’ show), had found a guitar outside Edgware tube station in London. First of all, I thought of the accounts from Brian’s old schoolfriend, Dave Dilloway, which I mentioned in 'Bohemia Place', that Brian had been very absent-minded while they were together in their schoolband, even leaving his beloved Red Special guitar around in places! Brian's post also made me think of an adaptation to the ‘six-word novel’ (attributed to Ernest Hemingway) - ‘Brian May: “Guitar found. Owner sought”'!
So now I’m embarking on another writing adventure – but at the same time promising that my stories will be longer than six words each!
