Queen: Days of Our Lives

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There's been a lot of rumours lately 'bout

certain band for Queen, the rumour said that

we are going to split up. What do you think?

SHOUTS OF "No!"

They're talking from here.

So forget those rumours. We're going to stay

together until we f***ing well die, I'm sure of it!

"One Vision"

Hey!

There really wasn't much sex...

Well, there wasn't much drugs.

You wouldn't be able to do that now.

# One man

# One goal

# One mission... #

For that moment,

we kind of owned the world.

Where's the modesty gone?

There isn't any.

# One solution... #

Press are never quite understood,

A lot of the press took against them.

# Yeah, one God... #

England doesn't really think we're that cool.

But I mean I don't want some arsehole critic

to tell me that.

You might as well paint a target

on your head and go, "Shoot me!"

I think when you go all the way up,

the only place is to come down.

Controversy Behind Sun City

I wish I'd never heard of the place!

# I'm gonna tell you there's

no black and no white... #

Whenever the band came under pressure, there

would be a walk-out, a separation, a row.

# One worldwide vision... #

We were at a crucial point.

We might have had to break up.

The arguments were creative, then

it would become personal. Of course.

There is an inward jealousy.

They're all wondering & all waiting to see if my

album is going to do better than the last Queen album.

Freddie took to the gay scene like David

Attenborough making a wildlife programme.

I just want to pack in as much of

life and having a good time as much as I can.

'London - the Imperial College

of Science and Technology,

'meeting place for space scientists

from 50 nations,

'specialists who will help develop the equipment which

has taken mankind to the new age of space exploration. '

We've got Brian May on guitar.

APPLAUSE:

I was studying Physics as an undergraduate

here, but Astronomy was always my thing.

And so I did the Astronomy

post-graduate for a PhD.

When we were at school, me and

my mates had a group called 1984.

When I left for university,

the singer we had, Tim Staffell,

and myself decided to put

a new group together called Smile.

We've got Roger Meddows-Taylor

on percussion.

There was a noticeboard here

where you would pin items

of interest to musicians, so I put

a notice saying "drummer wanted".

"We need Ginger Baker/Mitch Mitchell

type drummer. "

I booked this little jazz club room here and

Roger brought his kit and I brought a guitar.

That was the first time

we played together.

# When she was done

# She hung them up... #

Something happened, I have to say. We thought,

"There is some kind of special sound to this. "

# Goodbye, April Lady... #

I guess we had the same sort

of sound in our heads.

# Goodbye, April Lady

# You've done a lot for the folks

in this town... #

Freddie Mercury on vocals.

APPLAUSE:

Freddie came from

a colonial background.

He was born in Zanzibar and he went

to boarding school in India.

I first met Freddie

at Ealing Art School in 1968.

There was a piano down there

and Freddie would do

this flowery style on the piano.

It was very Mozart and effective, but unique. You'd

never seen anybody play the piano like that before.

The first time he sang, I knew straight

away that that voice was going places.

# The minute you walked in the joint

# I could see

you were a man of distinction

# A real big spender

# Good-looking, so refined

# Say, wouldn't you like to know

what's going on in my mind...? #

I used to follow Smile a lot. We were

friends. I used to go to their shows.

Freddie was waiting in the wings,

literally, and advising us on what to do.

He would say, "You're brilliant,

but you should do this and this... "

What did you see in what Brian and

Roger were doing with Smile? Nothing!

I think he had in the back of his mind

some idea about maybe working with us.

Freddie told everybody that he was going to be

a pop star and we didn't take it that seriously.

He was sitting over there one night. I walked in and

he put his head in his hands, looking really depressed.

I said, "What's the matter with you?" He

said, "I'm not going to be a pop star. "

And very slowly he stood up

and he said,

"I'm going to be... a legend. "

# Hey, big spender

# Spend a little time with me... #

Although we had a lot of successful

gigs and we played colleges, pubs

and clubs up and down the country,

we just never got anywhere.

Smile made a single

which did nothing at all,

then Tim, our singer, got an offer

from someone else called Humpy Bong.

So Tim sodded off to that.

Freddie got us. He said, "Come on,

you can't give up. I want to sing. "

So we decided

that we'd take the plunge.

And it was then that I sort of

thought about the name Queen.

Why Queen? I don't know.

At the time, it was outrageous.

So here we have the main hall.

In 1973, this is where Queen played.

This is really the first proper,

advertised gig we ever did

and it's certainly the first review we ever

got by Rosemary Horide of what was then Disc.

From the very beginning, Freddie was absolutely

remarkable for stagecraft. He had a presence

unlike anything I'd seen. I'd been

a music journalist for a long time.

Freddie, even from those days, had an ability to

work an audience and they would eat out of his hand.

He could turn his hand round like that and

do that and the audience would stand up.

# I have sinned, dear Father

# Father, I have sinned

# Try and help me, Father

# Won't you let me in?

# Liar!

# Oh, nobody... #

It was the first moment when I thought, "Something's

happening here and people know what we're about. "

When they came along, there had been

a denim rock movement,

if you like, with Status Quo,

Uriah Heep.

I think Queen were an incredible

breath of fresh air in rock music.

They had brilliant songs.

Freddie Mercury was

an absolutely charismatic front man.

# Liar... #

Brian May was just this brilliant guitarist

and Roger Taylor was a phenomenal drummer.

And you had that guy

that played bass.

We spent a couple of years looking for a bass

player. It was very hard to find the right guy.

Then we found John.

Deacon John on bass.

APPLAUSE:

I came along

as a bit of an outsider at first.

It did take me quite a few years

to grow more into the group

and find myself at home, really.

Before we signed to a record label, we

actually signed to Trident Productions,

a management company run by the Sheffield

brothers who had a studio in the middle of Soho.

Recording our first album, we were

all students finishing off our degrees.

We had to do it

in what time was available

because the studio was being

booked up all the time.

We had to go in sometimes

at two in the morning

and sometimes finishing at six in the morning,

all those weird times that nobody wanted.

You know, you could see the working girls

at night through their lace curtains,

so while we were mixing,

we'd have a little bit of diversion.

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