Queen: Days of Our Lives Page #10

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you supported apartheid.

It's very nice to be

here in South Africa

and I just want to have a good time.

Anything you'd like to say

to your fans?

Yeah, we hope you get real excited,

because we're pretty excited to be here.

The controversy behind Sun City...

Sun F***ing City -

wish I'd never heard of the place.

The principal reason that Queen

went there

was because they were offered

a large amount of money.

There was all sorts of hoo-ha

going on,

you know - "You mustn't play

Sun City because it's a sign

"that you're supporting apartheid. "

Well, it's simply not true.

If you adopted a policy of

never playing in a country

where you don't approve

of the politicians,

there'd be very few places

you can play.

Did you know you had

so many fans in South Africa?

Well, I think we had some

idea of our popularity here,

but we didn't realise

it was quite that.

Jim went down there time after time and

I asked if we'd play to mixed audiences.

He said we wouldn't play

to segregated audiences.

And it was not

an apartheid audience,

but it was mainly white.

Are you going to the concert?

Definitely.

What have you heard?

I heard it's a great show.

What are you expecting at the

concert? Something fantastic.

I've heard it's

the most fantastic show ever.

The band then supported a school

for the deaf in Bophutswana

that we became very involved with.

The general audience doesn't read the

small print. It just sees the headlines.

If it goes, "You're making a lot of money

playing a gig in an apartheid state",

it makes it look like you're following

apartheid. It did not help them.

I will say to my dying day

that we acted properly

according to our conscience

as regards South Africa.

Um... We went there to play music,

the same as we did

in all kinds of other places.

We got so much sh*t for it.

But we went for good reasons.

But, on balance,

I think it was a mistake to go.

Whenever the band

came under pressure,

there would be maybe a walkout,

a separation, a row.

# Sometimes I feel I'm going

to break down and cry

# Nowhere to go

Nothing to do with my time

# I get lonely

# So lonely

# Living on my own... #

I like Queen very much, but I don't

want to end up living a quartet.

I'm 37 years old

I want to do something different,

otherwise I'll get too damn old

and I'll be in a wheelchair.

There was a lot of strain

when Freddie did his solo album,

mainly because the advance

was considerably more than

the advances for Queen albums.

# Got to be some good times ahead

# Sometimes I feel

nobody gives me no warning... #

There is an inward jealousy -

they're all waiting to see if

my album does better

than the last Queen album,

or something like that.

# It's not easy

# Living on my own... #

Sometimes it's nice to break away

from a group

that's actually been going for

so long, meaning staying away.

He was definitely contemplating

the idea of what Living On My Own

actually means because he lived

in Munich for well over a year.

# Got to be some

good times ahead... #

When Freddie was alone in Munich,

he had to basically fall back

either on the gay community,

or, when he needed some sense or

decent advice, he would call us.

He was hanging out

a lot at our place.

He'd spend a lot of time

with the kids.

It was like a family affair.

He said a lot of times that this

was the best time in his life.

Out of the songs you've

put on this album, Freddie,

which one do you find the most

rewarding, personally?

Oh, I don't know,

the one that sells the most.

Freddie had a very fulfilling

experience of creativity,

but he didn't have

a very fulfilling experience,

um... how shall I say, economically.

The Mr Bad Guy album really was

a disaster, in terms of sales.

The strength of Queen

came from the arguments.

It was the fact

that you had to fight your space.

Songs got fine-tuned by that,

and Freddie working on his own in

Munich with an orchestra and Mack,

there was nobody really

to stand up with him.

Well, tomorrow, the pop world's

greatest extravaganza,

as we've been talking about,

Live Aid,

will bring together rock's brightest

and best from both sides of the Atlantic,

all performing free in the hope of raising

millions for the starving people of Africa.

You know, looking back, there was a

moment when Queen were thought of

as a good group that

was predominantly historic.

Radio Ga Ga was their one

big hit in four years.

They weren't on a hot streak,

and they weren't a particularly

productive group at that time.

There was a feeling

that maybe that was it.

But Geldof ordered them

to regroup and perform.

The thing was, did Freddie want

to do it? He wasn't that keen.

Freddie was a bit reticent

about doing anything,

but Bob came in one day

when we talked about Live Aid,

and said,

"I told Freddie he's doing it. "

And I kind of believe him.

It really is a gathering

of the rock world's elite,

and already rehearsing in here

are some of rock and roll's royalty.

It was rehearsed quite intensely at

the Shaw Theatre on Euston Road.

# Here we stand and here we fall

# History won't care at all

# Make the bed, light the light... #

Queen took the responsibility more

professionally than anyone else on the bill.

# You don't waste no time at all

# Don't hear the bell

but you answer the call... #

I went out and bought these big

plastic white clocks

and put them in the orchestra pit so

we could see the time.

There was an 18-minute

slot that each artist had,

and there were traffic lights

at the side of the stage.

And you were warned that the traffic lights

after 16 minutes would turn amber from green,

and they said, "You won't see them

turn red because the power goes off. "

So you make it quick and

you make it something they know.

Just after 16 hours of live Aid,

would you welcome Status Quo!

# Here we are and here we are

and here we go... #

The energy that day was sensational.

# Rockin' all over the world... #

We were all quite nervous, actually.

Not necessarily our audience because

they'd put together

the bill of Live Aid before

we'd been announced as being on it.

They set the level for the PA

with limiters

and then when Queen came on, Trip,

who was Queen's sound engineer,

switched the limiters

so that Queen would be louder.

From the word go, he came out of

the traps like a champion.

Freddie performed against the advice of

his doctor because of a throat condition.

But he went out there and gave one of the

greatest live television performances ever.

# You don't waste no time at all

# Don't hear the bell

but you answer the call

# Comes to you as to us all, yeah!

# And it's time for

the hammer to fall... #

The ballet with a BBC cameraman

was shockingly charismatic.

# Every night, every day

# A little piece of you

is falling away

# Lift your face the western way... #

And it was as if all the artists

backstage had heard a dog whistle.

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