Attention Please!🥰

Brian: I’m playing what I always play!

Fred: You’re playing “nyi nyi nyi nyi nyi”

Brian: I’m playing exactly what is on the record Fred!

Roger: You do slow it down

Brian: (fed up) Oh, fuck slowing down.. that’s hardly the point

Fred: We might try and join in with you. You are expecting all of us to be perfect before you even attempt-

Brian: (still fed up) Oh don’t be so fucking ridiculous

John: Take it down a bit

Roger: No don’t take it down!

John: It’s not coming out alright, it’s coming out on the…

Roger: I wanna hear it! 

(x)

4463 + Say It by Maggie Rogers

“It started off so well…” [Brian doesn’t come in with piano] “It didn’t start off so f****** well!”

Them...

Excellent article.

huw.substack.com

Nobody Left to Believe

Why are gays so afraid of Freddie Mercury?

London - 13 Nov 2022

As a continuation of this post here are pictures from my visit to London last month! I dropped by some Queen-related places, it was a long list and impossible to get to in only 1-2 days. I'm also horrendous at schedule management so I missed places that were actually close to each other, welp.

But anyway! Here are the places I got to visit that day. You can click to see the full pictures. Please do not repost my photos!

Garden Lodge was the first stop! I think this place needs no explanation. Lovely place during a lovely weather. I had the area for myself for about 15 mins before a few other fans came along as well to take pictures.

The next stop was 12 Stafford Terrace in Kensington. This was supposedly Freddie's first flat in London, and it is the location of many familiar photos including this one above I attached. It was a really nice place, not that we question it but Freddie had an excellent taste.

Afterwards I had to rush off and barely caught what used to be the location of Kensington Market. Here's a video I took from the bus lol. The market was sadly already demolished and is now a Currys. If I get to go there again I'll take a proper photo of the entire area!

From Kensington I went to Soho and visited 143 Wardour Street. This address was where they took this well-known photo above (Watal Asanuma)! This area is where I should have visited the original Marquee site as well as Trident studios, but I messed up the day's schedule that I didn't get them. Next time for sure!

On my way back from lunch in Soho I went to Carnaby Street where they have the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody (I didn't think they were still there!). They were put up there to celebrate the launch of the movie in 2018. I bet they look a lot nicer at night but I was there in the afternoon so this is what I got.

Next up is Royal Albert Hall. This was very annoying because there was a huge tent set up that ruined the scenery and again thanks to my bad scheduling management this was the last day I could go anywhere. So I couldn't stand on the exact steps that Smile stood on in this photo (Douglas Puddifoot) without the tent in view, but oh well. I tried my best!

Just around there I went to see the plaque for PRS for Music Heritage award, which commemorates Queen's first public performance in London at Imperial College. Also got a video of where exactly it is. It was originally unveiled in a different place (as shown in photo) but after about a month it was then moved outside for better visibility.

While around Imperial College I looked for this specific site where Queen took this picture when they were still with Mike Grose. It was fun searching for it (it was quite hidden imo) and I felt really triumphant once I found it! There were several compartments (?) but I just picked one that I think is the same one lol.

Genuinely tried my best to keep up with the sun but it set so quickly so I dropped by whatever was on the way back to my hotel. This building at 54 Russell Gardens was formerly Kensington Tavern. This was apparently where Freddie first met Ibex and Roger met John Harris. Pretty iconic! It's a shame that it was closed down.

And from there I finally went to 100 Holland Road, which was also a flat where Freddie once lived in. Firstly, I regret not taking this when there was still sunlight because it didn't look as pretty as it I hoped it would. Secondly, scaffoldings... ugh. Just my luck. Well here's a photo of when it looked nice, hope I can get a shot of it like that next time. This flat is also where this iconic photoshoot (Douglas Puddifoot) took place.

Lastly, below are some bonus of tourist-y photos I took the day before haha. It was a cloudy night but the lights were so pretty!

And that's all for this part of London visit! Again I know I missed a lot of obvious places in literally the same areas that I visited, but with the combo of my bad route planning and the fact that there are just so many historical places in London related to the band, it was obvious that it's going to require several dedicated visits to eventually get to all of them, if I really want to.

My sincerest thanks to Ribbit London who made me a custom map for my visit, put up with my whining about tents and scaffoldings, and always responded so quickly when I get lost pretty much every other turn looking for a specific landmark lol. I couldn't have made it without you!

I will be visiting London several more times for sure, and I hope to be able to get to as many Queen-related sites next time!

i'm sorry this is a fic just waiting to happen

Is there a memory of Freddie Mercury that will always accompany you, an image that makes it unique to you for eternity?

“The first time I realized Freddie’s extraordinary enthusiasm was when I was once with him at his home when he lived with his mother. He had a tiny turntable with two speakers on either side, he made me listen to Hendrix’s ‘Axis Bold As Love’ … He was out of breath, gesturing all the time, telling me where I needed to be, where I was supposed to stand: "Go, do not move, there, listen here, good, now stand to the left, you hear this bass, and there, come back this drum roll, wait, try to listen to the guitar, no do not move there, on the left … ’. And I said to myself: oh my God, this guy loves Hendrix even more than me, and I thought I was his biggest fan … Freddie did not miss any of his shows, he was following his tours at the time, he was very heavy . He was so passionate at the time, convinced that he would become a star. He would hang out on Kensington Market and then he would say to me, 'Oh, I met Planty (Robert Plant) earlier, we had a little talk. ” And I told him, 'But Fred, you’re not a star yet, you’re crazy’, that was totally him. “

Brian May, Rock & Folk, 1993 (translated from french)

“ It’s very strange.  We met Freddie first of all, Roger and I, because he was one the best friends of our singer in a group called “Smile”, and we met him at Ealing Tech where Freddie was studying Graphic Design.  He spent all his time drawing pictures of Jimi Hendrix and a few other people and I came here and I distinctly remember walking in the gate and going into his little living room  where he had a record player.  It was a Dansette record player and autochanger and the vinyl records that were used on it were quite magical, and I think there’s a nice resurgence of vinyl going on at the moment for good reason - but I distinctly remember him putting the record on and it was a Jimi Hendrix record.  I think it was “Axis Bold As Love”, and he goes, “Brian, Brian, Brian, listen, listen, listen”, and I goes “Yes, Jimi Hendrix, love Jimi Hendrix, he’s magic”, you know.  And he goes, “No, no, no, listen what they do, what they do in the production. See, this guitar comes round here, and you come round to the other speaker, it comes out here.  They’re panning it around, they’re moving around. This is the kind of thing we have to do, you know.  This is what we gotta do”.  And I thought “What?”  He says “Yes, yes, we’re gonna be a group”.

Brian May, at the Freddie Mercury blue plaque unveiling ceremony, 2016.

I love that he’s still cherishing the same memory after all those years.