Interviews QFN-17
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Back To The Seventies (from Circus magazine)
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Interview from April 1975.
Transcription - by ARLENE JENSON, USA.


Queen fused the dominant strains of Seventies rock (metal,
progressive and glam) into a unique style that was at once
heavy, glamorous and sophisticated. The ultimate expression
of the regal British rockers' genius is the majestic 1975
metal-opera 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (from 'A Night At The
Opera'). In this lively interview from April 1975, Queen's
suave frontman, the late Freddie Mercury, discusses
everything from his influences to his favourite nail polish.

More than anything else, Freddie Mercury wants to be a
legend. The vehicle for the 28 year-old 'Kensington poseur'
is a rock 'n' roll band called Queen and the meticulous
Mercury seems to have the situation neatly in hand. He came
up with the band's name, he designed their crest (combining
the star signs of it's members), and he defines their style.
"The concept of Queen is to be regal and majestic", he told
the English press early in their career. "Glamour is a part
of us and we want to be dandy. We want to shock and be
outrageous instantly". Freddie's grabbing for glory with all
the gusto he's got and it's a safe bet he wouldn't turn down
any M.B.E.s Her Majesty might want to lay on him.  

Freddie's thrust for the top began far away from the heart
of the British Empire. Born September 5, 1946 in Zanzibar
(an island off the East Coast of Africa), he was the son of
a British civil servant. Subsequently, he was educated in
India and finally landed on the island of the Anglo-Saxons
while still a youth. He went to school at Isleworth and then
began Ealing College of Art one year after proto-Who
guitarist Peter Townshend left. It was there that he met the
boys from Smile in 1968.

Smile was a local group featuring Roger Taylor on drums and
Brian May on guitar. Freddie, who had been singing with
groups since he was 14 years old, was himself performing in
small, unmentionable bands while studying the art of Mucha
and Arthur Rackham. All the bands in the area used to keep
tabs on each others' music and even occasionally traded
equipment. In 1970, Smile broke up in general frustration
and Freddie quickly cornered Taylor and May to sell them on
his idea for a hotshot band to be called Queen. The pair
approved, invited Freddie to join them and after six months
of auditions, the lineup was completed when they signed on
John Deacon as their charter bassist.

For months they practiced, playing only small select shows
for their friends and word-of-mouth fans instead of grinding
through the usual provincial club circuit. Their big break
finally came when two producers, John Anthony and Roy Baker,
asked them to make a demonstration tape. Featuring words and
music written predominantly by Mercury, the tapes were
hawked around until EMI decided they were a good bet.

The first LP, 'Queen', was an immediate hit in many circles
and 'Queen 11', dealing with a theme of 'good versus evil'
swelled their reputation across the ocean in America as
well. Then came the disaster. May was stricken with
hepatitis and a royal tour of the States last Spring with
Mott the Hoople was aborted.

Undaunted, Queen launched their third album in the fall of
1974, 'Sheer Heart Attack'. Cruising behind a single that
went to #1 in England, 'Killer Queen', the LP's success was
assured and by November Melody Maker was calling them "one
of the hottest bands in the nation". Finally, in February
1975, Queen got another crack at touring the States.

Just before they flew over, 'Circus' magazine inquisitor
Scott Cohen spoke with Freddie. The king of Queen was in a
London studio working on the soundtrack for the movie of
their Rainbow Theatre concert. His speech was quick, as
though his mind were on getting back into the studio...


Circus.   Let's start at the beginning, in Zanzibar.

MERCURY.   Zanzibar? Well, I was born there. I stayed there
about three or four years. Then I moved to England. You
won't get much from Zanzibar.

Circus.   I'm trying to visualize it. Are there palm trees?

MERCURY.   Well, yeah, it's tropical. It's off the east
African coast. That's where my parents were staying. My
father worked for the government. He was sort of posted
there and I was born there. Then we moved back to London and
I've lived here ever since.

Circus.   What kind of music do people listen to in
Zanzibar?

MERCURY.   As far as I can remember I guess they were into
Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. I'm sure the Beatles got in
there.

Circus.   What do people do there?

MERCURY.   I guess play soccer and hockey. There are a lot
of beaches there, so I guess they do a lot of swimming.

Circus.   Have you ever been to Queens, New York?

MERCURY.   No, we've only been in New York once. We stayed
there a week and were playing every night. Why, what's it
like?

Circus.   A lot like Zanzibar. It's very tropical, there are
palm trees and lots of beaches. People swim a lot, play
soccer and listen to Elvis Presley. What images did you have
of New York?

MERCURY.   It had a very hectic pace. I enjoyed it basically
from the reception we got. People were telling us how
vicious the city can be, but I enjoyed it. There's so much
to see, so it depends on how long you're there for. The
record company took us to all the obvious places to go, to
all the restaurants, clubs and things. When we come back
again, we'll be looking for all the other places.

Circus.   What kinds of non-musical, non-business type
things have you been thinking about lately?

MERCURY.   There's been nothing non-musical that I've been
thinking about lately because we've been doing this film
thing, the soundtrack for it and we've been trying to get
the tour thing together because we're coming over soon. You
know about the Rainbow here? It's sort of the place to play
over here and when we played there we did a movie of the
show and now we're putting the pieces together. It's going
to be called 'Queen Live At The Rainbow'

Circus.   Do you think Americans idolize rock stars and
movie stars because there is no royalty there?

MERCURY.   Do they? I thought that was finished. I thought
that was done in Cecil B. DeMille's time, Mae West. I think
they're sort of beginning to idolize rock stars now, aren't
they? But not as great as they did in those days.

Circus.   Is it hard to embarrass you?

MERCURY.   Umm, to be honest, not much embarrasses me
actually. It's not embarrassment, but maybe annoyance, that
I feel when things aren't going right on stage. It was a
funny moment when we played at the Rainbow and the power
went out on us. That was sort of embarrassing.

Circus.   What is your biggest fear?

MERCURY.   Getting out on time.

Circus.   Do you like feeling feverish?

MERCURY.   I can get a buzz out of all kinds of things. Just
listening to music is a kind of fever.

Circus.   What's your favourite form of entertainment?

MERCURY.   Listening to Jimi Hendrix; Liza Minnelli; going
to art galleries. I like most of the Victorian artists. I
like a lot of detail work, water colours, that sort of
thing. And popular stuff like Dali.

Circus.   Would you like Dali to do your costumes and
makeup?

MERCURY.   Not really. I like him for different reasons. We
have Zandra Rhodes do our costumes.

Circus.   Would you like to be the first man on the cover of
'Vogue'?

MERCURY.   That would be great. You never know how true that
might be, actually. We're working on it.

Circus.   Would you like to date Liza Minnelli?

MERCURY.   Oh, no. I would like to talk to her, yes.

Circus.   What do you think she would tell you?

MERCURY.   I would just like to meet her after a performance
and take it from there. I don't know what she would say to
me, or what I would say to her.

Circus.   You're both very much into clothes. You could talk
about that. Didn't you once sell antique clothes?

MERCURY.   Yes, some of my best clothes are from that
period. They're the clothes I like best. I don't like
manufactured clothes.

Circus.   Was it actually a business?

MERCURY.   Yes, I got in touch with a friend.... I normally
like clothes anyway and when Queen was semi-professional I
thought I would do something at the same time and I got an
opportunity to get a small boutique in Kensington Market.

Circus.   Is there one designer you like most?

MERCURY.   I have a tailor who makes my trousers and a
friend who makes shoes. Ages ago I used to go to Ossie
Clark, along with Zandra Rhodes

Circus.   I find shoes to be the hardest part of the
wardrobe to find.

MERCURY.   London is full of shoe shops. You can have them
made to order. Just go in with your design.

Circus.   How large is your closet?

MERCURY.   Pretty large. I've got a sort of huge apartment
in Kensington and I have a huge corridor that's just full of
my wardrobe. I could start a shop in there.

Circus.   Where would you advise Queen fans to buy their
clothes?

MERCURY.   It really depends, there are so many places.
There's a place called Essences, that's a very good place.
They seem to get very good quality stuff, but still old,
1920's stuff. If they have the money I'd ask them to go to
Zandra Rhodes, because she's got a place where she works and
you can buy them off the rail. They're quite beautiful.

Circus.   Do you think clothes make the man?

MERCURY.   It depends upon what kind of person you are. For
what we do, clothes are very important and if you know where
to get them it helps.

Circus.   Do you spend a lot of time in front of the mirror?

MERCURY.   If I have time, yes. I'm a very vain person and,
yeah, I do.

Circus.   Do you ever think about the mirror while you're in
front of it, what effect your image has upon it?

MERCURY.   No, I don't go that deep into it. I have other
things to think about. I have quite a few at home, different
shapes and sizes, but I don't think there's any kind of
chemical reaction.

Circus.   Could you compare yourself to another human being?

MERCURY.   No way. I think I'm totally original. I'm sure
there are many people who see themselves in me, but that's
to them. I'm me, basically and that's how I like to be.

Circus.   What brand of nail polish do you use?

MERCURY.   I used to use Biba. That's another nice shop
people can go to. It's really a beautiful shop done up well.
When fans come over here, that ought to be the first place
they go. I used to use Biba black nail polish, but I
changed. I get Minor's now. Black seems to be the colour for
me.

Circus.   I'd like to know what you think about these
people: Jimi Hendrix, Liza Minnelli, Led Zeppelin.....

MERCURY.   Jimi Hendrix is very important. He's my idol. He
sort of epitomizes, from his presentation on stage, the
whole works of a rock star. There's no way you can compare
him. You either have the magic or you don't. There's no way
you can work up to it. There's nobody who can take his
place. Liza, in terms of sheer talent, just oozes with it.
She has sheer energy and stamina, which she gets across the
stage and the way she delivers herself to the public is a
good influence. There is a lot to learn from her. Led
Zeppelin is the greatest. Robert Plant is one of the most
original vocalists of our time. As a rock band they deserve
the kind of success they're getting.

Circus.   How about your fans, the Linneys family?

MERCURY.   They're great. They come over to our shows, write
letters, send presents, got to know us. We seem to attract
quite a few families. The daughters like us and they bring
their families. It's great. Brian gets on with the Linneys
daughter.

Circus.   The electric light?

MERCURY.   Very important to our act. We've got quite a
light show that we carry around. We've taken a lot of time
out to work with them. Lights enhance all our songs
differently.

Circus.   Which queen in a deck of cards do you identify
with most?

MERCURY.   The Queen of Spades. I get the feeling it's more
like me. It's very arrogant and I'm arrogant. I also think
the Queen of Spades is more vain than the other ones.

Circus.   What are your favourite sports?

MERCURY.   I like ping pong and I like athletics, swimming,
hockey.

Circus.   Have you ever met a plaster-caster?

MERCURY.   No, what is it?

Circus.   In the late sixties there were two girls who were
famous for making plaster casts of famous rock stars'
erections. Cynthia Plaster-caster is the most famous of
them.

MERCURY.   Is she still around?

Circus.   I think she retired at the end of the 'summer of
love'

MERCURY.   Too bad I never heard of her. How many did she
do?

Circus.   I don't know, maybe thirty or forty. She had quite
an exhibit.

MERCURY.   I'd like to meet her when I'm in town.

Circus.   I don't know how you would go about that. How do
you invest your money?

MERCURY.   At the moment I don't get any. I spend it as soon
as I get it, on a house, clothes, paintings. I love going to
restaurants and spending money on good food.

Circus.   What do you do with your left hand that you don't
do with your right?

MERCURY.   Oh, umm, I play better piano with my right hand
than I do with my left. There's more things I don't do with
my left hand than I do with my right. I'll tell you one
thing, I only wear nail polish on my left hand. It's the
only hand I'll wear black nail polish on. I only need it on
one hand.

Circus.   Do you think your figure has been an important
part of your success?

MERCURY.   It helped. We have a very strong image that we
get across in our music. It's important, the way you look,
the way you play....

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End of interview.



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