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Garage to Stadiums is one of the Top 5% of podcasts in the world. From the bars to the arenas, learn the fascinating stories of how our biggest rock music legends made the leap. Each episode reveals the stories, songs and little known facts of the journey from obscurity to fame of one of rock music’s biggest stars. Join us on Garage To Stadiums as host Dave Anthony teams up with an author of a rock biography or director of a rock documentary to explore that journey, their early years, the stories behind the scenes, their top songs, and their place in music history.
Learn about the passion, talent, luck and even scandal that often came together to propel these stars from obscurity to household names.
GARAGE TO STADIUMS
Hosted by Dave Anthony
Episode 15 "The Story of Queen" with guest Mark Blake
Tue, Jan 28, 2025 2:53PM • 56:05
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Queen's origins, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, musical diversity, global fanbase, Live Aid, Bohemian Rhapsody, Night at the Opera, Hot Space, Flash Gordon, AIDS diagnosis, songwriting credits, afterlife in music
SPEAKERS
Dave Anthony, Mark Blake
Dave Anthony 00:01
Dave, Hi there. I'm Dave Anthony, and this is the garage to stadiums podcast rated as one of the top 5% of podcasts globally. On each episode, we tell you the story of how one of our music legends rose from obscurity to fame and play some of the songs that mark that journey. Welcome. To garage, to stadiums. Today's story is the story of Wien. Wien is one of the most iconic rock bands in history, known for their dynamic lead singer, Freddie Mercury, incredible live performances and genre define music. The band was formed in 1970 in London by an emigre from an Indian family by way of Tanzania named farak balsara, who would change his name to Freddie Mercury and three other individuals from England, Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums, and eventually John Deacon on bass. One incredible fact you'll learn today is that queen is one of the few bands where each member wrote songs that became massive hits. Unlike other bands who are popular in certain parts of the world, Queen has a global fan base with over 300 million albums sold their greatest hits album released in 1981 is the best selling record of all time in the UK. And if you can believe it, approximately one in three families in the UK own a copy. Queen's ability to adapt, innovate and inspire has ensured their place as legends in music history. Their fusion of theatricality, musical diversity and timeless anthems makes them one of rock's greatest bands. Here to discuss Queen today is our guest Mark Blake. Mark has written about music for over 30 years. He's just recently released dreams the many lives of Fleetwood Mac, and was a guest on our story of Fleetwood Mac episode, one of our most downloaded episodes. He's authored several books on today's band Queen, and Mark is joining us from London in the UK. Hey, Mark, welcome back to garage to stadium.
Mark Blake 02:04
Pleasure to be back again. Thank you.
Dave Anthony 02:09
We want to start talking about this dynamic band and go a little bit back to understand the back story of these folks. Then we start with Freddie Mercury. I know that that's quite a pass that that we need to understand to sort of get a sense for this man.
Mark Blake 02:24
Yeah, well, I mean, Freddie was born in Zanzibar, off the coast of Africa. Was educated a boarding school in India. So he was sent away by his parents for for many years. So he effectively grew up in India, and then eventually came back to Zanzibar. There was a revolution, and him and his family literally fled the country on a plane with a few suitcases, everything they could carry, and ended up living in West London, not actually very far from Heathrow Airport. So you know, he he's the perfect example of a kind of an immigrant escaping a political situation, and washes up in England in like 1964 Era of The Beatles. So there's a lot of interesting things happening. What was
Dave Anthony 03:05
his original name? Fauci alsara. Amazing story, Brian May. Where did he grow up? He grew
Mark Blake 03:12
up about 10 minutes from where Freddie Mercury ended up, in West London. Very academic. Went a grammar school boy, as they were called in the 60s in the UK, brilliant at mathematics and science and kind of took the same approach to when he started playing the guitar. The famous thing, which we always have to mention is he built his first guitar with his dad out of an old fireplace and bits of a bicycle and other sort of junk that they had lying around the house, which I think, I think that's an important thing, because I think Brian has always approached playing guitar as a science. He's always had that kind of forensic attention to detail. And
Dave Anthony 03:53
he had a degree that probably is of interest to the audience. Did he not?
Mark Blake 03:57
He had a degree? I think, I believe he's in astrophysics. You see, I wrote the book so long ago. I forgotten already. Now he
Dave Anthony 04:05
was, was it Astronomy, or was it
Mark Blake 04:08
astronomy? Yeah, it was astronomy. He definitely did, because he went to Tenerife, where there was a famous observatory, and did some work there. While he was a student, I think if Brian May hadn't been a rock guitarist, he would definitely become an academic. You can really see that in him, I think, as well. Yeah, brilliant
Dave Anthony 04:27
man. The next person we'll talk about, I guess, is Roger Taylor, the drummer, yeah, well,
Mark Blake 04:34
Roger, Roger grew up in Cornwall, which is sort of near the south coast in the UK. Then he moved up to London, and it was pure luck. A friend of his was at Imperial College, which is where Brian May was studying. Brian was looking for a drummer. He tipped his friend off, tipped Roger Taylor off about it. So Roger brought a set of bongos, I believe, into his first meeting and talked his way into being the band. Of course, Roger a great singer. As well. It has to be said, his voice is very important on those early Queen albums. And let's not forget, he looked like a rock star. He really looked he looked like a rock star right at the beginning. Yeah, he had the blonde flowing man, the blonde locks. He had it all going on, even when he was a college so, yeah, I think that played an important part as well, of course.
Dave Anthony 05:23
And he was an intelligent man too. Did he not study,
Mark Blake 05:27
studying to be a dentist? Kind of gave it up, and then didn't, sort of, then, then, I think, went into biology. But I think, I think the finding I find fascinating. I did once say to how would you be as a dentist? Could you? Could you open a mouth and extract a tooth? And he was very cagey on the subject. I wouldn't have trusted him
05:48
with
Mark Blake 05:50
the drill of the pliers. So I'm not sure what stage he got to. Surely,
Dave Anthony 05:54
this is the first band with an astrophysicist and a dentist leading the way. That's amazing, absolutely.
Mark Blake 05:59
And of course, Freddie Mercury was an art student. You know, that was, that was Freddie's, uh, forte, right?
Dave Anthony 06:07
John Deacon, what about him? Where did he grow up? He was a lady member for the band, serious.
Mark Blake 06:12
John the mysterious. John Deek, he grew up in Leicester. He's in the Midlands, kind of in between London and the North. Uh, electronics and engineering, I think was his thing. And again, he was a friend of a friend. I think it was through Brian May's girlfriend and to the various acquaintances he ended up auditioning. They did have a couple of bass players before him. They never recorded with any of them. One of them lasted for two gigs before they before they fired him for showing off too much on stage. So I think John deacons, quiet demeanor, you know, he's bit more like John A was in who or Bill Wyman in the stones. I think that was a an asset, considered asset at the time. Very good. He's an engineer, very good at fixing the equipment when it broke. Yeah.
Dave Anthony 06:57
He was an he was an engineering tape too. This is an incredible math oriented, science oriented band. And then it is only really
Mark Blake 07:05
Freddie, who's from the from the art world. You know, who was the interloper? Wasn't he really in this band of scientists?
Dave Anthony 07:13
Yeah. How did they all meet and come together? Well, they
Mark Blake 07:17
were a band called Smile. Brian May and Roger Taylor had a group called Smile with it, with another guy. He was a singing bass player called Tim Stafford. And they did, I mean, there were trios, a bit like the Hendrix Experience, or cream that stuff was very big in the late 60s. I mean, they supported Pink Floyd. They supported Hendrix, but they never really got a break. I think they made a couple of demos and a small single, but it never took off, but Freddie Mercury was their friend from art school. He was a friend of Tim staffels, and he hung around them all the time, and he wasn't shy about giving them advice. You know, you should do this. You should do that. He wanted. He suggested they become more flamboyant, and told them what clothes they should wear. And when Tim staff went, look, I've had enough of this. I'm not going anywhere. I'm leaving. He kind of maneuvered his way in there, you know, and they found John Deacon. And so you, you had all the four parts together, and that's, that's what became queen. It's
Dave Anthony 08:12
an incredible story. Here's Freddie Mercury, not really a singer, I guess, in those days, sort of pretending to be a musician. I guess pretending to
Mark Blake 08:20
be he had sung in a couple of groups. He had a group. There's a bunch of guys that came down from Liverpool that were going to try, try out in London, and in the summer holidays, they were all college guys students, and he talked his way into them. I mean, he's singing was not great. I mean, there's a great description that Roger Taylor talks about, Freddie Mercury. He stopped saying it now, I think. But he did say it a lot few years ago. He said he sounded like a powerful, bleating sheep. And the point is, he had power in his voice. We hadn't learned to train it yet, and people don't come out of the blots fully formed. He's not Freddie Mercury yet. He's still Fauci Bulsara. He's calling himself Freddie pulsara, but he is almost like a triumph of will over anything. He wanted to be a rock star. He wanted to be a singer. He wanted it more than anything else. Brian May could have become an astronomer. Roger Taylor could have become a doctor or a dentist. Freddie, I get the impression Freddie Mercury. Only thing he thought he could be was a singer in a pop group. He just taught he convinced himself he could do it, huh? You
Dave Anthony 09:24
tell an interesting antidote anecdote in your Freddie Mercury book about Freddie being an art college, and a young singer named David Bowie comes to sing at at the at the college, and he's an unknown. He's barely known, and Freddie helps set up tables so that Bowie can stand on a table, because there's no stage in the cafeteria,
Mark Blake 09:45
in the cafeteria at ailing art college. That's right, yeah, he put the tables together. He was a roadie, effectively, for David Bowie. What he did as well is that whenever anyone came to the college, I mean, a band called Chicken Shack came along. Had Christine McVie that later ended up in Fleetwood Mac he jumped when they'd finished. He got on the piano after she'd gone and was playing on the piano till the roadies were like that. Get off. Yeah? Who the hell you get off. You know, he hustled anyone that came in that college. He wanted to know, how did you become successful? What have you done? So he's watching learning the whole time. Yeah, but yeah, it's amazing. The David Barry thing. Who knew they were going to do a song together years later?
Dave Anthony 10:27
And we'll get to that, because that's powerful. The first concerts they played as sort of the foursome with Deacon etc, like they really, I mean, it took a while to build an audience. Did they not sort of play the pub circuits or bars or how did they play small venues? They did some
Mark Blake 10:44
small venues. They played at the Imperial College, a lot. But what really happened is they, they got signed up to a sort of management stroke publishing company that, you know, took, took them on board, but took everything on board. They said, Look, you know, we'll pay for your equipment. You have to sort of do what we say. You have to sign your song publishing over to us. We'll also sort out your management. It's the sort of deal that really wasn't very healthy business wise, but because there was a part of that, they then got kind of trapped into that arrangement.
Dave Anthony 11:16
We've got albums Queen one and Queen two. Keep yourself alive. These kind of tunes on there. What was the early influences? Do you think on their sound? I
Mark Blake 11:32
think Led Zeppelin was a very big part of it. I mean, they went to see Led Zeppelin. I mean, you know, Fred is a letter Freddie Mercury wrote about seeing Led Zeppelin the Lyceum in London 1969 I think are just absolutely raving about it. Definitely Zeppelin. Definitely the band. Yes. You know who had those sort of high pitched vocals and those homies, John Deacon was a very big fan of Yes. Satisfied.
12:02
I You
Mark Blake 12:04
can hear that in that early Yes, in that early Queen music, it's a mix of that stuff. And obviously the Beatles as well. The Beatles, The who, you know, everything that was that was around at that time, right?
Dave Anthony 12:19
There was an interesting anecdote, I think, in your book that said that Roger Taylor was asked to join Genesis. I
Mark Blake 12:26
don't know if he did. I sort of asked him about that once, and he fudged it a little bit. I know they supported Genesis before Phil Collins had joined. And there was some more. There was some chat about, we're looking for another drama. I'm not sure if he was ever sort of formally approached. Okay,
Dave Anthony 12:43
the next phase we're going to enter into is kind of the Night at the Opera and Day at the Races. This kind of breaks them a little bit, does it not?
Mark Blake 12:50
Yeah, those are, those were the big breakthrough albums. And, you know, by this time, they'd extricated themselves from this management deal that I was talking about before. I mean, you know, that business side of it is actually very important to the story, because they were incredibly frustrated and restless and ambitious and desperate, desperate, desperate to become successful, and they felt they were being held back. So, you know, they got themselves out of that deal, got a new manager and made a Night at the Opera. And it's, I mean, there's a song in it called death on two legs. I was going
Dave Anthony 13:20
to mention that death on two legs one of the most castigating songs you could ever hear.
Mark Blake 13:34
It is, and it it's a big part, but it sums up that sort of mindset that they really especially Freddie Mercury at that time, you know, they they were watching people like David Bowie and Roxy Music getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and they wanted a piece of that. And I think they were felt they were hot, they were held back so and night, the opera is them, sort of exploding in every sense of the word, I think, musically and and personality wise,
Dave Anthony 14:01
right? You got your bet you're, you've got, you're my best friend, love of my life. Of course, the big hit is Bohemian Rhapsody. Now, was this a hit when it first came out?
Mark Blake 14:23
Yes, it was in it was in the UK. It's probably my earliest memory of Queen would have been seeing that on TV, the video, and hearing it on the radio. So that's not a song I really care to hear. Now, it's a bit like stairwell. It's like like Stairway to Heaven. I I've heard it so many times. It's sort of in it's in my brain. Do I need to hear and yeah, for
Dave Anthony 14:47
sure. You know, what's interesting is that was, I mean, the fact that they were making a video that was pretty pioneering for the day, was
Mark Blake 14:54
it not? Yes, it was very much so. And that video at the time was, I mean, looks quite primitive now, but it's very. Effective at the time. You know, you see, you see four faces and the, you know, the trails coming off it, it looked good. I mean, our TV sets, you gotta remember, in England in 1975 you know, there's three TV channels, our TV sets are probably the size of my laptop. Now, great. These are primitive days. Primitive days. You had to, you had to make an impact. That made an impact. People were talking about it at school the next day. So that was, uh, yeah, that's important. Hmm,
Dave Anthony 15:32
interesting pioneering work by Queen with that the tie your mother down. I on somebody to love, One Day at the Races, two heavy hitting tunes. What's interesting about this band is you never know what's coming next on an album you've got heavy duty ass kicking heavy rock. And then the next song will be a ballad with Freddie on a piano. And then you'll get an operatic many voices melding together. It's just an incredible innovation, I guess you'd say, with respect to the sounds these guys range they have, well, I think
Mark Blake 16:19
it's also because you had four songwriters in the band, which is, you know, quite unusual. So you've got four people fighting to get their songs on the record. It was generally accepted that Freddie Mercury was the main writer, but Brian May was very much, I think, second writer. Then you've got John Deacon and Roger Taylor fighting to get tracks on there. I mean, don't forget, Roger Taylor had the B side of Bohemian Rhapsody. I'm in love with my car, which, of course, changed everything, because he made as much money from the single as Freddie Mercury did from the AC. So by the time, by the time you get to a Day at the Races, you've got a situation where your lead singer and your drummer are significantly wealthier than the other two members of the band, yeah, and, you know, that caused a little bit of a rift. I think it was accepted with Freddie Mercury. But when you've got Roger Taylor zooming up to the studio in a new Ferrari and, you know, buying a massive townhouse, and the Brian May and John Deacon are still living relatively modestly. I think that probably, probably ruffled a few feathers. Perhaps it's
Dave Anthony 17:25
interesting. I feel like we've done a full circle in music. We went from the single of the 60s and into the 70s, then we went to the albums, and then we've returned back now with modern music. It's almost like the hit the single is out, because nobody knows the albums anymore,
Mark Blake 17:42
yeah, I think it has gone that way. You're right. It's about songs now, isn't it, rather than a whole body of work. It's interesting with Queen, because they had hit singles, but those albums were finessed, you know, those albums were were put together to be listened to as as a body of work. You know, very, very, very much. So, right, yeah,
Dave Anthony 18:01
the next album, I think, was news of the World, it had the song that's probably played as much as happy birthday. It's got, we will rock you. I We are the champions in every high school, every college, everybody who's ever won anything that's been played the next day, has it not?
Mark Blake 18:42
Yeah, has been and I think that was almost the idea behind how they wrote. I mean, Brian May wrote, We Will Rock You. Freddie Mercury, did we are the champions. But this was a reaction, the reaction to the kind of the reaction they were getting from audiences when they were playing arenas. Yeah, they were into the big arenas by this point here. Audiences will keep singing after they'd left chance. It was like a football chance. Yeah, soccer, as you would say. So Brian May went away and wrote, We Will Rock You as a song that that his audience could sing. It's all it's kind of quite meta in a way. It's they're very reactive to their audience in a way that, you know, I don't necessarily think the Rolling Stones or the who were, you know, they they sat down and went, we're going to write this. Have two anthems I've missed on this album, you know. And, of course, not just one. We'll have two completely different songs, but both worked perfectly.
Dave Anthony 19:38
We're getting into the sort of the late the late 70s, early 80s. And of course, the evolution of music is changing a little bit. And queen, rather than sort of sticking with the formula, they start adapting, which is kind of incredible that they were able to do this. But do you want to talk about some of the evolution into the dance, disco, new wave, funk kind of sound? Yeah. Sure.
Mark Blake 20:00
Well, I mean, I think that was driven very much by John Deacon. John Deacon was, you know, despite being the world's biggest yes fan in 1973 by the end of the 70s, he was listening to a lot of black music, a lot of disco, soul and funk, and he wanted to bring that influence into the band in in terms of his songs. I mean, you mentioned that, I think another one bites the dust. That's the obvious example of this. But Freddie Mercury was willing to go with him as well. Because Freddie, at that time, obviously, as a gay man, he was going to a lot of clubs in New York. He spent a lot of time in New York. He bought property there in the clubs, in the clubs, that was the music you heard. You weren't hearing Led Zeppelin, you know, you you were hearing a lot of dance music, a lot of black music, and he was happy to go along with it. I mean, it's tricky with another one bites of dust, because it's become one of their biggest hits. But I do know that from interviews I did with Roger Taylor and with Brian May, Brian insists that Roger never liked it. He never liked it. He felt it wasn't right for them as a rock band. Now, when I challenge you, challenge Roger Taylor with that, he's like, no, no, no. Brian's exaggerating. You know, that's that's not the case at all, and that's okay, because it's a huge hit record, but at the time, it was a radical departure. It really, it really was. And I know that at the time, a lot, a lot of their queens fan base would be like, well, you know, why are they doing a disco record, right?
Dave Anthony 21:36
But it opened it, but it opened them up more to a wider audience, didn't it?
Mark Blake 21:40
Hopefully, opened them up to a much bigger pop audience here, especially in the UK. You said, yeah, well did in UK. It happened in America as well. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 21:48
in America, I think they that album. I think that album, The Game 1980 is very underrated. It's, uh, not only does it have another one bites the dust, but it's got need Your loving tonight. You crazy
Speaker 1 22:00
little thing called love,
Dave Anthony 22:22
play. The game, and then this whip ass song called Dragon attack. Take
Speaker 2 22:41
me back. They're still rocking out here too.
Speaker 3 22:55
We, we're the only two people ever going to talk about Dragon attack.
Dave Anthony 23:00
That's right. I want to talk about an interesting thing that they did in 1980 not many bands get asked to write soundtracks for movies. No. Why would you think queen was approached? Was it the campy nature of the movie that they were brought for Flash Gordon? For Flash Gordon? Yeah, Flash Gordon was a movie based on the comic strip, and Queen was asked to write the soundtrack. And it's a very different sounding queen, is it not synthesizers? And, yeah, I
Mark Blake 23:41
mean, they did it because Pink Floyd turned it down, because Pink Floyd were doing busy doing the war. So the they went to Queen. And I mean, that was very much a Brian May project. I mean, they overworked themselves massively, because I think they'd started doing things on Flash Gordon before they'd even finished the game. And I remember talking to Brian May about this, and he, you know, he gave the impression that he was very overworked, and it was kind of him and an engineer piecing this thing together. But again, it was a huge hit. And that and that the title track, Flash Gordon was, was a big hit here. Again, completely different. He's also one of the first soundtrack songs where you've got snippets of dialog in the song itself. Maybe you should execute an entry. Is the bit where Brian Blessed is gaining your Gordon's alive. You've got bits of that in there. Now, late, years later, you listen to soundtrack to Pulp Fiction. The same thing they did that, they put snippets of dialog into the songs. But in 1980 whenever Flash Gordon was that, but there was that again, this is pioneering stuff, and you know, there's hardly any guitars on it to completely. Different sound. It's really very, very unusual for the that's a really
Dave Anthony 25:03
interesting point you make about the dialog being baked in there. Yeah, you
Mark Blake 25:08
didn't have that that you now you do. But in Pulp Fiction, the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction was one of the first ones. I remember really being aware of this. Yeah, the
Dave Anthony 25:16
next album, heart spaces starts to the personalities of the band start to, shall we say, knock a few heads here. What's, what's going on with hot spaces? You've got a really heavy sort of, what disco sound kind
Mark Blake 25:30
of, so, yeah, they recorded this in in Munich, which is, again, a lot of clubs there, that Freddie Mercury.
Dave Anthony 25:37
I mean, that was where Bowie was influenced, wasn't he? That's right, he had all Berlin. He'd been in Berlin
Mark Blake 25:43
with Iggy Pop few years earlier. Again, I think this is sort of, this is the point where there's clashes within the band, because Freddie Merck, who's very, very influenced by a guy called Paul prenter, who's his personal manager, Paul Prentice, played in the Bohemian Rhapsody film as a sort of cartoon villain, if you like. I mean, for years, the band would never talk about prenter. You know, I remember Brian May would not mention his name. Would just allude to this character. They felt he was very, rightly or wrongly, they felt he was very divisive. He was trying to get Freddie Mercury away from the band. Mack Reinhold, Mac, the German engineer, producer that worked on that record. I remember him saying, you know, prenter was whispering in Freddie Mercury's ear, saying, You don't need guitars, you don't need queen. This is old fashioned. Now, whether that's the case or whether that's all been exaggerated, I don't know, but there's certainly elements of that on that album. I really like the hot space album because I just think it's interesting. It's different. It's great to write about as well, because, but you have got this case where poor old Brian May feels very sidelined, I think, on on that album. But of course, out of that, you have the hit with bow. You have under pressure. Pushing, which is probably my favorite Queen song, so you know, they it was a success, but it confused people. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 27:16
for sure, and and here we have full circle, Freddie Bal, Sarah setting up the tables for Bowie, and now he's starring in a song with him. That's an incredible tune, yeah?
Mark Blake 27:29
And, you know, there was a lot of clashes in the studio about how that was meant to sound. You know, I don't think the mix of the song that went out and became a hit was the one Brian May wanted, yeah,
Dave Anthony 27:40
staying power dancer. These are really heavy disco tunes. So that was hot spaces. But of course, as you said, it yielded the massive worldwide hit under pressure with David Bowie. And I want to get into something that is a little bit obviously controversial here. The 80s start rolling out, and I guess there's a couple things that go on. One is, is there some growing homophobia in the US about Freddie?
Mark Blake 28:10
Well, I think what it what it was, was that in America, they were perceived as being a rock band. And a rock band at the by the early 80s is a band that looks like Tay Van Halen. You know, I'm using that as an example. David Lee Roth, not that. I mean, you know, that's the campus thing ever. And I loved that early haylon, but people have a different perception. So Freddie Mercury, short hair, very short hair, and a mustache. That was what was called the clone look. That was the look that was popular in the gay clubs at that time. So he's effectively hiding in plain sight, but American audiences, your radio formats and how things work, it's very regimented rock, seen as rock. Suddenly, you've got this band, and the lead singer has got short hair and a stars, and they're doing disco records. So it's, it's, it's harder to fit into the formula. I think in the UK, we were a little easier with it. But I know, again, from interviewing the band, that it got it started to become very hard for them in America, particularly on that tour, 1982 the hot space tour, their support act was a guy called Billy squire. Now, Billy had hits. He never had hits in the UK. Billy never had hits in UK. I know who he is, and I've heard his music, but yeah, on that tour, he was going over better than Queen because he was having the bigger hits. So they're suddenly in this very insecure, bullish wire, the stroke, the stroke. You know, he never did anything here. He I think he did tour here, because I did see him, but it's, you know, it was different. Queen was struggling. I don't know that it was outright homophobia, but it's more where does this fit in? Why is this? Why has this guy got a mustache, and why is he doing disco records? Right?
Dave Anthony 29:57
And I guess it's solidified. When they release the works they've got, I mean, some good tunes though radio Gaga. Hammer to fall. We
Speaker 1 30:22
chose to which is
Mark Blake 30:26
a heavy tune, like I love that is, that's a great but
Dave Anthony 30:30
one of the other cuts is, I want to break free. I want to break which produces a video of controversy or controversy, as you folks would say, That's right.
Mark Blake 30:50
I mean, MTV wouldn't play that video in the UK. I mean, the video itself was, is, is great. And here in the UK, everybody absolutely loved it, because it's spoofing a TV soap opera here called Coronation Street, which has been on air since before I was born. And it's totally in the national consciousness. Everybody knows what that is. And in the UK, you've had a great tradition in comedies, going back years, of guys dressing as women for comic effect. The the idea of that, that scene with Freddie Mercury, dressed as a woman, but he still got the mustache, pushing a vacuum cleaner around the house. You know, that was just a golden comedy moment in the UK, but in America, it did not go over well. They showed that they took that video into MTV, and MTV where, no, we are not playing this. And, you know, all the points of reference are too British. It's too British for American audiences. I don't know that it's necessary about the dressing as women, but maybe that. I'm sure that didn't help.
Dave Anthony 31:55
Yeah, all the, all the members are dressed as women, and all the members are not
Mark Blake 31:58
going to get Van Halen dressed as women, even though Dave Lee Roth would have made a great woman. But the point is, heavy metal, a heavy rock was more macho, even if, by being macho, it's incredibly camp. It kind of does a full circle, but it's the perception, and that killed their career. Stone dead in the States. They didn't tour. They didn't tour the album Freddie Mercury refused to go back to America. And that's when, you know, everything they did was, then became live, became concentrated in the state, in the UK, in Europe. Was,
Dave Anthony 32:32
was it? Was it a rumor that, I mean that who knows? He reads things on the internet. But the was it a rumor that razor blades and stuff were thrown on stage. Is that there was
Mark Blake 32:42
a story that razor blades were thrown on stage to shave the mustache that was earlier on, when he first grew the mustache. Yeah, I think around 1980 there was a story that people were throwing disposable razors on
Dave Anthony 32:56
because they had just the mustache. Just became part of the look. I guess around 80 to
Mark Blake 33:02
82 the mustache was a huge thing. But, you know, again, this was, this was Freddie expressing his kind of sexuality, and again, hiding in plain sight. I just think it's funny, you know?
Dave Anthony 33:13
Yeah, we had Peter Ames Carlin on and he wrote a book on rem and he talked about the very clunky transition from the 70s to the 80s that spawned rem and said, you know, he felt a lot of the disco New Wave backlash was, was homophobia. In the end, it was like, you know, disco sucks, and all this kind of stuff was really, there was a lot of kind of, you know, male machoism against that. Yeah,
Mark Blake 33:40
I think there was, and also probably a little bit of racism as well. Wasn't there? When you racism, you mentioned as well the disco sucks campaign where, you know, there was that particular radio DJ who encouraged people to go to a football sports stadium and burn village people records, or a lot of it was basically just R and B and black, you know, records of, you know, it's a crazy campaign, yeah, is, I mean, I remember seeing, I'm because I'm so ancient. I remember seeing disco sucks badges on sale here in UK.
Dave Anthony 34:11
Oh yeah, I remember that too. And I mean, that extended even into the 80s with, you know, we don't play any rap on this station, like, yeah, that's it, because it's
Mark Blake 34:20
very formatted, wasn't it? Yeah, the radio's very formatted. You know, tell
Dave Anthony 34:25
me about this South Africa, 1984 What were these guys thinking? Money?
Mark Blake 34:29
Is what they were thinking. They got offered, they got offered a massive amount of money to go and play in Sun City, which they they'd been sort of conned into believing. Was, you know, was this sort of oasis within South Africa where apartheid didn't apply. And of course, it wasn't the case as much as anything. Is a kind of financial apartheid. Everybody working there clean, emptying the dust bins, taking the trash out, serving the drinks, was black, and the only people that had any kind of money to be able to afford tickets. The shows were white. So it was, it was, you know, they went against a musician's union boycott. As it must be said, did others, including Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, all played, uh, Sun City, a very well. But Queen definitely caught the they really, they, they really caught the eye out of the musicians union, yeah. But the point is, it was, it was a misstep, and they paid the price for it. What's interesting is, of course, Freddie Mercury, the only non white member of of Queen, you know, he never left the hotel complex the entire time he was there. If that
Dave Anthony 35:35
was the low point, then perhaps Live Aid 1985 now, let me give a little context for Live Aid to the younger fans. This was organized in 1985 by Bob Geldof, or sir Bob Geldof, as he's known now. In mid year of ultravox, they were planning to raise funds for a massive famine issue that was in Ethiopia at the time, and the performers who performed that Dave to a global audience, included Bob Dylan Led Zeppelin, the cars, David Bowie, Diana, Ross Elton, John Paul McCartney, the police, you too, the who and the folks we're talking about today. Queen mark, you. And I saw that concert, and I saw it live when it happened. And like many others, rock critics, other musicians, we think that that may have been the best live performance of all time, that one day that Queen played, yeah. I
Mark Blake 36:31
mean, I do remember watching it. It was fantastic. They did a magnificent show, because they were bringing a little bit of old school showbiz to the proceedings. They did a medley of songs. Most people, if people forget this, some people came on they played the new single. That's great if a single was a hit. But in Queens case, I think they crammed about half a dozen songs in to 17 minutes. They rehearsed it to the nth degree. They timed they knew they had 17 minutes, and if it went over 17 minutes, the power would get pulled so they timed it. They rehearsed a little Theater in London, and they timed it. And you could tell that when they went out on stage. So you kind of got, you still got the absolute essence of Queen and Freddie Mercury. He's show boating on stage from the minute he walks on stage. He's working the audience. It's some it's an absolute master class. It's very funny as well. Because if you look at some of the other bands on that, they take themselves so seriously, they really do. And the one thing I have to say in that, in defense of Freddie Mercury, he didn't take himself seriously. He, at one point, he runs out of moves, and he just bends over and presents his ass to the audience. Go and look at it. It's true. He just bends over. It's like, it's like, I've done every choreograph move in the in the locker,
Dave Anthony 37:44
and the lead singer and the lead singer's guidebook, yeah, he's
Mark Blake 37:48
my ass. You know that that's literally, that's it. And it's magnificent. And everybody was talking about it, and their records went back into the chart. And, of course, it's a renaissance for them. Everyone suddenly forgets about South Africa. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 38:02
right, yeah. Because then they ended up playing Wembley a couple times after that.
Mark Blake 38:06
That shows, I saw those shows. I saw the show at Wembley, the one that's in the film, that's often I was in the audience for that. I that
Dave Anthony 38:29
the one where he comes out with the crown, and that's the
Mark Blake 38:32
one you can see me in the audience. I'm the one with I'm the one with a lot of hair. Yeah, yes.
Dave Anthony 38:37
One of 75,000 people there, I think we saw you. Yeah. I mean, nobody works in audience like Freddie Mercury. He's got to be up there with the best.
Mark Blake 38:46
Yeah, I think so. And it's a different he's, there's no one else quite like him, because, of course, it's not, you know, you've got Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant, who, like you said earlier, he's kind of macho, kind of front men. They're very, they're very masculine kind of front men. There's sort of elements of kind of total showbiz diva with Freddie Mercury, like coming out with the irmine on and the crown. It's very camp. It's very camp his music hall vaudeville, as you would say in there's a lot of elements of that. It's very self deprecating a lot. But it's all Freddie Mercury. I mean, guys that knew him when he was playing in pubs in his band before Queen said that he would have the mic stand and drop to his knees and in front of the their guitarist, the same way he did at Wembley Stadium with Brian May like during hammer to fall. He starts pulling these poses. They said he was doing it in a pub to Two men and a dog. Yeah, he didn't care that there was, there was no audience. That's That's who he was,
Dave Anthony 39:42
that's what he was saying. Something you can share at a cocktail party. Is the reason he played that air guitar and that mic stand is the mic stand broke. And one of his early performances, that's right, that became his trademark.
Mark Blake 39:52
It came the thing. So they say, they say,
Dave Anthony 39:55
Yeah, we're nearing the end here, because we're going to get into Mark. Freddie is obviously diagnosed with AIDS, and they release an album in 1989 of course, he keeps it secret. The public doesn't know, but miracle comes out. It's got a really good tune on it. I want it all. They keep it secret, and of course, his health declines. What do you think sort of this, does the band just kind of goes quiet for a while? Does it not I
Mark Blake 40:26
think, I think that put I think that decision to keep quiet about his health was done very much a he was very private person anyway, and he never, he never, ever spoke out about gay issues or anything like that. He never spoke about his race, he never spoke about his sexuality. Everything was private. I think he did it because there was such a huge stigma around HIV and AIDS at that time. I mean, this is the thing, had he lived a little bit longer, the chemistry caught up, the medicine caught up, and it could have potentially prolonged his life, or even saved his life, but at that time, there was this huge stigma. He didn't want the members of the band or their families to be stigmatized because of this. This was the excuse he was given. Now, obviously it's tricky, because in the film of Bohemian Rhapsody, he diagnosed with AIDS before he plays Live Aid. And this is this sort of triumphant thing that wasn't the case at all. And that's the area where the fiction, I think, sometimes you worry it takes over from the fact. The fact is, he didn't tell anyone. He may have known. He may have known he was HIV positive live we I don't know. Yeah, he may certainly have known, I think, by the time of those last Queen performances in 86 but I don't know, but it put enormous pressure on Brian May and Roger Taylor to keep making excuses as to why Queen wouldn't tour. So they sign a new record deal, a massive record deal in America, it has to be said, they got an enormous amount of money for the miracle, and you know what came after that with in you innuendo, but they had no intention of touring because the lead singer did. Fact, the story was he didn't fancy it. So I think it put enormous pressure on the others. It really did to keep, to keep his secret. One
Dave Anthony 42:11
of the things you mentioned earlier, I want to just touch back on, because we're going to come to their place in history. But I wanted to touch on the fact that, as you said, Mark, eloquently, each of these guys wrote songs, hit songs. I mean, that's very unusual for a band you've got Freddie Mercury of coast wrote Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen. Somebody to Love. Crazy little thing called love play the game you've got may Brian May writing, we will rock you. I want it all fat bottom girls go. Hammer to fall. You've got John Deacon. You're my best friend. Another one bites the dust. I want to break free. Co wrote under pressure, and then Roger Taylor. These are the days of our lives. Radio, Gaga. I love my car, as you said before, or I'm in love with my car. Have you ever seen anything like this? A prolific sort of foursome that each does this? No,
Mark Blake 43:41
not on that, not quite on that scale, no. I mean, obviously the Beatles all wrote, I mean, you know, Taylor and Deacon didn't get as many songs on the records, but I think the difference is they wrote hits. But it's worth pointing out that these songs became hits because they were queen and and everybody had an input into these songs. Freddie Mercury had a big input into radio Gaga, far more than perhaps the credit on the song allowed. These were very collaborative efforts.
Dave Anthony 44:10
They started to then at least attribute them to each, to all of them, around
Mark Blake 44:16
around the time of the miracle. But then that led to resentment, because, you know, someone came in. I want you mentioned. I want it all. That's a Brian Mays song. It's written by it's based on something his wife, Anita Dobson, the actress, said he wrote. That's his song, but it's credited to the whole group. So I think there's still this kind of resentment. It's like, well, no, actually, that's my song, but it's got all their names on it. It's just, it's just people being
Dave Anthony 44:41
very creative for very protective. We're very egalitarian, until the checks have to be casual check
Mark Blake 44:47
bands argue over creative differences and money that that is, that is the root of most of these problems. People filling their their contribution hasn't been acknowledged. You know, I.
Dave Anthony 44:59
So Mark, we're coming to the end. What is clean's place in music history? What do you think they will be remembered for?
Mark Blake 45:07
I think they'll be remembered for the fact that they had that they were able to prolong. They had an afterlife. This is the thing. It's an afterlife. Freddie Mercury dies. They didn't tour again for years and years till they found Paul Rogers. They toured with Paul Rodgers, and they toured with Adam Lambert, and hugely successful with Adam Lambert. They never made new music, but they have. They they became a traveling jukebox, and I think in doing so, and the fact that they licensed this music to television adverts, to films, you know, you turn on a TV advert, you turn on the television here, you'll hear a version of Flash Gordon that's used to sell flash floor cleaner, which is a detergent, and it's, you know, there's a guy mopping the floor to the sound of flash. It's not queen, but it's another version that it's become part of the fabric popular culture. These songs are absolutely everywhere. We Will Rock You. We are the champions. I can't think of another group, maybe not even the Beatles, who've had such an afterlife in the fact that they have quite shamelessly licensed this music to everything and everywhere, so that it's part of, it's part of the world around us. And that is something they specifically wanted to do, something Freddie Mercury said, keep the music going. You know, Roger Taylor said, this is, I don't just want it to be a bunch of records on the shelf. I want people to hear it so subsequent generations hear it, kids, kids, teenagers, that they know this music. And I think what's that, you know, if you hate queen, it's a nightmare because you can't get away from life. And I feel sorry for people who don't, I understand why they wouldn't like them, but it's like, oh, God, not them again. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 46:44
I think you're right. I mean, I want everyone in the audience the next time you're listening to radio, television or whatever, how many ads feature Queen songs? It's truly as Mark said, incredible. How widely in
Mark Blake 46:56
the UK. I don't know what it's like in the States, but I need to that didn't need to be Roger Taylor. And he said, Oh, I don't realize how much we license our music until I'm I'm sitting at home and my mobile pings and it's a friend of his going, you've just made even more money. And he pretend, he pretended he didn't know. He goes, I don't watch a lot of commercial TV with adverts. I know he thinks he's on Netflix all the time watching watching movies, but it's literally if he, if he stayed on for a couple of hours on an average night on commercial TV here in UK, he will hear his songs. Yeah,
Dave Anthony 47:28
yeah. The afterlife is a really interesting point. I also think the range of sounds these guys produce
Mark Blake 47:35
absolutely heavy metal band, disco, ballads, pop is everything. I believe the only thing they never didn't really tackle was reggae or and that's, that's about the only thing,
Dave Anthony 47:47
Mark we're at that point where we ask our guests you, you actually, you know what I'm gonna ask a question before this, before the three songs. I know that that will be hard, but I want you to you pioneered something on our Fleetwood Mac episode where we asked very briefly, how would you describe each member? So I'm going to give you three words to describe Freddie Mercury and then the rest. Okay,
Mark Blake 48:12
Freddie Mac diva, diva, showman, hustler.
Dave Anthony 48:20
Brian May,
Mark Blake 48:22
scientist, Fauci, forensic.
Dave Anthony 48:30
Roger Taylor, the drummer,
Mark Blake 48:32
blonde, glamorous, divorcee, he's been for a few
Dave Anthony 48:40
is that recent? No,
Mark Blake 48:43
in the past? Okay? John
Dave Anthony 48:45
Deacon,
Mark Blake 48:48
quiet, talented, because I think he's more talented people, let on, uh, clever, because he doesn't do anything and he just gets all the money and he doesn't
Dave Anthony 48:59
have to work for it. As you would say, That's not hard work. No. Hard work, no. How about three songs and maybe why we should give them a listen or re listen. These could be the hits. These could be the left wing ones. There could be a theme. You decide which three I'll
Speaker 3 49:16
say. I'll say, under pressure, I because
Mark Blake 49:28
I think it's such a great song, and I think it's such an unusual pop song. It's an unusual hit record. I'm not going to choose any other hit. I'm going to choose an There's a song called March of the Black Queen. I She's on Queen two, which is just crazy. I laughed. I played, had to play it when I was doing the book. And I just laughed because I just was
Dave Anthony 49:59
written. By, uh,
Mark Blake 50:00
Brian Freddie, Mercury Freddie, I believe so. March of the black it's just, you just go, what this is insane. You know? It's so kind of just, right? It's just, it's just bizarre. I told Mark to the Black Queen, what else can I have in there? Throw some names at me. Uh, Dragon attack. Let's have dragon attack. Brian Mason,
Dave Anthony 50:19
let, let's give dragon attack another show to a perfect Yeah. Mark, always a pleasure to have you on the show. We really appreciate you coming in today, and thank you. No,
Mark Blake 50:30
thank you. It's good, good to be back again. I look forward to hearing it. Thank you.
Dave Anthony 50:34
Excellent. Great. Some closing notes on Queen. Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 by Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, and with each member having composed hit singles, all four were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and in 2018 the band was presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award today, we explored Queen's incredible legacy with Mark Blake, it lives on. Not only do they still appear in concert with Adam Lambert of American Idol as lead singer, but we also discussed how their music lives on in commercials. Can you believe that over 30 of their songs have appeared in ADS? I wanna break free, sold coke under pressure, appeared in a Google ad, and we are the champions, even made its way to a Viagra commercial as Mark shared Freddie Mercury born faraq balsara was the only band member to attend Art College. He actually designed the iconic Queen logo, which combines the zodiac signs of all four members to create a crest, two lions for the Leos in the band, John Deacon and Roger Taylor. A crab for the cancer sign in the band, Brian May and fairies for Virgo. Freddie. Check it out at garage to stadiums.com. And did you know that Michael Jackson suggested releasing another one bites the dust as a single. After attending a queen concert in LA he convinced Freddie backstage, the result a smash hit that won favorite pop rock single at the 1981 American Music Awards. Bohemian Rhapsody was first written in 1975 but got a second life in 1992 thanks to the movie Wayne's World, starring Mike Myers, who could forget the hilarious car scene with Wayne and his friends singing their hearts out as Mark Blake also shared Brian May built his own guitar as a teenager with his father Harold, an engineer. The duo used oak for the body, a 200 year old piece of mahogany Fireplace Mantel for the neck, and even mother of pearl buttons from his mom's sewing box for the fret markers on the guitar neck. They spent an incredible year and a half crafting it. The guitar is known as the Red Special, named for its stain chosen for the oak. It even features valve springs from a 1928 motorcycle to help with the string tension. Amazingly, may still plays it to this day, some quirky Queen song. Facts Freddie wrote crazy little thing called love in the bathtub, and both the bath and the song took about 20 minutes to complete. It was also a tribute to one of his heroes, Elvis, with Freddy imitating Elvis in the song and their collaboration with David Bowie on under pressure, totally unplanned. Bowie happened to stop by the studio that day. Roger Taylor, as we discussed, trained as a dentist, and we couldn't help but wonder if he ever gave Freddie advice about his famous Overbite caused by four extra teeth. Freddie was always sensitive about the appearance of his teeth, but feared fixing the Overbite might harm his voice. Queen's albums often had clever inspirations. A Night at the Opera and a day at the races were nods to Marx brother films. While News of the World borrowed its name from a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, the tabloid often featured tawdry, gossipy details of sex scandals, of famous people earning it the unflattering nickname screws of the world. Could the giant robot crushing people on Queen's News of the World album cover symbolize how tabloids like the news of the World harmed lives with rumors that album, incidentally, features what are probably Queen's most widely known hits. We Will Rock You, and we are the champions Freddy's untimely passing at 45 in 1991 from AIDS related pneumonia trip the world. He had only announced that he had AIDS the day before. In 1992 a concert in tribute to him was held at Wembley Stadium in benefit of HIV AIDS awareness, featuring Elton, John David Bowie, you two, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Roger Daltrey of the WHO Guns N Roses and Metallica. I wanted to extend a special thanks to you for helping make hirasta stadiums one of the top 5% of podcasts in the world. We'd love for you to follow. Follow our shows so you can be alerted when our next episode drops. We are launching a new feature on Instagram with amazing rock and roll history facts released on a regular schedule. So follow us on Instagram as soon as you can. As always, we have amazing bonus coverage at garage to stadiums.com, of all our performers in action at the site, we've made it easy for you to download a killer playlist for Queen, and for every performer we have featured, find the link to the apple and Spotify playlist in our bonus coverage section. We hope you enjoyed our show today. Special, thanks to our guest Mark Blake, author of magnifico, the A to Z of Queen. And is this the real life, the untold story of Queen, and also, thanks to our great producers, Amina faubear and Connor Sampson and our program director, Scott Campbell, you've been listening to garage to stadiums, another blast furnace labs production. I'm Dave Anthony. See you next time for another garage to stadium story. You
Transcribed by https://otter.ai