A Night at the Opera
A conversation in the back of a taxi on Saturday Night was what started me thinking about Freddie.
The question posed was this:
“If you could go and see any band, from any point in time performing any of their albums, who would it be?”
I didn’t need to think for more than a second.
For me personally it would be Queen in 1975 playing the entire track listing of “A Night at the Opera”. In the right order of course.
I was only six years old that year but, of course, in this fantasy world I can be any age I want. So I wouldn’t be six. That would be silly. You don’t want to go to all this trouble of inventing a fantasy world, firing up the Delorean, getting it up to 88mph and then not be allowed in the door for being underage.
Later on, as I fell asleep, I thought more and more about Queen and Freddie Mercury in particular. I’m more the Nirvana age myself, and most people my age probably shed more of a tear at the death of Kurt Cobain. But even now, the thought of Freddie Mercury dead makes me tear up a little. Kurt ended it all; but Freddie loved life and had so much more to willingly give but had his life cut short by a disease that people didn’t even have a name for, when Freddie caught it.
He was…and I don’t use this lightly, a genius. There’s no-one else remotely like him; neither before or since
I grew up listening to Freddie. My Mum bought that first album in 1975 the week it came out and it was all that was played in our house for a good while.
Years later, stuck in on a wet Sunday with nothing to do but entertain ourselves, me and my brother and sister would mime to Queen and on occasion my brother would eyeliner in Freddie ‘tasche for extra authenticity. Live-Aid Freddie is still his Halloween costume of choice. Rightly so.
So yesterday I’m in at the radio station and one of the music news items being read out is that Queen are to tour again, but with a different singer. I felt myself going watery eyed all over again. It ain’t right.
I still can’t get over Freddie being dead. There should be no Night at the Opera without him.
What would your choice be for the dream live concert: band and album, please.
(I particularly want to encourage my band of lurkers to switch off their cloaking devices and comment on this one? Please; to the comments box you go. Thanks for reading chaps!)
