Blog 22

Up and down week last week. Had a great day of meetings on Wednesday in Prague, very positive, then sad and bad news for a couple of days after. But that is life; you get on and deal with it the best you can. UK Convention coming up next month, looking forward to that, seeing old friends and making new ones! Just had some fun clearing about 400 spam emails before I could get to some questions……

Antony asked if Freddie ever wrote a song outside the studio.
I don’t think Freddie ever wrote an entire song outside of a studio. In fact almost all of them came from studio sessions. I was there on the plane with him when he wrote a couple of lines that were re-arranged to become the start of Life is Real, and I also had to write down some chords he played on the piano in Garden Lodge, so when he went to the studio he played them back and that way remembered the tune he had thought of. For Freddie, the studio was ‘the office,’ where he went to work. Home was for his own time. He never entertained the idea of a small studio there, home life was sacrosanct. The most we had there was one of those small cassette recorders…. Put the cassette in and press play and record at the same time!

Bill and quite a few others wanted to know if I still visit Mary and Garden Lodge.
I haven’t been into Garden Lodge for quite a number of years. I did go about 7years ago and on the off chance rang the bell. Mary answered and invited me in. We had a lovely chat for about 3 hours and that was when I saw Delilah for the last time. I saw a small cat at the other end of the settee and thought Mary had another cat like Delilah. In answer to my questioning look Mary said it WAS Delilah. As I sat there Delilah made here way over to me and spent about 2 hours with her head resting on my leg as I stroked her. She was very frail as she was quite old even then, so in answer to the question quite a few people have asked if Freddie’s cats are alive, I would say no, as more than twenty years have passed since we left Garden Lodge and the cats weren’t young then.

Pam asked about the track listing for the album Made In Heaven
The album, including the mixes and the track listing is the work of John, Brian and Roger. Freddie insisted on singing as much as he could before his health finally gave way, so that he could leave as much material for the others to work on. As most of it wasn’t completed in his lifetime, Freddie would not have been able to advise on the order

Art wanted to know what bands or music Freddie listened to in his last days.
For the last 2 weeks of Freddie’s life, there wasn’t a lot of music played. The TV was on a lot of the time and particularly for the last week when Freddie spent most of his time upstairs in his bedroom, it was there for back ground noise as much as anything.

Maik and quite a few others asked how Freddie prepared for a show and pumped himself up for the audience.
Freddie would arrive along with the other guys about an hour before the show. Having carried out a sound check a few hours before they would already have a rough idea of the layout of the venue. Generally there would be one dressing room for the band and another room for guests. The only people allowed in the band room were family of the band and selected crew. Freddie would generally spend time on his own, in a corner somewhere, going over the set in his mind and drinking the hot lemon and honey mix he always had. Then about ½ hour before the show he would put on his costume and make-up. He would try out his voice along with Roger and Trip, the sound engineer. That way all would know who would be singing the high notes and Trip would know where to put up Roger and not Freddie. The only time Freddie would be jumping up and down and pumping his arms would generally be on the walk to the stage. The main cause for the adrenalin to start pumping would be the start of the intro tape and the roar of the crowd. That last was the thing that truly got Freddie’s blood flowing. Nerves didn’t really come into the equation.

Joey asked how Freddie avoided being recognized by other HIV/AIDS patients when he was treated in hospital.
The simple way was that he went in the back way very early in the morning. The only treatment he actually went to hospital for was the x-ray treatment for the Kaposi’s Sarcoma, and the placement of the central line, which was carried out at the Cromwell Hospital, which is used to having famous patients avoiding publicity.

Chris asked about Freddie and dancing in NYC.
Yes, The Saint was his favourite Saturday night venue. He loved the layout and really enjoyed himself there with his group of friends. Saying that, we also went to Studio 54 on Sunday nights, always with the same group of people.

Freddiefan wanted to know when Freddie gave up smoking.
This happened in October 1989 when his doctors told him he would has some more time if he gave up smoking, drinking and everything else. While he never gave up completely he would rarely smoke more than a couple of time on any one cigarette, mainly in the studio after that time. He never smoked at home after that.

I found a question from Devin from a log time ago where he asked how many albums Queen have out at the moment.
The simple answer to that one is…… ask your DAD!

Ok, enough for now. I wish you all a good week and see you back here soon!