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n Brian May Interview - Part 2 www.guitarinteractivemagazine.com 15
INTERVIEWS_BRIAN MAY Then there is the song writing. If there is a lot to be said for individuality, Queen certainly had it by the bucket load, and it equally certainly caused tensions in the band. Brian May and Roger Taylor could make an awesomely powerful sound at times (anyone who witnessed Queen at their peak will have heard a very hard Rock band!) and were pulling the band towards a heavier sound (I remember the penny dropping when May admitted to me (a fellow admirer) that he was a Tony Iommi fan. This was back in ‘76, when that was about as uncool as it could be. So much for fashion!). Brian’s songs often (though not always!) reflected that hard Rock leaning. John Deacon, on the other hand, though he didn’t write much, wrote some of the band’s biggest hits and he was a Tamla and Soul fan. And Freddie Mercury? How would you even begin to describe his influences? These differing styles tugged the band apart at times and various interviews reveal one member or another admitting they didn’t like such and such a track. Sensibly, they played on them despite that and the result made Queen something far more important (and popular) than yet another 1970s/80s Rock band with a bag of riffs, a cloud of hair spray and not a lot else. In that sense, Queen had something in common with the Beatles - they were impossible to categorise and beyond prediction. Something for everyone, if you like. Stubbornness had a lot to do with that. The band wasn’t always the most popular in the business at its height - in fact the word ‘arrogant’ was occasionally used, though that’s not a word anyone who has met him would ever use of Brian May, but I’d prefer to say the band was determined. After a rotten start with a terrible management deal (listen to ‘Death On Two Legs’), and despite visceral opposition from a music press that had decided anyone who could sing in tune or play more than three chords was getting above himself, Queen knew what they wanted to do, knew how they wanted to do it and weren’t prepared to let anything stand in their way. It takes that level of determination to reach the top. And so to our Brian May feature. Inevitably, we relied on Jamie Humphries for the majority of it. Jamie has been with Guitar Interactive since we began (when he hasn’t been on tour), has played in Brian’s bands, worked on both the London West End and German productions of the We Will Rock You musical and was the only choice for both our interview with Dr May and the Tech features. Our thanks to all those who helped finally make this feature possible: Jamie, Pete Malandrone, Andrew Guyton, Barry Moorhouse, Nigel Knight and, of course, Dr Brian May C.B.E.! 16 Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 40
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REVIEWS_AMP REVIEW Eventually the f
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REVIEWS_COMBO REVIEW The Vox AC30 h
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REVIEWS_COMBO REVIEW With the help
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THE QUIETROOM_GUITAR REVIEW for suc
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