BRIAN MAY-WE WILL ROCK YOU
June 2003, By Greg Phillips Melbourne has been chosen to host the Australian premiere of “WE WILL ROCK YOU” the futuristic rock musical based on the music of British supergroup Queen and featuring 24 of their biggest hits. The musical is a huge success in London’s West End with bookings taken through until early 2004. “We Will Rock You” was written by Ben Elton, whose penmanship was responsible for legendary TV shows like ‘Black Adder’ and ‘The Young Ones’. “We Will Rock You” debuts at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on August 7 this year. Elton, along with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were recently in town to audition potential cast members. Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips managed to grab ten minutes with Brian May to talk about the show and that distinctive Queen sound. GP: Your guitar sound is very distinctive and plays a huge part in the sound of Queen, so how much attention is paid to the sound of the band in the stage show? BM: The band is the driving force in the show so a lot of time was spent with it. We were determined that the band would not sound like your regular pit band in a musical , so they are a real rock band. They play some of my licks but they don’t have to be me. GP: I noticed in the promotional footage of the London show that one of your replica guitars was played, was that one of the guitars that the Australian luthier, Greg Fryer produced for you? BM: No they’re too precious. It’s a Burns copy. I have a new edition of the Brian May model in England that is made by Burns, who actually made the pickups I used on the original. So those are the ones the guys use in the show. So we go to a lot of trouble to get the sound but the band don’t have to be robots. They have a bit of freedom to play the licks that they want to play in certain parts of the show. The show is very big, very theatrical. GP: If Freddie had been alive, what would Queen be sounding like now? BM: Good question. Bigger, better and louder I’m sure. It’s hard to say really. I know for a fact Freddie would have loved this project even if we hadn’t been together as a band. This is a great extension of our ouvre, as Ben calls it. I don’t know what the band would be doing? We’d just be playing and making more music. We’d probably be still doing the individual things that we still do. GP: Is there much material laying around? Were you the type of band who recorded stuff and shelved it? BM: Yes. At the moment we are still sifting through it but there will be a box set at some point of our unfinished stuff. We put a lot of stuff down on tape. GP: I just wanted to go back to Greg Fryer if I could and discuss the work he did for you with your Red Special guitar… BM: Well Greg is an amazing craftsman. I have never met anyone like him. He spent 2 years making 3 copies of my guitar, in identical ways I made my original. He went to so much trouble to replicate every single material and technique. Every thousandth of an inch was checked. Those things are masterpieces. I have two of them and he has one. Mine are called John and George and his is called Paul. Those things are stupendous, so whenever I go out and play , they are sitting beside me. I use them for different tunings. I still use my original most of the time but if there is a different tuning or have to change the guitar for another reason then I will pick up a Greg Fryer guitar. GP: He’s developing pedals under your name too I believe? BM: He’s very much into pedals now. Part of my sound is that treble booster which is a modification of the old Greenwich master circuit. So Greg has been working on those and extended them. He makes […]