Recommendations of the Editorial team
An archive text from November 2020.
At the latest since the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which was awarded several Oscars, even people who have only known “We Are The Champions” from Queen have known that for Freddie Mercury and Co. July 13, 1985 was one of the most important days in their career.
In addition to many others, Queen competed in the “Live Aid” benefit spectacle in the Wembley Stadium in London. And played in the 22 minutes made available to them in a true intoxication. In the film, the energy performance is reproduced almost 1: 1. And celebrated as a return of your own strength after difficult years that almost led to the breakage of the formation.
Read too:
“On the set I got goose bumps”
As Brian May now confirmed in an interview, Queen initially felt her gig completely differently than later the enthusiastic reactions of colleagues and fans would suggest. So the guitarist said with a (back) look at the film recordings in conversation at “Talkradio”: “It was so strange to experience all of this again for the film. You have recovered it so incredibly faithfully. I got goose bumps on the set. It brought me everything back.”
May indicated that his feelings were completely different after the “Live Aid” appearance. “At this point, we were not aware of what an epochal thing really was,” said the 73-year-old. “We thought at the time: ‘Well, that was quite okay’. But we didn’t know that it had made such a spectacular impression in the transmission. It just stuck. Isn’t it true?”
Brian May about the live qualities of Queen singer Freddie Mercury
For May, however, it is also clear that Freddie Mercury had your large part in this impression on the stage. “If you work with other people on a stage, you have to be able to interact musically. But a form of chemistry is also necessary to make it alive. And a awareness of knowing where you are and how the energy needs to be used correctly,” he explained. “Freddie could impressively. And we got on well from the start.”