Favorite interviews
Apr 24, 2016 7:01:30 GMT -5
Post by freakydeaky on Apr 24, 2016 7:01:30 GMT -5
QAL Interview from COOL-T (Bulgaria)
Translation by Krytoman68 (Many thanks)
unfortunately dubbed but you can hear a little if you concentrate really hard, lol... it is long, with advertisement interruptions, so wait and don't close!
COOL-T (a word play in Bulgarian, as the word "Cult" is pronounced "Coolt", so it is a kind of "Cool Cult")
The presenter is called Petja Dikova (PD).
Note that this is a translation of a translation, and as such is not exactly what was said in English, but I hope I captured the meaning...
PD: My next guests Brian May and Roger Taylor have not changed at all since the first time I saw them 8 years ago in the Dominion Theatre. This is another proof for me that this is the way with real icons. Three days ago, again in London, the legends sat just 20 cm in front of me. With them was also the rock idol Adam Lambert. The aesthete Lambert did not fail to note that we were wearing the same nail polish - in London I was wearing back nail polish
.
After over 40 years of waiting, QUEEN and Adam Lambert will be in Sofia on June 23rd on the stadium "Vassil Levski".
(kryptoNote: this is incorrect, "Vassil Levski" is the national stadium, while they will play on stadium "Georgi Asparuhov" which happens to be the home of the soccer team "Levski". Not quite the same thing...)
[BoRhap video playing]
PD: How are you doing?
BM: We are doing well.
PD: You are not as nervous as I am...
BM: We are also a little bit nervous.
PD: That makes me feel a little bit better.
PD: Thank you for the time you are giving us. Please let me start with a question for Mr. May. You were in Sofia just a month ago.
BM: Yes, it was recently. And I know how to pronounce the name that I did not know earlier, in the first 50 years of my life - "S*O*fia", not "Sof*I*a". It was fantastic.
(kryptoNote: This is about the emphasis on the O in the name of the city, while my daughter's name, written exactly the same, is pronounced with emphasis on the I. It is already a source of confusion in my PC's file system when I try to figure out what is my baby stuff and what was saved while at my birthplace...)
PD: Did you have time to see our city, to try the local food?
BM: Yes, I tried some food, it was very tasty. The hotel was very nice, we also had a little tour. It's s a beautiful city, Sofia. We were able to see places outside of Sofia, because we travelled by bus for our tour. It's beautiful, and I am very happy we will come back to play there, play Queen songs.
PD: Thank you!
[AL on AI audition / RiR footage]
"Brian and Roger see Adam in 2009 on the stage of American Idol, the rest is history. Adam wears make-up and does not hide, that he is gay. In fact, the media describe Lambert as the first openly gay artist to top the music charts. Queen and Adam Lambert perform together since 2011."
PD: Please tell us more about the concert on June 23rd.
RT: Well, it's a ... we will be on stage with the wonderful Adam Lambert, he will be singing, and you will hear a lot of our hits. I hope this will be our most spectacular show yet. We keep on working on the show to make it more spectacular, we want everyone to have a wonderful time. This will be my first time in your country and I cannot wait to come. I want to see Bulgaria and I hope that everybody will have a great time.
AL: It is going to be a big party. In short, a hell of a party.
PD: I am sure of it. How long will be the concert?
BM: Well, usually we play at least two hours. I don't know how long we will be allowed to make it in this situation
AL: We might have a limit, but we will sing as long as we can.
PD: Back in the day, did Queen plan to come to Bulgaria?
BM: It was not possible in those days, because we could not come behind the Iron Curtain. It was our dream which can now realise.
[WWRY video RiR/original]
"Doctor Brian May says he would prefer to be remembered for his animal rights work instead of his music or his scientific work. However he likes to point out that when they were recording We Will Rock You, he used his physics knowledge in the recording studio, but he does not reveal how exactly. Actually, even before Queen became legends, the group had a guarantee for success with a student of astrophysics (May), of dentistry (Taylor), and graphical design (Mercury). "
PD: Mr. Taylor, I have read your interviews, you said that he (Freddie) was your best friend. How would you describe him?
RT: Well, he was very funny... Adam is also very funny. But he had a great sense of humor. He had a vision, and the group was very democratic. If we assume that Freddie was a leader as Brian said, because he was in front in focus, he was very generous, and we were partners. It was nice and we miss him.
[IWTBF video]
"Before Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor play in a band called Smile. May founded it by posting a "looking for a drummer" announcement on a school notice board. Taylor, at the time a student, saw the announcement. Mercury joined them in 1970. "
PD: While you were still in Smile, what were your impressions of Mercury when you saw him for the first time?
RT laughing
BM: Oh, he was quite shocking. He was part of a band called "Sour Milk Sea", and another band which was called "Wreckage", just like "Smile" was. We were just boys.
"Freddie comes up with the name Queen, and as his colleagues remember, he was fully aware of the gay associations it would cause."
BM: He was constantly running. He was like a frenetic dervish. He was screaming his lungs off, he still had not learnt how to control it. But he learnt very quickly. Especially in the recording studio. When he went into the studio and heard how his voice came back , he knew what to do, what was that final step needed to become a great vocalist.
RT: Yeah, we thought he was half-mad back then. When we saw him for the first time, as Brian said, his voice was not under control. It was... amusing. But we had this... magic, this vitality.
[NYE concert TSMGO]
"Brian and Roger say that Adam has the Freddie-Factor. He is a tenor and can hold a note for 22 seconds. His real hair color is ginger, he has even worked in a coffee shop. At the age of 19 he left college to sing on cruise ships. And before taking part in American Idol, he lost 10 kg of his weight."
PD: How much of a big task is it to fill the shoes of Freddie Mercury?
BM: Oh, these shoes are Adam 's own.
AL: I bring my own shoes to the concerts. However in the beginning it was difficult. It was difficult to choose how to approach the task...
RT: (Laughing) He had such small feet...
AL: ... and of course when I studied the songs, and I am a fan of Queen, there was a certain amount of Freddie that was naturally part of the way I sing the songs, I cannot avoid that. He was incredible. But for me was also important to find a way to make them my own, because I think the audience wants to see an authentic emotion, not an imitation. I also believe it would have been disrespectful to the audience if I tried to imitate Freddie, and disrespectful to Freddie.
[WWTLF iHRMF video]
PD: When you have tens of thousands of women, men, who are screaming your name, ready to do anything, how do you remain normal?
BM: I don't know if we remain normal.
AL: I have never been normal.
BT: We try, but we aren't normal.
AL: That's part of the secret.
[TGP video]
"According to May, in their most active years, everything came to them in large doses, and could damage and destroy them. Being the Biggest Thing Ever at the time made them lose control. Especially Mercury. The hardest moment for the guitarist was in May '74 in Uris Theater in New York when he collapsed and soon was diagnosed with hepatitis. The now 68 years old guitarist admits that his depression became very deep in the beginning on the 90s and he came to a suicide attempt."
PD: In the eyes of some fans, the drugs, the alcohol, the men, the women appear like a means to escape this madness.
BM: But this madness is very nice, we are very lucky to have this madness.
RT: I tried them all, nothing really affects me. (laughs)
[TSMG original video]
"When the band recorded "The Show Must Go On" in 1990, the health of Mercury had worsened. The singer could barely walk, but told his colleagues "Give me more songs, write more". May describes him as fearless towards the illness. According to him, Freddie surely would have approved of Adam."
PD: Mr. Lambert, do you have...
AL: You can call me Adam, no problem!
PD: Thank you!
"Adam Lambert shared with me that he does not like special treatment. He thinks it is absurd that some stars forbid eye contact and considers it important to be surrounded by people who will tell him "No" from time to time."
PD: Can you recall a funny story with a fan?
AL: Well, you know, for me it is very exciting to join these boys. I believe that there are people who now come to the concerts, and have been to your concerts too, back in the 70s and 80s. For me it is very interesting to meet fans who have seen the band through the years, to hear their stories and impressions.
RT: We have a very wide audience. We have new fans who have never seen Queen, we have middle-aged fans, and older people as well. Everyone is welcome.
PD: Thank you - my father has been waiting for you for 40 years!
(kryptoNote: Petja Dikova is the daughter of a very popular Bulgarian journalist and a very popular Bulgarian actress)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJUtUH7iwNY
Translation by Krytoman68 (Many thanks)
unfortunately dubbed but you can hear a little if you concentrate really hard, lol... it is long, with advertisement interruptions, so wait and don't close!
COOL-T (a word play in Bulgarian, as the word "Cult" is pronounced "Coolt", so it is a kind of "Cool Cult")
The presenter is called Petja Dikova (PD).
Note that this is a translation of a translation, and as such is not exactly what was said in English, but I hope I captured the meaning...
PD: My next guests Brian May and Roger Taylor have not changed at all since the first time I saw them 8 years ago in the Dominion Theatre. This is another proof for me that this is the way with real icons. Three days ago, again in London, the legends sat just 20 cm in front of me. With them was also the rock idol Adam Lambert. The aesthete Lambert did not fail to note that we were wearing the same nail polish - in London I was wearing back nail polish
.
After over 40 years of waiting, QUEEN and Adam Lambert will be in Sofia on June 23rd on the stadium "Vassil Levski".
(kryptoNote: this is incorrect, "Vassil Levski" is the national stadium, while they will play on stadium "Georgi Asparuhov" which happens to be the home of the soccer team "Levski". Not quite the same thing...)
[BoRhap video playing]
PD: How are you doing?
BM: We are doing well.
PD: You are not as nervous as I am...
BM: We are also a little bit nervous.
PD: That makes me feel a little bit better.
PD: Thank you for the time you are giving us. Please let me start with a question for Mr. May. You were in Sofia just a month ago.
BM: Yes, it was recently. And I know how to pronounce the name that I did not know earlier, in the first 50 years of my life - "S*O*fia", not "Sof*I*a". It was fantastic.
(kryptoNote: This is about the emphasis on the O in the name of the city, while my daughter's name, written exactly the same, is pronounced with emphasis on the I. It is already a source of confusion in my PC's file system when I try to figure out what is my baby stuff and what was saved while at my birthplace...)
PD: Did you have time to see our city, to try the local food?
BM: Yes, I tried some food, it was very tasty. The hotel was very nice, we also had a little tour. It's s a beautiful city, Sofia. We were able to see places outside of Sofia, because we travelled by bus for our tour. It's beautiful, and I am very happy we will come back to play there, play Queen songs.
PD: Thank you!
[AL on AI audition / RiR footage]
"Brian and Roger see Adam in 2009 on the stage of American Idol, the rest is history. Adam wears make-up and does not hide, that he is gay. In fact, the media describe Lambert as the first openly gay artist to top the music charts. Queen and Adam Lambert perform together since 2011."
PD: Please tell us more about the concert on June 23rd.
RT: Well, it's a ... we will be on stage with the wonderful Adam Lambert, he will be singing, and you will hear a lot of our hits. I hope this will be our most spectacular show yet. We keep on working on the show to make it more spectacular, we want everyone to have a wonderful time. This will be my first time in your country and I cannot wait to come. I want to see Bulgaria and I hope that everybody will have a great time.
AL: It is going to be a big party. In short, a hell of a party.
PD: I am sure of it. How long will be the concert?
BM: Well, usually we play at least two hours. I don't know how long we will be allowed to make it in this situation
AL: We might have a limit, but we will sing as long as we can.
PD: Back in the day, did Queen plan to come to Bulgaria?
BM: It was not possible in those days, because we could not come behind the Iron Curtain. It was our dream which can now realise.
[WWRY video RiR/original]
"Doctor Brian May says he would prefer to be remembered for his animal rights work instead of his music or his scientific work. However he likes to point out that when they were recording We Will Rock You, he used his physics knowledge in the recording studio, but he does not reveal how exactly. Actually, even before Queen became legends, the group had a guarantee for success with a student of astrophysics (May), of dentistry (Taylor), and graphical design (Mercury). "
PD: Mr. Taylor, I have read your interviews, you said that he (Freddie) was your best friend. How would you describe him?
RT: Well, he was very funny... Adam is also very funny. But he had a great sense of humor. He had a vision, and the group was very democratic. If we assume that Freddie was a leader as Brian said, because he was in front in focus, he was very generous, and we were partners. It was nice and we miss him.
[IWTBF video]
"Before Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor play in a band called Smile. May founded it by posting a "looking for a drummer" announcement on a school notice board. Taylor, at the time a student, saw the announcement. Mercury joined them in 1970. "
PD: While you were still in Smile, what were your impressions of Mercury when you saw him for the first time?
RT laughing
BM: Oh, he was quite shocking. He was part of a band called "Sour Milk Sea", and another band which was called "Wreckage", just like "Smile" was. We were just boys.
"Freddie comes up with the name Queen, and as his colleagues remember, he was fully aware of the gay associations it would cause."
BM: He was constantly running. He was like a frenetic dervish. He was screaming his lungs off, he still had not learnt how to control it. But he learnt very quickly. Especially in the recording studio. When he went into the studio and heard how his voice came back , he knew what to do, what was that final step needed to become a great vocalist.
RT: Yeah, we thought he was half-mad back then. When we saw him for the first time, as Brian said, his voice was not under control. It was... amusing. But we had this... magic, this vitality.
[NYE concert TSMGO]
"Brian and Roger say that Adam has the Freddie-Factor. He is a tenor and can hold a note for 22 seconds. His real hair color is ginger, he has even worked in a coffee shop. At the age of 19 he left college to sing on cruise ships. And before taking part in American Idol, he lost 10 kg of his weight."
PD: How much of a big task is it to fill the shoes of Freddie Mercury?
BM: Oh, these shoes are Adam 's own.
AL: I bring my own shoes to the concerts. However in the beginning it was difficult. It was difficult to choose how to approach the task...
RT: (Laughing) He had such small feet...
AL: ... and of course when I studied the songs, and I am a fan of Queen, there was a certain amount of Freddie that was naturally part of the way I sing the songs, I cannot avoid that. He was incredible. But for me was also important to find a way to make them my own, because I think the audience wants to see an authentic emotion, not an imitation. I also believe it would have been disrespectful to the audience if I tried to imitate Freddie, and disrespectful to Freddie.
[WWTLF iHRMF video]
PD: When you have tens of thousands of women, men, who are screaming your name, ready to do anything, how do you remain normal?
BM: I don't know if we remain normal.
AL: I have never been normal.
BT: We try, but we aren't normal.
AL: That's part of the secret.
[TGP video]
"According to May, in their most active years, everything came to them in large doses, and could damage and destroy them. Being the Biggest Thing Ever at the time made them lose control. Especially Mercury. The hardest moment for the guitarist was in May '74 in Uris Theater in New York when he collapsed and soon was diagnosed with hepatitis. The now 68 years old guitarist admits that his depression became very deep in the beginning on the 90s and he came to a suicide attempt."
PD: In the eyes of some fans, the drugs, the alcohol, the men, the women appear like a means to escape this madness.
BM: But this madness is very nice, we are very lucky to have this madness.
RT: I tried them all, nothing really affects me. (laughs)
[TSMG original video]
"When the band recorded "The Show Must Go On" in 1990, the health of Mercury had worsened. The singer could barely walk, but told his colleagues "Give me more songs, write more". May describes him as fearless towards the illness. According to him, Freddie surely would have approved of Adam."
PD: Mr. Lambert, do you have...
AL: You can call me Adam, no problem!
PD: Thank you!
"Adam Lambert shared with me that he does not like special treatment. He thinks it is absurd that some stars forbid eye contact and considers it important to be surrounded by people who will tell him "No" from time to time."
PD: Can you recall a funny story with a fan?
AL: Well, you know, for me it is very exciting to join these boys. I believe that there are people who now come to the concerts, and have been to your concerts too, back in the 70s and 80s. For me it is very interesting to meet fans who have seen the band through the years, to hear their stories and impressions.
RT: We have a very wide audience. We have new fans who have never seen Queen, we have middle-aged fans, and older people as well. Everyone is welcome.
PD: Thank you - my father has been waiting for you for 40 years!
(kryptoNote: Petja Dikova is the daughter of a very popular Bulgarian journalist and a very popular Bulgarian actress)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJUtUH7iwNY