QUEEN THE SHOW MUST GO ON

BRIAN MAY and PAUL RODGERS talk to Jonathan Wingate about getting the Queen machine back on the road: “It’s not a marriage, but it’s a damn good affair.”

When news leaked out that Brian May and Roger Taylor had got together with Paul Rodgers to make a new album, you could hear the sound of the critics sharpening their knives, accusing the band of trampling over their legacy. Yet the ever-faithful Queen fans have stuck with them, despite the loss of their flamboyant leader, Freddie Mercury, in 1991.

They first toured with Rodgers three years ago, and May was at pains to point out that this was Rodgers “featured with Queen, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury.” While the idea of Queen without Mercury sounds like it could only lead them into a musical cul-de-sac, the first studio album from the trio (billed as Queen & Paul Rodgers) sees this seemingly unlikely triumvirate clicking together surprisingly well. It shouldn’t work, but if you ignore a few rather clumsy moments, it does. Rodgers has had the somewhat daunting task of bridging the huge gap between his blues-rock background with Free and Bad Company, and Queen’s grandiose, multilayered sound.

RC catches up with Brian May at his Surrey home, the day after putting the finishing touches to the new album, and while the reviews have been mixed, May is defiant about the media’s cynicism towards most of Queen’s post-Mercury musical activities: “I’m not …

by Jonathan Wingate
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