Friday, February 8, 2019

10 Random Thoughts About the Bohemian Rhapsody Film


1 .This whole "Live Aid saved Queen" schtick doesn't wash. They had four hits the previous year (and played two of them during their set). On Now 4, released after the summer of 1984, they're Side 1 Track 1 (Radio Ga Ga): what more scientific proof do you want?  

2. It's hard to think of a pop star who lost their muse so comprehensively. He wrote all of Queen's big hits during the 70s, and then none during the 80s. How do you go from "Killer Queen" to "Man on the Prowl" in 10 years? Conclusion: don't grow a moustache.

3. I can't believe they didn't do the "Ah Mr Ferocious" scene with Sid Vicious.

4. I enjoyed the scenes of them recording A Night at the Opera in the countryside. Somebody should write a book about all the albums that were recorded at various farmsteads during the 70s.

5. Gwilym Lee really was Brian May. I don't think I've ever seen a better resemblance between an actor and a character in a biopic.

6. But Ben Hardy really wasn't Roger Taylor. Roger was a good looking guy, but in the film he looks like a squad member of the 1974 West Germany World Cup team.

7.  I have a slight suspicion that one of the motivations of the band for making this film was to get back at Paul Prenter.

8. The film has John Deacon as being about halfway between Derek Smalls and Balderick and I think this is a bit unlikely. I can't imagine he took too much nonsense from the others after "Another One Bites the Dust".

9. There's a scene where Brian May is taking the band through We Will Rock you and Freddie walks in. With a moustache. In 1977! This is madness. If you're going to be paying so much attention to detail that you make sure that he wears the right brand of trainers, you shouldn't be making these errors. 1977!

10. It's a pretty good film, and I speak as someone whose heart sank like a stone when I heard that they were making it.

3 comments:

  1. Re point 4: I, for one, would love to read a book about Rush recording A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres at Rockfield. The local coke dealers and groupies didn't get a wink of sleep when Lee, Lifeson and Peart in rural Monmouthshire, I'm sure...

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  2. That was one of the albums I was thinking of. the photos on the cover make it look more like a fiction writers' retreat than a rock band recording an album.

    There has to be potential in a film based on Hawkwind staying on a farm during the early 70s hasn't there?

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  3. Well the BBC did make a documentary about The 'Wind about a decade ago called Do Not Panic, it's been uploaded to You Tube.

    I suppose if you think about it, they were 'getting it together in the country' for a reason, to get away from the madness. Although when The Teardrop Explodes recorded at Rockfield, Julian Cope had his first introduction to acid. So, you never can tell. I guess the real country writing and recording retreat is somewhere like Bron-Yr-Aur or that dilapidated country house that Traffic occupied.

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