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Queen spend five days in Budapest, Hungary

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July 1986 – Queen spend five days in Budapest, Hungary 🇭đŸ‡ș They travel around the country while the cameras and fans follow them

The band will perform one of the largest concerts ever staged at the NĂ©pstadion (“People’s Stadium”) and the first Western Rock Concert behind the then Iron Curtain. It was of such significance to the Hungarian authorities and film industry that a group of the country’s top film cameramen and technicians were brought together to film it for posterity.

“Queen arrived with hydrofoil from Vienna in a very good mood. Because of the film everybody needed to be appeared, it never was hard in the case of three members.

The drummer, Roger Taylor adores auto races, they took him to Hungaroring for go karting. Brian May did hot air ballooning. Freddie Mercury went shopping to buy antiques at Szentendre. He visited VĂĄsĂĄrcsarnok as well, but he wisely wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, so no-one recognized him.

John Deacon the bassplayer was a though nut. They could got him hardly to take a walk in front of the hotel in the Danube promenade at least. At the end, it turned out to be the cutest scene, because a british girl recognized him and they talked a bit.

John is a father of six, he keeps himself away of public by now, but then he also had a great time in the Hungarian capital.

There’s also an eyewitness, SzilvĂĄsi TamĂĄs who worked in the Intercontinental then, and he was chosen to serve the hot and cold buffet to the band who celebrated Roger’s birthday.

While Roger was eating the porterhouse steak with green pepper sauce one after another, Freddie was busy with the tape recorder, John invited TamĂĄs out to the balcony of the presidential suite, and asked him to show where do we Hungarians keep the moon, because he can’t see it. Or there isn’t even moon in this big communist scandal? He laughed a lot, and he kindly gave autographs with the rest of the band with pleasure, onto everything the staff put in front of them.

The overall opinion was that they were kind, happy and grateful for everything. And absolute professionals. Freddie spent hours in NĂ©pstadion the day before the show to set the lights, to be perfect. He did the same with the audio of the final film material.”

Credit: Hulej Emese via NƑk lapja Periodical
(Translated)

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Queen filmed the video for ‘The Invisible Man’ at Pinewood Studios, London

Queen filmed the video for ‘The Invisible Man’ at Pinewood Studios, London

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26 July 1989 – Queen filmed the video for ‘The Invisible Man’ at Pinewood Studios, London

It was directed by Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher (Torpedo Twins).

The third single from The Miracle was ‘The Invisible Man’, and the Torpedo Twins were given the task of bringing the imaginative video concept to life. Filmed in Pinewood Studios, home of many a Bond movie, the video depicts a typical British household: mother, father, teenage daughter and young son, who just happens to play The Invisible Man computer game containing the band, who then break out of the game and perform in the boy’s bedroom.

The video was shot on 26th July 1989: Roger’s 40th birthday, and, to celebrate, a huge cake was wheeled in midway through filming and a large amount of champagne helped make the remainder of the shoot more enjoyable. đŸŽ‰đŸ„‚

Once again, here Queen were proving their worth as innovators: the video used computer animation, most notably during Brian’s guitar solo, when a legion of Brians effectively become the Red Special orchestra, who are capable of firing laser beams from their guitars 🎾

“This was very ahead of its time at the time, and I think it goes very well with the song. I think it was a good inventive single. I love Brian’s guitar solo in the middle, and the way that was done, I think it’s very clever and I think it’s a neat little video.” – Roger Taylor

“I think this is one of our better efforts again, I think it’s a really good one. Lots of innovation, some very clever effects, and the shooting. Telling the story of how this little boy is playing his video games and the characters come to life and become part of his life. Again, I think the idea’s been done quite a bit since, it doesn’t seem so original now, but it was pretty original in those days.” – Brian May

The video, which certainly received a modicum of airplay in the UK (the single was a Top 20 hit there), has since become a firm favourite amongst Queen fans, appearing on both The Miracle EP and Greatest Flix II VHS releases. It was also included on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD in 2003.

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Gallery update on the set of ‘Radio Ga Ga’ promo videoGallery update

Gallery update on the set of ‘Radio Ga Ga’ promo videoGallery update

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Queen on the set of ‘Radio Ga Ga’ promo video, directed by David Mallet and shot over a three day period in November of 1983 @ Shepperton Studios in London.

The video for the track has since become a firm favourite among both casual and diehard fans alike, and was one of the most expensive Queen ever made. At a cost of more than ÂŁ110,000, the epic piece was shot by David Mallet and paid homage to Fritz Lang’s 1926 expressionist masterpiece Metropolis.

Roger Taylor penned this fantastic song as a commentary on television overtaking radio’s popularity and how one would listen to radio in the past for a favourite comedy, drama, or science fiction programme. It also addressed the advent of the music video and MTV, which was then competing with radio as an important medium for promoting records.

At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards the video for “Radio Ga Ga” would receive a Best Art Direction nomination. Roger Taylor was quoted:

“That’s part of what the song’s about, really. The fact that they [music videos] seem to be taking over almost from the aural side, the visual side seems to be almost more important.”

Originally, this was “Radio Ca-Ca,” which was something Roger Taylor’s son Felix exclaimed one day in trying to say the radio was bad (“radio, CACA!). The phrase stuck with Taylor and inspired the anti-commercial radio themes in the lyrics. Of course, the band changed Ca-Ca to Ga Ga but if you listen carefully, you can still here the Ca-Ca

ON THE SET OF ‘RADIO GA GA’ PROMO VIDEO
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“We were in Montreux Switzerland, back in 1978,

“We were in Montreux Switzerland, back in 1978,

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“We were in Montreux Switzerland, back in 1978, working on new material, it was my birthday and a very jolly happening. Especially Freddie Mercury was feeling good. Early in the evening he was drinking, something he rarely did by then, he was all ‘work work work’.

So he got drunk very fast. At one moment, we were partying in an old castle, he climbed up on the balcony and from there he jumped to the chandelier and swung there for a few minutes in a way it would make Errol Flynn blush. After the swing he landed on a table filled with drinks and food. It’s a miracle he didn’t hurt himself. The day after this, he couldn’t stop laughing about it.”

Roger Taylor

Freddie later said, “I have always wanted to swing from a chandelier. And when I saw this exquisite cut-crystal thing dangling there, I just could not resist it!“😂

A Beautiful picture of Freddie and Roger snapped by Neal Preston during Queen’s North American ‘Jazz’ Tour 1978

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time Waits For No One’ is released for purchase on CD and a picture disk 7″

time Waits For No One’ is released for purchase on CD and a picture disk 7″

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26 July 2019 – Freddie Mercury’s ‘Time Waits For No One’ is released for purchase on CD and a picture disk 7″

The original recording of the song ‘Time’, which Dave Clark co-wrote with John Christie, came out on the soundtrack for the musical of the same name, it was produced with layers of backing vocals and heavy drums.

Dave was warned about working with Freddie, he would be difficult , he was a perfectionist, but it was actually quite a marvelous experience for him. Freddie’s humour was one of the things that made working with him such a delight for Clark.

“When Freddie came into the studio and it was just Mike Moran on the piano and him,” says Clark, “it really was fantastic. Then we got into the track and we did 48 tracks of backing vocals, which had never been done in Abbey Road before. The final version was a 96-track production. Freddie plunged in full force creating a timeless epic. I loved it, Freddie loved it. It was a joint idea to make it different that way. Freddie, at that stage, liked innovative things, so that’s what we aimed to do.

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July 27, 1986, Queen performed at NĂ©pstadion, Budapest

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July 27, 1986, Queen performed at NĂ©pstadion, Budapest “Magic Tour”

That evening, Queen gifted their fans by learning and performing a quintessential Hungarian folk song, ‘Tavaszi szĂ©l vizet ĂĄraszt’ (Spring Winds Floods water)

One of the most beautiful and well-known Hungarian folksongs is ‘Tavaszi szĂ©l vizet ĂĄraszt’ (Spring wind floods water), in which water, the source of all life, appears as the metaphor of love. It is the first song that Hungarians learn and continue to cherish, as it has become a solid part of their culture and identity.

Upon arriving in Budapest, Freddie insisted on learning the well known folk song so he could perform it at their concert.

During the acoustic set that evening, Freddie and Brian performed the traditional Hungarian song, before which Freddie admits, “Now comes the difficult bit.” Even though he’s clearly seen reading the lyrics scribed on his hand to make sure his pronunciation was as accurate as possible. The performance is magnificent and the audience are very appreciative of the gesture.

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