So are we going to talk about the fact that Brian has chosen to film the new Back to the Light storytelling videos against a remarkably similar backdrop to the oen in the original Back to the Light EPK in 1992 or….?
If only he still had that parrot shirt….oh wait!
I was gonna mention this but you beat me to it AND found the video, too. (It has a pinhole in the sleeve now, unfortunately. 🥺)
I guess they all liked clogs so much! Haha! Also, I really don’t know, why does Brian love clogs?? Anyone?
“As for the clogs? They’re comfortable and I have claustrophobic feet. I always go for trainers on stage these days. I don’t like wearing clogs when I’m performing, because, er… the guitar lead tends to catch under the heel” (“Cash for Questions”, Q Magazine, July 1998, https://brianmay.com/brian/mags&press/qjuly98/qjuly98.html). Also, from my fashion history textbook: “Clogs, with wooden soles, were especially popular over the period when platform soles were in vogue” (Eubank and Tortora, Survey of Historic Costume, fifth edition, page 561). I’ve seen photos of Freddie, Roger, and especially Brian in clogs, but never John. I could be mistaken though!
Thank you!! Ahaha, WAIT, I could have sworn that Deaky was wearing clogs in some of the Ridge Farm pics but now that I looked again… he isn’t?? :O Mandela effect?
Ahaha, in my Google search I did come across this picture however and if I’ve seen it before then I’d forgotten I had seen it, but my god, it’s glorious. Asahfhjagf Freddie oh lord XD
i know i’ve seen Deaky in clogs at least four times, though i don’t have pictures handy at the moment, i’ll find them. (i have a very photographic memory but context often escapes me 😅).
there was at least once outside, i think twice but it could be two photos from the same day; once when he and Rog and Freddie were holding those butterfly kite things (black clogs for that time); and i’m pretty sure he even wore them on stage once!
off to look for pictures, unless anyone else can find them first XD
Aha! Are those black clogs on Deaky, yay/nay? I think they are.
👀
looks like the white ones again to me…
I think it was in a blog post on his Soapbox or blog or what have you that Brian said they were in vogue at the time and they had just gotten back from a concert date in the Netherlands or something and they all bought them there.
Edit: Brian linked to a February 26, 2011 Telegraph interview with Roger Taylor about Ridge Farm:
“I’m in leather flares, and those very short shorts that Freddie Mercury is wearing were the fashion at the time; footballers wore shorts like that too. We had just come back from a tour of Sweden, hence those awful white clogs, and the dog that I’m holding belonged to the Andrews family, who owned the farm.”
Which leads me to believe that Roger and Freddie were like, “ok that fad is over let’s move on to more stylish and/or comfortable footwear.”
And Brian was probably like, “oMg nO, mOm! iT’s NoT a PhAsE! ClOgS aRe a WaY oF LiFe!”
I don’t even have a caption for this, I just.. gaaaahhh, I love this boy so much it hurtzzz
Our dear darling dancing queen
young and sweet
only seventy (four)
Dr. Brian May is really leaning into the nostalgia for the Back to the Light rerelease, isn’t he? 🥺😍
I thought he retired the clogs because they don’t exactly provide the stability or arch support an active septuagenarian would require. But here we are.
So, I was listening to yet another Brian May interview while I was cooking – and for some reason I couldn’t get the video to download so no audio post this time. Anyway, he talked about his father quite a bit.
I didn’t realise this, but apparently Harold was so disappointed in Brian for “throwing away” his education in order to dedicate himself to Queen full-time, the two of them went through an incredibly tough time and barely spoke to each other for a period of about 18 months. What made things even worse was the fact that Brian was living with Chrissy out of wedlock at the time, which Harold couldn’t deal with, being this pretty straight-laced guy. Sad, but unsurprising, for a man of his generation. I can’t imagine the amount of pressure that must’ve put on Brian. I would love to know whether it’s partly the reason he and Chrissy even got married. But that’s going too far into speculation territory for my taste.
Connected to this: I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with this anecdote: Queen at Madison Square Garden, 1977. Brian flies his mother, father, Chrissy and his newborn out on the Concorde – pretty cool, pretty flash, right? Now, what I DIDN’T know Harold actually helped work on the blind landing equipment for the Concorde. However, the May family being pretty poor, Harold would never have been able to actually afford a ticket on the plane he’d helped construct. So Brian gets them all a ticket, puts them up at the Plaza and tells his parents to order room service because “we’re rich now” (– which he definitely wasn’t yet at that time). After seeing the incredible reaction Queen got at the concert they shook hands and Harold acknowledged “I get it now, Brian.” This whole story resonates slightly differently to me now. It makes the gesture of flying them out there even more meaningful. Brian isn’t just saying “Hey look, Dad! The music thing did work out, so there!” but more “Dad, you deserve to experience this wonderful thing you poured so much hard work into.” – meaning not JUST the Concorde, but Brian himself. He’s saying that Harold is partly the reason why that audience is going crazy. He’s part of Brian’s amazing guitar sound. Brian wouldn’t be where is at that point without the help and support of his Dad. And I think Brian is a really beautiful person for showing his father that.
The wildcard—and how I’d love someone to write about it—would be this story from Chrissy’s POV. Harold was time-typically opposed to them “living in sin,” but how much worse would Chrissy’s parents have felt about their daughter “shacking up” with (in their eyes) a long-haired uni dropout?
So many questions: Were they expecting Jimmy when they married? (I should research dates.) If so, was the pregnancy accidental or had Chrissy felt it was her only chance to get Brian to step up to the altar? Did Brian’s parents even go to the wedding? (Was the band invited?) Was Chrissy happy? Did she suspect or know what Brian was up to on tour? Was she close to any of the “band girls?” (Is she in contact with any of them now?)
All of the Queen exes have been remarkably close-mouthed about what they went through. Possibly through NDAs, possibly because they don’t want to re-live the bad times, probably not to upset the kids, hopefully because they are simply decent people. (I do have a theory that Mary lives like Amelia Havisham amidst the decaying glories of Freddie’s possessions, but that’s for a post of its own.) Roger managed to stay friends with his exes; good on him for knitting multiple families together. Brian’s relationship with Chrissy seems destined to remain mysterious.
ANYway, dragging this back on topic, Chrissy’s reaction to the trip, how she interacted with the senior Mays on the flight (Ruth HAD to have cuddled Jimmy for a while so Chrissy could nap, she just had to), and watching the post-show reunion of father and son would all make a spectacular fic.
Oh yes, absolutely! There’s a lot to explore about that in fic. (But also, phew, I wouldn’t feel qualified to take that on…)
However, Jimmy was born in June ‘78, so they didn’t have to get married because of that. (In contrast to John and Veronica, where her pregnancy likely played a role).
Disclaimer: Pure speculation and conjecture and I’m a shit person because of this.
After reading about how Brian’s dad was upset with him “living in sin,” I always assumed that was a big factor into why he married Chrissie. Not that they were truly in love, but it was expected of him and she would make a good mum to his kids, so that’s just what you do as part of growing up and “adulting.”
That’s why I’ve said Brian married the first time for children, the second time for love. Also why I don’t understand how the Queen fandom on Instagram has a healthy amount of Brian/Chrissie shippers. Thinking someone will be a good mum to your kids — while sweet — isn’t my idea of all required dynamics for an OTP, but that’s just me.
(And as @quirkysubject said, Brian and Chrissie got married in 1976 and Jimmy was born in 1978, so it wasn’t a shotgun marriage. That was Deacy’s territory.)
I would even argue that if Brian was a millennial, he never would’ve married Chrissie. The familial and societal pressure wouldn’t have been nearly as strong.
I have source amnesia, but I remember an article about Emily’s wedding and Brian said he and Chrissie are in a healthier place now, but it took a while to get there.
