Queen have posted episode 41 of season two of their YouTube series, The Greatest, which goes behind the scenes of what it takes to create a Queen show.
This week, Brian May and Roger Taylor reveal their unique philosophy to encores.
Taylor says, “I think audiences these days are aware the encore isn't really the old-fashioned kind, which was, ‘Oh, that was so wonderful, we actually want more’. It's built into the show. You’re expecting to play it. They're expecting to hear it. And our encores have very well-known songs. It would feel quite weird if they'd come to a show and we hadn't played them. So it’s not a secret.”
And May adds, “You have to go off and refresh at that point because you've given everything and you're like a wet rag at the end of what we've done after two-and-a-half hours. You know, you need to go off, change your clothes and take a deep breath for that final push.”
Since 1977, they've ended the majority of their shows with “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions.”
“It's that participation thing,” says May. “The fact the fans can stretch their bodies upwards to the sky and sing and chant and stamp and clap to 'Rock You' and 'Champions' is kind of an unbeatable thing. You can't really follow that...
“How do you want to send people out? It's a big question, which we do ask ourselves. You know, what do you want to have in people’s heads as they go out? And I think it's fulfillment. It's like good sex. You know, you want to come out of it thinking, ‘Yeah, that was everything it should have been’. And you want people to be talking to each other: ‘Ah, that was awesome. Do you remember the bit where…?’ Just like we used to as kids when we left The Who shows.”
The Greatest episode 42 will be posted at its usual time -- this Friday at 7am ET.
In Other Queen News....
Brian May returned home to England following the Queen+Adam Lambert U.S. tour, but it wasn't a happy homecoming.
As we reported last month, while May was here, his driver of 30 years, Phil Webb, died from a heart attack.
A memorial service was held on November 20th and May posted about it, saying, "I haven’t been able to write an Instagram post since the tour finished and I finally journeyed home. Just didn’t have it in me. It’s a very strange feeling waking up in your own bed after seven weeks during which you CANNOT get back to your family … even if one of your dearest friends dies back home. Waking up at all the wrong times with an ache in your heart and most of your limbs aching too. Exhaustion, jet lag, and a lot of grief and disorientation -- not the popular picture of the life of a life-long supposedly road-toughened rock star. But then … seeing this man committed to his grave …. This man, without a trace of exaggeration, was a true modern-day knight in shining armor. Big man with a loud voice, a deep cockney dialect, with the roughest vocabulary imaginable -- not at first sight making his heart of gold apparent …"
While May headed back to England, Roger Taylor remained behind where on Friday he attended the Adam Lambert held the grand opening of their new business venture, The Wild, an LGBTQ+ club in West Hollywood.