Another day, another report of a Queen related event.. And what an event it was...
It is 2002 May 2nd, we are 10 days before the international Queen convention in Wales, and we are 12 days before the premiere of the Rock musical We Will Rock you, the tribiute to one of the most famous bands ever, what is the love of my life...
And it is so funny, there is so much to talk about..
And it is so difficult, where to start...
.
There are 3 reasons why I am writing this, and I go to try now to tell them all in a proper way to you.
First of all it is about Queens Day, second it is about the upcoming musical, and third (the most important one) is because of the performance of Brian May and Roger Taylor in Amsterdam at Queens day...
But let me start, ON with the show!!
As you most likely know we have our Queen here, in Holland, Queen Beatrix.
Her mother, the former Queen Juliana, already did "make" that we have one national day for the queens' family, what was at April 30th, her birthday (of the mother of our present queen).
When Queen Beatrix got at the throne she decided that that day should remain the national celebration day and consequently it is a celebrational day, called Queens day, what is often mixed up with that it should be the Queens' birthday, what in fact is not true!
So Holland has its Queens' day, at April 30th, every year. Sometimes for us, Queen fans, that is confusing, but often it is a huge advantage for us, Queen fans, for it is not seldom that this day brings us extra attention for Queen.
Many times there are movies, clips and extra Queen music in the media, so that makes it even a more special day for us.
Holland is very nationalistic than, and the color of the royal family is orange. (because their backname is "van oranje" what means "of orange".
So, Orange is the color, and around the celebration of the Queen you see people in orange clothes, orange crowns, and the whole country is really crazy, it is impossible to imagine when you haven't seen it!
Celebrating Queens day is for many people a kind of traditions. The night before Queens day, is called Queens' night and in a lot of places there are a lot of events going on, where many, many people spent the night with celebrating and partying, it is really a very dutch traditiona and yes, I was part of it..
Together with my very close friends I went to Utrecht to party Queens' night. Jorge and me came from Rotterdam to Utrecht and went with Margreet, Bas and Lisette to a pub, where we spend a lot of hours in an immense crowd, listening to music, drinking a bit and having a great time.
As is well known, over 10 years ago the lead singer of one of the best bands ever, did pass away. Freddie Mercury, the man that was so much Queen, who gave us so much, so many wonderful new music, is still badly missed, I miss him daily, but on the other hand he is with me daily, in his music and inspiration.
A lot of publicity is going with it, and Brian and Roger, the two queen members who are still very active, did do a load of work to get the musical a real success.
The organisation had decided that it should be nice to put on Queens' day a Queen related event in Holland, where a load of people could gather...
One week before Queens day the preparations started for making a gig in Holland, at the huge podium in Amsterdam, for promotion of the Queen musical We Will Rock you...
It was o so crowded, the whole square was filled with over 100.000 people, and of course only a few (maybe 200) were really coming to see Brian and Roger...
100.000 people clapping their hands, what an audience, how incredible great that must have been for Roger and Brian to see so many people recognizing their songs!
Later in the show, when Brian sang, with his "thin" voice, the difference between the 2 singers was obviously and huge.
After this song Brian introduced a female singer, with the name Patti Russo. I did not hear of her before, but she had a good voice. Afterwards I heared that she is very famous in the US and that she also did some backinig vocals in Meatloaf, but I was not aware at that moment of performance that she was that person.
She did sing Another one bites the dust, and after a slow and calm start the song ended very passionated and filled with power.
Ooo, and than under pressure, again with that lady singing together with Roger, it was really sooo great to see them. As I said above, it was a strange atmosphere, because there were many people that not even were watching the stage, teenagers who never heared of queen in their life, I think, that were just talking and amazed by those old men on stage. And looking at us, who were screaming with us few! *smile*
And than, to me, the highlight came, and that was brian doing the slow version of Hammer to fall, really impressive. There was a lot of passion in it, and I think that Brians' voice was better than I heared it for a very long time!
what the hell we're fighting for....
And than the grand final came up,
(brian screamed...)
We Will Rock You, what an incredible song that is, with so many people clapping and singing....Really great, Brian did ROCK the stage!
The last song that came up, was of course (guess 3 times *smile*) we are the champions.
The fun of this song was that it was performed with one of the better dutch singers, Trijntje Oosterhuis, who has a very powerful voice, she made a good show of it, of course everyone could sing that song with the band...
It ended up with them all on stage, all, with a huge, huge ovation from the public, we were gifted with another wonderful thought about our dear friends from Queen!!!
We went home afterwards, with such a strange feeling. We were walking throuhg amsterdam, whree was soo much crows... but I did not notice it.. I was at a cloud, like in a huge dream, walking on and knowing that Queen lives forever
And Brian and Roger, they keep Queen alive, what is wonderful to know...
====~~~~++++`````
Special thanks to the stars that make this Queens' day so special:
Ina's pictures Cool, great and of course also Richards'
What Brian wrote about the press report
As at all good things also this event ended, too early, so we needed to go back with the night-train, that brought us from Utrecht to Amsterdam. There Jorge and me did spend a while and finally, at 6 am, we took the train further to Rotterdam.
So, we were on our way home and I did not be able to sleep at all, I was too much excited, and arranged that we met some friends as well, so we went with our 4 to the concert.
Before we could go I had a very nice phone call with my very dear friend from Deventer, who is a very huge K!ss fan too.... I love her alot, she's a close friend, but I want to tell a funny detail..
She did not notice Eric Singer to be the drummer before she was home and we had that other phone call about how it was!!!!
She was a bit "worried" why I didn't metnion her name, so there you have it, you're gladly added Har! xxx
On behalf of the impact that Queen had in rock music, the impact that they DID have and that they still DO have, it was decided to create a musical with the music of Queen. The preparations are long done and it finally leads to the fact that at May 14th 2002 there will be the first official Queen Rock Musical, We Will Rock You.
The premiere is in the dominion theatre in London
Of course a lot of promotion and commercial publicity is needed, and there are many, many ways of doing that.
The performance of Brian and Roger (I am sorry, I refuse to call it Queen, but the commercial and promotion only talked about Queen) was kept very secret. We only found out some hours before the concert that they really should be there, so it was really a strange day. We did celebrate the festivities of Queens' night, huge going out events the night before Queens' day, in Utrecht and on our way home we found out through an sms that Brian and Roger should perform.
We were with a good company. The young fans, Maaike and Jorge, who were hardly born when Queen performed for the last time, and the long-term fans, Jaye and me, who were fan long before the other two were borne.
That is one of the fabulous things, that young and old do love Queen music, it is really great to share it with people of all ages!
The music started with Roger singing Radio GaGa. What was the most remarkable for me was the fact that Rogers' voice was so incredible good.
What a start of the concert...
*clap clap*
Radio Gaga
*clap clap*
Radio Goo Goo
*clap clap*
Roger singing Radio GaGa was very great to see, Brian did do his guitar work and I was with those huge Brian fans, all 3 that were me had Brian as favorite, not me, sorry, my favorite is Roger, but I do LIKE Brians' music very, very, very much of course..
Next song that was coming up was Tie Your Mother down. I think that Brian is performing that song in EVERY concert that he gives, it is sure a lovely song, everyone knows it, it is good to play I guess and that way it was this time again. Brian almost did fall on stage with walking backwards, but he sang very nice and good. I think that both Roger and Brian were in very good shape, as well in voice as mental, they showed a lot of fun really.
The difference in this show was for us older fans (jaye and me) obvious and clear three.
No matter how good Patti was singing, Freddie is sadly missed in the performances. No matter how often Brian and Roger perform, no matter who sings with them. *sigh*.
Freddie, we miss you
Roger on drums, Brian on guitar and of course a prominent role for the bass player, who was Steve Barnacle.
The audience was silent, people were wondering what on earth this song was from, and us, the happy few Queen experts did feel silent and impressed by Brians' performance...
Next song (I am now listening to the sound files while I write this, that makes it very much "in the mood"... :):) was No One but you.
As Brian was introducing, and he sang next to Roger, you could see that they were far less emotional than in London, where all was more dedicated and loaded with Freddie memories... It was the moment that I felt the tear in my eye, it is such a touching song... It is such a nice combination, the raw sound of Roger and the sweet sound of Brian, they really make a wonderful harmony...
Remarkable was that they both did not play at the song, it was just them singing...
Than the show must go on, again sang with Patti. I realized at that moment that no matter how good singer that lady is (she is Really good), how much that I miss Freddie. The songs are queen songs, the sound is the queen sound, but no, it can not be queen anymore.. The show must go on, I agree.... Brian made some little mistakes in his guitar playing, but I think that only us, the experts did notice that.
I was also very impressed by Roger (again) that he did sing so much, behind his drum kit... 
Some things are history making, some things are immortal..
This day, Freddie etched a new picture in my soul
And it could not have been done with the ones that do love Freddie so much..
Thank you so much my dear friends, for sharing
May 3rd 2002
Hans
Jaye, who mailed me and sms'd me to some hours before the meeting that there was something going on, Maaike, who seems to be my very good company in the events that Roger and brian show up, Jorge, the portuguese bastard who enjoyed the gig very much, not unimportant that it was a free concert !!, Rien van Nispen, Ina/Richard, Maaike, Richard from who I was so unpolite to "copy" some pictures on this page (best things are copied, hm?), Hannie of the dutch fan club, who mailed that brian and roger should perform, what shows that there are benefits in being a member of the Queen fan club, Maki, who inspired me to write this report, Brian and Roger, and of course John and Freddie, without who Roger and Brian could never have done this...
Queen zoneconcert pictures
Queensday 2002Some more pictures, made in Holland
Order these wonderful pics through the dutch fan club
Step through the planets' countries
Back to the light:
This page did rock stars...