Brian May says Queen had no idea how "epoch-making" their iconic Live Aid set would be.
Queen Live Aid 1985
The ‘Don’t Stop Me Now' hitmakers’ guitarist has admitted that when he and his bandmates - late frontman Freddie Mercury and bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor, 71 - got off stage they just thought "that went kind of OK" and never envisaged the dual-venue benefit show at London's Wembley Arena in July 1985, which also featured performances from the likes of David Bowie and Madonna, would become a significant part of their legacy.
Speaking about the performance - which saw them perform mega-hits such as 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Radio Ga Ga', 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions’ - being recreated for their 2018 biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody’, in which Rami Malek portrayed Freddie, Brian told TalkRADIO: “It was so strange kind of reliving it for the movie.
“They recreated it so incredibly faithfully, and to be there on that set was really spine chilling; it brought it all back. And at the time, we weren’t aware of what an epoch-making thing it was, really. We came off [thinking], ‘Well, that went kind of OK.’ But we didn’t realise that it had made such a lasting impression on the ether. … It sort of lives on, doesn’t it?”
Speaking of Freddie's "wonderful” showmanship and stage presence, the 73-year-old rock legend added: “He had a great spatial awareness, and that’s something very important.
“If you’re working with people on a stage, you need to have musical contact, but you also need the kind of physical chemistry going on — the awareness of where you are and where you’re aiming your energy. Freddie was wonderful for that, and we just clicked from the very beginning.”
Tagged in Brian May Freddie Mercury