"In the presence of greatness": the Queen's audience remembered seeing Freddie Mercury in concert

SALT LAKE CITY – Queen members took 20 minutes to boost their careers. All they had to do was play simultaneously for nearly 2 billion people in the world.

These 20 minutes, staged at Wembley Stadium in London in 1985 and broadcast live around the world, have become legendary. Many rock stars have taken the stage at Live Aid's benefit concert – Paul McCartney, U2, Elton John, Led Zeppelin's Who, but Queen and singer Freddie Mercury, explain why we're here. remember. When people think of Queen, they think of Mercury on this stage, dressed in white, arm outstretched and clenched fist.

"That's what really increased my interest in Freddie Mercury," said Liane Hansen, who was among the 70,000 people at Wembley Stadium that day. "The place was crowded, shoulder to shoulder, and the music was amazing. It was seminal.

It's also the culmination of Bohemian Rhapsody, the new biopic of Queen / Freddie Mercury, to be released Friday across the country. While the film itself receives mixed reviews, the actor Rami Malek has been unanimously applauded by Mercury. Owen Gleiberman, of Variety, said the actor "assumes the role of Freddie Mercury as he was born." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Malek "digs so much into the role that we can not believe we are not looking at the real thing".

For Hansen, seeing the movie trailer was a bit surreal: it's been over 30 years since that evening at Wembley Stadium, but for her, it's almost as if it were yesterday.

"It's like a sensory memory, you know. You see something like that, and every part of your body and mind remembers being there, "she said.

Some of the biggest hits of Queen's entire Live Aid – "We Are The Champions", "We Will Rock You" – come from the album "1977 of the World". of the group. In 1977 and 1978, Queen played 47 tour dates, including one at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, now known as the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Jon Van Woerkom was 17 years old when he attended this show.

"He just took the stage and really, you know, just caught the audience," said Van Woerkom, who now lives in Roseville, California, about Mercury. "The audience was totally in the game."

Van Woerkom remembers the music. He also remembers the changing costumes of Mercury, which were numerous. Mercury adhered more fully to the live performance pageantry than almost everyone and wore all sorts of outfits during the News of the World tour – tight-fitting patent leather biker suits, black checkered jerseys and white with a plunging neckline – but, according to Van Woerkom, these meetings always complement the music instead of outperforming it.

"They were only masters," he said. "So for him, dying of AIDS was just a tragedy for music. An artist like Freddie Mercury – very creative, and this vocal range, even with age – could have continued to play. Such a creative artist makes you sad what the world has lost. "

Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, a victim of complications. Between Queen's Live Aid Live and the death of Mercury, the band no longer toured in 1986, but continued to produce new music. Although the reports on Mercury's condition circulated for years, he publicly announced the diagnosis of his AIDS only the day before his death. Six months ago, he and his fellow band members had filmed a video clip for the song "These are the days of our lives." Mercury seems emaciated and fragile. It was his last appearance on the screen.

"All those who had evil looked like this: skeletalHansen said. "And it was hard to take too. To see him rebound on this scene at Wembley, then six years later, he is a skeleton of his old self? Whoa.

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"Between 1985 and 1991, a lot people who have died (of AIDS), "she added," and you could see the physical signs of those who were dying, and that was a time when nobody was paying attention – for a long time. "He was one of the many , but everyone was sad. "Another bites the dust, you know, it was so sad because he could still make some very good music."

The singer made a ton of it during his lifetime. And those who saw it playing in person will always be witnesses.

"Music – it does not matter whether you're sitting in your room, on the road, at the church or at a Queen concert – there's something about live music and what's going on. It evokes, "said Van Woerkom. "By being there, what I left with, was that I was in the presence of greatness."