O2 London – Queen After Party: I was asked to supply the sound system and DJ at the After Party for Queen and Adam Lambert when they played at the O2 this year, It has turned out to be quite a year with regards Queen, when I was playing in Zanzibar earlier this year I was taking to Freddie Mercury’s birth place in Stone Town and then I have been asked to play at Freddie Rocks in Pikes Ibiza a night to celebrate his birthday. (Pikes is the location of some of Freddies most hedonistic parties) He was Farrokh Bulsara, born on September 5th, 1946, in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa to a Parsee family that practiced Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions.
Back to the O2, and the venues was packed with 14750 to see Queen with their new lead singer and the crowd was buzzing as I watched from backstage. After the event it was my turn to entertain band members, road crew, tour managers and VIP’s at the After Party in the green room of the O2.
Today, nearly 23 years after Freddie Mercury died of bronchopneumonia related to AIDS, Queen’s legacy – as one of rock’s biggest and most controversial bands – is still inseparable from him, whatever the success May and Taylor might achieve in the next few months on tour with Adam Lambert.
Queen begins and ends with Freddie Mercury. He embodied the band’s identity, its triumphs and failings, and he was the psyche whose loss it couldn’t survive. But in the beginning, there was no Freddie Mercury.
