Into the 1980s

1981 was the year I left school and entered sixth form college. There had been a close circle of Queen fans at school, the members of which were an uncomplicated bunch, liking the lighter side of life and simply enjoying the music and the miscellaneous amusements associated with following the band. Sixth form college was different. The college was part of a school that had been a grammar school until a couple of years earlier, and the students here had pretensions of good taste and high intelligence. There were still Queen fans to be found here, but these guys were deadly serious about the music, with a few playing instruments in rock bands. Queen were still the choice of the odds, but the odds here knew all about music and musical instruments, going into detail about Brian May's self-built guitar. And these Queen fans were fans of the early Queen, of Queen the hard rock band. They were disdainful of pop. This was a far cry from my previous school, where I would re-enact scenes from Flash with my fellow Queenies. There really is nothing quite like dispatching war rocket AJAX to bring back his body... But these sixth form guys were serious musos, appraising the qualities of Bowie and Roxy whilst raving about Rush. Queen, I sensed, were considered something of a joke band, a bit tasteless and ephemeral, a band for the plebs. At the same time, there were serious musos around who were able to look beyond the extravagant image to identify the musical qualities of the band. Then came 'Hot Space' .... I rather liked it; others thought it an abomination.

It was much easier being a Queen fan in the sixth form than it had been at school. My secondary school was a grim place in the industrial north. The kids in this school were the 'alienated youth' that punk claimed to speak for, and large sections of that youth rallied to the call. I remember the violence and the spitting and the glue bags and the razor blades and lots more besides. Ugly. There was zero interest here in Freddie Mercury's ambition of bringing 'ballet to the masses.' So the Queen fans among us formed a tight little group of our own, occasionally the butt of others' jokes, but usually ignored as harmless oddballs and weirdos. Unless you were rock. It was different in the sixth form, where all the smart kids were doing A levels. You had to defend your musical tastes musically and culturally here. I had the support here of the serious rock fans, some of them members of rock bands, musicians who could actually play guitar and drums, and who appreciated Queen as rockers. I attended my first school gig watching one of the Queen fans in action on drums, and was staggered to see one of the teachers on lead vocals, leaping around the stage. It was some kind of validation; if you were odd, you weren't the only one. The fact that Queen were moving in the direction of dance, disco, and pop at this time, however, lost me that support. The drummer in the heavy rock band quizzed me as to what 'Hot Space' was like, as he pondered whether it was worth a purchase. I knew I was on the spot. I said it was an experimental album, but emphasised that it still contained some great rock material. I offered the one song, 'Put Out the Fire,' in support of my thesis. That's about all I had in support of my claims. And it's not a particular good song, either. I knew the band were changing, and so did everyone else. More tough times and awkward moments for yours truly, putting me on the defensive.  

But then came the concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl in the summer of 1982. Queen were red hot that day in June, and I returned to the sixth form brimming with confidence. Even the musos, who were normally to be found raving about the next great thing, were impressed; some even expressed an interest in Brian May's interminable guitar solo, which normally bored the pants off them. For the first time, I felt like something of an expert. For once, the band were not considered a joke; for once, the discussion was about the music rather than the image, and any implications that may have. I have to say, in all honesty, although I heard views, rarely complimentary, that Freddie Mercury was gay, I didn't hear that often and it made zero impact on me in any case. I liked the flair and the panache, the flamboyance and the extravagant gestures. But it never struck me one way or the other that Freddie Mercury was gay. Frankly, I didn't know and didn't care. It took a long while for the penny to drop with me. In retrospect, I wonder whether the blatant sexism of the band in some of its more notorious misadventures was designed to throw people off the scent. It made zero difference to me. American fans dropped the band in droves in 1984. They like their rock'n'roll straight. I just like rock'n'roll. I'll take Little Richard any day over bands with big, long macho hair (!) and little else. Freddie cut his long hair short and the American rock fans ran for the hills! But I digress. 'Hot Space' was something of a transition and a trauma. The rock fans, forever pining for 1974, lamented the break with the past, whilst others chided me on 'Back Chat.' They thought it was music that belonged in a gay club. It may well have come from there, but I don't see why the rest of us can't enjoy it too, I thought it a cracking single that should have been a massive hit. I'll stand by that view. 

University

I left sixth form college, went to night school and then to university. All the time I was sensitive to the different images and impressions of Queen among different groups of people. Older people were seeing them as less threatening; younger people were seeing them as part of the pop establishment, yesterday's big thing. 

Leaving sixth form, I went to night school at the local college of technology. I had dragged my feet in applying for university and had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I didn't fancy doing a degree one iota, but there seemed to be nothing else to do. So I stalled for time with another year doing A levels. Night school was an experience, because here I was now in the company of adults of all ages, young adults my age or a year or two older, and people in their forties and fifties. I was given a stark baptism, being made aware straight away that I was entering an adult world. I took my old folder to class, the one on which I had drawn the Queen crest and logo on the back. I made a point of touching it up with my pen during class, and received some rather condescending smiles and the odd smirk. I learned that adults are not too impressed by your childish enthusiasms. But the ones who did smile, I discovered, did quite like the band. And the younger folk my age were tolerant. Of what, I don't know and didn't ask.

The album 'The Works' came out early in 1984, and there followed a succession of smash hit singles. 'Radio Ga Ga' was huge, and boasted a striking and memorable video. 'It's a Hard Life' was a cracking song, too, harking back to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in some respects. Its release coincided with the final gathering of my old Queen friends from secondary school. We sat in the pub raving about 'It's a Hard Life.' At the same time, friends were going missing, getting jobs, leaving the area, going to university. When 'I Want to Break Free' was issued as a single, it was a return to the days when Queen fans were identified with something singularly odd. The video which accompanied the single was .. incredible. Although people remember the first part, in which the band members dress in women's clothes in parody of Coronation Street, many at the time were at least equally struck - or staggered - by the Nijinsky sequence in the middle, all writhing bodies as Freddie Mercury performed Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun with the Royal Ballet. I was deeply into heavy rock at this time, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Motorhead. Queen were in another dimension entirely. People were so busy being amused with the Coronation Street parody that they missed the really interesting bit of the video.