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radio-nano · 6 years ago

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Queen concerts were also successful beause of those guys!

Scroll if you want to learn who these guys are and what they did. You will also read about a Lord, a henna user, who had best haircut and Queen’s favorite food. (I wrote in bold letters the parts about Queen members and some funny facts.)

1. a"rigger". They assemble the stage (all 6000 square feet of it). Sometimes this can take two days, so there are two stages on this European tour. While one is being taken down at one venue, the other is being assembled at the next.

2 another "rigger".

3 John "Tumbridge" Wells, one of the security men responsible for looking after the members of Queen. "Tumbridge" looks after Brian May, escorts him wherever he goes and keeps the fans from getting too close.

4 Wally Gore group security, he looks after John Deacon

5 Alex Alexandrou, carpenter. There's two of us, and we put up all the stage scenery. I put up the walkways around the back and sides of the stage wich Freddie runs along. He likes to run on carpet, so I have to lay that down everywhere.

6. Chris "Crystal" Taylor, group coordinator. He organises all of the personal Queen crew, roadies, the security men. He makes sure they all know what they have to do and when they have to do it.

7. Jim Deveney, monitor engineer. "I sit out of sight on stage. I have to make things sound good so that the band can hear what they're doing. The sound comes through these speakers called "monitors" wich face onto the stage. The worst act I ever worked for was Rod Stewart. He was really miserable.

8. Joe Fanelli, Freddie's main personal assistant, who cooks for him at his London Home. "He likes anything really exotic, North African food, curries, good French cooking. He hates veal and doesn't eat carrots. Lambs is a bit iffy too. Brian's vegetarian but he eats fish. John likes very simple food, pie and mash and Roger likes anything but lamb.

9. Tony Williams, in charge of Queen's wardrobe. "I have to look after all of the band's stage clothes. That includes lots of details like making sure all the changes of clothes they need are backstage (Freddie changes about three times each performance), labelling the band's stage shoes (because they all wear the same stripey Adidas), and looking after Freddie's special moustache scissors. Also I have to wash all of their clothes in my hotel bedroom. My bath is always full. And Brian May has been using all this red henna do dye his hair and it comes out all over his shirts. It's very hectic".

10. Brandan Hyland, group security

11. One of the 15 "truckers" who each drive a massive 40 feet lorry loaded up with sound and lighting equipment. (For extra money they also operate the spotlights wich "follow" the group around stage).

12. Brian "Jobby" Zellis. one of Queen's personal road crew.

13 Brian May, Queen's guitarist.

14 John "Moxy" Glover, Roger Taylor's personnal roadie. "Basically I have to look after his drum kit and set it up on stage. I have to keep him supllied with drum sticks. He has sticks made with his own name on and he uses about ten sets a show. I got a bit drunk with Status Quo's roadies in Paris earlier this tour, and started throwing all his sticks in the audience.

15. Terry Giddings, group security.

16. Dieter Breit, physiotherapist for the group and crew. He has to look after any sprains and injuries that anybody might suffer, e.g. a sprained guitar-playing finger which needs massaging on Brian May's valuable hand.

17. A lighting assistant.

18. A "rigger"

19. Peter "Ratty" Hince, one of Queen's personal road crew. "I have to look after John Deacon's bass guitars and Freddie's guitar and special radio microphones (the one that don't have a fead) and keyboard instruments. I have to make sure that everything is exactly where it should be on stage, otherwise Freddie particularly will glare and let me know if anything's wrong. He's very particular about things being just right. Personally I don't enjoy these tour as much as the old ones. Nowadays ther's too much equipment, too many hangers-on, and everybody's trying to be important."

20. John "Collie" Collins, one of Queen's personnal road crew. "I'm the spare man, really. I work with Ratty and the piano tuner, help to see that everything is where it should be at the right time. Do you know I got married yesterday! I celebrated the wedding with the band and crew. It had to be squeezed in during the tour.

21. Roger Taylor, Those "shades"! That turned up collar! Must be Queen's drummer.

22. A trucker

23. Another trucker.

24. A rigger.

25. Another rigger

26 John Deacon, youn know , Queen's bass player, the one with the good haircut.

27 Tom "Midget" Foehlinger, sound monitor

28 An unknown person who sneaked in

29 Mickey Conafray, trucker

30 Mick Riddle, caterer

31 A lighting assistant

32 Albert Sutton, truck driver. "I carry the sound system, or some of it. We don't see the band or the road crew most of the time, because we travel ahead of everyone else. We have to get to the site before they do, and although we help with the setting up, we're off for two days while the rest of them are working on the concert. There are 15 "truckers" on this tour, plus the bus wich takes the road crew and sometimes the band. The worst thing about this job is being away from home for a long time when you're on tour. And the best thing is...erm maybe that should be a secret".

33. A caterer

34 Dave Lewis, another Caterer

35 A sound monitor.

36 Stave Benjamins, one of Queen's personal road crew, or "roadies" as they hate to be called. They look after all the instruments, microphones and amplifiers which Queen use on stage, setting them up, tuning them, and keep them clean.

37. another trucker"

38. Dave Thomas, caterer. I've been catering for Queen since 1975, every tour. The band eat the same food as everyone else, but they do have certain favorite foods. After a show they usually like an omelette or sometimes beans on toast or occasionally a steak au poivre. They're also pretty fond of Indonesian cooking".

39. Rex Ray, second sound engineer. He mixes the sound for all the support groups.

40. Spike Edney, keybordist and second guitar player: " My biggest fear is that it might get too damp, which makes the synthesisers cut out. I just pray that I'm out of clouting range of Freddie if that happens. He might not realise why I'm not playing and he'd be very upset if he thought I was daydreaming of something. But Queen on the whole are great to work with and they get drunk a lot too. Champagne every night, it's great!

41. Simon tutchener, lighting director. "I operate the main lighting console during the concert. It took three weeks to rehearse. I have a crew who set all the lights up, and 14 spotlights operators who I control through an intercom system and one man on a "Ver-lite", plus a man on the colour changer computer, plus a man on a computer which controls the up and down movement of the whole lighting rig, and then there are a few bits on stage, including Brian May special spaceship thing which comes down during his solo spot with all the flashing lights and..." (that's quite enought about lighting. Ed)

42 Stage rigger, who helps to set up the 6000 square feet of stage (all carpetted)

43 Sylvia Reed, assistant to the tour manager, Gerry Stickells. She is really a personal secretary.

44. James "Trip" Khalaf, chief sound enginer: "I mix the live sound for Queen, and I'm in overall charge for the half a million watts of PA (ie sound system. pa means Public adress) that we're carting around.

45. Lord Frederick Lucan of Mercury. You know him. Freddie.

46. "Phoebe", one of Freddie's personal assistants. These people help to arrange Sir Frederick's day, making sure he gets to appointments on time, and taking care of all those little details, which keep him happy.

47. A rigger

48. Lyndsey Beckingham, caterer. One of a team of five who feed the crew and the group. The caterers have their own van to transport all the food, cookers and fridges necessary to feed up to 60 people three times a day.

49 Bill Louthe, sound monitor. One of the assistants to the chief sound engineer, who sets up the massive sound system making sure it works perfectly, and run around while Queen are on stage, putting things right ( like tangled wiring) and making sure that there are no problems which could cause any deterioration of the sound quality.

50. Dave Mills, head of backstage and front of stage security. "My job is to stop any skirmishes or fights by pulling people out, people who faint, and putting in the hands of the first aid people. Earlier on this tour, in Dublin, I pulled out a young man whose ear was barely hanging on by a thread, probably because some idiot threw a glass."

51 Gerry Stickells, tout manager. The most important poeple on the tour. He looks after the road crew, from the lighting team to caterers; hiring them, making sure that they're paid and that everyone's alright. (he even remembers every crew member's birthday, making a fuss of them so they get too miserable). The other important thing he does is to go out months before the tour to look at the planned concert sites and to make all the thousands of arrangements that need to be made in advance. He's been working with acts like Rod Steward and Elton John and has organised Queen's road tour for 11 years. "They have to be highly-strung crazy people, they have to in order to ware themselves up to perform. So I admire them, yes. But I wouldn't want to socialise with them. Soon as this tour is over I'll go home and watch television."

52 Mike Weisman, production and stage manager. "I'm in charge of seeing that the stage and scenery is all but together properly. We work all day to get everything right. I have to coordinate all the work of the riggers and carpenters."

#brian may #freddie mercury #queen #queen band #bohemian rhapsody #roger taylor #rogerina #freddie #john deacon #disco deacy #john deacy #deaky #disco deaky

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