Brian May recently made a surprise appearance at the ‘Queen Rock Montreal’ concert movie’s London BFI IMAX premiere. During the event, the Queen guitarist talked about the remastered 1981 film and admitted its low quality was an embarrassment for him and Freddie Mercury. The 76-year-old guitarist explained the long process of fixing the sound by stating:
“For most of our career, this was a thorn in our side. It was something that was never right. It was badly mixed; horrible dry sound, which sounded terrible. It was badly edited and badly put together. It was really something we were embarrassed about. It took months and months of work [to get right].
May also expressed his satisfaction with the remastered version:
“I can’t tell you what a really wonderful job this is…of rediscovering what it was actually like for us to do this gig. It now feels like you’re there. It didn’t up to this point.”
Queen first filmed the ‘We Will Rock You’ concert movie in Montreal, Canada, in 1981. The band later released a live album, ‘Queen Rock Montreal,’ of their iconic performance in 2007. Last year, IMAX announced their new collaboration with Queen, digitally re-mastering ‘Queen Rock Montreal’ for the first time.
Brian May Denied The Existence Of Queen After Losing Freddie Mercury
When Freddie Mercury passed away in 1991, Brian May took the loss of his dear friend quite hard. In a 2021 interview with the Guardian, the guitarist mentioned that he wasn’t able to think straight after Freddie’s death and even denied the existence of Queen. However, later, he came to the realization that Freddie was with him even though he wasn’t physically here anymore. May explained his struggle to cope with the loss of his bandmate in detail:
“We just sat there in disbelief. And we didn’t get over it for a very long time – I’m not even sure we’re over it now – but there was a two-year period where we were grieving and behaving irrationally, almost denying the existence of Queen. I couldn’t bear the thought of being kept in that place. But you do get over it to a point. And now I realize that Queen is in me, and I am in Queen, and that can’t change. And we got to the point where it now seems like Freddie is with us. It doesn’t seem like he left anymore because he’s in everything we do. I can never have a single day without thinking about Freddie.”
May and the rest of the Queen members managed to overcome Freddie’s passing in time and dedicated their lives to honor his legacy. The remastered version of ‘Queen Rock Montreal’ is now in IMAX theaters and only available between January 18 and 21. You can see the dates and purchase tickets here.
You can watch the trailer for ‘Queen Rock Montreal’ via IMAX on YouTube below.
