EXCLUSIVE: Queen’s “fifth member” Spike Edney has admitted he might have made a fortune from the band’s stage present.
Spike Edney was the musical director for Queen’s musical We Will Rock You (Picture: Getty)
Because the loss of life of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury on November 24, 1991 on the age of 45 his bandmates have stored the legacy of the music alive. A technique they did this was by staging a musical that includes the band’s songs. We Will Rock You formally launched within the West Finish on 14 Could 2002, following previews which had begun on 26 April, on the Dominion Theatre. To make sure that the present’s band did justice to their music Queen employed their touring keyboard participant and musical director Spike Edney to supervise proceedings.
The 74-year-old – extensively often known as the “fifth member” of the band – had performed with the group since 1984 and regardless of not being a fan of musical theatre, received a name off Jim Seashore – Queen’s supervisor asking him to take the reins on the present’s music. Talking completely to Specific.co.uk he admitted the present might have made him a multi-millionaire however he wasn’t enamoured of the concept of it. “I did not wish to be concerned in We Will Rock You. Jim Seashore known as me and he mentioned the musical’s going forward, we wish you to be in it. I mentioned, What on earth for? It is eight exhibits every week taking part in the identical factor.”
Spike Edney, seen right here with Brian Could, has labored with Queen in numerous capacities for many years (Picture: Getty)
For a musician who had paid his dues and carried out his “10,000 hours” having toured along with his personal band and dealing extensively as a contract musician with acts corresponding to Edwin Starr, this was unthinkable.
His worst fears have been realised virtually immediatrely. “I quickly discovered that there is little or no room in a West Finish musical band on your personal interpretation,” he mentioned.
“Think about when you sit down at a desk and you are going to kind a letter, and it is the identical letter day by day, and you understand that at 1 / 4 to 11, you will be placing a full cease on the finish of this sentence, and at 3.30 within the afternoon, you will be placing a hyphen right here, and at 5.30 it will likely be over. It’s like that.
“That terrified me. That’s not what I wish to do,” he candidly confessed. “In order that they mentioned, ‘Properly, you’ve got received to join six weeks, and that is the usual quantity.’ And I used to be counting the times. And all I needed to do whereas I used to be there was scream, ‘this isn’t how they (the band) play it. They do not play it like this’,” he laughed.
“On the finish of the six weeks, I believed, thank f*** for that. I am carried out. They usually mentioned, ‘Proper now you may prepare up individuals to cowl for you and you may have time without work’. So I recruited a dozen keyboard gamers, and for the following 14 years, I stored many of the freelance piano gamers in London employed, as a result of I might solely bear to take action a lot at anybody time.
“So I received it right down to the truth that I’d do a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, as a result of that is actually boring time anyway, after which I’d do the matinee on a Wednesday. However then I’d spend the remainder of the times having a life and never being that man who has to say to his spouse at 5.30pm each evening: ‘Proper, I am off to work now, and I am going to see you at midnight tonight. And that is how I stayed the course,” he admitted.
He confessed: “If I would have really labored each present, I might have been a multi-millionaire by the tip of the 14 years.” The present ran from 12 years in it is inital West Finish run however had additionally been two years in improvement.
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4 a long time on from first taking part in with Queen, Spike is now getting set to share his story in a collection of memoirs protecting his complete life and profession together with his time working with the rock legends. It falls into three volumes, the early years, the Queen years and the SAS (Spike’s All Stars) years. “I intend to get that out this 12 months however what I’m going to do is launch some chapters on Substack – simply to provide individuals a style of issues to come back,” he mentioned.
You may signal as much as learn chapters of Spike Edney’s guide by way of his web site
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