20.00 on the evening of Friday 3rd September and I was hoping I was dreaming! No sound equipment set up, no computer connected to the beamer under the market, no food and drinks available, Tibor to arrive in 15 minutes…… Was this a preview of the weekend ahead? Thankfully everything that could go wrong happened in those 15 minutes and we had the best weekend ever. Within ½ hour all the food and drink tents were supplying their various foods, Indian, Indonesian, pancakes, sausages even vegetarian cannelloni to a hungry and thirsty public.
Tibor, the singer from the Hungarian band Queen Un-plugged Project, who had cycled 1,200 kilometres from Maribor in Slovenia to Montreux arrived perhaps 5 minutes late to a big round of applause from the assembled fans. They then made their way to the covered market where we were desperately trying to set up the projector for me to show some pictures from my collection. It happened and everybody’s eyes were glued to the screen while I filled in the time with stories of Freddie’s life and explanations of the pictures. Once this was over, back down to the statue where all of us were entertained, for the first of many times, by
The Royal Squeeze Box . They are a duo, piano accordion and voice who gave some wonderful renditions of Queen and Freddie songs over the weekend. It was almost as though whenever a band had finished playing, there they were.
Saturday started for me on the first boat trip to visit the Lake House and Freddie’s apartment. While on the boat I was thinking how beautiful the weather had turned out to be… 27 degrees on Friday and 28 today! By the time I got back the set-up for the concert under the market was happening and Queen Alive were having a sound-check. Once more Aaron and Roman, The Royal Squeeze Box, were singing both hits and some less heard songs. By the time Queen Alive took to the ‘frying pan’ on the lake there must have been about 500 people sitting or standing around the statue. There was even a power launch tied up to it for the whole day, with the occupants having a Queen party for those 12 hours!
Time for ‘Tea at the Palace’! While Rita and I were walking we commented on the fact that even at that distance we could still hear ‘
Dragon Attack ’ sound-checking! 70 people enjoyed the drinks and cake and more of my stories for about 1 ¼ hours and we then made our way back to the statue listening to ‘The Barcelona Project’ sound-check.
After dinner, Patrick Gallela and his band took to the frying pan and gave a rousing first part of their show very quickly after the crowd had some MORE of the ever present Royal Squeeze Box. We all then went back under the roof of the covered market to be present at the best of the four performances I have been present at of the Norwegian Choir Aquarius performing ‘
The Barcelona Project’ , which included the complete Barcelona album plus some more Queen songs. There was over 25 musicians on stage plus Marius Holth and the beautiful soprano voice of Karin Ten Cate! There was easily 800 people cheering and clapping the end of each song and they had to encore Barcelona and Guide Me Home/How Can I go On before they were allowed to leave the stage!
Back at the Frying Pan Dragon Attack was giving everything to the close of the evening with a special tribute to Freddie and Patrick finished his performance at Freddie’s feet. Wine given by the Montreux Municipality was available to everyone to toast Freddie’s birthday. Sunday started for me again with Tea at the Palace. This time there were 83 participants and we really had a good time. I got carried away with my feelings on various subjects, but it was all good. Then on to the first boat, which was due to be the only one, but due to demand and a special surprise, we organised a second. 30 degrees!!!!!!! Someone was certainly looking down on us! On the second trip we had guess who…… The Royal Squeeze Box on the boat to give a performance on board instead of the music cd! What worked especially well was when, on the return journey, we stopped at the statue and they played while everybody on board and ashore joined in. By the time I got back
Lucie Halamikova was giving a wonderful performance of her arrangements of Queen music for keyboard and her voice was sailing out over the lake. She even performed a song that she had written as a tribute for Freddie. The entertainment came to a close with most of the performers, joined by Rita, Norbert and myself singing We Are The Champions!!
It was a truly delightful weekend with some Freddies (Freddie for a Day), old friends, new friends and also some local residents have a great time. We would like to thank EVERYBODY who contributed to this amazing time. One complaint that was registered a few times on the Sunday afternoon was “WHY DOES IT HAVE TO END”, but there will always be……..NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!
Peter Freestone
