Greg Brooks, l’archiviste des Queen donnera une conférence a Montreux :

 
We are glad to have the participation of Greg Brooks, Queen's official archivist, at this year’s Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Weekend. Greg has written many articles on Queen and Freddie over the years for various magazines, as well as DVD/CD sleeve notes, and his 1996 book 'QUEEN LIVE: A CONCERT DOCUMENTARY'.
In 2000 Greg put together the music for the mammoth 12-CD 'Solo' Freddie boxed set, most significantly the many rarities and out-takes that featured, and the comprehensive sleeve notes.
Most recently he co-compiled 'FREDDIE MERCURY - A LIFE, IN HIS OWN WORDS', a book encompassing the very best of Freddie's interviews. Greg continues to work upon the Queen and Freddie archives and on various DVD/CD/book projects for the future. Given Greg's unique knowledge of the archives, we have a lot of wonderful and rarely heard pieces to look forward to it








Greg Brooks's comments about the Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day, 2007 :

Over the weekend of Friday Sept 7th to Sunday 9th I attended the Freddie Mercury’s Montreux Memorial Day... a weekend actually. It was a brilliant event and again I met some people that I know will become good friends.

Montreux is STUNNING and worth visiting regardless of the Queen history and marvelous Freddie statue that demands attention by the lake. But, given its numerous links to Freddie and the band, and the people and the sights, it makes for a great few days you'll cherish like I know I will.

I wasn't at all sure what to expect or if the days would fly by or drag, but I must tell you it was a wonderful weekend. It was amazing from the moment we checked into the hotel to the minute we left. I genuinely cannot recommend this weekend highly enough. If you love Queen music or Freddie Mercury music, or some combination of both, and you appreciate great people and wonderful food and even better beer and wine, and talking with genuine passionate people who will become your friends uncommonly quickly, and you think you might also come to love sipping rum or vodka or wine while watching the sun go down over the gorgeous Lake Geneva, in the company of like-minded people, and with much laughter, you need to make sure you are in Montreux next year (5th and 6th November 2008).

It is an annual event now and it's a completely different experience to anything else I have participated in. It's relaxing and entertaining, tremendous fun, and, as if you need me to tell you, it offers the most breathtaking scenery imaginable. As you know, Freddie wrote A Winter's Tale while looking out over precisely the same views as we were all part of last weekend. There truly is a magic about that particular lake that you will not find ANYWHERE else in the world in my opinion. The 'feel' of Queen and Freddie (especially FM) is all over the place and inescapable. As you walk along the main street towards Norbert's wonderful Queen/Freddie goodies filled shop (Norbert co organises the event with Rita), Freddie's voice rings out from hidden speakers as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I think even the natives have now (those who did not like it before) warmed to this most exceptional voice, like you will surely warm to the town and its friendly people.

And then of course you can walk down to the lake side and experience the Freddie statue and the whole atmosphere around that area. I know you've seen it many times on the LP/CD cover and on other images, but being THERE next to Freddie, touching it, experiencing it, photographing it maybe, being around it and part of the strange vibe while also talking with likeminded Queenies, is very special indeed. I loved it - every second of it.

I have been to Montreux before, in 1998 to work on some Freddie tapes that were there at that time, but I was alone then and there were no 350 Queen friends to spend time with and to share the experience with, like we did this time around. Billy Baker... you are a ONE OFF!!! And You, Queen/Freddie fan, have to go next year if only to see this man's collection of neck ties!!!!!!

There are great boat trips to the place where the Made In Heaven album cover was shot, the Lake House, and it's one of those 'must do' things. The scenery is second to none, Queen music is playing in the background, and it's a million miles from yours and my normal everyday routines at home. It's chalk and cheese and you feel it with everything you see in Montreux.

On friday afternoon, by the Freddie statue, we were treated to Jo the saxo, from Montreux, and his fabulous saxophone recitals of Queen material. This was an unexpected and almost surreal surprise. Everyone listened intently and it was the perfect sound in the perfect location. On Friday night there was a live cover band, at a venue called the NED, and let me tell you right now they were BRILLIANT. They were a 4-piece Hungarian band called QUEEN UNPLUGGED PROJECT and they played only acoustic, unplugged material, obviously, and it was spellbinding. I loved it. We ALL loved it. They truly did bring the house down - so many times. In fact, it was clear to all that at certain points the band members were visibly moved by the massive support and encouragement they received as the show progressed. I was so impressed to see the audience clapping and cheering each time the singer, Tibor Toth, for example, pulled off a tricky high note, or equally when the lead guitarist played a delicate little solo and was rewarded with warm applause. It was evident that the band were as appreciative of the respectful attention they got, as the we the listeners were of their enormous attention to detail with the playing. What a great night we had. I only intended to see the first few songs, but stayed to see everything. I stayed until I could stand up no more!!!!

'Sail Away Sweet Sister' and a medley comprising Procession/Father To Son/Great King Rat/Ogre Battle were too fabulous to relay here, and I really mean that, and 'Those Were Days Are Our Lives' was, again, the perfect song to hear on the perfect evening in the most gorgeous setting there is. I love stripped down recitals of Queen music and these guys did an astonishing job - things like Dreamers Ball, 39 and Roger's In Love With My Car/Drowse (really cleverly merged). I rarely if ever say these things about a cover band - the first and only time so far was Miracle, who remain great - so please take my word for this.... you need to see QUEEN UNPLUGGED PROJECT if you can, and to do so in Montreux is unsurpassable. It beats the hell out of some smokey hole in central London - if you ask me. Great stuff indeed. QUP took on ambitious material, not the easy ones, impressively performed, and occasionally even mixing songs together - seamlessly - which you have to hear before you can offer comment - and that isn't easy. They really did pull it off and the audience gave them the respect they so richly earned.

How great it was to see those guys, as nervous as they were, so quickly gain confidence and win over fans that are not easy to win over. To see and hear that audience screaming and cheering and making more noise than a crowd ten times the size could, was a pleasure indeed. I think it true to say that the Montreux Queenies loved QUP hugely, and that it was certainly a two-way thing - in every sense. Hats off to those guys. A brilliant, original and refreshing, and, by the way, very moving in places, performance.

Unfortunately I did not catch the second cover band of the evening - MerQury, from Italy - but I hear they too went down a storm, with a very different and contrasting set to the Hungarian group. It was a TWO HOUR set that blew everyone away, and included covers of It's A Beautiful Day, Let Me Live, Tie Mum Down, Breakthru, Too Much Love, Lazing Sunday Afternoon, Headlong, Innuendo, One Vision, Princes Of The Universe, No One But You, Hard Life, WWRY.

On Saturday afternoon Peter Freestone played us all the entire (almost entire) 'When Freddie met Montserrat' tape - their musical night together at Garden Lodge in 1987, singing around the piano with Mike Moran. This was great and of course it was a FIRST. Peter was in great form as usual.

Later on I did 'my bit' where I played Freddie rarities and explained in detail how and why each element came to be on the 2000 'Solo' boxed set, and a bit about our thinking on those ideas, etc. I went into stuff I'd not been into before and I enjoyed doing so. It went down very well by all accounts.

To close, I must remind you...... fab people, great beer and pastry and hot dogs and freshly made crepes on the lake-side, wonderful boat trips, you can take a train 2000 mtrs up the mountain and disappear into clouds at the top and generally be as impressed as hell as you nearly meet your maker, and the exceptional scenery will stay with you forever, the best people and conversations and laughs, Norbert's sovenir shop (Bazar Suisse - containing lovely Freddie things you will want to bring home no doubt... like I did), and, let's not forget, a boat trip on Saturday up the lake to Vevay to see Elton John in concert... golden circle tickets no less, also organised by Norbert & Rita. It was an unforgettable weekend and faultlessly organised from beginning to end.

The next Freddie Mercury’s Montreux Memorial Day is 5th and 6th November 2008. Like the Oleta Adams song says, next year... GET HERE. I truly hope your budget will stretch to it because you'll love it - and that I will personally guarantee. The UK fan club convention in May (usually) is always great, and always worth attending too of course, but let me suggest that this Montreux excursion is worth saving up for too.

Check out the site and register for next year's event because it really is an EVENT.
It's great fun, and it flies by in a flash.

Greg Brooks - Queen Archivist and still... property of Queen Productions!!!!!!