[Queen logo]

I went through my Queen phase shortly after Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in 1992. Though I had liked a number of their songs when I was in junior high and high school, we Americans heard very little about the flamboyant British rock band after 1982 or so, thus I was surprised to read Freddie's obituary in Rolling Stone magazine. In October 1993, Queen's guitar player, Brian May, came to Royal Oak, Mich., to promote his solo album, "Back to the Light." I called Hollywood Records and arranged an interview for The Oakland Press, where I work as a copy editor. Through my research, I met some members of the Royal Vision fan club, a U.S. fanclub based in Michigan, who set up a reception for Brian. RV president Nan Lawniczak kindly invited me to attend.

Brian was extremely friendly as he breezed into the Metro Musicafe wearing a multicolored vest, silk pants and white clogs (he's *very* tall). He was inducted into the Musicafe Walk of Fame and he posed for pictures with the 30 or so people there. He shook my hand enthusiastically, and grabbed me tight for a picture, pulling me against him in such a way that my hand was resting right on his butt. "Hmm," I thought. "Should I squeeze?" But I decided that might be kind of rude. After all, I hardly knew him.

I and my friend, Jan,
get a squeeze from
Brian at reception
at the Metro Musicafe

In December, 1993, I traveled with Nan to England to see the Brian May Band perform in London, Birmingham and Nottingham. The trip was like a whirlwind groupie thing with a lot of bus riding, walking in the rain and standing around for hours at backstage doors for naught. That taught me something about myself: I would *not* make a good groupie. But I met some great people and had a memorable time. Although we didn't get to talk to Brian on that trip, I did leave a letter for him, and in February, I received a brief letter of reply in which he said I'm "too nice to be a music critic for very long."

A side note from my trip: Someone apparently pinched my passport in Nottingham, whereupon I had to report it to the local police. Unfortunately, the Sheriff of Nottingham was not at home that weekend, so I had to leave a message and return promptly to the American Embassy in London to apply for a new one before they would let me go home.

Now, I'll give you links to Queen pages I've found.