Rock star Freddie Mercury is heard making lively conversation during a recording set in the late 1980s. Photo / Getty Images
Rock star Freddie Mercury is heard making lively conversation during a recording set in the late 1980s. Photo / Getty Images
Freddie Mercury can be heard bantering with his Queen bandmates in newly released studio recordings.
The late singer’s voice features on previously unheard tapes made at Townhouse and Olympic studios in London and Mountain Studios in Wales while the band were recording their 1989 album The Miracle.
Outtakes from thesessions have been included on a new collector’s edition version of the record.
In the recordings, Mercury can be heard having lively conversations with his bandmates and even nudging guitarist Brian May to re-record one of his solos, saying: “I’m not sure it was dead on. Let’s hear that last bit back.”
He sounds chatty and enthusiastic throughout and is heard delightedly shouting: “Oh I love it! Love that one!” after nailing his vocals on the track Breakthru.
Queen at Les Ambassadeurs. From left to right, John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May. Photo / Getty Images
Mercury also adds: “You know something? If this song would stop right now, this would really be a great breakthrough for me. I mean if I were to drop dead that would be a breakthrough honey.”
Roger Taylor is also heard cracking a joke after the rest of the band messed up a take of Dog With A Bone, chiding them: “You’re supposed to be professionals.”
The Miracle Sessions CD also features five unreleased songs plus Face It Alone which emerged for the first time last month.
The original sessions took place in 1989 after Mercury had been diagnosed with HIV. He had yet to go public with the news but his bandmates were aware and they’d decided to stop touring and focus on studio work so the singer could focus on his heath.
Mercury died aged 45 in 1991 after a battle with AIDS.
