04 05 24
Queen film the video of ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’

16 September 1986 – Queen film the video of ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ at Tobacco Wharf Studio (now demolished) at London’s East End, UK. The video was directed by David Mallet The video featured the National Philhamonic Orchestra together with forty choirboys and hundreds and hundreds of candles, all of which had to remain lit throughout filming. The fans receive a nice surprise as Freddie Mercury is wearing a tuxedo suit in this video. The video saw two firsts for the band: Brian singing a verse himself (he had often sung album tracks, but these never had videos), and John playing a double bass (though he had played the instrument on Bring Back That Leroy Brown and ’39). Keen eyed fans might also spot that the conductor is none other than the highly celebrated Michael Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003), who composed most of the music for Highlander that the band did not supply. “Yeah, I got quite drunk doing this video. I couldn’t remember my bits. I must’ve been drunk, because I’m dressed appallingly in some denim outfit. I must’ve fallen into a vat of bleach! This was a long, boring shoot, and it’s all terribly serious. It looks a bit religious, so I can’t say I’m very keen on that… I really love the song in the context of the Highlander film, with all the moving shots of the highlander and his wife, and she’s getting old and it’s all shots in the Highlands, and I thought that was very beautiful and very moving.” (Roger Taylor, 2003)“To my mind, I don’t think the video does that much for the song, but it’s nice to see Freddie very formal.”(Brian May 2003)