Ok let me address one thing first - 5ive. *sighs wearily and allows long blotted out memories to return*
As a life long Queen fan, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt (kind of) on this one. Was it shit? Do I even need to answer this? Of course it was. I can still smell it after all this time. Now, as far as John goes, the man has nothing to do with Queen anymore. And yes, I'm serious; from what I can gather he hasn't spoken to Roger and Brian properly in years. I would go so far as to say that he was relieved when Queen became no more (although not at how that happened) as he was never comfortable in the lime light anyway.
Now Brian and Roger are a different kettle of fish - they live for music, they have to be making music, and I'm afraid that the 5ive incident was just proof of how low they will go to be performing. Is it sad? Oh yes. But if it makes 'em happy . . .
Now onto Robbie. I don't have a problem covering Queen songs. I enjoy it actually, it's all good coverage and if it's done badly it only reflects on the act doing it. I was one of the people that thought George Michael's rendition of Somebody to Love was great - joyful, faithful, and well sung. He was not impersonating Freddie. I don't think there is anyone stupid enough in the showbiz world to think that they can out 'Freddie' Freddie. Robbie's We Are The Champions was also very good, but most interestingly it was even better live.
If you want ropey covers of Queen songs look no further than Geoff Tate mullering Sombody To Love and our very own Brucey crucifying Bohemian Rhapsody, oh God help us.
This is always going to be a tough one for 'metal' fans to deal with. I know when I was really into metal I was close minded to anything else (ok, I secretly liked Wham! but I would have died rather than let anyone know
). But the fact remains that Robbie
can sing, he can sing well, he is entertaining and he writes a good tune. Ofcourse it will never be to everyone's taste, and the songs you will hear on the radio are only the tip of the iceburg of his repertoire, but as Freddie himself said "Talent will out, my dear!".
