Could a Queen and Freddie Mercury hologram show be on the way?
Speculation has emerged that a hologram show of Freddie Mercury could be on the way.
Hints that a new hologram show featuring the late Queen frontman emerged after Mercury Songs Limited – the organisation which has ownership over the singer’s solo works – reportedly filed to trademark his moniker for virtual reality and 3D.
News of the move was shared by The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column, which obtained the filing and reported that it covers “immersive 3D virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences” for “virtual environments” (via Music News).
With the filing, it seems possible that the musician could return to the stage as a digital avatar, similar to that seen in the hugely successful ABBA Voyage shows in London.
It also wouldn’t mark the first time that Mercury has been depicted on stage in recent years, following his death from bronchial pneumonia, a complication of AIDS, back in 1991. Two years ago, an optical illusion of the frontman was shown during Queen’s ‘Rhapsody Tour’, which the band embarked on with Adam Lambert. The illusion brought guitarist Brian May to tears during the show.
However, while it seems likely what the filing could mean a hologram of the original line-up is on the way, Brian May has previously shared his reluctance to go forward with the idea.
Appearing on a podcast for The Graham Norton Radio Show last year, the guitarist confirmed that while the band have entertained the idea, they would only want to have the show brought to life once they had all passed.
“We’ve talked about and looked at holograms of Freddie, [but] we love to be live and dangerous, that’s it, that’s our emphasis,” he said. “Now, when we’re all gone, yeah sure, make an ABBA thing about us, but while we’re here I want to play live.”
He continued, “We have a little bit of stuff with Freddie… I do ‘Love of My Life’ generally and Freddie comes in and joins me at the end when we do our live shows. But it’s not a hologram, it’s just sort of old-school technology which we kind of like.”
In other Queen news, last week Brian May made an appearance at the first preview of the new Gibson Garage in London, where he joined Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page in cutting the opening ribbon.
Similarly, the guitarist recently revealed that he “never liked” the mix of ‘Under Pressure’, the band’s 1981 smash hit collaboration with David Bowie.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
