Freddy Mercury he died in 1991, and during his career in Queen he was considered one of the greatest performers. The group’s concerts have become rock legend, and their recordings are still very popular and are sometimes even shown in cinemas.
Queen last toured with Mercury in 1986, and in later years half of the group (Brian May and Roger Taylor) performed under the banner Queen+ With Paul Rodgersand since 2011 they have been performing with Adam Lambert. The British “The Sun” published information about the registration of the band’s frontman’s name as a trademark for virtual reality by Mercury Songs Limited – the organization that holds the rights to the singer’s solo songs.
As we read, the Freddie Mercury hologram would be part of an “immersive virtual, augmented 3D reality experience.” The trademark would also cover video games. According to reports, the singer would return in a project similar to the virtual one “ABBA Voyage”which has been on display in London for two years.
Let us recall that the living musicians of Queen have so far claimed that they would never like to see their friend in such a digital form. During Queen + Adam Lambert concerts, the band’s guitarist performs a ballad in which fragments are sung by Freddie Mercury on the screen, but not using a real hologram. Then Brian May extends his hand to the left, and the optical illusion posted on the large screens looks as if he was presenting Mercury to the audience.
“We have some recordings with Freddie… Basically I do ‘Love of My Life’ and Freddie comes and joins me at the end when we play live. But it’s not a hologram, it’s kind of old school technology that we like” – said Brian May on “The Graham Norton Radio Show” last year.
He also added that as long as he is alive and Queen performs, he would not agree to create a virtual experience with Queen’s music – he believes that the band’s songs are extremely appreciated in the live version, and as long as they perform on stage with old hits, they could lose their power.
“We talked and looked at Freddie’s holograms, but we love playing live and aggressively, that’s what we focus on,” he said. “When we all leave, yeah, sure, do something like ABBA about us, but while we’re here, I still want to play live,” he mentioned.
Does this mean that Queen plans to end her concert career soon? In February this year they played 3 concerts in Japan, and so far there are no more dates on the schedule for this year. Last week, it was reported that the band plans to sell its music catalog for a record $1.2 billion.