Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Today’s PC culture? Freddie would’ve found it difficult
Queen’s Brian laments male and female Brit axe
We would be forced to have people of different colours and sexes now BRIAN MAY SAYS QUEEN WOULD FAIL WOKE TEST
QUEEN legend Brian May has blasted modern culture and said Freddie Mercury would have struggled with it.
The guitarist, 74, made his comments as he lambasted the Brit Awards for scrapping their male and female categories.
He said frontman Freddie, who died 30 years ago yesterday aged 45 from complications linked to AIDS, would have found the PC culture “difficult”.
He said: “Freddie came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such – nobody cares, nobody ever discussed it.
“He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right colour? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’
“None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”
Brian believes even Queen, who have won four Brits, would not be considered diverse enough in the modern age.
He said: “We would be forced to have people of different colours and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”
Brian was speaking against the decision to have an Artist of the Year award instead of British Male and British Female awards after non-binary singer Sam Smith criticised the ceremony for lacking inclusion.
It means Adele and Ed Sheeran are likely to go head-to-head at February’s ceremony.
Critics argue female stars could be overlooked as they have been at previously maledominated awards.
Attending ITV’S Palooza at the Royal Festival Hall with actress wife Anita Dobson, Brian said: “It’s a decision that has been made without enough thought. A lot of things work quite well and can be left alone.
“I get so sick of people trying to change things without thinking of the long-term consequences. Some of these things are an improvement, some of them are not.”
He said there is now an “atmosphere of fear everywhere because people are afraid to say how they really think”.
“I think so many people are feeling ‘hang on, this isn’t quite right.’ But they don’t dare say anything. Eventually there will be some kind of explosion.”