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An interview with Brennan Young
So who is this Brennan?
Brennan is an ex-pat Brit living in Denmark, who in the past was in a Queen tribute band. More specifically, a Queen tribute band as managed by a Mr. Ricky Gervais, back in the early nineties. My questions are in blue, his answers are in black, enjoy!
(sadly no images from the times described were available, so I’ve had to brighten up this page as best I could)
The Wonder Years
 |
The album that inspired
the name of the band |
For those not familiar with the history of the band...
I’d been in other bands before. I’d just started at university when Freddie died [24th Nov, 1991]. I heard the news in the late evening. I’d never been a big fan but I felt a genuine sense of loss. It seemed appropriate to put on my only Queen tape full blast, which did not please the guy in the room above, who came down to complain. That was Pat [Patrick Myers-‘Freddie’ in the band to this day]. We became firm friends.
Just over a year later he asked me to join his project. I was skeptical, but went along with it because it sounded fun, and I imagined (rather naively) that there might be some money in it. A lot of those early rehearsals were with cheap amateur instruments in student accomodation. I had an old drum pad box thing. Not exactly a drum machine, but something like that. It was ideal but looked ridiculous. Gareth [John Deacon] had a home keyboard, which was light enough to move around easily. We had trouble finding a good Brian May. Guitarists are wont to take themselves a bit too seriously, as you may be aware. We were rehearsing for some weeks without guitar.
When I was in the band it was called ‘Closet Queen’ but they changed their name for some odd reason. (More ‘PC’?) I was supporting keyboard player, so that Freddy could leap away from the piano and I could carry on his part when necessary. That also meant I didn’t have to embarrass myself by dressing up in any stupid outfits.
How did Gervais get in on the act?
I’m a bit unclear about this. Certainly it was Pat that hooked up with him. I think Pat was doing something at ULU [University of London Union] and met Ricky there. Pat was telling everyone his plans and Ricky came on board. Pat was the driving force for the whole project, and we’d already been rehearsing for some months and lined up our first gig at a student hall of residence’s summer party. I’m pretty sure Ricky arranged our second and third gigs. I think the second one was at Tower Records in full fluorescent lighting - ghastly. The third was the ‘Freshers ball’ at ULU with a huge audience.
So was he any good as a manager?
He’s a lot like David Brent in real life, which is pretty funny for me. At the time he was (I think) in charge of entertainment at ULU. I remember Ricky engineered one of our earliest gigs at the Marquee by barefaced lying over the telephone, in the manner of David Brent when hiring the forklift driver.He claimed you’d all passed your forklift drivers’ tests?
OK, maybe not lying exactly. It was very early on. Pat had shown Ricky some pictures of him in his Freddie gear. I think he’d heard a bad quality demo tape too. He might have been down to the rehearsal studio once or something. No matter what, Ricky hadn't yet seen us live. Anyway, Pat was in Ricky's office at ULU. Ricky got on the telephone and called The Marquee and said “I’ve just seen this band. They’re amazing, a Queen cover band and it’s just like a bloody video. You won’t believe it. If you hear from them you’ve got to get them on.” All this hyperbole.
When he’d finished, he pushed the phone across the desk to Pat. Pat called The Marquee and said “Hi it’s Pat from Closet Queen”, and they said “Oh
we’ve heard about you, do you want to do a gig?”.Smooth operator, could he do the basics as well?
He was a really good manager in the sense that he let us get on with the job of being a band, and came up with the goods as far as arranging concert dates, getting a van and reliable roadies and all that. He also knew who to call to make sure there was a pic in the timeout listings, or whatever.
I remember an interview for some university rag mag, where the student journalist asked what it was like to be the biggest cover band out or something. At that point we had still only done a handful of gigs. After the interviewers left the dressing room, Pat and Ricky couldn’t contain their amazement or their glee. Of course Ricky had primed them in advance somehow, like he did with the marquee gig. Everyone with half a brain knows that pop culture is driven by hype and illusions like that, but it’s quite astonishing to see it happen under your nose, and to meet someone who can pull the strings so deftly.
Ricky seemed incredibly aware of all the machinations which make a band popular, and he was well connected, working as ‘Ents’ manager for ULU he got to meet everybody. That was a great thing for ‘Closet Queen’ in those days. Our third gig was in front of 3000 people! That’s pretty astonishing, and only Ricky could have made it happen.
Anyone else have an Office counterpart?
We had a Welsh bass player called Gareth (John Deacon), who was extremely aloof and serious, and used to say and do the most outrageous ‘foot-in-mouth’ things. I can’t help thinking the Gareth character in the Office is partly based on him. He’s not an army type, but he knows EXACTLY the right way of doing things, and has inflated notions of chivalry, which is usually expressed by embarassing displays of sexism. (Consider that ‘health and safety’ thing with the cardboard boxes, where Donna gets a ‘female size’ box. That is SO Gareth).
The funny thing was, Gareth was a genuine Queen fan. He loved them and it was a sincere tribute. All the rest of the band had some distance from it. Even Pat (Freddy). Of course Queen is largely about camp, so it’s difficult to be entirely serious when copying them, but somehow Gareth managed it.
Was there any fear of Seona Dancing (Gervais’ early 80s pop duo) returning?
I remember there was even talk of Ricky dressing up as David Bowie to do ‘Under Pressure’. That's a typical example of what I remember as Ricky’s
blurring of megalomaniac fantasy and deadpan humour. I was never really sure which way he was leaning, which made me a bit uneasy, actually.
So, what’s Ricky Gervais really like?
Without getting too psychoanalytical, I’d say Ricky is fascinated by vanity and narcissism. Fame, especially pop culture fame, is a kind of shamanistic narcissism. We all want to be movie stars or pop stars or comedians, and it’s an impossible dream for most of us, so we continue to worship these weird ‘medicine men’ who go on stage with funny clothes and perform. All those ‘fame academy’ type programs leverage that fantasy, as does ‘The Office’. viz: Michael Jackson impressions, guitar playing during seminars, ‘comedy’ in the workplace etc. The core contradiction is that “it could be me in that spotlight”, but for 99% of the audience who harbour that desire, it’s never going to happen, no matter how talented they might be.
What’s interesting is that Ricky has become a star himself by exploiting that same fantasy world in the head of one of his characters. That’s what I meant when I said Ricky is very much like David Brent - Ricky is probably just as vain as David Brent. The difference is that Ricky also finds it grotesque and hilarious, so when you see Ricky on Parkinson or whatever, there are always these unbelievable gambits of false modesty, and the deadpan delivery just carries it. Ricky wears his narcissism on his sleeve, like a wipetrail of snot. It’s very punk, actually.
Killer Queen have an excellent site over at www.killerqueenonline.com
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