Campaign: Brian May, Queen guitarist and founder of Save Me, was one of the high-profile protestors against the badger cull
‘Under this Government I would say law and order in the countryside has completely broken down because prosecutions for fox hunting are so few and far between.’,timberland ????;
Many of the cards were damaged so he set to work restoring them.
The cards showed pictures suitable for the breakfast table — sporting heroes and historic events.
‘If we hadn’t bought the house he would have had to go into a home, which would have been a tragedy.
Ah,the badgers. I had been warned Brian might be reluctant to talk about them because he has been left so upset by the recent pilot culls — badgers are accused of spreading bovine TB — but it’s a passion he obviously cannot stop thinking about.
He used to be a Conservative, but now feels completely disillusioned with British democracy.
Thereare lots of meetings going on to try to get the film off the ground. Meanwhile, Brian is off to launch the American tour of We Will Rock You and promote his diableries book.
‘It’s very upsetting to see how little power the normal person in the street has. We had a petition on the Government’s website and we had 100,000 signatures which entitlesyou to a debate on the subject.
There were many rumours that it was in trouble when Ali G and Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, who was to play the singer, announced he was no longer partof the project in July.
‘That’swhat was wrong with Sacha, really — we have a huge amount of respect for him,??? ???, but in the end we realised it wasn’t going to work because people would see Sacha Baron Cohen on screen rather than Freddie Mercury.
But Brian, one of the film’s producers, says they simply felt they had to recast because Baron Cohen was too well known.
Brianfunds a rescue centre in the grounds of his Surrey home and his sympathy has always extended to humans, too. He bought Patrick Moore’s home for him after the astronomer faced financial difficulties and admits he still dearly misses Sir Patrick, who died last year aged 89.
Ithas been very much a labour of love; you might say his first love. Brian first saw a 3D picture as a small child when free sets were given away in packets of Weetabix.
Thecouple have been together for nearly 30 years after meeting at a party;at the time he was married with three young children.
‘Wewill do it,’ he says, quietly. ‘It must have seemed impossible in the days of William Wilberforce that slavery could be abolished or that women could get the vote. Exactly the same forces were aligned against them as are against us now, but in the end it’s clear what is right and what is wrong. It should be a given that any creature or person that is defenceless should be treated decently.’
‘Wehad the debate,canada goose ???, won the debate, we defeated the Government and it made no difference whatsoever. You have this illusion that people can participate in democracy, but in fact it leads to nothing.’ He looks downcast but rouses himself.
‘That became apparent to us when we saw Sacha in Les Miserables and Hugo. It was a tough one,www.thejapanbrandstore.com/, really hard, because he had great enthusiasm. He remains a good friend. But,???????? ?????, painfully, we thought we had to bite the bullet.’
I ask Brian how he manages to fit it all in. He yawns. ‘I don’t sleep,’ smiles the hardest-working man in rock.
‘I’venow spent a lot of time in Parliament and I’m appalled to see how democracy is unfolding every day,’ he says.
‘Imade the decision very early on when people were doing drugs around me that they weren’t for me,’ he says. ‘I felt that I was quite delicate and I wanted to keep my brain pure. I came through the psychedelic time with a clear head and I never regretted it.’
‘ButI am still following my dreams,’ he says, smiling. ‘I do think about slowing down and I talk about it but it never happens because there is so much to do and I enjoy it all.
‘Allthe books he wrote in his latter years would never have happened. He was a national treasure,???? ???, but the nation didn’t really appreciate him.
Hewas an extraordinary man but the sad thing is some people took advantage of him and that wasn’t nice to see. In the end he had nothing left of all the money he had earned over the years. He had given it all away.
And while other rock ’n’ rollers got up to all sorts of infamous stuff on tour,ugg ????, hesought out dealers of stereoscopic pictures, not drugs.
Hehad to send off 1s  6d for a viewer and was immediately obsessed. ‘It felt like magic and that magic has never left me,’ he says. ‘I became entranced by what 3D could do as opposed to flat normal photography. It’s like walking through a window to the world. It’s a passion that bitme and has never gone away.’
Hisphone rings — it’s his wife, the former EastEnders actress Anita Dobson. They make plans to see each other around midnight at their West London home when they have both finished their various activities. She has barely seen him for days.
nDiableries by Brian May, Denis Pellerin & Paula Fleming is out now (London Stereoscopic Company, ?40). Brian and his co-authors will talk about the book at the British Library, London NW1, on October 30: www.bl.uk/whatson
Theyare ‘diableries’, ghoulish 3D images of hell, as envisaged by differentartists. They were widely sold in England and France in the 1860s and, in spite of the terrifying subject matter, became highly collectable. Brian has designed his own viewer to make the pictures spring to life and has teamed up with two diableries specialists to tell the stories behind the images and compile the book.
So Brian is working with the Science Museum to create a permanent exhibition dedicated to Moore’s work.
‘AsI get older it is hard to keep my energy levels up but having spent a lot of my time campaigning for animals it is something I could never withdraw from now I know what goes on,GUCCI ?????,’ he says. That is despite death threats and hatred directed at him.
‘I’ma little insane,’ he says. ‘But I love doing this stuff. And the more Idid the more precious these pictures became to me.’ He strokes a copy of his book as he says this.
‘Itwould have been lovely to turn his home into a museum but all the advice I have had is it’s not very practical; the last thing he would have wanted was for us to set something up that would not work and wouldgradually decay and become an embarrassment.’
Besides,he had more fruitful obsessions. Brian came to have one of the biggest collections of diableries in the world but the hard work started once hedecided to put this book together.
‘Imake a lot of friends but I make a lot of enemies as well. There are a lot of people out there who are desperate to hang on to their right to abuse creatures. I get a lot of hate and abuse and threats.
‘Hewas very inspiring to me when I was growing up and as he got older he became somebody who needed looking after in his autumn and winter years.Along with his other friends I was happy to ensure that he was able to stay in his house with his things around him.
‘Wenow have a new director and I think we have found our perfect Freddie,GUCCI ??,’he says. ‘He is an up and coming actor, not an incredibly well-known face, which is good because we want the Freddie on screen to be believed. We don’t want people to be distracted by a famous face.
Hefound his first diablerie while searching in London’s Portobello market: ‘It was something so mysterious and exciting I was hooked.’
Hestops and asks if he can take a picture of me with his 3D camera. He has thousands of them of Mercury and the rest of the band. Brian speaks forcefully about his passions, but in person he is surprisingly meek andmodest; he’s certainly the most gentle and softly spoken rock star I have ever met.
You can’t really blame her. He’s 66 now and a grandfather — does he never think about slowing down,??? ???????
‘Workingfor these animals is a tough place to be; it’s like being in a war every day of your life and not knowing where the next bullet is coming from.
‘It feels quite strange not having him around,’ he says. ‘He was like a benevolent uncle who I loved.
'I prefer tokeep moving and to work with the positive element of things. I would prefer not to take action, but the day may come when I have to.
‘Eventhe badger stuff, which is painful and is confrontational, which I am not really made for, but I enjoy the small victories that we achieve.’
‘Ihaven’t involved the police but I keep a record of it all and my lawyers have a nice collection of stuff which is actionable.
‘Hewas an absurdly generous man and he gave all his money away. Any kid who wrote to him and said, “I want to be an astronomer and I haven’t gotany money” — Patrick would give them money to buy a telescope. He adopted people and put them through university.
‘Freddieis still part of everyday life for me, I do miss him,’ he says. ‘He is always part of my work. It feels like he is still around.’ That is one reason why he is determined to make a forthcoming Mercury biopic the best it can be.
Theirrelationship has sometimes been rocky but they married 13 years ago andare as involved as ever — ‘even if she wonders why I spend 25 hours a day on all my projects’.
Anotherdear friend he still misses is Freddie Mercury. After Mercury died in 1991, closely followed by Brian’s father, he was so distraught that he contemplated suicide and checked into a clinic for help. He is obviouslya lot stronger now, but there is still a fragility to him.
‘So we had to look after him because the nation gives him a knighthood but it doesn’t care that he starves.
Helooks sad when he recalls the impact that meeting had. ‘Divorce is hard, especially when there are children involved,’ he says.
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