The whole of Queen, including archived interviews with Freddie Mercury, star in the latest LiSTNR Behind the Hits podcast as the band celebrate 50 years on record.
Rami Malek who played Freddie in the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Broadcaster Rob Duckworth, who has toured with the band, also feature.
I received a media release about this episode of Behind the Hits and immediately went hunting for it.
Firstly, because it looks like Queen might be in the process of selling their music catalogue for possibly as much as a billion dollars.
Secondly, because I know of Rob “Duck” Duckworth’s long standing beautiful relationship with Queen and wanted to hear his thoughts, in his own unique Duck fashion, as evidenced in this quote about Freddie:
“He was actually quiet. Mind you if he got cranky with something he was very loud and you knew exactly where Freddie was. In fact there was a little saying with the crew, if you were walking around they’d give you the heads up as to how Freddie was that day, they would say don’t go near Freddie, Freddie’s got the hump.
“Freddie was actually a very caring guy. I remember being at a show in Newcastle, just had a shirt on, and it was freezing cold, it was an outdoor show. I walked past Freddie, he said in his typical fashion, ‘Darling you look cold,’ and said to his personal assistant, ‘Get Rob my dressing gown,’ of which I had to wear for a couple of hours. I was warmer but I looked like a geek.”
If you go to LiSTNR, Behind the Hits, the podcast itself, has a one-line description –
“Music stories from behind the scenes with the iconic artists that lived it and those that were there.”
I didn’t realise that Triple M Nights host and Screaming Jets’ front man, Dave Gleeson was hosting this episode. He doesn’t host them all, some are seemingly self-run by the artist featured or others, like the John Farnham episode, by the Executive Producer for LiSTNR, also currently working on KICPOD, Mandy Catalano.
As someone who appreciates structure and format, this podcast feels like it is put together with whoever is available. The media release about this episode was far, far more detailed than anything I could find about the podcast itself.
LiSTNR has many podcasts, some like The Hamish and Andy Podcast now getting a million monthly listeners, some which are literally catch-up radio. Behind the Hits feels like catch up radio.
Despite the production quality and dazzling array of guests over its four seasons, it needs a bit more clarity on its purpose and audience if it too wants to crack the Australian Podcast Ranker.
