About Caspar Mulders Expertise I can answer questions concerning both the band`s and the seperate members` biographies, the underlying meaning of their lyrics, their shows and everything else that is Queen-related. If I do not know the answer myself, I have the ability to find out.
Experience I have been a Queen-fan for several years now, and in that time I have gathered as much information as I could. I am a regular visitor to queenonline.com, and I keep my information up to date at any cost
Expert: Caspar Mulders Date: 4/23/2004 Subject: Queen and Sun City
Question I am doing a report for college on Queen, and I cannot find anthing about Queen and the concert that they performed at Sun City. I remeber hearing that It was a big deal and that they got sort of chastised for it. If you have any information at all I would be so greatful. Thanks much, Athena
Answer Well, yes. It was a big deal and Queen lost a reasonable amount of fans by playing there. They were also fined for breaking the international cultural boycot of South Africa. Queen however defended themselves. Roger never commented on the whole thing, Freddie and John just said that Queen was a non-political band and that they, although they were against apartheid, didn't think it was fair not to be able to play there. Brian's reply is a bit longer, here's an interview extract (I = Interviewer, B = Brian)
) You played Sun City in South Africa a few years ago.
B) Yes we did. We stirred up a whole hornets nest of controversy.
I) What's the current thinking from the Queen camp about return visits or the attitude to South Africa and apartheid?
B) OK, the current thing is that we said we won't go back until this regime is gone. That's in response to what everyone else has said. We went there, and we're not ashamed of the fact that we went there. It would be very easy to say "OK, we made a mistake. Sorry" and all that stuff, but that's not really the truth.
The truth is we thought very carefully about going and we considered that it was right because for the first time we were going to be able to play to non-segregated audiences, which we did, and it's absolutely true, whether people believe it or not.
I was there, I saw it with my own eyes, I know what happened. We feel that by going there and by stating very clearly our point of view, which was that we were utterly opposed to apartheid, that we did a lot more to accelerate the end of that way of thinking in South Africa than many people have done by staying away.
I know it's a very unpopular thing to say, probably, but it's the way we feel, and that's the truth. We've been there, we've seen it, we've talked to people of all races there and we feel that, well know for a fact that a lot of people who were there feel that it was right for us to go. It's kind of special for us, because we've been selling records in South Africa for a long time, but not just to the white part of South Africa. We've been selling records to the black community, particularly "Another One Bites The Dust" and "I Want To Break Free", which became like an anthem for the human rights people down there. So we feel very close to the people who are fighting for their rights there.
By going there we feel like we helped them, and I know a lot of them there feel the same way. I can go on about t for a long time because it's something I feel very strongly about.
Nevertheless, we've now had so much pressure from people, the UN committee, Little Steven and all his friends, that it's better to stay away that we've said "OK, we'll go along with you, we'll do it your way", and we've said we won't go back.
I just pray that it's the right way. I think in my heart I'm not convinced that it's gonna do, that it's gonna be the best way to achieve the end which we all want to achieve. All I can say is that our aims are all the same, we just have slightly different ways of going about it.
I) I think without going there, though, people very much think it's all a black and white situation. It's not, there's 16 shades of grey, and people don't realise that until they get there.
B) That's right. That's right. That's so true, yeah. I would challenge so many of the people who come up with this very glib thing "OK we'll boycott the bastards. We're right, they're wrong." I would challenge them to go there and find out the real situation and then come back and say the same thing.
Of course apartheid is wrong. Of course the present situation produces a lot of misery, but how do you go about bringing about the change? I'm not convinced that this isolation policy is right and I'm not convinced a cultural boycott has ever achieved a change of internal attitude in a country. I don't think there's any examples in history where this worked.
I think all you do is tend to make people more bitter and more entrenched in their own opinions. Anyway, that's what I think.
