Queen

The British rock band Queen found their first major success in April 1975 in Japan.

More than a thousand girls were waiting at Haneda airport to welcome them.

They were overwhelmed by the frenzied reception.

But all these things, I was too young to know.

I have been a casual Queen fan.

But "We are the champions / We will rock you" is one of the first records I bought when I was a school boy.

I loved the songs very much and played them so loud on my stereo that a girl in a nearby house yelled at me, "Too loud!"

She became a reporter for a major newspaper when she grew up.

Queen is unique in that 3 of the members are scientists and an engineer.

Brian May the PhD physicist from Imperial College London, Roger Taylor the biologist and John Deacon the electronic engineer.

The impression that their music is meticulously constructed might be attributable in part to their scientific and engineering backgrounds.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was the highest-grossing film among all the films released in 2018 in Japan and was a phenomenon.

Cumulatively, nearly 10 million Japanese watched it and I contributed 4.

I went to see the Queen exhibition at a department store in Tokyo this month.

It was packed and the majority of the visitors were women in their 50s and 60s.

It was nice to see the mothers and their daughters lined up to see the collections.

I personally liked the gold Cartier watch and clock and the samurai sword given to a Japanese body guard from Freddie Mercury.

Very generous gifts indeed!

There was a photo taken in Japan of Freddie and his common-law wife, Mary Austin.

When I was a student in England, I had a friend, Mary, who influenced me in a positive way.

She is no longer with us.

I feel indebted for her kindness and thankful for her warmth.

(January 2020)