John is not just responsible, but over-responsible and such pressure begins to break him closer to ’84-’86. There’re 4 kids now, the business side of the band limp after an experimental album and the actual loss in charts of USA, AOBTD became a worldwide hit, but had cold welcome inside QUEEN, he’s still an outsider by written songs, he can’t record a solo album for a number of reasons, although colleagues have reached out to other projects. John Deacon is a normal one, he doesn’t talk about his problems, except hints them with a rare outbreak of either aggression (or despair?) in Knebworth. He tries to handle it most simple way (not good though) – using alcohol. At the same time, he doesn’t try to look better than he is – when asked, he honestly says that sometimes getting drunk helps. His “spirit of adolescence” breaks through in escapes from the recording sessions, colleagues guardedly laugh it off Bali thing, John never talks about his state of mind then. In ’86, Freddie’s illness will add some more weigh on his anxiety.
It seems John Deacon generously divided his responsibility between the family and QUEEN, and began to take serious and diligent care of them at about the same time, at a fairly young age – 24 years old. Baby. His sudden becoming a father of a family required to solve the housing and financial issue – renting a room was not an option anymore, asking for help from parents too and they all wanted to eat )).
In the same year, his second family suffered from the miserly management of Sheffield brothers of TRIDENT Studio. Freddie was ignored with wish of having a concert piano, Roger was told to save drum sticks (which is nonsense!), John was refused a mortgage on the house – and he asked for a loan! The weekly paychecks were small, just to keep them from starving, but albums sales were encouraging. The band begins searching for a new manager while working on their third album. May said that if it hadn’t taken off, they would have ended their band career. Everything went well, John expands from one room to the whole house, ANATO explodes the charts, and the band learns a lesson – they can’t trust anyone in the matter of money. They are only four against the world.
At the end of another one-on-one interview in Japan in ’79, John suddenly talks about his attitude and role in the band. {my translation >>}
And finally, a message to our readers… John: “– I’m not very good at saying it, and I’m not very good at saying overly cool things… Anyway, we were very excited to come and it was great to see that people loved us as much as they did in the past. I will always remember you all“. John Deacon is, in a word, a man behind the scenes. Nevertheless, he was kind and calm from beginning to end. When I handed him pen for autograph at QUEEN photo, I said “look so decent…” to which John replied without a pause , “They are all very individualistic and noisy. It would be good to have at least one person in the group who is calm. If it weren’t me, this group wouldn’t be able to pull it together. I am always the organizer (always in charge).” I couldn’t see the expression on his face at that moment because he was looking down, but it was the most powerful statement of the entire interview. {<<} Do you realize how much we don’t know about his real role in the group? Just because John is modest and rarely mentions his contribution?
Since QUEEN as a band did not grow up in complete isolation from the music business, they understood from the very beginning how they can be robbed with greedy management. QUEEN had a plan of own development, which John was excited about, but the problem was they were still nobody to dictate terms to record companies.
When in 1975 they get rid of Trident and hire John Reid, all 4 of them already know perfectly well – friendship is friendship, and business is apart. Always. John becomes the one who controls the bands money, not only because he’s good at it, but also because he’s part of the group, John is the only man who can be trusted 100% by other three. He checks lawyers with contracts, accountants with expenses on equipment and tours (it was Deacon who proposed and made a reality of incredibly cool shows in the technical terms, the band’s iconic live shows), he acts as a control buffer between QUEEN and all other instances. At the same time, no matter how much press kick him for being an “accountant” and not a proper headless rock star, John knows perfectly well that without his creative talents QUEEN will survive, but without control of a growing Queen Empire – no. Deacon has been working invisibly for them since 1975.
I’ll not tire of repeating the summer of 75 was an incredible in the history of QUEEN. Young lawyer, Jim Beach, was hired (according to some sources, Miami, according to others – Sandy) and a network of companies was created. Let’s listen John again: “Here’re 2 main companies, one of which is “Queen Productions (16 September 1975)”, which is really for our English services, every time we do something in England. And we have one called “Rain Cloud Productions”(19 January 1978), which is for all the overseas services which we do, which tends to the more active one now as we do most of our recordings overseas. The studio, well Jim Beach tends to take a very active interest in that ‘cos there’s actually only 3 staff there. And after that, it’s mainly Roger and myself. That’s the way it’s gone and Brian and Freddie are quite happy for it to be like that. (full quote in pic)” Queen Productions is added by Queen Music Ltd (18 June 1975) and 3 Ltds with bird names (from 10 November 1975 Bri’, 1 December 1975 – Rog’ and Deacky’). Freddie made a company earlier – 22 July 1975, and changed a couple of names (one of which is MERCURY SONGS LIMITED), before also taking the birdy name. A separate touring company has been operating since 5 Jan 1976. This whole zoo was made mostly to reduce taxes, but later the group will have to live outside the country for a long time in tax exile. The most amazing thing is that Mr. Beach (78 years old!) still working with the band, and all these ltds are also alive – it’s from them our boys receive income not only for every song played, but also for every sock sold with the name of QUEEN on it.
The Offspring are honestly a contender for the funniest punk band ever, made even funnier by the fact that Dexter Holland is pushing 60 now and has a PhD in virology.
Like imagine being on an academic committee and reviewing a dissertation on HIV protein-encoding genomes and it's from a guy with frosted tips whose greatest legacy is the Crazy Taxi soundtrack.
We’re talking about the hilarious band that is Offspring? Good, I have things to say:
1. I have their albums on vinyl and on the record they’ll say stuff like “yeah, just lay back and do nothing”, or “wow that song was amazing”, and it comes out of nowhere.
2. Saw them live this year; 30 minutes before they get on they’ll have a big count down with a gorilla shooting shirts into the crowd with a bazooka. They have kiss cams, dance cams, drink cams etc. They do quizzes. It’s mayhem.
3. Speaking of their live shows, their playlist during the wait consisted out of the Spice Girls and Darude Sandstorm. That’s not a joke.
4. They pride themselves on the fact they are not a serious band. Nothing about them is taken in serious context. They don’t need to. They’re Offspring.
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