Once again, the "Bird Restoration Scientists" (for this is, of course, not 'conservation' at all) are apparently blinding us all with their bogus 'science'.

How can you morally justify slaughtering an animal just because its ancestors didn't live in this area? This is INSANITY, and these 'scientists' are dangerous lunatics. This kind of thinking corresponds exactly with someone saying .... "Oh - in the distant past, only white people lived in Brixton .... so we have to shoot all the black people." Can you imagine? Even if these people can prove that the Mute Swans crowd out the Trumpeter Swans (which I sincerely doubt) - what moral justification can there be for killing these healthy animals, which, incidentally, so many people obviously adore? Who is to say that in the general scheme of creation the Trumpeters deserve to live, and the Mutes don't? HOW DARE YOU? !!

On this basis, all white American citizens will soon have to be killed .... after all, none of them are native to North America ... THE RED INDIAN TRIBES WERE THERE FIRST. Just try refuting this logic, Pat Manthey, 'avian ecologist', you dumb-ass; I challenge you.

Folks, this misguided behaviour HAS GOT TO BE FOUGHT, and STOPPED - worldwide. Future generations will be horrified that we made such stupid and cruel mistakes. More and more I despair of the Human race. Do you notice? These people are playing God again .... just like the hedgehog killers in Scotland.

JUST STOP IT, you morons. Look at the bigger picture. Conservation is not just counting statistics in populations ... individual creatures MATTER. Let's try to stop these evil people - for evil they are ... there is none who bring about more evil than the ignorant who cannot see their ignorance. Scientists? The DNR? Don't make me laugh. You're giving Science a bad name.

Love
Bri

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In reply to David's letter about Greco Brian May copy guitar.... see LETTERS

To be honest, I would not recommend you buying this Greco guitar.

These people make copies of my guitar entirely without permission and have refused any input from me. I actually have one of them, and truthfully it is not anywhere close to the quality my people are achieving now ... in Brian May Guitars .. (contact: House Music, Brune Street, London - housemusic@btconnect.com). Over here, we all put a lot of time and energy and pride into making guitars that faithfully reproduce the best features of my instrument, and it is very upsetting that these 'bootleggers' can just pirate it and put it out there; this is essentially a very inferior copy. It is unfair to me and to people iike yourself - who will obviously find it hard to distinguish what is real from what is not.

I'm glad you wrote to me. It seems to be the same everywhere - in every country there are givers and there are takers. The many Japanese people I have worked with over the years have all treated me with exceptional respect and behaved with impeccable integrity ... but these Greco people? A different ethic, I guess.

Could I stop this piracy? Well, probably, with a lot of effort and time and money .... My choice is not to get into legal battles in this kind of situation ... they know how I feel, and I can only try to behave decently towards people and HOPE that they will bahave decently towards me. Life is too short to go chasing parasites ..

I would rather write another book, make another record ... sing another song ....

No! Don't pay 1,000 dollars for this fake.

Cheers
bri

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Thanks for the fantastic feedback on the Stingray story.

I will be very interested to see in the future what the truth actually is here - how much is real, and how much manufactured by the media. But this barbarism is not new. I expect most of you know that the year after JAWS, the film, was released, a million sharks were slaughtered, and the kiling has gone on at a similar rate ever since. I know that the author of the book was so horrified that he devoted the following years trying to reverse the effect, and educate people out of this senseless cruelty.

But Steven Spielberg just went on executive-producing more JAWS films, I think (correct me if I am wrong*). I have often wondered what this wonderful film-maker, and man of great conscience, thinks about the effect his film had on literally millions of innocent creatures. If it were me, I woud be driven to make a film that presented US as the cruel predators, and not the sharks. (which is, of course, the truth.)

Love
Bri

*Adam Fiedler wrote in that Mr Spielberg was unconnected with Jaws sequels. Brian says, "I am happy to be corrected".

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Of course, it is so easy for a TV programme to court notoriety by finding people to harp on about his love life .... is nothing sacred, or allowed to be private? Freddie would have hated this stuff with a vengeance. Wherever I can, I will make it my job to stay away from people who have this kind of agenda; I will in my own way help keep Freddie alive and kicking through what he would have wished to represent him now .... his wonderful music.

cheers
Bri

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[In reply to Asun who wrote to Brian about the terrible fires raging in El Hierro... SEE LETTERS]

I'm devastated to hear this, Asun. I wish there was something I could do.

El Hierro is such a precious place - a priceless unspoilt gem. I will pray things get sorted very soon.

I agree with everything you say .... especaily about the scourge of the selfish ecologically evil golf courses (Can't we just decide there are ENOUGH golf courses in the world now? And stop irreparably wrecking beautiful islands ? )

My only solace ... which I offer you ... is that a few years ago, in my favourite heavenly place in the world ... the Forest of La Esperanza in Tenerife .... there was a terrible fire. I thought this wonderful landscape was destroyed forever. But now .... over 10 years later, all the pine trees have pushed beautiful new green growth through, and the whole place is lit up with new life. This gives me great hope. (How appropriate in La Esperanza!) But this happened because there was no intrusion from the urban development which has rubbished so much of this beautiful island. We all need to try to educate the powers that be, to allow Nature to heal itself. Or it is all over.

I will be praying for El Hierro ...

THANKS!!

Love
Bri

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I just found out ... I must have been naive not to realize ... .... that this whole MySpace thing is just another of Rupert Murdoch's evil moneymaking schemes .... a man who has time and time again showed his complete disregard for morals.

What a horrible world ...

Good luck !
Bri
xxx

You might have noticed that I prefaced my moans with a declaration that I have always been a staunch Mac supporter. A lot of you agree ... my favourite comment was from a VERY unhappy MBP user who said,

"Do they understand how much I really want to love this machine?"

That's my feeling too. I don't want advice from helplines telling me how to make the best of my problems ... I want an admission from the manufacturer that they realise that the machine has severe faults, and that they care enough to try to rectify them.

It's so much like Tony Blair .... the man who will probably go down in History as "The Man Who Could Not Admit he was Wrong." Every day our young men are still losing their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, and every day it becomes plainer that it was a gigantic, terrible, tragic mistake. Tony Blair even now could depart a hero if he could only bring himself to say ...

"OK ... I can now admit it: I screwed up. As my final gift to the nation, I'm bringing the troops home ! "

Will it happen ?

We shall see. He's another example .... we all SO wanted to love this man when he was elected. And now .... ??

Love
Bri

I cannot believe that some Aussies have been out there 'avenging' the death of Steve Irwin ... by mutilating innocent Stingrays.

You stupid, stupid, ignorant, misguided idiots ... Australia has a wonderful record for understanding and taking care of its wildlife ... especially the wonderful Barrier Reef ... What are you guys thinking of ?

This is the LAST thing in the world Steve would ever have wanted .... this man crusaded ALL HIS LIFE for the better understanding and treatment of all animals. He was killed in what was obviously an accident and a misunderstanding - these beautiful creatures harm no-one unless they get seriously upset ... I have so often been swimming with them and stroked them ... they are such peaceful animals .... delightful in everyway.

And yet YOU stupid, stupid cretins go out and slaughter them for NO reason .... Steve Irwin would have hated and despised you. And I hate and despise you ... along with any decent human being worthy of the name ..

You are inhuman. The whole world of people is ashamed to call you one of our race. Shame on you. Go boil your stupid heads. And anyone who is there and able to have an influence ... so many goo d people in OZ ... please use your influence to save the rest of these wonderful creatures - before it's too late ...

with love
Brian

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I have been trying to resist writing this. I have been a big Apple Mac supporter for years.

But I am really beginning to hate my new one.

They changed the mains plug, and they put a new chip in, which is supposed to be 4 times faster ..... so I went for it ...

But I'm beginning to realy HATE my MacBook Pro.

The new mains adaptor is almost twice as big, and twice as heavy as the old one ... but still gets twice as hot. That's not great for the portablility of the system.

But the computer itself is a much bigger disappointment.

The first thing I noticed was that the BATTERIES are now almost twice as big as the previous ones ... and corrrespondingly heavier. Carrying a spare battery and and a mains charger now breaks your back. Damn.

Then I noticed that all the backgrounds to my folders came up wrong as soon as I changed over to this model .... these are all coded by me, and built up over the last few years. The MacBookPro is incapable of returning the right colours .... and, worse than this .... if you try to redefine the colours, it will give you a different colour next time you open the folder. You cannot get the machine to guarantee you a colour. Utterly Dumb. This fault has wasted hours of my time .... I went through a whole system of trying to replace the folder backgrounds I use most often with JPEGS of uniform colour. But the computer them wastes loads of your precious time showing you the coloured beach ball of death while it tries to open these JPEGS before it can open your folder. Rubbish!

My old model (G4) was intelligent enough to deal decently with the battery running down. It gave me a warning ... then, when the power was low enough it closed itslef down to a sleeping position and when the charger was inserted it sprang back to life. The new one is completely unhelpful. Usually I get no warning of the low battery (and because the new mains plug pulls out easily it often happens that the thing runs down before you realise) - it just suddenly DIES. Then - no matter how quick I am .... the whole thing needs to be restarted .... it has forgotten everything I was working on .... and wastes loads of my time while I watch it reload and try to find my saved work. No brain ... no stability .... totally unhelpful and unforgiving.

The faster chip at present really gives NO discernible increase in processing speed ...even in copying large numbers of files, or processing the large images I am used to .... not impressive.

And the WORST THING? the HEAT !! The AWFUL HEAT ....

The damn heat ... As I type this the left hand part of the computer is burning my hand. It's like trying to sit over an electric bar fire. It's utter misery. I run the thing on a special well-ventilated stand, with a pharmaceutical cold pack underneath. It STILL burns my thighs ... and makes me break out in a sweat after about 20 minutes. This really sucks. I no longer get any pleasure from working on my images in Photoshop. The heat is unbearable. And yes, I DO have all the energy-saving options turned on. It does not help. This machine is really driving me out into the world looking for something better. So what are your PC's like to operate, guys ? Looks like you may have a convert soon.

I just want someone from Apple to come over and make the thing do what it is supposed to do without boiling my body.

Does anybody care ?

cheers
Bri

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I like this Mr. Dan Durrans ..... ... many thanks .... the coat is a treasured antique ..... I just happened to come upon it when me and my daughter were looking through some of the archival stuff .... and thought ti might be nice for it to make a re-appearance ...

it's from .....

well, does anybody know ?

A look of concentration .... it's very real .... no matter how many times I play (and practise, even !) Bohemian Rhapsody, it never becomes EASY .... it takes 'being in it' and the wind has to be in the right direction !! Even then it can be patchy ! ha ha! But 'safe' is not good ... !!!

Cheers !
b

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The Evening Standard guy actually gave us - finally - grudgingly - almost - that overdue admission that the critics entirely missed the point of WWRY in the early days. But, as you point out Jen ...almost everything in the article is wrong .... from the bald dwarfs with cocaine on their heads. (It's apochryphal, a fabrication, and always was ... ) onwards ... it's amazing how errors get quoted and re-quoted, simply because the journalists are too lazy to verify their facts at primary sources. I continually wonder - if these reporters get so much wrong in articles like this, where almost everybody in that theatre could have written it better ... how much else in the newspapers is rubbish ... ? And the bit about me - the only rock star in Britain who really appreciates the phrase "hair dressing salon". My God, grow up, Peter Clark ... you really are pathetic. Another piece of crap ...the fatuous 'poodle perm' fantasy ... can none of these dimwits understand that some people are actually born with curly hair ... ? Or am I missing something ... is this a clever piece of wit ? Jeez...

I also love this bit ... where the article says that WWRY "has changed out of recognition. Gone are the gloomy trappings and much of the leaden sci-fi plot" ha ha ha! Utter rubbish .... we have worked on the show a huge amount in ways that this guy would have no understanding of ... we continually fine tune .... but not one ounce of the the plot has changed since those heady opening days .... and the allusions to Pop Idol were in there from Ben's very first DRAFT .... even before we opened. No, sad press people, our show did not suddenly find its way ... it was making people happy from day one ... that's why literally millions have come back ... but hopefully you guys will find a way to improve your game one day. Or else find something that you're good at !

Lord save us from these crass writers. What a waste of trees !

Love
Bri

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You've all sent us some great photo's .... I think this is my favourite .... a nice moment ... thanks Ian C ...

Bri

In reponse to more pictures - see LETTERS

Thanks Tim. Nice pics. And I'm glad you had a blast ! I have to say I did. I've had some geat nights at WWRY over the years now ... but overall I think this one took the biscuit. Stupendous perfs all round. I was VERY proud of the cast and band and crew. They do this night after night, and always with passion - but even for them this was very special. And McFly really showed their talent and courage ... I knew they woud be good .... we rehearsed on Monday and put those ideas together in secret ....

- I knew they would be good .... I didn't know they would be THAT good ..... they are naturals. I'm sure they will endure ... real big talent there.

Yes, we heard the "Happy Birthday" singing ...nice. Strangely enough we nearly did that officially .... we just thought that .... well, that it was enough ....

We were having a hootnanny backstage at that moment too !!

Thanks folks - all of you who have written in and for sending me the pics .... I felt, even picky 'ol me, that it was a Good One !!

Cheers
Bri

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cheers
Bri

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In reply to question - see letters:

Killer Queen is not a very easy song to make effective in a live situation (probably better in We Will Rock You with a massed army of KQ cohorts !) .... we couldn't do EVERYTHING in the show with Paul .... there are plenty more Queen hits we left out ...

It's just unavoidable ...

We just do what we think works best. The song is nothing to do with British Royalty, by the way .... you can tell from the lyrics.

b

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See also LETTERS PAGE...

I have encountered them ..... swam with them ... on Grand Cayman .... there's a place where you can swim with the very big guys ...and stroke them .... lovely animals - I never heard of an accident ....

The only way these creatures attack is if they are VERY upset.

I wonder if a cameraman stepped on one .... the creatures sometimes hide in the sand and it's possible to put a foot on one by accident - cos you don't know they are there. That would do it. They tell you to be careful of that...

B

sad

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The same standards and dreams govern our actions still. At Freddie's 60th we will all celebrate the path he trod, and be proud that we still tread it.

Happy Birthday Freddie !!!

With love
Bri

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