“My love for Queen never died.”

Hello !

My name is Caroline van Berkel and I am 57 years old , born in 1959 ( yes that old hahaha).

I live in Almere a town near Amsterdam in Holland.

In 1974 I lived with my parents , brother and sister. We all loved music , classical or modern and we shared our love listening to records and watching programs like Top Pop ( a weekly Music chart show ) together. I was 14 years old when I heard Killer Queen on the radio and immediately loved it. On TopPop Queen played in the studio and I fell in love. With their looks mostly and their extravagant performance. My mother could not believe such an outrageous band could make such great music. The whole family loved and loves Queen up to the present day. My parents ar 86 and 87 now .

My love for Queen was born ..

With a friend I became a member of the OIQFC in London in 1976 and we read their magazines over and over again. There was not much more than a magazines and LP’s. Only with hitsingles we got to see them perform on TV . And only when Abba did not have the number 1 position.

Until they announced a European Tour for 1977.

Through the fanclub we could get front row seats for the show in Rotterdam May 17th 1977. (foto)

The day of the show we were so nervous !It was a Tuesday, a normal schoolday .

We dressed in Queen at the Castle ( From a show in Cardiff) sweatshirts. Wristbands like Roger, buttons of the Queen logo on our chest. With black nailpolish of course.

We also made a banner (Photo) saying ‘WE FEEL GOOD” that we would hold up in the air during Death on Two Legs .

On the day of the show we took the underground to the Ahoy and it was quite a walk to the venue . On the way we saw the Queen show announced ( Photo).

Inside we bought the Tourbook at the merchandise stand ( foto) . In the arena there were seats , we had seats in the front row next to the catwalk . The show started with Tie you Mother down and lots of smoke. It was so loud !! haha we could not hear a thing for days !

I brought a camera with flash cubes , a small camera that had mini negatives . I lost them over the years but have my photo’s in a special album. ( foto )

Smoke, lights and my heroes on stage . I was in love with Roger at the time so my eyes were on him more than on anyone else.

I remember we had some arguments with security because we refused to sit down in our seats. But at the end everyone was standing on or in front of their seats. I think in 1978 the show had seats but from then on never again in Holland. Much better to be standing and clapping, singing and dancing than sitting in a seat .

I only remember bits and pieces of that show , One is that we sang along to every song, even the fast one like Stone Cold Crazy and Freddie was genuinely surprised and laughed when we screamed those songs in front of him. He stood right in front of us just a little high on the catwalk so we could not get to him and touch him. A special moment is when he threw carnations in the audience. I lost mine in one of my many moves, as well as many tapes and scrapbooks.

He also shared a glass of champagne with the audience. In the Photo you can see the back of my head . I don’t know who took it but we swapped photo’s and stuff at Dutch Fan Club meetings in Rotterdam . We were a big Queen family at the time and went to the Dutch shows together. Until 1980 I spent almost all my free time with them. We ate and breathed Queen.

After the show we went backstage with the Dutch Fan Club but we never saw the band there. Being there was so special ! knowing they were there was the best feeling !

I know the Dutch FanClub was invited to their dressing rooms and later to a party, I was not so lucky then.

Since then I have had the privilige to have met the band many times. Was a guest at shows in Holland,Belgium, Germany and the UK. And later on in the US as well. In the early days camera’s were a no go item so I have very few photo’s from that time. Nowadays everybody can take photo’s on their Phone and share them with the World.

I made real friends with the crew and we kept in touch over the years.

How and when I was with the band is a different story but I remained a faithful fan through the years. My story is in a Dutch book called ‘ Fans will be Friends’ ‘Voor Queen en vaderland 2’ by the Dutch journalist Edger Hamer.

Then Freddie died, a very very sad day.. I remember I was in the bathroom in the morning getting ready for work when I heard the news. Of course there was no internet, no means of getting news fast , it was on the radio and TV. Very shocked, very sad I was. Queen had not been on the road for a long time by then and now they would never be touring again..that was a terrible feeling. No more Queen ,no more music, my youth had finished then and there I thought.

In 1992 I went to the Tribute on invitation and to the afterparty in London. I felt lost.. sad.. this was it.. no more Queen ever again…

I did see BM in Rotterdam in 1993 but for me solo projects were not Queen. I never saw the Cross.

Until they started touring with Paul Rodgers again. I had kept in touch with Trip ( Khalaf ) and he arranged for me to see the shows and meet Brian and Roger again. ( foto) . I must say I enjoyed Q+ PR and saw more shows in a Tour than I did with Queen in the 70’s and 80’s . Back in the Queen days it was not so common to travel all over Europe. There was a group of followers named the Royal Family from the UK but I never joined them.

My love for Queen never died. Of course I miss Freddie and John but seeing how much joy and fun Roger and Brian are bringing to old and new fans makes me happy.

I love Adam Lambert ! He gives me the same feeling seeing him perform as Freddie did.

Remember that at the time that Queen were Freddie , Brian, Roger and John we could never ever imagine they would stop performing for whatever reason ! We were all young. Who would have guessed they were to play such a big role in so many lives 40 years later. If I had known then I would have written down everything in a diary haha.

Queen for me are a part of my life.

The discussion that Queen are not Queen without Freddie is a discussion I do not participate in. Queen are a band with exceptional good music,. The music in the current shows is not played by total strangers but by the original members of the best Group ever:

QUEEN

Looking forward to seeing them again with Adam Lambert, Neil Fairclough, Spike Edney and Tyler Warren.

Luxemburg, Amsterdam , Newcastle and Glasgow.

Tickets are bought because the days of being a guest without paying are over ..