Brian May founder of Queen Launches 3D book at Book Soup

On July 24, rock legend Brian May, founder of the band Queen hosted a book signing event at Book Soup in West Hollywood. I’ve always been a Queen fan ever since I was in elementary school in the Philippines. I’d hear the beautiful music of Queen from my cousins  who were six-10 years older than me. When I was in fourth grade, I watched a high school program where they had a pantomime of the Bohemian Rhapsody. And in 6th grade, I saw the movie Flash Gordon where Queen recorded the theme song of the movie.

The British rock band known for the hits Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We are the Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, and Somebody to Love, according to Wikipedia has sold an estimated 150 million to 300 million records, making them one of the world’s best-selling music artists. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

So when I heard Brian May was having a book signing event in Los Angeles, no second thoughts, I bought my ticket. From Orange County to LA was a lengthy commute but it was all worth it. No press pass, interviews this time, just a loyal fan who’d like to have a little chat with the brilliant guitarist.

Left my place at 2 p.m. and arrived in Book Soup and purchased the book at 5 p.m. and lined up at 5:15 p.m.. It was so much fun chatting with the fans. To be perfectly truthful, I didn’t really feel that I waited for three hours. Within those hours, I read the book, took some photographs, interviewed some fans and recorded some videos. A 12-year-old fan named Sasha from Los Angeles was with her brother and mom patiently waiting to get a glimpse of Brian. She was behind me and looked so excited, so I had to ask her why she was there considering this musician is even older than her mom and she said, “Their music is timeless and this is an amazing opportunity to be very close to one of the band members, Brian May. And I know even though I’m super young…. I still love the music so it’s awesome.” I couldn’t agree more with Sasha. The music of Queen is timeless. Heck, even my 8-year-old-son sings “We are The Champions.” A Gen X’er named Alex who arrived almost the same time as me said, ” I drove three hours and waited in line three hours to meet Brian and it was totally worth it. Brian signed my book, talked to me and I had a photo op with him. I got to meet a hero of mine. Everyone left Book Soup with a huge smile on their face. Thank you Brian.”

Upon meeting Brian, I felt star struck. I couldn’t believe I was living my childhood dreams at that very moment. How could it be that I was this close to the legend whose music I grew up with? It was just surreal. And so I asked him, “Hey Brian, I am writing a blog about this event.”And he replied, “What are you going to write?” “I could not answer him right away so I replied “I will just send it to them (the book soup staff). I could’ve replied …”Nothing but good Brian…something like that. Oh well.

The book includes a stereoscope with instructions …. how to view a stereo illustration in a book and how to use it with view cards. The book features over 300 never seen 3-D photographs ….capturing Queen history on and off stage from the ’70s and yes up to the present time with Adam Lambert. According to the author “This is the first account written by someone who was actually inside the maelstrom. I’ve now been in there for close to half a century. It’s been turbulent to say the least, and of course there have been moments of wondering “was it all worth it?”

And to answer Brian’s question, Yes it was all worth it.