It was terrible, because Freddie was too shy to say “Ere play this” and I'm also frightened to hear people's new records because if I don't like them then I've got to say so and that tends to make the evening go clunk. So I wasn't looking forward to it even though all of their past records have been fantastic. I had the feeling that maybe this might be the one that is going to be no good as the others have been so amazing. So anyway eventually we took this six minute epic into the studio, plonked it on the machine and I reeled back in amazement. I think my first words were “you'll never get Tony Blackburn to play that, it's too long and weird.” He did eventually though, after it became popular, but I was really knocked out with the single and immediately started to play it on the air. I played it that weekend, twice on the Saturday, and twice on the Sunday, and on Monday I had more calls on the hit line for Bohemian Rhapsody than for any other record throughout the full week. I knew then, that it was going to be a monster, because of the hit line gauge. If something's there, you can be sure that it is well liked. Of course this was the day after Freddie played it to me and everyone was ringing up and asking about a copy but the thing hadn't even been pressed into records by then. It was about three weeks before it hit the shops. I think Bohemian Rhapsody will eventually be guarded as a pop classic. On some of the albums Fred plays some really lovely little bits on the piano on the quiet tracks, and the phrasing is so classical. I think he just might do an album pure and simple classical music next. It will be all of them with perhaps tons of quadruple tracking and that little band will produce a major symphony, a modern symphony. The Beatles were the last people to have combined really big talent and I think Queen have that as well. But the Beatles have already done the big swappo world bit, so Queen don't have to do that now, they can sit down and do something a thousand times better than Abbey Road and it will become the Beethoven of our times.