Last month, Queen was among the bands with an inconveniently deceased lead singer that was asked the "to hologram or not hologram" question in the wake of Faux-pac's historic appearance at Coachella. "I don't think I want to," drummer Roger Taylor told Billboard. " Were somebody (else) to use a hologram of Freddie, I would have no objection… It just doesn't sit too well with me. I don't want to appear with a hologram of my dear friend. It's the real one or no hologram for me. But I think it's an amazing effect when used properly—obviously in darkness."
At the time, it was assumed that the most important part of this quote was, "I don't want to appear with a hologram of my dear friend," which was taken as a dismissal of a "Fraud-ie" Mercury scenario. But, in fact, the crucial section of this statement was, " Were somebody (else) to use a hologram of Freddie, I would have no objection," because "somebody else" closely related to Queen is exactly who will be utilizing Mercury's undead image this evening.
"An optical illusion of sorts" conjuring Mercury will appear at the 10th anniversary of Queen's musical We Will Rock You taking place tonight on London's West End. Queen guitarist Brian May says "it's a little unfortunate they did that thing with Tupac as we've been trying to make Freddie appear on the stage for quite a while," but, you know, they might as well go through with it anyway. May added that one of the show's producers, Robert De Niro, will also be in appearance in non-hologram human form, as he happens to not be dead at this time. [via BBC]