Brian May Star Fleet ( Official Video Remastered)

We did a little preparation, on the phone and at home with tiny Rockman amps and earphones. Then we went in. The tapes rolled. My LA neighbour Alan Gratzer beat the Hell out of his kit with the fattest, heaviest drumsticks I had ever seen. Phil Chen, a friend I had met when he played with Rod Stewart, brought his unusual style of funkorientated rock playing to the party, along with his sunny Caribbean energy and humour. And Fred Mandel, one of the classiest keyboard players I have ever met, tickled both the ivories and some very technical synth patches to bring the spacey riffs to life. Ed (I can still never call him Eddie Van Halen because he more than once told me he found it annoying ) played the guitar as if it were a piano tapping and snapping, and sliding and skipping around the fingerboard like an electric sprite always with a cheeky smile. If anything he did was difficult for him, he never showed it. A total original. Pure joy. What an everlasting privilege to play with him. Brian May