Thank you, Freddie and Falco!

Dear Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher,

Having grown up in Vienna in the 80s & 90s where you produced with your company DoRo music videos for - amongst many others - two icons in the music industry at that time – Queen´s Freddie Mercury and Austria´s Falco – I could generate a few memories that are still very present in my life.

Why?

My special memories come form the 2 or 3 occasions where I happened to be visiting the same restaurant in Vienna as the two of you and Freddie. Just sitting there at another table close to you and this famous artist. It was touching – back then and still now, specifically as it made this superstar so human and vulnerable, connected with his personal fate and his early death. I have been lucky to visit a concert in the “Wiener Stadthalle” and could see Queen´s performance life – an unforgettable experience and I am still getting goose bumps when I hear “Bohemian Rapsody” ,“Can´t stop me now”, “We will rock you” or “We are the champions” , you name it.

Why was that so remarkeable?

Vienna was not a city where a lot of cool things in the eyes of a young adult happened at that time – your engagement, Rudi & Hannes, certainly helped to feel more in sync with the rest of the cool stuff happening in the world.

Only recently I had a conversation about my feelings and memories with Freddie being in Vienna  as we talked about #Biopics of stars from the 80s in general and "Bohemian Rapsody" in particular … on the strip in Las Vegas while hearing Bohemian Rapsody in front of #TheMirage.  

And why Falco?

Well, that is even more of a story where you feel – looking back – it was meant to be. Through a friend I could join your musicvideo shoot of Falco´s (evergreen and world known) hit Rock me Amadeus. At that time Falco was known in Austria and the DACH region, but had a bit of a career break and tried to regain momentum with this song. No one (at least I did not) expected that it would become his probably most successful song and a chance for him to be world known as he even managed to be on the US Billboard charts. Even now – so many years later – people wherever I travel still know Falco because of this song and video.

That day I will always remember – and I am still proud to have been part of it no matter how small the role was.

The video shoot was so funny and remarkeable - I still remember (and you can see all of that in the music video)

• how the horse carriage arrived at the Palais entrance and #Falco walked through the guard of honour of us – the film extras.
• the sound of the Harley Davidson´s of the “real rockers” driving into the main hall (!) of beautiful Palais Schwarzenberg in Vienna
• us dancing together – the rockers and the “other” group dressed up in Rococo costumes
• us singing dressed up in Rococo costumes being grouped around Falco who shared the song text
• A group of us (me included) walking to a famous burger restaurant at Vienna´s "Schwarzenbergplatz" at lunchtime with our costumes generating a lot of attraction on our way
• our foto shootings in the park (like my private foto at this post) and inside the beautiful and empty palais
• and of course when we shot the single cover at the end when Falco jumped down from the podium right on my ancle (quite painful...) as I was sitting on the ground leaning at the motorbike, his politeness and care in that moment.  

There have been many occasions where I was tempted to share my thoughts about these very private moments that only a few people know about. I never did. – why now?

My discussion with you Gilles Domartini in Las Vegas just a few days ago, as well as lately listening to the radio and hearing about Rudi Dolezal being on tour with his new book “My friend Freddie” , gave the final push to share this article.

Yes, very personal content and quite a stretch to the usual business content that I am sharing – but I allow myself the luxury of being #courageous and #vulnerable to share my memories now.  (and here we have the loose connection to my usual themes like #Courage that I write about frequently on LinkedIn.)

All of this has nothing to do with my life now and also had no impact on my business life, but it is a beautiful #memory that I have from that time back then – something that my kids even now, decades later, find interesting and actually cool.

#Thankyou for the great memories, #RudiDolezal and #HannesRossacher, Thank you #torpedotwins.

Thank you and #kudos for your beautiful music Freddie and Falco that outlasted time and is also today heard and loved by people of all generations.

Rightly so!