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STAR STRUCK

22 Nov 2006

DAILY MAIL WEEKEND MAGAZINE
Saturday 18 November 2006, page 12
By David Wigg
STAR STRUCK

When not performing with stars, there's nothing BRIAN MAY likes more than gazing at them with Sir Patrick Moore, DAVID WIGG hears how the Queen guitarist nearly became an astronomer himself .

When Brian May was at junior school, two significant things happened that were to shape his life.

His parents gave him his first guitar, which was to lead directly to a career as rock god. And they let him stay up late to watch a fascinating new programme called The Sky At Night, introduced by an aspiring new broadcaster called Patrick Moore and which sparked off a lifelong interest in astronomy and an unlikely friendship.

Fifty years on, and 'the world's leading guitarist' (Sir Patrick's description of May) and 'the greatest man in the country' (what May calls Moore) have collaborated with cosmologist Chris Lintott to write a book called Bang! The Complete History Of The Universe.

The interest of Moore and Lintott - whom the other two call 'the young gun of astronomy' - is understandable. But how does May, he of the cascading curls and all those years spent standing, legs akimbo, fingers on guitar strings, behind Freddie Mercury in Queen, come to find himself gazing at real stars, as opposed to their more earthly counterparts? What do rockers and astronomers have in common, apart from the fact that, by virtue of their work, they are both nocturnal creatures?

'I've been passionate about music and astronomy since I was seven,' says May, now 59. 'My dad and I built a guitar together - and then we made our own telescope. I was shepherded towards a scientific career, and, after I graduated with an honours degree in physics and maths, I went on to study for my PhD. I was heavily into writing a thesis on interplanetary dust while playing in a band - and I found the music gradually taking over my life.

'I'd reached the point where I had to decide between the universe and Queen, because I was either playing or studying or teaching 24 hours a day, and I knew I just couldn't go on. Besides, I had run out of money. Something had to go, so I decided to put everything on the back burner while I went for a musical career.'

His subsequent success is well documented, but he never lost his passion for the night sky, even building a small observatory in the back garden of his west London home. Then, ten years ago, his friendship began with Patrick Moore, who had been his idol since boyhood. 'I had first met him when I was studying at London's Imperial College. He had come in to see one of my tutors, and as he was a very important man and I wasn't, there wasn't much contact between us.

'When we met again, through a friend, in 1996, we hit it off. He began talking to me about astronomy as if I was a professional, and I thought, "Hang on, I'm just an a amateur", but it didn't make any difference to him - we were speaking the same language.'

With their common bond as the serious study of the planets, stars and space, as well as the physical universe, they have even been on eclipse-spotting trips together, to such places as Peru and the Isle of Skye.

For the past two and a half year, May, Moore and Lintott, Sir Patrick's co-presenter on The Sky At Night (which is 50 years old next year, making it the world's longest-running scientific programme) have been working on their book. It explains how the universe was born 13.7 billion years ago and highlights its origins and destiny - the trio calculate that we've only got about three billion years left before the sun swallows us up.

As May's music has made him wealthy enough to afford a £100,000 trip into space when passenger flights start operating, I wondered if he had reserved himself a seat. 'No, I haven't, but it's tempting. I do quite fancy the idea. But I'm getting a little old for it.' However, Sir Patrick, who is 24 years older than May, wouldn't miss the chance. 'I'd have to go, but it would take a very massive rocket to launch someone my size,' he says.

It was Sir Patrick's idea to write the book and he persuaded Brian to get involved with the project. 'I didn't take it very seriously, because I didn't think I was very well qualified. But Patrick insisted, and it's been a wonderful journey. I'm so glad I said yes, because, in the end, I felt that I did have a role to play and I think we've become a great team. We hope that we will inspire a new generation, as Patrick inspired us.'

Sir Patrick's house, at Selsey, West Sussex is, he says, 'an Aladdin's cave of astronomy books, instruments and stuff. It's a boy's environment. We turn the phones off and the most stress that ever happens is the cat getting lost! So it's just a lovely place to be.

‘My father always regarded astronomy as my proper job, because that's what I was training to do. When I gave it up, there was a bit of strain between us and we hardly spoke for a year, but everything worked out okay in the end. I still have the telescope that we made when I was about 12. It's a four-inch reflector and the funny thing is, if you see something in the sky, you don't have time to go out in the garden and unlock the observatory and turn the thing on. What I do is, I drag my home-made telescope out, just like I always did. So I still enjoy my little four-inch reflector.'

The English skies aren't really the best place for pursuing astronomy. ‘There are so few nights that are any good and, generally, I'm in the wrong place. There is too much light pollution, apart from the rain and the clouds and everything else. So I don't do that much stargazing in my observatory. It's better if you're away from big cities. I'm seriously considering trying to buy a house somewhere on one of the Canary Islands, just so I can enjoy the sky.

'I love to go to observatories and just look, even with the naked eye, or binoculars or a small telescope. But I'm odd. Most astronomers don't do that. I went to La Palma in the Canaries recently, where they have just built the world's biggest solar telescope. I've been invited to play at the inauguration, which is very exciting.'

Pursuing his solitary behaviour has landed him in trouble, however. May says he sometimes gets told off by his wife, former EastEnders actress Anita Dobson, if he doesn't get his head out of the clouds. 'She's wonderful. She's so good for me because she keeps me human. She says "Look, you've been sitting at that computer, or that telescope for 13 hours. I think you should do something else" - and I need that.'

As supportive as she is, Anita does not share the same interest in astronomy. 'She has an attention span of about 30 seconds when it comes to astronomy, says Brian, with a grin spreading across his face. 'Which is fair enough; she's a different kind of animal. She likes me doing it, but she doesn't really want to know too much about the details. She's involved in her art stuff.

'She's my greatest critic. She tells me the truth. I usually get angry, but then I think, "Yeah, she has a point." The hardest thing for any artistic person to take is criticism, especially when you've spent God knows how long developing an idea.

'Getting married put us into a new era and I think we feel very secure and are able to give each other a lot more rope. We've always spoken about this kind of thread that is between us, and sometimes it's got stretched incredibly thin, but it's always there. The more secure you are yourself, the more you are able to let your partner go out on a limb, but still feel the thread is there.

'Thank God, we have a wonderful relationship now. We came through every kind of battlefield and, up to the point where we got married in 2000, it was always on and off, because my first marriage had ended in divorce and I'd lost both Freddie and my father. I really didn't want to live and I was just coasting along. I felt wounded, depressed, brain-fried, and the feelings of loss outweighed any of my achievements. I checked into a clinic in Arizona in the U.S., and it worked for me and I've felt great ever since.

'My relationship with Anita is the same as my passion for music and astronomy - intense. I can't see it ever changing.'

BANG! The Complete History Of The Universe by Brian May, Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, Carlton Books, £20.

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