IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS BIG CHANCE...

Well, we're clearly not as clever as we like to think. We couldn't quite work out why Robbie Williams was as desperate as he was to play with Queen, but Roger Taylor has joined the dors for us:

"I think America appealed to him and he... I think he was sort of quite keen on the idea at one point, and it did seem like a good idea, and then I think we all sort of drew back a little - thought about it a little harder, and then thought 'Maybe not', you know," Taylor told Capital Gold radio.

Aha! Robbie wanted to know what it was like playing a gig in America where people turned up. How lowly must your prospects be if you're hoping for a career boost from being Brian May's bitch? Come to that, how poor must you be if you don't measure up to Brian May's not-exactly-taxing standards?

Brian May said: "We got close with Robbie... yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, we talked to him, but not in an auditioning kinda way. We just thought 'Wouldn't it be fun if we did something'.

"We kind of talked about it and talked about it and came close but..."

He wasn't even worth an audition. If it were possible, you could almost feel sorry for Robbie Williams, couldn't you?

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