The majestic Queen

Oddly would have thought I'd have done a thread for them before now, as I've got all their albums, and have met more diehard Queen fans over the years than for any other group. The only four-piece band where all the members have written top 10 hits for their band. Despite the death of singer Freddie Mercury at the end of 1991, their music resonates just as impressively whenever it's heard. Here's just some of their best:

Don't Stop Me Now! (Mercury)

Radio GaGa (Taylor)

You're My Best Friend (Deacon)

Fat Bottomed Girls (May)

and of course

Bohemian Rhapsody

Could have picked another 20 with little problem  

The Queen Phenomenon
An hour-long runthrough of the highs and lows of the band, and how things turned out after Freddie Mercury's death 20 years ago. One quirkiness was the amount of interview footage from the now less talkative John Deacon. There were many celebrity talking heads, especially around footage from the tribute concert from April 1992. The usage of Queen songs was also refreshing. A still-missed force in music.

Queen & Paul Rodgers - Return of the Champions
From 2005, an hour & a bit concert megamix with 3 Rodgers numbers and the rest Queen. May & Taylor did some of the singing. Despite my reservations on the whole project, it was a pretty decent show, even if some of Rodgers' performance was lacking early on.

Queen + Paul Rodgers: Let The Cosmos Rock! Live in the Ukraine
Kharkov, to be precise, with a crowd of 350,000+ It's something of a shame this team-up didn't actually last longer, but this was a solid show, done to raise awareness for AIDS.

Queen Rock Montreal
Not sure what year this was from, early 80s I'd guess. Again, decent hour & half concert from the band in good times.

Queen: Magic Years - a Visual Anthology
Again, not sure of the year, but probably around 1987. The story is told with a good mix of archive performances from various locations, and many talking heads from the great and the good (Bob Geldof, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Rod Stewart, er Mel Smith).

Queen: Live at Milton Keynes
From 1982, an hourlong show. What I like from these sorts of shows is their playing of less familiar Queen numbers, and seeing how they would start & end a show (and in this case, played a few from what I guess was their most recent (and critically slagged off) album 'Hot Space').

Becoming Queen
Entertaining hour+ doc from 2004 about the formative days of Queen, and the bands that various members were in before the final unity, with less incisive speeding through later years, covering the 'We Will Rock You' stageshow. The voxpops from people who were in bands like Wreckage, Reaction or The Opposition make a refreshing change, and help fill out what often appears to have no new material from any of the actual surviving band members.

Imagine: Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender
Enjoyable hour+ looking at Freddie's mid-80's solo career, and how he mixed success and failure. From abortive attempts to duet with Michael Jackson, to the ultimately destructive good times in Munich, the letdown of the 'Mr Bad Guy' album, the rejuvenation of Live Aid, and the surprising triumph of the 'Barcelona' album with Monserrat Caballe, this was a fresh and welcome look at a still-missed rock legend. And also a plug for the reissued/revamped 25th anniversary version of 'Barcelona'.

Hungarian Rhapsody - Queen Live in Budapest
Supposedly Freddie's last concert with Queen, this was also interspersed with some skits with the various band members. The music rocked, as you would expect.

Queen at Wembley
From Jul 1986, a hearty run-through of their finest moments, and their most recent hits. They kicked off with 'One Vision' and ran through to 'We Are The Champions'. They made space for a slow spell in the middle, too.

Perspectives: Freddie Mercury Saved My Life
Tenor Alfie Boe tries to understand the magic behind Queen's late frontman, meeting old friends from college (with never-seen-before footage of the young & still shy Fred), his sister & ageing mother, his friends, roadie and PA, Montserrat Caballe, Brian May, and the ubiquitous Bob Geldof. He performed 'Barcelona', and went to Montreux to sing 'Mother Love'. At least he seemed more sincere than many.

Obviously picked the right time for a thread; perhaps coincidentally inspired by Michael Jackson, Brian May has announced an upcoming 'new'(-ish) album:

Queen Forever

"The album has been anticipated for some time,[1] features tracks the band had "forgotten about", with vocals from original Queen frontman Freddie Mercury,[2] and his collaborations with Michael Jackson.[3]"

Just in time for Christmas!   

Queen: Live In Rio
From Jan 1985, so before their Live Aid renaissance, here they belted out many classic numbers, as well as ones from their most recent release 'The Works'. I was amused by Roger Taylor's
"WORLDWIDE NUCLEAR BAN NOW" t-shirt, as relevant a message then as now, and some small evidence that they could support issues despite the cynics who think they did Live Aid as a gimmick.

Queen - The Legendary 1975 Concert
From the Hammersmith Odeon on Christmas Eve, for the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, this was quite a lively show, from the opening of "Now I'm Here", through to an old-time rock medley in the encore (Hey Big Spender, Be Bop A Lula, Jailhouse Rock etc). A worthy archive treat.

The "Forever" compilation entered at #5 last week.

Heyday TV: Queen - Rock Case Studies : One Vision
The mention of "on this DVD" kinda gave away the origins of this one, but many of the usual faces were there, and there was archive footage of Brian May and Roger Taylor, I think from around the time of the Paul Rodgers collaboration. It was good that each band member got their due, and their albums were given fair assessment. It's hard to shake the idea that "The Works" was a deliberate attempt to go back to basics after the commercial failure of "Hot Space", although it's also easy to describe it as "son of Hot Space" anyway - maybe having better songs masks a multitude of sins?

The Nation's Favourite Queen Song
A poll presumably conducted in connection with the "new" compilation, various musicians and other hangers-on discussed the greatness of Queen. Notable highlights were Brian & Roger effectively slagging John Deacon off , whilst Katy Perry, Tony Hadley, Mel C and Tony Iommi saluted the versatility and ability of all 4 members. Peter Freestone was a more welcome presence than Zandra Rhodes. Anyway, that list:
20. I Want It All
19. It's A Hard Life
18. One Vision
17. You're My Best Friend
16. Seven Seas Of Rhye
15. The Show Must Go On
14. Another One Bites The Dust
13. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
12. A Kind Of Magic
11. Who Wants To Live Forever?
10. Somebody To Love
09. These Are The Days Of Our Lives
08. Radio Ga Ga
07. Under Pressure
06. Killer Queen
05. We Are The Champions
04. I Want To Break Free
03. Don't Stop Me Now
02. We Will Rock You
01. Bohemian Rhapsody
Some surprises there, though not at the top, obviously.

The other news that the show advertised was their forthcoming UK tour dates next month as "Queen + Adam Lambert". I'd quite forgotten about their working together. Brian and Roger seem keen to keep going as long as they're allowed to.

Classic Albums: A Night at the Opera
Entertaining effort with Brian & Roger inevitably leading the chorus, with some archive of Freddie, but producer Roy Thomas Baker was useful, whilst photographer pal Mick Rock was also on board. For those who crave vaguely random musicians paying homage, there was Joe Perry and Nuno Bettencourt. I believe there is a longer version, presumably DVD only, where they look at my fave track 'The Prophet's Song, amongst others no doubt. But for what it is, it still cuts the mustard.

Queen revealed as Isle of Wight Festival 2016 headliners

Queen have been revealed as the Sunday night headliners for The Isle of Wight Festival next year.

The show, with singer Adam Lambert, will be the band's debut performance at a UK music festival and their only UK show in 2016, organisers said.

Guitarist Brian May said former frontman Freddie Mercury "would have loved it".

The rock legends will close the four-day festival at Seaclose Park, Newport, on 12 June.

also

Queen named 'living legends' at Classic Rock awards

Queen have been honoured with the Living Legends award at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour awards in London.

Guitarist Brian May collected the award at Classic Rock magazine's 11th annual ceremony at The Roundhouse in Camden.

Queen recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of their biggest hits, Bohemian Rhapsody

misery guts wrote:Queen - The Legendary 1975 Concert
From the Hammersmith Odeon on Christmas Eve, for the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, this was quite a lively show, from the opening of "Now I'm Here", through to an old-time rock medley in the encore (Hey Big Spender, Be Bop A Lula, Jailhouse Rock etc). A worthy archive treat.

Think I'm right in saying this has finally been put out as an album with the title "A Night at the Odeon" (d'you geddit?!?)

Queen: From Rags To Rhapsody
In tune with a repeat of the above concert, another run-through the story of Queen's early years leading up to said gig, with new chats to Brian and Roger (unsurprisingly) and archive of John and Freddie, and their then-manager Norman Sheffield. Rog & Bri came together first, so presumably it's only logical that they still are. They built slowly with their early albums, and tours, became popular in Japan (who doesn't?), and then when John Reid became their new manager, and they risked everything on their 4th album, it paid off. The promo video for Bo Rhap, and Kenny Everett's support, were covered, with that Christmas Eve 1975 gig (40 years ago, well I never), before skipping the rest of the story, to Live Aid, the 1991 re-release of Bo Rhap and the 1992 tribute concert, with its never-to-be-repeated union of Elton John and Axl Rose. Apparently, Axl didn't come to rehearsals. No surprise there.

It occurs to me that whilst ostensibly happy with Adam Lambert in the band, there's no chance of doing a new album with him, and they're less likely to be billed as "Queen + Adam Lambert" but I might be wrong on that one.

There had been much talk about a Freddie Mercury biopic starring Borat/Bruno/Ali G bloke Sacha Baron Cohen as fellow moustache enthusiast FM himself. But SBC withdrew from the project for quite amusing reasons, which he revealed this week:

But the actor also admitted he predicted right from his first meeting with the band that creative differences would arise.

"A member of the band, I won't say who, he said, 'This is such a great movie because it's got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie,'" Sacha recalled. "I go, 'What happens in the middle of the movie?' He goes, 'Freddie dies.' "

While the Borat actor initially assumed the film would have a non-linear structure, like Pulp Fiction, he later realised they wanted the second half to focus on how Queen continued after the Bohemian Rhapsody singer's death in 1991.

Much like a Beatles movie which passed over John Lennon's death in 1980 and finished perhaps with their 1995 reunion and new material

At the end of the day it really was an artistic difference," Sacha said, adding, “Brian May is an amazing musician, but he’s not a great movie producer."

Sacha was first linked to the biopic and dropped out in 2013. That year, Queen guitarist Brian spoke about the split, saying that the band "felt that (Cohen's) presence in the movie would be very distracting".

Apparently, the film is still supposed to be going ahead, but it seems to need a kind of magic

Brian May retaliated this weekend in an interview where he blames SBC for behaving like "an arse". Still hard not to be on SBC's side, though, if that plotline is true.

Video Killed The Radio Star: Queen
Mainly a chat with director David Mallet and drummer Roger Taylor, with some side-stuff from Russell Mulcahy about A Kind of Magic. Otherwise it was the story of creativity in Radio GaGa or I Want To Break Free, or more ordinary efforts like Hammer To Fall. Certainly with Bohemian Rhapsody, a band who really made a big difference to the development of rock & pop videos.

An emotional week for fans, it being the 25th anniversary of the death of Freddie, has been made more so by the news that Freddie's mother died last week at the age of 94:

Brian May pays tribute after Freddie Mercury’s mother Jer Bulsara dies

RIP

The Freddie Mercury Story: Who Wants To Live Forever?
I suspect they wanted to call it the Great Pretender, because they made repeated reference to that title in the narration. Many of his friends and staff spoke warmly about him, from his doctor, to his biographer, to a journalist friend, to Paul Gambaccini. Even Peter Straker (of Destiny of the Daleks fame) was there (I didn't realise he was in the Great Pretender video too). Freddie spoke often that he "wouldn't make old bones", and would have been 70 this year otherwise. To help recount the story were several actors (led by John Blunt as Fred) in a docu-drama way, which was both effective, and modestly done. As the song said, The Show Must Go On.

The Morgan Fisher Story
Started out as a teenager playing the organ in Love Affair. Due to studies, he missed being part of the "Everlasting Love" success. When LA admitted that session men had done their album, their career stiffed. He formed his own band, Morgan, was made some success in Italy. He briefly met the members of Queen around the time Freddie had taken over as singer. He had more success as a member of Mott The Hoople, until Ian Hunter left. Though the band continued as Mott, and then changed their name to British Lions, success drained away. He did some home recordings under the name of The Hybrid Kids, and then started his own label, Pipe Records. He spent time on retreat in India, and when he returned, he joined Queen on keyboards for a tour. He found them less fun than he expected, and thought they found him more strait-laced than they expected. So he wound up in Japan, where he's been for 23 years. Managed to make more LPs, do gigs, and get sales. Happy with his lot.

The biopic is back on with Remi Malek cast as Freddie Mercury:

Wearing Mercury's Live Aid outfit, Malek looks uncannily like the flamboyant star.

The biopic will chronicle the story of Queen from 1970, when Mercury teamed up with Brian May and Roger Taylor, until the band's performance at Live Aid in 1985, six years before the singer died of complications from Aids.
X-Men director Bryan Singer is in charge of the film. He described it as "not a traditional biopic", but instead a celebration of the band's music.

Well, that sounds better than the previous plan.

Queen - Rock The World
Apparently, in 1977, BBC DJ Bob Harris made a "behind the scenes" doc on the making of Queen's "News of the World" LP, but which was never shown. Finally, the footage was put out, together with some modern stuff from Brian and Roger, linking in the overall theme of Queen trying to crack the USA, and how they're still touring there this year. It was good to see short comments from John Deacon back in the day, and funny that Adam Lambert was allowed nothing to add, cementing his status as a performing seal for Brian and Roger. That said, it did make me want to give the LP another listen, so job done.

The ongoing Bohemian Rhapsody film hit another roadblock this week, with director Bryan Singer first needing time off for health reasons, and then getting fired for the same. He claims he's nursing a sick parent... oblique suggestions that he might be part of the Weinstein stormcloud seem not to be the issue (or not said to be).

Singer was replaced by Dexter Fletcher, who has more of a reputation as an actor than a director.

But Singer will have his hands full with accusations now.