 |
||
| DECEMBER 2007 |
Contains some Industry, General and UNOFFICIAL News from 'OUT THERE' © brianmay.com |
|
1 | 2
**Mon 10 Dec 07**
--- THE DVD LOUNGE Eagle Vision presents Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid. 95 minutes. Not rated. Originally released in 1984. Directed By: Cast: The Film: Most of the kids today know Queen based on the use of "Bohemian Rhapsody"? in Wayne's World. Do the kids today even remember Wayne's World? Anyway, before that film, Queen ranked up with Led Zeppelin as rock and roll gods and still maintain that title today. This 1981 live performance should sway any doubters. As the show begins Queen explodes into a rocked out fast version of "We Will Rock You"? and you instantly know this to be true. What follows is an hour and half of pure unadulterated rock and roll genius. Almost every Queen song that you love is present here and if you don't know any of their songs, these ones will quickly become your favorite. And they don't just play the songs they way you remember them. These live performances really elevate the greatness of the songs. Among Queen's standard you get a fantastic version of the Queen/Bowie song "Under Pressure"? and an awesome rendition of Presley's "Jailhouse Rock"?. Then to top it all off you get an epic drum solo followed by a wailing guitar solo. This was the first show filmed entirely in 35mm and it shows. Not only is the music unforgettable but it's a joy to watch. It's very well shot and Freddie Mercury has amazing stage presence. His energy flows out of the past into your living room making you want to join the crowd in cheers after every song. As if all that wasn't enough this DVD collection also includes Queen's fantastic 1985 Live Aid performance. It's only a 25 minute set, but it is a solid 25 minutes. Whether you're a Queen fanatic your just getting into them, this set is a must for all. The DVD: This film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. Sound is in DTS Digital Surround and PCM Stereo. The remastering of the Montreal concert is fantastic but the Live Aid show, which was shot of video, looks pretty bad. It sounds great though. Extras: Disc 1: Audio Commentary with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor: For the most part this is a really sparse commentary with lots of dead time, but when Taylor and May talk they have interesting things to say and they crack lots of jokes. Over all this is a pretty decent commentary. Disc 2: Live Aid Performance: (25 min.) As described earlier this is a great 25 minute set with bad video quality. It's still a great time. It can be watched in surround or stereo. Live Aid rehearsal: (11 min.) This is rehearsal of three songs mixed with an interview with the band about why they chose to do Live Aid. It's a really good interview. TV Interview (USA 1982): (6 min.) This is without a doubt the squarest show ever and the lamest interview of a rock band. It's absolutely hilarious! The DVD Lounge's Ratings for Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid: Summary: I don't know what else to say that I didn't already say above. This is a fantastic rock concert and the transfer is amazing. Plus the inclusion of the Live Aid performance makes this a must own for any rock fanatic. © brianmay.com |
**Mon 10 Dec 07**
Now Extended Until March 2nd, 2008 New Block of Tickets Go On Sale Saturday December 8th NEW $25 RUSH SEATS Winter is heating up and Toronto audiences still can't seem to get enough of WE WILL ROCK YOU, the musical by Queen and Ben Elton. The show, which began in March 2007 and has already been seen by more than 450,000 people in Toronto, is being extended yet again. A new block of tickets for performances until March 2, 2008 will go on sale on Saturday, December 8. NEW RUSH SEATS! 20 front-row and box seats are available for $25 each for every performance. These specially-priced $25 RUSH SEATS are sold on the day of performance only, beginning at 10:30 AM. Buy online*, over the phone* (TicketKing 416-872-1212 or 1-800-461-3333) or in-person at the Canon Theatre box office, 244 Victoria St. *Regular phone and web service charges apply; no service charges for in-person sales. WE WILL ROCK YOU is an international juggernaut with productions in London, Australia, Spain, Germany, Russia and many other countries. This rollicking, fun-filled musical features more than two dozen of Queen's greatest hits in a fantastical futuristic story full of wry humour and wild romance. The Toronto production stars many of the brightest talents from across the country, including Yvan Pedneault as the rebel hero Galileo, Erica Peck as the feisty Scaramouche, Alana Bridgewater as the Killer Queen, Evan Buliung as Khashoggi, Jack Langedijk as Pop, Sterling Jarvis as Britney and Valerie Stanois as Oz. The production has not had a single performance where audiences haven't stood and cheered (and danced in the aisles). WE WILL ROCK YOU Tickets $25 to $94 Performance Schedule: Wednesday to Friday 8 PM; Saturday 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday 2 PM Holiday Performance Schedule: Wed Dec 26, 8 PM; Thur Dec 27, 2 PM & 8 PM; Fri Dec 28, 8 PM; © brianmay.com |
**Sun 09 Dec 07** Queen's video of "Who Wants to Live Forever" achieved the first position of all time on youtube. This video was uploaded by an Argentine team, and the news appeared on many local newspapers. Today, there are even more visitors and more comments. (Editors: kindly credit translator if quoting.) TRANSLATION: It is now official: "The Clan of Nostalgia" has today the video with the highest ranking of all time on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo52T7uKOJU With a provisional amount of 1,202,280 visits registered yesterday on YouTube, the video of Queen’s song "Who Wants To Live Forever" is Top Rated video of all time, as the international website announces. The video was broadcasted through a weblog from the Argentine province Misiones, to promote the radio programme of Jorge Mercanti on YouTube. Throughout these days, the radio programme's team followed closely the progress of the positions.
This event doesn’t pass unnoticed, because it’s the first time that a Hispanic team can impose this mark, largely dominated by American and British users, which are the majority. The figures speak for themselves: this video also was chosen 10,123 times as favourite, and there are a total of 2,176 comments about Queen and its singer.
An English reader was more direct: "Argentina has a legitimate right to its claim and the course of history will tell the rest, but let’s continue to strive so that future generations can live in a world of peace. If music is the excuse to open our hearts and join as brothers, we have to encourage this kind of initiative." Many visitors also remembered the anecdote of the meeting between the football star Diego Maradona and the singer Freddie Mercury in the eighties, who wore the Argentine T-shirt, when Queen performed in this country. Jorge Mercanti and Horacio Cambeiro, the radio presenter and the blog’s author respectively, were very moved by the news. "We share the passion for nostalgic music –they admitted– and this is shown when people visit the weblog or listen to our radio programme, from very different countries." Although this story is a big surprise for them because it’s "unusual and unexpected", the happiness will remain on their faces for a long time.
Photo: Queen with Maradona. Freddie with the Argentine T-shirt and Diego with the British one (1981). Honors for This Video: Thanks to Mariana de Giuli © brianmay.com |
**Sat 08 Dec 07** In The Netherlands we have each year a Top 2000. This is a chart of 2000 songs voted by listeners of the radiostation "Radio 2". Since 1999, Bohemian Rhapsody was voted 9 times number 1 !! This year Boh-Rap is again the best song among the 2 million people who voted. © brianmay.com |
**Fri 07 Dec 07** © brianmay.com |
**Thu 06 Dec 07** Amazing news just in… ‘Say It’s Not True’ has just been added to the Radio 2 C List! The free download has also been getting airplay on Virgin and Planet Rock! Click to Look out for more news very soon. © brianmay.com |
**Thu 06 Dec 07** CIUDAD.COMß The legendary rock band has joined after ten years to support the fight against AIDS leaded by Nelson Mandela and, on the occasion of World AIDS Day, presents a new single, available as a free download. After ten years without new studio releases, Queen returned to the music scene with its last single “Say it's not true”. The song was recorded to support Nelson Mandela’s cause 46664 HIV AIDS, a global campaign to fight against the virus’ transmission. On occasion of World AIDS Day –on December 1st– the single will be made available as a free download from different websites related to the band and 46664. Queen's last studio recording took place in November 1997 when May, Taylor and Deacon reunited to record “No-One But You”, a tribute written by Brian May, affected by Freddie Mercury’s death. This song was released as a single in 1998. The newest material of the British group is Queen Rock Montreal, a double disc brought out in October, after recording two shows in Montreal from November 1981, exactly ten years before Freddie passed away. Photo Video Audio © brianmay.com |
**Thu 06 Dec 07**
Links: © brianmay.com |
**Wed 05 Dec 07**
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: Wednesday December 5, 2007 NELSON MANDELA ANNOUNCES 46664 WORLD AIDS DAY CONCERT FOR 2008 Following this past weekend's 46664 World Aids Day Concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, which attracted stars from the world over to perform for Nelson Mandela's HIV AIDS organization which carries his former prison number, Mr.Mandela has announced that the second of what will be a regular annual Worlds AIDS day events will be held in 2008 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Saturday's concert attracted the support of artists including Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel, Goo Goo Dolls, Live and Corinne Bailey Rae. The concert even drew a special contribution from rock band Queen - the band donated to Nelson Mandela a brand new studio track, the Roger Taylor penned "Say It's Not True" performed by Brian May and Roger Taylor with new front man Paul Rodgers which was screened on video at the concert. Originally available only as a download, the track is now expected to have a physical release to benefit 46664. Rio City Mayor Cesar Maia, had invited Mr. Mandela to stage next year's event in the city, and at Saturday's concert Mr. Mandela thanked the city of Rio and confirmed agreement that the event will move to Rio for 2008. Making official the 2008 event, Johannesburg Mayor Mr. Amos Masondo handed over the 46664 baton to Rio Mayor's office Director of Events, Ana Maria Maia who was in the city to meet with Nelson Mandela and finalize the agreement (see picture). Maia's office was responsible for staging the Rolling Stones February 2006 concert on Copacabana Beach. The 46664 event is also planned to take place on Rio's famed Copacabana Beach and is expected to attract an audience of more that 1 million when it takes place December next year. Artists are already being approached. 46664 was founded in 2002 when Nelson Mandela gave his former prison number to Dave Stewart to use as a campaign front against HIV AIDS. With Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen the fund raising organization was launched with a massive concert in Cape Town in 2003 which drew a television and radio audience of over 2 billion people, the largest broadcast audience in history. There have since been a further 4 concerts. The 46664 organisation has now announced that for future years, concerts will be held annually on World Aids Day, December 1. Rio will be the next. © brianmay.com |
|
International producers are playing musical chairs to get in on the South African action. James Cundill of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions (who brought The Imperial Ice Stars' The Sleeping Beauty to South Africa with Pieter Toerien in 2005) has partnered up with Showtime Management's Hazel Feldman. They took Ben Elton and Queen's musical We Will Rock You (seen in Joburg, Cape Town and Durban in 2006) to New Zealand which rocked Auckland till last Saturday. Talia Kodesh (Scaramouche), Neels Clasen (Kashoggi), Malcolm Terrey (Pops), Stephen John van Niekerk (Brit) and Carly Graeme (Oz) grabbed critical attention. The South African cast and musical director Bryan Schimmel, who shared the stage with a kiwi Killer Queen (Annie Crummer) and an Australian Galileo (Miguel Ayesa), are back home till the end of January. Then this international cast (with Rent's Sivan Raphaely as Scaramouche) set's off for Korea with another promoter till March 9. Lunchbox Productions is involved with Singapore (March 24 to May 4) and Hong Kong (May 12 to June 22). Negotiations are underway for Bangkok. © brianmay.com |
**Tue 04 Dec 07* VH1 CLASSIC RADIO REPORT World AIDS Day, which took place on Saturday, has even more meaning to the band Queen, since, in 1991, they lost their famed singer, Freddie Mercury, to the disease. Since then, the group has been raising awareness about the illness and were even named ambassadors to Nelson Mandela’s 46664 HIV AIDS Global Campaign. The 46664 World AIDS Day fundraising concert took place in South Africa this weekend and to help commemorate the occasion, Queen teamed up with Paul Rogders to release a newly recorded single called “Say It’s Not True.” It marks the first studio collaboration between the musicians and you can get it for free at QueenOnline.com. Queen’s Roger Taylor actually wrote the track as a gift for Mandela in 2003 and performed it live for him with Brian May and Dave Stewart at the first 46664 concert. Now, everyone can hear it, something Taylor is happy about. He said in a statement, “By making the song available for free, we hope top help Nelson Mandela with his campaign to get across the message that no one is safe from the infection. We have to be aware, we have to protect ourselves and those we love.” Rodgers and Queen plan to release an album together next year. © brianmay.com |
**Sun 02 Dec 07** Thousands of people joined Nelson Mandela at a World Aids Day event in South Africa. Razorlight, Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel and Rihanna were among more than 20 stars who took to the stage at the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg. The event was organised by Mr Mandela's 46664 campaign to stand up against the scourge of Aids. Under the guidance of the former apartheid prisoner, 46664 is a campaign to raise awareness of the global HIV/Aids pandemic. It also aim to raise funds to support HIV/Aids projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is rife. "It is still alarming that for every person who receives treatment there are four others that are newly infected," Mr Mandela told the crowd. "We are pleased to say that the 46664 prevention campaign is being stepped up and going from strength to strength." ©brianmay.com |
| **Sun 02 Dec 07** Roger Taylor appeared on SKY NEWS channel 501 this morning for a short interview on "Sunday Live" with Adam Boulton shortly after 11:15am.
ADAM BOULTON: Well this weekend, it was World AIDS Day, and Queen have teamed up with the former Free singer, Paul Rodgers, to release a song to raise awareness of the disease. In a moment I'll be speaking to Queen's drummer, Roger Taylor, who wrote that song. First, let's listen to it "Say It Isn't [sic] True" by Queen and Paul Rodgers. <VIDEO PLAYS> AB: That's "Say It's Not True", the new song from Queen and Paul Rodgers. Difficult subject to write about? ROGER TAYLOR: Yes. The song was written about 3 or 4 years ago for Mandela and for his AIDS campaign. It is a difficult subject and it's really written in the first person, from the... It's about receiving the letter and finding our you're positive - HIV positive - and the sort of terrible shock, and emotion and effect it has on your life, and you know that was probably the only way I felt I could deal with it, you know. We all know it's a terrible thing. AB: But it's something you've seen in your own life. RT: Absolutely. I mean, we connected very directly to it after losing Freddie and, you know, we set up a charity, Mercury Phoenix Trust is still going, so we still do feel allied to the cause, that cause, and Mandela's fighting. AB: This song though is not directly a fund raising song, or you've given all the profits from it... RT: Yes, it's a free download actually and it just, everything fitted and we re-worked the song with Paul, and we felt it was very sort or apposite and, you know, we're not in Johannesburg for the World AIDS Day Concert, but that was our contribution. AB: And do you feel AIDS has been very much focussed - we saw the Prime Minister yesterday with his Red Ribbon - d'you feel that the global response is sufficient at the moment to AIDS or not? RT: I don't know. I really think it's about - it is about awareness and education really. South Africa, I think, has one of the greatest problems of any country, almost one in four now, and that's a problem; that's a major problem, it really is. They've had a lot of misinformation in that country - very bad, ill-informed information from people in high places and, you know, can't be stressed enough. AB: Yes. I mean the difficulty is, as you say, that Nelson Mandela's made it very clear that he basically accepts the orthodox assessment of the health dangers in HIV, but his successor, President Mbeki, has a rather different view. RT: He's being very reticent about what really are the realities of this virus, you know. AB: What do you think are, you know, the things which people should do to protect themselves? RT: Well, they should use condoms and no matter what anybody says, I mean. I mean I'm not an expert in this, but just as a member of the public has had contact, most people will know somebody, I am sure, who, if they haven't got it, will have it or maybe died of it, and it's just something that we should be aware of, you know, without hopefully not preaching and being boring by doing so. AB: And how, obviously, you know, you lost Freddie Mercury from the band. RT: Yeah. AB: And many people saw that as being almost the end of Queen, but you've gradually... RT: I think AB: ...managed to rebuild, so are you sort of back RT: Yes AB: ... to full strength? Obviously you'll never replace Freddie, though. RT: No , he's irreplaceable, but, you know, life moves on. We thought it would be the end of Queen, then by pure fortuitous circumstance really, we sort of teamed up with Paul Rodgers, who had always been a great favourite of ours, and particularly Freddie's. And we've been in the studio and it's just kind of magical chemistry, and it's really been a reinvention of our sort of joy in music, I think. We're still slaving away over... AB: What, working towards a new album? RT: Yeah. And it's really wonderful to be actually doing new stuff for the first time in... really since Freddie died, yeah. Completely new material, so. AB: And how do, you wrote that song, you wrote R |
WE WILL ROCK YOU 
This week on 'The Next Great American Band' in the USA on Fox Network, only 4 bands remain. The featured artist of the week will be Queen and the bands will play a Queen song as well as one of their own. One of the bands will however be eliminated before they get to play their Queen song.
