Tonight: Queen: Days of Our Lives

[Ozone]

PlaneFan said:

Saw them at Knebworth, August 9th 1986,

I was there too, a fantastic gig.

Also saw them at MK Bowl in '82, The Hot Space tour

[Eric Mc]

Ozone said:

PlaneFan said:

Saw them at Knebworth, August 9th 1986,

I was there too, a fantastic gig.

Also saw them at MK Bowl in '82, The Hot Space tour

Would you say that was their low point - as intimated in the programme?

[PlaneFan]

Eric, do you mean the Magic Tour or the Hotspace tour?

Hotspace - not their best album lol
Magic - some really great tracks.

[NathanJones]

Zad said:

I don't have a problem with Queen still playing, just because Freddie has gone there is no requirement to deprive people of hearing the music live. People know exactly what they are getting, and it isn't exactly like they are flogging it to death.

I agree in a way about seeing and hearing live music, but I went to the O2 in October 2008, Al Murray joined them on stage, it was nothing compared to having Freddie sing the vocals and entice the crowd, there truly was something lacking with stage presence, though enjoyable nonetheless. I have seen the original group live twice, once here and abroad and there was no comparison between Freddie and Paul IMO.

[Ozone]

Eric Mc said:

Ozone said:

PlaneFan said:

Saw them at Knebworth, August 9th 1986,

I was there too, a fantastic gig.

Also saw them at MK Bowl in '82, The Hot Space tour

Would you say that was their low point - as intimated in the programme?

Yes i would. The album was probably the worst selling and not the core fans favorite due to the disco theme. Freddy gave a short speech at the gig saying 'they are only fking songs!'

I think Hot Space was a foretaste to Mr Bad Guy, which again sold dismally (replacing Roger with a Linn drum machine stuck on the default sounds was terrible) . It is fairly forgettable compared to all their other output but i quite liked the Arif Mardin production. It was quite strange hearing stabbing horns on Queen songs

[Mrs Pitstop]

NathanJones said:

Zad said:

I don't have a problem with Queen still playing, just because Freddie has gone there is no requirement to deprive people of hearing the music live. People know exactly what they are getting, and it isn't exactly like they are flogging it to death.

I agree in a way about seeing and hearing live music, but I went to the O2 in October 2008, Al Murray joined them on stage, it was nothing compared to having Freddie sing the vocals and entice the crowd, there truly was something lacking with stage presence, though enjoyable nonetheless. I have seen the original group live twice, once here and abroad and there was no comparison between Freddie and Paul IMO.

I saw Queen with Paul Rodgers a few years back & thought he did a great job of singing Freddie's songs, without trying to be Freddie. Sadly I was too young to see the great man himself but I do think Paul Rodgers fronts the band well in their current guise. I have to say the highlight of that gig was Brian May singing an acoustic version of "Love of my life" - I had a really big bit of dust blow into my eyes during that particular song...

[NathanJones]

Mrs Pitstop said:

I saw Queen with Paul Rodgers a few years back & thought he did a great job of singing Freddie's songs, without trying to be Freddie. Sadly I was too young to see the great man himself but I do think Paul Rodgers fronts the band well in their current guise. I have to say the highlight of that gig was Brian May singing an acoustic version of "Love of my life" - I had a really big bit of dust blow into my eyes during that particular song...

Hyde Park 2005 by any chance, gave tickets to my son, he thoroughly enjoyed with a pal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ydSXHsc9Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1uTt32Hnco&fea...

.... words say so much

Edited by NathanJones on Wednesday 1st June 23:26

[LuS1fer]

Eric Mc said:

Ozone said:

PlaneFan said:

Saw them at Knebworth, August 9th 1986,

I was there too, a fantastic gig.

Also saw them at MK Bowl in '82, The Hot Space tour

Would you say that was their low point - as intimated in the programme?

It was certainly a point where they were on the wane but thank god they didn't stick their heads up their ars*s and rely on pseudo-Led Zep stuff which would surely have sunk them. The most successful icons in pop have been theose who continually seek to re-invent themselves. For me, the Queen II/SHA/NATO/DATR period was their best and at Liverpool in 1977 they still had that rawness which their later super-slickness belied and the Stadiums detracted somehwat from the experience unless you were right at the front.

That said, I LOVE Backchat and quite like Staying Power.

For me, their lower point was The Miracle which had dross like The Invisible Man and Kashoggi's Ship clashing with great tracks like "Breakthru". Disappointing after The Works but then so much was - the later stuff was more thoughtful and again more experimental such as Innuendo.

Like any group, there are siome towering heights that will never be equalled but some experimental troughs that they abandoned and rightly so. Trouble was, Fred had disco in his soul so it was inevitable. At least it left a huge catalogue of songs of every genre from "Tie Your Mother Down" to "Seaside Rendezvous" to "Melancholy Blues" and "You take My Breath Away". the breadth of their musical style was huge so was bound to upset some fans.

The thing is they were always stronger as a unit. Roger and Brian's solo efforts were pretty banal and even Freddie's solo album didn't really have a fan base (save a gay one perhaps)to appeal to.

The flogging of the legacy is possibly unnecessary, I can't quite make my mind up. the Beatles never flogged their legacy (another band with far more crap songs than you might think)and each of those went on to increase their legacy with John lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney (with Wings) and even Ringo Starr going on to add to pop history.

My only regret? I think "We Will Rock You" is utter trash and while it may expound the Queen legacy, it does it in a totally trashy way. My mother bought me tickets for the show after many years avoiding it and I found it cringeworthy.

[Eric Mc]

I've always loved Queen and love musical theatre too - but I've shied away from "We Will Rock You" (and all the other "20 Greatest Hits Cobbled Tohether" type West End shows).

They are bad for pop/rock and bad for musical theatre.

[Ozone]

I made the mistake of seeing 'We will rock you' - it was dire. I didn't know what to expect but the whole thing was a mess, ruining the songs.

Going back to the breadth of songs that they did i think all four members had such differing tastes in music that it did help the band. You can sit and listen to their albums and pretty much tell who wrote the song without looking.
My favourite useless fact for Queen is that they are the only band where every member wrote a number one song as part of the group.

[Zad]

As corporate sell-outs go, I still like the Brian May "Driven By You" track he did for Ford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui4PbW14ozQ

Another version here, live with Steve Vai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuDqfeB7e1A

[Mrs Pitstop]

NathanJones said:

Hyde Park 2005 by any chance, gave tickets to my son, he thoroughly enjoyed with a pal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ydSXHsc9Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1uTt32Hnco&fea...

.... words say so much

Edited by NathanJones on Wednesday 1st June 23:26

Sadly not, it was Cardiff, but still gives me goosebumps. I really wanted to use that tune at our wedding but I thought the words were a bit inappropriate for a wedding!!

[LuS1fer]

Is this going to be repeated? Only my Sky Plus failed to record the first part for some reason. Probably get it on iPlayer but its not the same.

[E31Shrew]

Is definitely on iplayer and most likely will hit BBC3/4

[Rawwr]

Yikes, just finished watching it. The last 20 minutes or so felt like I was constantly trying to swallow a tennis ball, which kind of peaked when Roger Taylor was saying how he was on his way to visit Freddie and was but 300 yards from his door when he got the call. You could see Roger had some sort of regret about that and I found it really heart-breaking to watch him recount it.

The final footage of Freddie during the recordings for Innuendo was pretty tough to watch, too. The difference between what you saw in the desaturated video for These Are the Day of Our Lives and what Freddie actually looked like at the time was incredible and when you consider this was a dying man on his last legs, to listen to some of the vocals on that album makes you realise just how damn dedicated he was to the music.

I genuinely haven't shed tears like that at anything I've seen on television before

[Welshbeef]

Do you have all their albums?
Ive just been looking through and Ive only 1 with the others being greatest hits 1/2/ etc.....

Looks like itunes will be getting a sizeable order for the entire album back catalogue from me.

[Rawwr]

I have every last one

Favourites are Night At The Opera and Jazz. Jazz seems to be relatively unpopular but has some excellent driving songs on it like Dead On Time. Too awesome.

[MJK 24]

Innuendo is brilliant.

[LuS1fer]

My favourite has always been A Day At the Races in terms of every track being good and running seamlessly from one to another, closely followed by Queen II (which tends to fizzle out when Roger chips in) but I'm a fan of Jazz (even Mustapha) and News Of the World too (It's Late being totally rock and under-rated) too. I have all the albums bar Flash Gordon although Football Fight is a good track. Oddly, although The Works was heralded as their big comeback album, it was rather commercial and probably overplayed in terms of singles and some tracks were fairly weak.

[Marvindodgers]

LuS1fer said:

My favourite has always been A Day At the Races in terms of every track being good and running seamlessly from one to another, closely followed by Queen II (which tends to fizzle out when Roger chips in) but I'm a fan of Jazz (even Mustapha) and News Of the World too (It's Late being totally rock and under-rated) too. I have all the albums bar Flash Gordon although Football Fight is a good track. Oddly, although The Works was heralded as their big comeback album, it was rather commercial and probably overplayed in terms of singles and some tracks were fairly weak.

I'm with you, A Day At The Races followed by Queen II are my favourites as well, but I do like Jazz, for the same reason I like pretty much all of their albums - every track is different to the last! Such variety in musical styles on one album (let alone a collection of albums) is something not seen any more and rarely seen outside of Queen at all.
Although I still enjoy The Works and A Kind Of Magic, looking back across their catalogue, they do fall into the same 70s/80s switch a number of artists suffered. Their 70s output was incredible, whilst a lot of their 80s output was very variable in quality. Elton John, Billy Joel, David Bowie and all manner of other artists from that era follow the same pattern. In the 70s they could almost do no wrong, by the 80s a lot of what they did was a bit questionable.
Led Zeppelin perhaps did the right thing (under tragic circumstances) by stopping that the end of "their" decade in the same way The Beatles had 10 years before?
However, the two programmes were great and they were right back on it towards the end as Innuendo is a great album.
To those of you wary of We Will Rock You, I say don't be, the plot is cobblers, but the show and obviously the music, is great and a massive spectacle. Freddie is looking down and nodding his head in enjoyment. As the great man said himself, "Let's face it darlings, we're the most preposterous band that ever lived."