Queen + Paul Rodgers
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| Queen + Paul Rodgers | |
|---|---|
| Origin | England |
| Genre(s) | Rock, Hard rock |
| Years active | 2004 – present |
| Associated acts | Queen, Bad Company, Free |
| Website | www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com |
| Members | |
| Brian May (Queen) Roger Taylor (Queen) Paul Rodgers Additional musicians: Spike Edney Danny Miranda Jamie Moses |
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The Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration began in late 2004 when Queen were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Guitarist Brian May had previously performed with Paul Rodgers (formerly of Bad Company, Free, The Firm and The Law) on several occasions, including at the Royal Albert Hall. Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen, and Brian May have been active in the music industry since the death of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991 and the retirement of bassist John Deacon in the late 1990s.
Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers are the principal members of the band, supplemented on tour by Queen's former touring keyboard player Spike Edney (who had also been a member of Roger Taylor's band The Cross and Brian May's line-up, where he supplied piano/keyboards and backing vocals, and had indeed provided additional piano on Queen's A Kind of Magic album and played live with them on the subsequent Magic Tour in 1986), rhythm guitarist Jamie Moses (formerly of Merlin, The Pretenders, The Hollies and the Brian May Band), bassist Danny Miranda (formerly of Blue Oyster Cult and the Las Vegas production of the We Will Rock You musical).
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[edit] Beginnings
The origins of the collaboration came when Brian May played at the Fender Strat Pack concert in 2004. As he had done so many times before (but beforehand nothing really happend as far as Queen were concerned), he joined Paul Rodgers for a rendition of Free's classic, All Right Now. After this Brian spoke of a chemistry between the two of them. Following this, Brian invited Paul to play with Queen at their induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame where they played We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and All Right Now. Again citing a new excitement with Rodgers, the three announced their world tour in 2005.
[edit] Tour
The group's first public performance was at a concert in South Africa in March 2005 in support of Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS awareness campaign. The tour began properly with a concert at the Brixton Academy venue in London, with tickets sold primarily to members of the official Queen fan club. An arena tour of Europe followed in the spring of 2005, with dates at venues such as Wembley Arena, Cardiff International Arena and Le Zenith in France. Four outdoor stadium dates were scheduled for the first time in Portugal at Estadio do Restelo (Att: 30.000), at Rhein-Energie Stadion in Cologne, Germany (Att:27.500), Gelredome in Arnhem, the Netherlands (Att:25.000) and at Hyde Park in the UK (Att:65.000) in the summer of 2005.
The Estadio do Restelo concert took place on the 2nd July 2005. The Queen + Paul Rodgers concert was planned to be one of the stages for Live 8 but only a message was sent before "'39". Two songs were dedicated to Live 8 - "Say It's Not True", a song by Roger Taylor for Nelson Mandela's fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and was introduced by Roger in Lisbon: "This is a song from Nelson Mandela and for HIV/AIDS Africa, especially today on Live 8 day. This is a song to Lisbon." After this song Brian May dedicated "'39" to Bob Geldof and introduced the song "Olá Lisboa! I would like to make a salute to all our comrades and friends who are doing such a wonderful job and trying that children through out the world are no longer hungry, let's make a big noise for Bob Geldof and Live 8". The Hyde Park concert took place on the 15th July 2005. The band and management gave away thousands of free tickets to emergency services people for helping in the aftermath of the July 7th London bombings which caused the concert to be postponed by a week. British comedian Peter Kay, who had also appeared during the encore at their Manchester gig in May of that year, warmed the crowd up, with the band Razorlight serving as the support act. The concert was attended by some 65,000 people and Queen + Paul Rodgers performed for over 2 hours.
A typical set list mainly focused on Queen's best-known hits, with songs such as "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". In an interview that was published in the San Jose Mercury News, Paul Rodgers stated that the one song they would not be able play while on tour is "Killer Queen" due to the fact that: "the melodies are just too on the spot." The typical set also included some songs from the back catalogues of Free and Bad Company, such as "All Right Now", "Wishing Well", "Feel Like Making Love", and "Bad Company". Brian May and Roger Taylor sang lead on some songs. May: "Hammer to Fall" (the first part only), "Love of My Life", "'39" (which he sang lead on the studio version originally). Taylor: "Radio Ga Ga" (Both verses and first two choruses), "These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Say It's Not True" (a new song) and "I'm in Love with My Car" (which he sang lead on the studio version originally as well). He would often leave the drum kit (the exception being "I'm in Love with My Car") while a drum machine played on "Radio Ga Ga" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives". For "Say It's Not True", he would be accompanied by auxiliary band members Danny Miranda and Jamie Moses who both played acoustic guitars (except for the 46664 concert, in which Roger was accompanied by Brian and Jamie - which was the only time Brian played guitar on this song during the tour).
In addition to well known favourites and hits, there were a number of occasional 'surprise' additions to the setlist, including: "I Was Born to Love You" (Japan only), "Imagine" (John Lennon cover, Hyde Park only), "Teo Torriatte" (Japan only), "Too Much Love Will Kill You" (feat. Katie Melua, South Africa only), '"Long Away" (selected shows only), "Tavaszi Szel" (Budapest only) and "Let There Be Drums" (Sandy Nelson cover performed at most gigs). "Sunshine of Your Love" was played in Newcastle as testament to the Cream reunion gig in London going on at the same time (3rd May). Brian May was present at that show the night before, which possibly inspired him to do it (2nd May). The band also added "Dragon Attack" to a number of shows on the 2006 North American tour.
Queen + Paul Rodgers followed the European tour with a series of performances in the fall of 2005, in such diverse locations as Aruba, Japan and the United States of America. Slash, former lead guitarist of the band Guns N' Roses and currently of Velvet Revolver, joined the band onstage for "Can't Get Enough" during their show at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, the second of their two-show trial run in North America (22nd October 2005).
In the winter/spring of 2006, Queen + Paul Rodgers played a 23-date tour of North America. The tour started in Miami (first Florida date since 1978, first USA shows since 1982) and ended with a sold-out performance in Vancouver, Canada (where they also, among other surprises that occurred during the show, covered the Jimi Hendrix song "Red House" - the only performance of this song on the tour).
[edit] The future
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On the August 15, 2006, Brian May confirmed rumours that Queen + Paul Rodgers will be entering the recording studio, due to start in October 2006, without commenting on whether this would be for the purposes of an album or not.[1]
On the October 23, 2006, Brian May confirmed that Queen + Paul Rodgers were working in the recording studio on new material towards a Queen + Paul Rodgers album. [2][3][4]
On the November 14, 2006, Roger Taylor, in an interview with Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2, was asked about recording new material with Paul Rodgers. He said that they were indeed in the studio and everything was going well and a new album was in the pipeline. He went on to say however that it would be some months before they toured again, as they didn't want to go on tour without some new material, so as not to be called "revivalists".[5]
"Take Love" was one of the new collaborations the new band played on tour. There was a common misconception that "Reachin' Out" (performed at the start of gigs) was also a new song, however, this was in fact a shortened version of a song performed by Brian May, Paul Rodgers and Rock Therapy back in 1996.
Roger Taylor stated in a letter to the Official International Queen Fan Club that he was enjoying the "new album", and that he hopes to tour it in the winter of 2007.[6]
When "Bohemian Rhapsody" was revealed as BBC Radio 1's most-played song ever on the JK and Joel show, Taylor contacted the show, announcing that the new album was about half-finished, and that he would expect it to be released in 2008, with a tour to follow.
At the opening of We Will Rock You in Vienna, Brian May announced that a tour shall initiate as early as Spring 2008.[7]
On January 4, 2008 on the British television show 'This Morning' Brian May made a brief appearance to promote the new single. During that appearance he hinted at dates in September 2008 for a European tour and also said they had a date booked in the 02 Arena, then corrected himself, a little hesitant to give any further details of those plans before they had been more solidly confirmed. When asked about the specific dates he said the band was still working on them but would tour in that timeframe.
On March 13th 2008 brianmay.com announced 'Look out for an Official Queen + Paul Rodgers 2008 Tour announcement very shortly. Full tour dates and venue information is set to be issued next week. Queen + Paul Rodgers can confirm that they will be out on the road performing across the globe later in the year in support of their new, as yet untitled, album.' [8]
On 19th March 2008 on the official Queen website, the dates and venues of their 2008 tour were announced. Tickets went on sale on the 2nd April 2008 for Queen fan club members and registered users of Queenonline.com. Three days later, ticket sales were opened up to the general public.[1]
On 4th April 2008 Queen and Paul Rodgers appeared as guests on Al Murray's Happy Hour and performed the song C-Lebrity for the first time in public.
[edit] Media releases
Queen + Paul Rodgers released a single for World AIDS Day (December 1) in 2007. The track, "Say It's Not True", written by Roger Taylor became first available for free download on www.queenonline.com, www.46664.com, www.46664global.com, www.paulrodgers.com and www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com on November 30, and was subsequently released as a proper CD single on December 31.
Previously, Queen + Paul Rodgers have released a live CD called Return of the Champions and a DVD of the same name. Both featured recordings from their Sheffield Hallam FM Arena concert on 9 May 2005. The DVD also features a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" from Hyde Park. A single featuring "Reaching Out"/"Tie Your Mother Down"/"Fat Bottomed Girls" was also released. In addition, an American promo featuring two tracks taken from the Italian leg of the European tour was available with some copies of Return of the Champions.
Soundboard recordings exist of all European shows, except those in Ireland and Sweden. Sheffield, Lisbon, Hyde Park and possibly Budapest concerts were professionally filmed. The Tokyo show on October 26, 2005 was also professionally filmed and televised, and later released on DVD exclusively in Japan in April 2006, entitled "Super Live in Japan". Many soundboard recordings of tracks were released for download on the Queen official website, with blank Q+PR CD-Rs to burn these tracks available for purchase.
Also there are many bootlegs from nearly every show of the 2005/2006 tour in audio, and some video.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
- from Return of the Champions
- Fat Bottomed Girls / Reaching Out+Tie Your Mother Down - CD & Online Download Single (CD Single in Europe only) - #39 UK (Download chart)
- non-album singles
- Live in Italy - Promo CD Single 2005 (Italy) (featuring Seagull and Fat Bottomed Girls from two dates in Italy)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Live At Hyde Park) - Online Download Single
- from The Cosmos Rocks
- Say It's Not True - CD & Online Download Single - #90 UK
[edit] Live Albums
- Return of the Champions - CD, 2005 - #12 UK
[edit] DVDs
- Return of the Champions - DVD, 2005
- Super Live in Japan - DVD, 2006 (Japan)
[edit] External links
- Brian May's official site
- Queen + Paul Rodgers official site
- Official Queen site
- Official Paul Rodgers site
- Approved Fan club for Free, Bad Company and Paul Rodgers
- Message Board For fans around the world to connect - Q+PR section
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