We Will Rock You | |
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Directed by | Saul Swimmer |
Produced by | Saul Swimmer, Jim Beach |
Starring | John Deacon Brian May Freddie Mercury Roger Taylor |
Music by | Queen |
We Will Rock You is a concert film by English band Queen. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Montreal Forum on November 24 and 25, 1981.
A new official release of the concert (Retitled Queen Rock Montreal) digitally remastered by Queen was released on October 29, 2007 on DVD (by Eaglevision) double CD (by Hollywood Records for the U.S. and Canada and by Parlophone Records for Europe and EMI for the rest of the world) and triple vinyl LP.[1]
A special double DVD ('Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid') included Queen's performance at Live Aid as well as never before seen interviews and rehearsal footage. It is unclear if the royalties from the Live Aid section went to charity. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions were released on December 4, 2007.
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The tracks "Flash's Theme" and "The Hero" (both written by May) were also performed at these concerts but were deleted from the film. However, the tracks do appear on the CD and vinyl issues of Queen Rock Montreal. A commentary by Roger Taylor and Brian May is an optional feature of "Queen Rock Montreal" whereas a commentary by Saul Swimmer (the director/producer) was an optional feature of the DVD re-release of "We Will Rock You".
Director Saul Swimmer recorded a commentary for the original laserdisc release of the concert. In it, he describes the process by which he and the band went about organizing and recording the concerts which eventually became this video. He is complimentary of the band and spoke positively about the experience. Specifically, he talked about the lengths he went to in order to convince the band to make the video at the end of their then-current tour. Swimmer said the deciding moment came when he took Freddie Mercury to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and showed him the three-storey IMAX screen, and told him to imagine himself five stories tall. Having convinced Freddie, the rest of the band followed suit.
When Queen eventually acquired the rights to the video, Brian May and Roger Taylor recorded a new commentary track, on which they discuss their feelings about the original process of making the concert video. May describes Swimmer's behaviour in trying to get the band to agree to the project in very negative terms. He says the director effectively hounded them and that when they relented, he was not easy to work with during the actual two nights of recording. Unlike Swimmer's earlier commentary track, which paints a generous picture of the relationship between himself and the band, May and Taylor's commentary track indicates very directly that this was not the case.
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