Queen

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TONY IOMMI, BRIAN MAY: Discuss Possible Collaboration

Posted by aliblackdiamond on April 12, 2013
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Source: Blabbermouth.net

According to the Birmingham Mail, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi plans to make an album with QUEEN axeman Brian May.

The collaboration idea came about when Iommi and May met up shortly after the BLACK SABBATH guitarist was diagnosed with cancer.

“When I was first ill, Brian May came to visit me at my house in Lapworth,” Iommi said. “I played him some of my stuff, rock riffs that I’d never quite got round to developing, or decided not to use. He said I ought to do something with them.

“It’s early days yet, and all my attention in on SABBATH for the foreseeable future, but we may well find some way of working together on them, and making them available in some shape or form.

“One of the ideas we had is that we could make the riffs available, get fans to use them in songs of their own, and see what they come up with. That way they’d effectively be recording with Brian and myself.”

May elaborated on the idea: “I heard some of the hours of unreleased guitar jams Tony has on tapes and hard drives. I thought it would be great to make a compilation out of them.

“The idea was to put all these riffs out in some form so that people could build their own songs from them. You could make your own music with Tony Iommi on guitar! How great is that!”

QUEEN Guitarist BRIAN MAY To Embark On ‘Born Free’ Tour With KERRY ELLIS

Posted by aliblackdiamond on October 3, 2012
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Source: Blabbermouth.net

Known as one of music’s most powerful players, legendary QUEEN guitarist Brian May is going unplugged for a unique tour he is about to embark on with acclaimed singing star Kerry Ellis.

The two have enjoyed a hugely successful musical partnership in recent times, with Kerry earlier this year receiving the “Best Solo Performance” Whatsonstage.com award for “Anthems”, the show arranged and produced by May as a showcase for her talents which premiered at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Beginning Monday, November 5, Brian and Kerry are heading out on the road to present their “Born Free” tour, a series of 11 intimate and totally acoustic shows performed under candlelight.

These special intimate concerts provide a chance to see Ellis and May close-up, and are being especially performed to raise awareness of the work of the Born Free Foundation, the global organization which works to protect and conserve threatened species, particularly Africa’s magnificent lions, which across much of Africa, are now in serious decline.

Behind the decision to perform the tour is a new recording made by Brian and Kerry of “Born Free”, the Oscar-winning song written for the 1966 film of the same name. Invited by Virginia McKenna‘s Born Free Foundation to view and participate in its work at the Shamwari game reserve and rescue centre in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Brian and Kerry have pledged to support Born Free both publicly and materially. Having recorded both a large-scale production version and an acoustic version of “Born Free”, Brian and Kerry will release both versions on one single, with all proceeds going to the foundation.

The 11-date “Born Free” tour, which starts on November 5 mber at The Apex in Bury St. Edmunds, promises an informal evening in the company of Brian and Kerry performing a new collection of their own personal favourite songs as well as new arrangements of some of those they have previously performed in concert and recorded together, sung by Kerry with Brian accompanying her on both guitar and vocals.

Says Brian May: “Over the last year, Kerry and I have been recording new material when our schedules have allowed it. As on the ‘Anthems’ album, some of the tracks have very big and splendid arrangements, but we have become more and more fascinated with the magic of great songs stripped down to their core and re-interpreted in an ‘acoustic’ way. We find there is a purity which makes the songs speak very clearly. Kerry‘s instincts as an interpreter of songs are always inspiring, and the art of arranging has always been one of my obsessions. We have found that the two of us just working live off each other can distill the very essence of a song — and that’s what we hope to bring you in these dates. After all, if you have great songs and a great singer what more do you need? Well, maybe just a little bit of guitar!”

The “Born Free” tour follows a series of acclaimed performances by Kerry and Brian together over the past few years. They stole the show when they performed together on the Royal Variety Show in 2008, they performed live together again at BBC “Proms In The Park” and at 2010′s “The Night Of 1000 Voices”, and they opened the “Remembrance Day” concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Their “Anthems: The Tour” played 12 hugely successful dates around the U.K. in May 2011.

Tickets for the tour are on sale now priced between £37.50 and £39.50 depending on venue.

The dates are as follows:

Nov. 05 – Bury St Edmunds, UK – The Apex
Nov. 06 – Leamington Spa, UK – The Assembly
Nov. 07 – Corby, UK – The Core at Corby Cube
Nov. 09 – Tunbridge Wells, UK – Assembly Hall Theatre
Nov. 10 – Brighton, UK – St. Georges Church
Nov. 11 – London, UK – Union Chapel
Nov. 12 – St. Albans, UK – Alban Arena
Nov. 15 – Crawley, UK – The Hawth
Nov. 16 – Portsmouth, UK – New Theatre Royal
Nov. 17 – Salisbury, UK – City Hall
Nov. 19 – High Wycombe, UK – Swan Theatre

METALLICA, RUSH, BLACK SABBATH, QUEEN Featured In Ultimate Guitar’s Top 10 Basslines Of All Time

Posted by tarjavirmakari on September 8, 2012
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 comment

Ultimate-Guitar.com recently invited their readers to nominate their favourite bassline ever for a Top 10 poll: Hundreds took part, resulting in what has been dubbed “a definitive list of awesome riffs.”

An excerpt from that list is available below:

5. METALLICA – ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’

“Cliff Burton, yet another brilliant bassist who was taken before his time. People used to mistake this opening sound for a guitar, but instead it was Burton’s bass running though distortion and a wah-pedal. He actually wrote the riff before joining Metallica, and first aired it during a 12-minute jam at a battle of the bands competition in 1979.”

4. BLACK SABBATH – ‘N.I.B.’

“It seems UG readers love a bit of wah on bass! This time it’s from Geezer Butler, who recorded his part in one legendary take. Geezer says he named the song after drummer Bill Ward’s beard, which makes so little sense that some Americans decided to rename it ‘Naivety In Black’”.

3. QUEEN – “Another One Bites The Dust”

Bassist John Deacon was perhaps the most mild-mannered member of Queen, but he was a creative powerhouse. He wrote some of the best-selling Queen singles, including this one which shifted over 7 million copies.

2. MEGADETH – “Peace Sells …”

It’s easy to let frontman Dave Mustaine and his controversial comments overshadow the awesomeness of Megadeth. Thanks to bassist Dave Ellefson, this song was pretty close to winning our award for ‘best baseline ever’ and missed out by only four votes.

1. PINK FLOYD – “Money”

Who would have guessed! All of us, obviously. Never has a 7/8 riff sounded so effortless and groovy. It could have sounded quite different – Roger Waters originally demoed this song in G-sharp minor, but it was eventually recorded in B minor. Either way, the result was one of the all-time great basslines, and today it’s your winner. Enjoy!

Click here for the complete Top 10 list.

Source: Bravewords.com

QUEEN: Freddie Mercury Becomes An Angry Bird

Posted by tarjavirmakari on September 4, 2012
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RollingStone.com reports that late QUEEN frontman Freddie Mercury has been honored with an animated video in which the singer is portrayed as an Angry Bird. To honor Mercury’s birthday (September 5th), the creators of the Angry Birds franchise posted the following video set to Queen’s ‘Bicycle Race’.

Source: Bravewords.com

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Perform At Kiev’s ANTIAIDS Foundation Concert: Entire Show Available

Posted by aliblackdiamond on July 3, 2012
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QUEEN‘s Roger Taylor and Brian May joined forces with “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert this past Saturday night (Saturday, June 30) to take part in the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation charity concert at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev. The show was the largest social and cultural event of Euro 2012 and attracted hundreds of thousands of people on the main square of Ukraine and was seen by millions of viewers on TV screens throughout Ukraine and Poland.
In recognition of the importance and the charitable status of this project, the musicians who performed last night waived their fees.

The concert was held under UEFA support one day before the Euro 2012 final in the official Fan zone of the football championship. It was broadcasted live on Ukrainian and Polish Television.

QUEEN + Adam Lambert setlist:

01. Flash (intro)
02. Seven Seas Of Rhye
03. Keep Yourself Alive
04. We Will Rock You (Fast)
05. Fat Bottomed Girls
06. Don’t Stop Me Now
07. Under Pressure (Roger/Adam duet)
08. I Want It All
09. Who Wants To Live Forever
10. A Kind Of Magic (Roger)
11. These Are Days Of Our Lives (Roger)
12. Love Of My Life (Brian)
13. 39 (Brian)
14. Dragon Attack
15. Drum Battle / Guitar Solo
16. I Want To Break Free
17. Another One Bites The Dust
18. Radio Ga Ga
19. Somebody To Love
20. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
21. The Show Must Go On
22. Bohemian Rhapsody

Encore:

23. Tie Your Mother Down (Brian)
24. We Will Rock You
25. We Are The Champions

Video footage of the entire concert can be seen below.

Adam Lambert said last month that he knows that he can’t replace Freddie Mercury in his shows fronting QUEEN — but he doesn’t intend to let anyone down either. He told the Daily Mail that when he performs with the remaining members of QUEEN, Brian May and Roger Taylor, he will learn from the experience.

He said, “We want to keep the music alive and give it an energy that would have made Freddie proud. You can’t replace him. But playing with QUEEN is the best thing that could happen to me. My intention is to pay tribute to Freddie. I’m looking forward to spending time with Brian and Roger. I want to make myself familiar with their more obscure songs and hear some stories from the guys themselves. I’ll get my own personal QUEEN documentary. Working with them is going to be a great honor, but I’m also very keen for people to hear my own music, so who knows what the future will hold?”

 

 

 

Source: Blabbermouth.net

QUEEN Drummer Goes Pub-Crawling For Charity

Posted by Mohsen Fayyazi on June 18, 2012
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Yesterday morning (Sunday, June 17th) the legendary QUEEN drummer Roger Taylor made a surprise appearance on the streets of London – on a guided pub tour – all to raise money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust (an AIDS Charity set up by Queen and the bands management after Freddie Mercury died).

The walk was arranged as part of the Freddie For A Day campaign which encourages people to dress as Freddie for one day to raise sponsorship money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

For more information click the following links:
Freddieforaday.com
Mercuryphoenixtrust.com<

(Photo credit – Emilie Bailey)

Source: Bravewords.com

 

QUEEN Manager Jim Beach On EMI-Universal Deal: “EMI Shouldn’t Be Owned By A Private Equity Firm”

Posted by Mohsen Fayyazi on May 23, 2012
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Billboard.biz’ Richard Smirkle reports:

Jim Beach, manager of UK rock band QUEEN, has spoken out in support of the proposed Universal-EMI merger. In a letter published in the British newspaper The Times on May 5th, Beach said that: “Today’s music business is very different to that of 40 years ago, when the band I represent, Queen, began its career with EMI Records.”

“Then the company was a hugely influential creative force in the U.K. and overseas. It gave us extraordinary music across virtually every genre, and its artists shaped the tastes of more than one generation,” Beach went on to say, adding, “But the latter-day EMI Records under private equity proved to be a very different place.”

Read more at this location.

Queen’s official website has uploaded images from Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics book.

Check out more images at this location.

As Queen begins its fifth decade, straight from the band’s vault comes this visually dazzling tome of lyrics.

Queen, one of the most innovative, glamorous, and influential bands in rock history, was formed in 1971 when the musical fates brought four creative and cerebral youths together in London. Freddie Mercury was an established fine and graphic artist, Brian May was enveloped in the study of astrophysics, Roger Taylor was enrolled in dental school, and John Deacon was studying electronics. Since then, they have made history with their sophisticated fusion of operatic expression, theatrical performance, and raw rock and roll.

Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is the first book of its kind. Not only has there never before been a complete Queen lyrics book, Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics also features hundreds of images accompanying the songs, from handwritten lyrics to never-before-seen photographs from the stage to the studio. Also included is a complete discography, pairing each song with the album on which it was originally released.

Beginning with their debut album Queen in 1973, the band took the UK by storm, then conquered the United States along with the rest of the world, serving as pioneers of stadium rock and enjoying commercial success and momentum well into the 1980s (highlighted by their show-stopping Live Aid appearance in 1985) through the early 1990s. The whirlwind took a startling pause when Mercury died from AIDS on November 24, 1991, but since then, the living members have forged ahead and remain great music makers until this day.

Queen has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has songs enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and has received BMI’s highest honor, the BMI Icon Award. Queen’s Greatest Hits, released in 1981, is the U.K.’s best-selling album of all time.

Designed by Queen’s longtime creative director Richard Gray, Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is as true to the band as can be, carrying with it the flamboyance, expression, and depth that Queen embodies. If there is one book for a Queen fan to own, this is the one.

The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is out now in North America and will be released from June 1st in Europe and the UK.

 

Source: Bravewords.com

QUEEN – The Complete Illustrated Lyrics Book Images Revealed

Posted by Mohsen Fayyazi on May 18, 2012
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: . Leave a Comment

QUEEN’s official website has uploaded images from Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics book.

Check out more images at this location.

As Queen begins its fifth decade, straight from the band’s vault comes this visually dazzling tome of lyrics.

Queen, one of the most innovative, glamorous, and influential bands in rock history, was formed in 1971 when the musical fates brought four creative and cerebral youths together in London. Freddie Mercury was an established fine and graphic artist, Brian May was enveloped in the study of astrophysics, Roger Taylor was enrolled in dental school, and John Deacon was studying electronics. Since then, they have made history with their sophisticated fusion of operatic expression, theatrical performance, and raw rock and roll.

Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is the first book of its kind. Not only has there never before been a complete Queen lyrics book, Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics also features hundreds of images accompanying the songs, from handwritten lyrics to never-before-seen photographs from the stage to the studio. Also included is a complete discography, pairing each song with the album on which it was originally released.

Beginning with their debut album Queen in 1973, the band took the UK by storm, then conquered the United States along with the rest of the world, serving as pioneers of stadium rock and enjoying commercial success and momentum well into the 1980s (highlighted by their show-stopping Live Aid appearance in 1985) through the early 1990s. The whirlwind took a startling pause when Mercury died from AIDS on November 24, 1991, but since then, the living members have forged ahead and remain great music makers until this day.

Queen has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has songs enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and has received BMI’s highest honor, the BMI Icon Award. Queen’s Greatest Hits, released in 1981, is the U.K.’s best-selling album of all time.

Designed by Queen’s longtime creative director Richard Gray, Queen: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is as true to the band as can be, carrying with it the flamboyance, expression, and depth that Queen embodies. If there is one book for a Queen fan to own, this is the one.

The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is out now in North America and will be released from June 1st in Europe and the UK.

 

Source: Bravewords.com

QUEEN – We Will Rock You 10 Year Anniversary Documentary Broadcast Times Announced

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 10, 2012
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment

 

A special 10 Year Anniversary documentary on the QUEEN musical, We Will Rock You, will be broadcast this Sunday, May 13th, at the following times:

- 2 PM – National Smooth Radio
- 7 PM – GMG’s Real XS Rock Stations
- 6 PM – GMG ‘s Real Radio network
- 1 PM – Spectrum FM network around coastal Spain plus Tenerife

Further details at this location.

Source : Bravewords.com

QUEEN And ADAM LAMBERT Announce Poland Show

Posted by Mohsen Fayyazi on April 27, 2012
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QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT have announced another show, on July 7th in Wroclaw, Poland.

A press release states: Queen and Adam Lambert have announced a further European concert together as part of dates they will play this summer. The latest date added is July 7th, when Queen, joined by Lambert, will perform as the headliner of a new festival, Rock In Wroclaw, Poland, appearing at the city’s Municipal Stadium as one of only a handful of concerts Queen and Lambert will perform in Europe this summer.

Following on from their concert at Moscow Sports Arena on July 3rd, this Poland performance will be among the very first shows Queen and Lambert play together. They then go on to play London’s HMV Apollo Hammersmith July 11th and 12th. The Hammersmith dates sold out instantly they went on sale and there is expectation Queen and Lambert could well add a further London date, although there is yet to be any officially announcement.

Tickets for the Polish show are on sale from Monday next week, April 30th. Prices and purchase points are yet to be announced although enquiries are being directed to Rockinwroclaw.pl and Ticketteam.pl.

The Wroclaw concert will take place at the city’s new Municipal Stadium, which had its inaugural opening in September, 2011 with GEORGE MICHAEL and his Symphonica – The Orchestral Tour.

Source: Bravewords.com