By John Aizlewood, Evening Standard 14.10.08
Queen
Not really Queen: Paul Rodgers keeps the band going
Queen? Not really. Freddie Mercury cannot be with us for well-documented reasons, bassist John Deacon prefers to sit at home counting his money and polishing his dignity, leaving guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor as the half who wouldn’t let things lie.
The joy and genius of Queen was the outrageously camp Mercury vying for supremacy with three blokey blokes. More often than not, the tension in a band of four songwriters and three singers resulted in what was genuinely a kind of magic.
Since 2004, May and Taylor have replaced Mercury with Paul Rodgers. Once of Free and Bad Company, Rodgers is a harmonica-playing, microphone-stand-twirling, great British bawler. Alas, the 58-year-old Teessider married to a former Miss Canada is too sexually uncomplicated to strut in Mercury’s shoes.
Rodgers was a curious figure, occasionally brilliant, as when tearing through I Want To Break Free and wrestling in manly fashion with The Show Must Go On. Yet he fluffed more than one line and when a lighter touch was required, he struggled. Radio Gaga is a nostalgic paean to an idealised childhood, not a hairy-chested romp, although the spellbinding Leni Riefenstahl-esque syncopated clapping brought out the latent totalitarian in everyone. Strangely, he needed an autocue, although you suspect May and Taylor hoped their newish singer would be familiar with Queen’s songs by now: after all, by unhappy osmosis even I know every last lumpen line of the loathsome (“no time for losers”) We Are The Champions.
So, in a Faustian accommodation with Rodgers, May and Taylor have re-written Queen’s history to re-position them as meat ’n’ potatoes rockers and omitted the bulk of their great songs (You’re My Best Friend, Now I’m Here, Las Palabras De Amor, Innuendo, Don’t Stop Me Now among many others). It was as if the dazzling, ground-breaking, reflective, wry Queen had never existed.
Instead, there was Fat Bottomed Girls; new songs, including We Believe (improbably even more pompous than its title with its “we believe there’s a deed of obligation to bring reconciliation” line), while comedian Al Murray appeared on Cosmos Rockin’. There was a torturous drum solo, an interminable guitar solo and Free’s All Right Now (a song that is always too soon to hear yet again). Most tellingly of all, Mercury’s appearance on screen during Bohemian Rhapsody only emphasised that, in Queen’s case, the past is a superior place and nobody present last night thought otherwise.
Queen + Paul Rodgers play the 02
Arena 7 November and Wembley Arena 8 November (0870 534 4444)).
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig-23353243-details/Queen+Plus+Paul+Rodgers/gigReview.do?reviewId=23572443
Thread
Posts in chronological order
CHARMING!!!!
[QUOTE]By John Aizlewood, Evening Standard 14.10.08
las, the 58-year-old Teessider married to a former Miss Canada is too sexually uncomplicated to strut in Mercury’s shoes.
[/QUOTE]
John Aizlewood, you're sad little wanker.
las, the 58-year-old Teessider married to a former Miss Canada is too sexually uncomplicated to strut in Mercury’s shoes.
[/QUOTE]
John Aizlewood, you're sad little wanker.
What is it with these journalists? Do they spend all day looking in the mirror mastubating their own egos then spending all night reviewing Queen + Paul Rodgers concerts sh***ing on fans and the band to try and justify their limited literary output? Can just see it now you can just imagine John writing in his blog [url=http://www.johnaizlewood.com/Pages_misc/misc1.php]http://www.johnaizlewood.com/Pages_misc/misc1.php[/url] ow yes I am so impotant (sorry important), ow yes just look how clever I am - let's poke fun at Queen and Paul to make me look big. Go on check out his website and let him know what you think of his literary wit and wisdom!
What a mean-spirited piece of trash.
And once again they hold it against PR that he's hetrosexual.
I've seen that over and over again.
He spends so much time blowing up Freddie, then tears apart one of Freddie's best compositions. Which he probably though Brian wrote.
I guarantee this fuckhead would have been just as nasty if Freddie were still alive and this was their comeback tour.
And once again they hold it against PR that he's hetrosexual.
I've seen that over and over again.
He spends so much time blowing up Freddie, then tears apart one of Freddie's best compositions. Which he probably though Brian wrote.
I guarantee this fuckhead would have been just as nasty if Freddie were still alive and this was their comeback tour.
[QUOTE]
[b]Knute wrote: [/b]
I guarantee this fuckhead would have been just as nasty if Freddie were still alive and this was their comeback tour.
[/QUOTE]
This doesn't make sense. If he was still alive... why it would be a comeback tour? Or why there would be a tour, or TCR at all? Enough of ifs.
About the review, there's nothing left to say.
[b]Knute wrote: [/b]
I guarantee this fuckhead would have been just as nasty if Freddie were still alive and this was their comeback tour.
[/QUOTE]
This doesn't make sense. If he was still alive... why it would be a comeback tour? Or why there would be a tour, or TCR at all? Enough of ifs.
About the review, there's nothing left to say.
"It was as if the dazzling, ground-breaking, reflective, wry Queen had never existed."
Says it all really
Says it all really
Since 2004, May and Taylor have replaced Mercury with Paul Rodgers.
[/QUOTE]
Does this asshole excuse of a journalist not know what Queen + (plus) Paul Rodgers means. Freddie wasn't replaced.
Anyway, this is why Freddie refused to talk to the trashy press when he was alive.
[/QUOTE]
Does this asshole excuse of a journalist not know what Queen + (plus) Paul Rodgers means. Freddie wasn't replaced.
Anyway, this is why Freddie refused to talk to the trashy press when he was alive.
mr aizlewood
if they are so poor,then why are all the concerts (sold out)
I was at the nottingham concert(SOLD OUT) ...and they were fantastic
if they are so poor,then why are all the concerts (sold out)
I was at the nottingham concert(SOLD OUT) ...and they were fantastic
For me it seems that most of the journalists just say the truth that most Queen fans are too scared to admit.
[/QUOTE]QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
[b]LucTonnerre wrote: [/b]
For me it seems that most of the journalists just say the truth that most Queen fans are too scared to admit.
[/QUOTE] QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]
Presumably then most journalist were correct when they said Queen avec Freddie de Mercury were aussi merde?
[b]LucTonnerre wrote: [/b]
For me it seems that most of the journalists just say the truth that most Queen fans are too scared to admit.
[/QUOTE] QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]
Presumably then most journalist were correct when they said Queen avec Freddie de Mercury were aussi merde?
[QUOTE]
[b]LucTonnerre wrote: [/b]
For me it seems that most of the journalists just say the truth that most Queen fans are too scared to admit. QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.
[/QUOTE]
That settles it, then.
[b]LucTonnerre wrote: [/b]
For me it seems that most of the journalists just say the truth that most Queen fans are too scared to admit. QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.
[/QUOTE]
That settles it, then.
Bloody ell' I think the tosser must have spent longer going through the dictionary looking for words we couldn't understand then wrote this review! Cock Jocky.
A lot of people seem to agree that:
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.
I guess. But let me further that for you.
The Rippingtons suck. Even though their guitarist is freaking amazing and writes nearly every tune that's not a cover, they suck. It sounds like elevator music. Whenever you hear it, you think it's a commercial for 107.5 The Oasis jazz station.
Oh wait, there are actually people out there that appreciate more than one kind of band!! That explains why I have 9 of their CDs. I also have a few Beethoven CDs. Yes, that yawny sophisticated crap with the violins. How bout some Tom T. Hall? Got a couple of those, too. But I guess since the four original members of Queen weren't involved, it must suck.
But if someone who's got virtually no musical skill compared to the artist in question says "they suck", well they must be right. Parlophone must be run by a bunch of idiots, how have they stayed in the biz so long?
It's amazing how you Q+PR haters are starting to sound a lot like Treasure Moment. But if Q+PR "suck" and TM "suck", then you've just given them quite an endorsement.
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS suck. Face the fact.
I guess. But let me further that for you.
The Rippingtons suck. Even though their guitarist is freaking amazing and writes nearly every tune that's not a cover, they suck. It sounds like elevator music. Whenever you hear it, you think it's a commercial for 107.5 The Oasis jazz station.
Oh wait, there are actually people out there that appreciate more than one kind of band!! That explains why I have 9 of their CDs. I also have a few Beethoven CDs. Yes, that yawny sophisticated crap with the violins. How bout some Tom T. Hall? Got a couple of those, too. But I guess since the four original members of Queen weren't involved, it must suck.
But if someone who's got virtually no musical skill compared to the artist in question says "they suck", well they must be right. Parlophone must be run by a bunch of idiots, how have they stayed in the biz so long?
It's amazing how you Q+PR haters are starting to sound a lot like Treasure Moment. But if Q+PR "suck" and TM "suck", then you've just given them quite an endorsement.