She plays classic songs (she did You're my best friend, Brian mentioned it on his site) on ukelele. Doing stuff with a webcam in her bedroom, she's now playing concerts and is touring or doing shows with Ben Folds. So I guess my awkward point to all of this is that people with no money can command major attention these days. IF they have something that the market believes in. I think very few people on earth believed in QPR or TCR as a Queen project. I read on a forum from a person who LOVES Brian, that they were sad because their favourite ever musician (mine too) had become a brand manager. Ouch. I love Brian and Roger and John and Freddie, but believe this is a vanity project to keep the Queen brand alive. And of course IMHO, which is as worthwhile or worthless as all of ours, by far the worst collection of songs ever on an album, cliched beyond belief and unworthy of the Queen brand. I'd ask, if Bohemian Rhapsody were a new track on TCR, do you think it would disappear as quickly as the album did in the public's consciousness? I don't, but that's because I've heard everything on TCR a million times by other bands in the past. I could never say that about even the worst Queen albums of the past.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Negative Creep wrote: [/b]
Also, it isn't EMI's fault the "band" failed to deliver any suitable material for a lead-off single, or indeed any possible subsequent singles.
[/QUOTE]
Who says an album needs a lead-off single in order for it to be a good album or to sell well? Not all albums require a top-10 single in order to be great albums. And who says that's what they were aiming for, anyway? Elton John's latest studio album comes to mind...
No doubt, plenty of the public doesn't see Queen as Queen without Freddie Mercury. But they also didn't see Deep Purple as Deep Purple without Richie Blackmore... and Come Taste The Band was far from being a poor record.
Winter Land Man · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Sheer Brass Neck wrote: [/b]
Doing stuff with a webcam in her bedroom[/QUOTE]
Interesting.
YourValentine · Member since
Maybe I missed something but the band played 40 concerts in various countries and 3 continents. During the tour they did endless press conferences, TV and radio interviews. Doesn't that count for promotion? There were huge posters promoting the CD plastered all over Europe and lots of TV adverts. QOL launched the "album club". The tracks were played on the radio. What else is a band and their management supposed to do?
Negative Creep · Member since
Album's don't sell as much without a decent lead off single to promote it - fact. Sure - it will sell to the hardcore fanbase, but that's about it and has been the case with TCR. They can put as many adverts in magazine etc. as they want - but people aren't going to just buy the album on a whim, as it's very much an unknown quantity. Paul Rodgers isn't this amazingly popular rock singer some people like to think. In fact - most people hadn't heard of him, outside of readers of Classic Rock magazine! I didn't say a lack of lead-off single had any bearing on the quality of the record. Although, the fact that Queen were famed for their singles, yet this album under the Queen banner didn't have anything bordering on having any single quality says something.
I don't really understand comparisons with bands like Deep Purple. Was Richie Blackmore the bands singer and main focal point? Did Deep Purple split up for 15 years, then return without said singer and main focal point? Eer... no. They had an ever evolving lineup - Queen didn't.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Negative Creep wrote: [/b]
Album's don't sell as much without a decent lead off single to promote it - fact.
[/QUOTE]
Millions of Radiohead fans disagree with you. To word it slightly better: a lead single can help sell an album, but it is not the only way.
>Paul Rodgers isn't this amazingly popular rock singer some people like to think. In fact - most people hadn't heard of him, outside of readers of Classic Rock magazine!
And I think that's a major cultural difference. Here in North America, Paul Rodgers is a huge name... as least as big as Freddie Mercury. Bad Company was enormously successful here. I honestly can't count how many people were shocked (and interested) when I told them that the remaining members of Queen were collaborating with him. The record was barely marketed here at all. I saw only one ten-second ad for it on TV.
If it was marketed adequately, I bet it would have sold very well, because that traditional rock sound sells well here. If AC/DC's latest record could sell millions of copies, so could The Cosmos Rocks. What did Black Ice have to offer that TCR didn't? Certainly not a hit single... they haven't had an exceptionally strong song in almost 20 years, yet the last three AC/DC records have sold incredibly well.
>Was Richie Blackmore the bands singer and main focal point?
Yes, he absolutely was. Have you ever watched the footage of them at California Jam? He was to Deep Purple like Jimmy Page was to Led Zeppelin. So a Deep Purple record without Blackmore was a major change for the public to accept while Rainbow existed too.
Sheer Brass Neck · Member since
"If it was marketed adequately, I bet it would have sold very well, because that traditional rock sound sells well here." [/QUOTE]And that's why the album didn't get noticed. Bad Company was a cliched band, very Americanized, bluesy rock. Queen was the antithesis of Bad Company. Inventive, risk taking, creative, ridiculous, jaw dropping, awe inspiring and brilliant. So when TCR was basically a Bad Company record (traditional), what does Queen have to do with it?You have two guys who played in Queen, but the spirit of Queen music (for me and millions of others) was nowhere to be found.[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]Further, AC/DC's Black Ice did well for the exact reason TCR didn't: you knew what you were getting. Rhythm heavy chunky licks and good time rock. I'd die if I was an AC/DC fan and they opened Black Ice with Staying Power or Radio Ga Ga. They want meat and potatoes party rock, and AC/DC always delivers. Plus Runaway [/QUOTE]Train is a classic AC/DC track that fits in well with their catalogue, and they can play that to great response forever. Nothing like that on TCR. So as you're a smart guy Sir GH with a great knowledge of the music biz (seriously, not being a smart ass at all here), why wouldn't the record companies get behind TCR. If you believe the points I made a few posts back, then you'd have to agree that there is probably no record in the last 20 years that should have been promoted more. I honestly believe that Brian and Roger believed that based on the success of the tour, people would support the new record. I think the majority of the fan base wanted to believe it was Queen record, but upon hearing it, didn't buy into it, and the record company figured they should bury it. To me there's no other logical conclusion. [/QUOTE]
Winter Land Man · Member since
The album wasn't a hit because people think it's a comedy album.
mike hunt · Member since
I'm not a huge AC/DC fan, but let's be honest. Black Ice is a way way way better album than tcr. no question about that, it's not a brilliant album (what acdc album is) but it's full of straight forward catchy rock songs. Sheer brass neck: if you were an AC/DC fan and you heard staying power or radio ga ga?...how about what most die hard queen fans thought when they heard those songs?....The same reaction I'm sure.
YourValentine · Member since
Apparently, there was a big difference between Europe and North America in terms of promoting the album. (There was a single, btw - C-lebrity). While there was zero promotion in the USA and Canada quite a lot was done in Europe and South America.
I think that TCR did not sell well because people simply did not give this line-up a chance. They did not buy it because Freddie is not on the album. Very similar to the Genesis album "Calling All Stations" which was virtually boycotted by the fans because Phil Collins was not on it. TCR is not a bad album, there is no reason that it only sold 10% of the numbers Metallica or Axl Rose sold. I cannot think of any promotion tool that would have increased the sales figures in Germany, for example - there were four concerts, lots of radio promotion, lots of airplay, posters, TV ads - everything you need to sell an album but it did not sell. "Made In Heaven" won several platinum awards and was No 1 of the album charts for 10 weeks with considerably less promotion.
pittrek · Member since
As some of you know I live in Slovakia.
I've seen many posters promoting Death Magnetic everywhere, radio adverts, TV commercials, reviews in magazines ....
I have seen absolutely nothing about TCR, nowhere .
john bodega · Member since
They should've just said Freddie was on it. [/QUOTE]SALES![/QUOTE]
cmsdrums · Member since
[b]Negative Creep wrote: [/b]
Paul Rodgers isn't this amazingly popular rock singer some people like to think. In fact - most people hadn't heard of him, outside of readers of Classic Rock magazine! [/QUOTE]
Although this doesn't seem to be the case in parts of Norht America, I absolutely agree with you on this. In GB and Europe his name is just not known. The fact that he has sold millions of albums doesn't help if people haven't heard of him and his name isn't familiar. There are countless artists (as well as others such as producers, DJs etc..) who have sold millions but couldn't sell out even a village hall because people won't be interested enough without knowing what they are going to hear.
I'm not saying I don't like Paul Rodgers (although I must say his solo stuff works better with his voice and style than the original material on TCR), but it is a simple fact that he isn't a big enough draw with the general 'joe public'.
Sheer Brass Neck · Member since
Mike Hunt, when Queen fans heard Staying Power and Radio Ga Ga it was probably a bit of a shock. But then again, long time fans who were into Queen from the early days were used to left field choices. So when Jazz rolled around, the idea of a bicycle bell break in a song that featured multiple time signatures was not a surprise, it was a joy, considering the previous albums lead singles were stomping on boards with no music backed by a 12/8 waltz about being champions, which of course followed singles in the mock opera and gospel genres. When AOBTD came about, it seemed they'd lost their minds, but it worked for Queen. Even the misses like Staying Power and Body Language fit into the Queen catalogue of "out there" songs. I think an AC/DC fan would burn their collection if they heard any of those songs in those style on an AC/DC album. Queen fans were always open monded, and part of the anticipation of what a new album would be like musically was the joy of being a Queen fan. Hearing TCR was such a pedestrian experience, it was like Bad Company music, big, corporate, predictable and ultimately forgettable.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Sheer Brass Neck wrote:[/b]
And that's why the album didn't get noticed. Bad Company was a cliched band, very Americanized, bluesy rock. Queen was the antithesis of Bad Company. Inventive, risk taking, creative, ridiculous, jaw dropping, awe inspiring and brilliant. So when TCR was basically a Bad Company record (traditional), what does Queen have to do with it?You have two guys who played in Queen, but the spirit of Queen music (for me and millions of others) was nowhere to be found.
[/QUOTE]
Fair enough. But I did find it in a few tracks, like Call Me, Some Things That Glitter, Say It's Not True, and Surf's Up. In fact, I see the latter as a continuation of track 13 from Made In Heaven. And the cover of Runaway was outstanding, full of the Queen spirit. The problem is, most people equate the spirit of Queen with Freddie, whereas I find that two members can very adequately carry the torch. But in the end, the public decides...
[QUOTE]you'd have to agree that there is probably no record in the last 20 years that should have been promoted more.[/QUOTE]
For sure, it's near the top of the list.
[QUOTE]I think the majority of the fan base wanted to believe it was Queen record, but upon hearing it, didn't buy into it, and the record company figured they should bury it. To me there's no other logical conclusion.[/QUOTE]
Only the key people know...
