Totally Annoyed..."Under review"

Well well..Hi there...I want to express some feelings about the DVD "Queen under review"..I do not know if you are aware of this productions...well, today I bought the 1980-1991 Under Review DVD..and I got shocked with the pauper level of some information inside it´s content...I got home after buying some stuff, among which was this dvd, I inmediatly played the DVD, every was fine till I got to the "The works review"...suddenly one of the interviewed started talking about "I want to break free" and how dificult for the band was this song inside the "American conservative market" and how people in the states rejected not only the song but also the "inmoral" video...and how ther band also had some problems playing this song alive..I was listening carefully when this guy said something like "Well, Queen also had some problems in Argentina when they played the song, becasue, leftist parties took the song as an anthem, and the crowd and the public began to throw bottles to the stage".....
Wauw WTF??? I said..this guy must be absolutely drugged...First of all, no leftist parties took the song as an anthen, at least here in Argentina, secondly Queen had no problem at all with Argentian fans EVER!...but mostly unlogical..Queen came to Argentina in 1981!!!....and the song is from 1984...How can you playe a song that belongs to the future? Did they call Marty Mc Fly?...

The annoying point is not this Interviewed person gettin confused or wrong..but all the producers, editors of the DVD ...How can you give something to fans without chequing the information??..that´s totallly Non.Professional!!..Tha´s a lie, that´s crap, that´s a shame for fans, I really got disappointed with this thing...couse..How can I believe all the information that contents the production about dates, memories, speechs, different country´s performance and on and on, If a am aware of one big mistake?
We should do something, a complaint, or something, this mistake, can not get the market, no supervision in the editing? No supervision in production?...
Ok, I just wanted to report this, so that if you see it, you don´t believe what you see/hear on this "Queen Under Review" dvd...or at least be aware that may be no all the info is true!
Thanks!

That is not cool. I really hat watching shows or something about QUEEN and I hear something that isn't true. I get pretty pissed.

People make mistakes, there are misprints, etc. It sucks, but it happens.

I've seen this, other DVDs like it, on the shelves of stores and think they're pretty much useless. They won't have access or the rights to use official Queen material, so what's the point? They might get "friends" or people associated with Queen to talk about the band, or get "experts" to talk about the music, but at the end of the day, I'm of the opinion that if I buy this, I'm wasting my money.

Back when I was a new fan and was trying to learn everything I could about the band, I'd buy any biography I could find, just to know something. This was the early '90s and there was no internet. I'd find books like "Rolling Stone's Guide To Rock" or whatever, hoping to find a tidbit on Queen. After reading a few biographies, I discovered that they were good for only a limited amount of useful information, like facts about tours and singles. Otherwise, they'd go off on tangents about things which had little to do with Queen. I realize now it was because they had to pad the book with something.

So yeah, I see these things like "Under Review" and groan. I don't buy them and I advise new, enthusiastic fans to avoid these like the Plague. If you want to learn about Queen, do independant research and form your own opinions. There are some good, official releases to start with:

- The Magic Years (3 VHS set...out of print, but if you look hard enough, you can find them) 
- Champions Of The World (VHS...not sure if it's still in print)
- Greatest Video Hits, Vol. 1 and 2 (DVDs)...most official releases have something to offer in the way of insight and history, and the best source is from the guys themselves...
- Classic Albums "Making Of A Night At The Opera" DVD is excellent
- Freddie Mercury - Lover Of Life, Singer Of Songs DVD set (2 DVDs, both originally from the Freddie Mercury Solo Collection boxed set, though slightly expanded here, Disc 1 is The Untold Story documentary, Disc 2 are his Videos)
- the various official concert DVDs are good to get for research purposes (and a must just to have)

rhyeking I ´ve been a Queen fan for the last 18 years at least....I know that official material is always better..but I just was so disppointed anyway about this " Under review" that I just tried to alert other fans.... but I must agree with you!!
Is not necessary to be related to offical Queen stuff to be professional....that was what I tried to say...

We're on the same page Marcelo. I wasn't trying to single you out by suggesting those particular releases, I was aiming it at (to quote myself) "new and enthusiastic fans," the ones eager to buy anything with the Queen name on, who don't know better. Your original post will help them to avoid it. I'm sorry you ended up being the guinea pig for the rest of us, but we are all wiser now, thanks to your noble sacrifice.

'Under review is a shitty production, but the thing about 'I want to break free' is true. People in states didn't like the fact that they all dressed in drag, they were a bit shocked by it and homophobic as a lot off them are they dropped Queen like a stone.

People throwing things at concerts in Argentina during IWTBF is also true. They didn't like it when Freddie dressed up as he did in the video during the performance. A lot of people in Argentina saw IWTBF as a protest song against  their government.

They did not play IWTBF in Argentina.

Firstly, I do not like "Under reviews" either. 
I guess you know it, but I just want to remember you, that those commentaries have some roots in it.
- "I Want To Break Free" was initially banned by MTV in America.
- Freddie was canned in Rio. Because a political party adopted the song, so the audience didn't expect such a joke.
But those kind of projects usually show some facts in a diffrent light from original with some mistakes here and there.

The whole "Freddie was booed at Rock in Rio because of the boobs" story was just a British media hype. When you watch the video you can see that he did not hurry to tear off his wig and boobs, he was not embarrassed at all and there was no riot in the audience. I wonder how this story can be carried on and on over the decades when the truth can be seen in the video footage.

Thank you Marcelo Argentina for warning all of us about "Under Review"

I've lost count of how many times i have walked into my local record store and saw a tonne of "Under Review"s clogging up the shelves and cringed.Stuff that is filled with mis-information.People who just want to make a fast buck out of Queen and the fans.

This reminds me of Queen In Nuce.Now i know thats not a DVD but the situation is still the same.People wanting to make a fast buck outta some unsuspecting new fan.The version i heard of that was recorded straight off the Getting Smile lp which was warped.The Freddie/Larry Lurex tracks namely "I Can Hear Music/Going Back" were also recorded from the vynil single which also sounded warped and frayed 



I would stick to buying the official stuff if looking for information in the band.

Huh, sounds like a very professional product

"Rock it" please, I ask you to be more carefull in your staments..Queen did not play IWTBF in Argentina at all!!...they were presenting "the Game/Flash" albums in 1981...and they did not come back again ever with Freddie Mercury after those epic shows...This is not to be discuss...
So, the point is...be carefull with this "Under Review" productions..if it can be called "production"...in a profesional way.
Thanks guys!!

As someone mentioned "Queen In Nuce," I have to ask, what is with the title? "In Nuce" isn't an expression I was familiar with, so when I read it I wondered what it meant. I looked it up and the only definition I could find was that it means "In a nutshell." Okay...Wait, what? "Queen In A Nutshell." It might work for a greatest hits album, but for a handful of pre-Queen tracks? Whatever. No one said bootleg crap like this had to make sense.

Back in the day, when HMV had a listening station, where you could preview CDs, I picked this up to here how "remastered" it sounded. I had these tracks on a CD I bought in NYC called, "Queen: The Unobtainable Royal Chronicles Vol. 1" (there was also a Q:TURC Vol. 2, which I bought as well). I later discovered these were knock offs of an earlier set called "The Ultimate 'Queen' Back Catalogue." Well, I bought these in NYC in March of 1995 because they had a bunch of rare tracks I hadn't heard before. They were decent enough sounding, with a few record snaps and pops throughout, but hey, I now had a copy of "A Human Body," 5 of the 6 Smile tracks and a bunch of others (I still consider these CDs the best pre-internet Queen find I ever made). The Smile tracks in particular were worth the cost alone.

So, years later, standing in HMV, I'm listening to "Queen In Nuce" and...Wow, the same versions of the pre-Queen tracks originally from the "Back Catalogue" CD; the same clicks and pops from the record. That would have been ok (well, not for me, but for another fan looking for these tracks), but the so-called "remastering" simply took all the high-end equalization out, like they turned the treble down when they transfered it, probably to get rid of the hiss. So the tracks sounded very muffled. A bootleg of a bootleg of a bootleg...I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

If anyone is looking for the tracks which appear on "Queen In Nuce" you can find proper remasters now on legitimate releases:

Ghost Of A Smile (All 6 Smile tracks, fully remastered. They sound great. This is a Dutch import though)
The Very Best Of Freddie Mercury (the 2 Larry Lurex tracks, again remastered. Easier to get here than the FM box set)
Queen [Hollywood Records 1991 re-issue] (has Mad The Swine as a bonus track)

Or you can download them all off the internet, but I like having physical copies of my music.

[i]In nuce[/i] is a latin expression which means "in embryo", "at the beginning". "Nutshell" is very close to the literal meaning of "nuce"