Various information about Queen taken from books about other artists

Hello everyone !

I've been quite out of Queenzone these days. Happy New Year everyone !! (better late than never).
I was busy, and I readt some books about other artists, and found some rerefence to Queen in those books.
So there are 4 things I found, if everybody wants to develop, please do so !!

- In a book about [b]AC/DC [/b]called "[b]Maximum Rock'N'Roll[/b]", it said :
"Rising popularity and the cartoon horror of "Highway To Hell"'s title and cover art drew an offer of a starringrole in a movie called "Dracula Rock". Not too surprisingly it was turned down [by AC/DC] and was subsequently offered to Queen, which also declined".

- In the same book about [b]AC/DC[/b] called "[b]Maximum Rock'N'Roll[/b]", it said :
"As the year drew to a close, during a mass, cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope, branded rock music an "instrument of the devil" and made specific mention of The Beatles, The Eagles, Queen, The Rollong Stones and AC/DC. Vatican officials later cited Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and AC/DC as the worst offenders, andchurch leaders also claimed that the bands's [AC/DC] initials "referred not to alternating current or even bisexuality, but to the satanic pharse "Antichrist, Death To Christ""."
Frankly, I always thought the Pope was a lot into Black Sabbath ;o)

- In the same book about [b]AC/DC[/b] called "[b]Maximum Rock'N'Roll[/b]", it said :
"Nielsen (Rick Nielsen, guitarist from "Cheap TRick") had had big plans with Bon.
then he is quoted : "I had wanted to use Bon, Alex Harvey, Steve Parriott, Roger Chapman [Family], Freddie Mercury and [Cheap TRick's] Robin Zander for a project I was thinking of doing. I asked Bon and he asked me, while we were on tour together, to be on each other's future solo projects, if or when we had some tim".
Unfortunately Bon died soon after. R.I.P. Bon.


- In a book about [b]Van Halen[/b] called "[b]Everybody wants some : The Van Halen saga[/b]", it is said :
- That Van halen played Queen covers at the start of their carreer, when they still were a cover band
-"Also in 1983, Eddie got a call from Brian May of Queen, who wanted some quick help on a recording session. The two had met during Van Halen's late-1970s tour with Black Sabbath, years after Van Halen had covered Queen in the clubs. Dubbed the Starfleet Project, May wanted to create a guitar-driven update of the theme to a sci-fi puppet show from British television. May would hold down a melodic rhythm guitar while Eddie provided high-end fireworks - a rare chance for Eddie to play in a dual-guitar setting.
Dabbling for a couple of days, the band nabbed two tracks and the seven-minute jam "Bluesbreaker", which they dedicated to Eric Clapton. Eddie told [i]Guitar [/i](the magazine) that during the recording he broke a string and continued playing out of tune. So when May sent the finished record to Clapton, Eddie was skightly mortified. Clapton was too, and reporttedly pooh-poohed the song as very unblueslike."


I seriously would like to see some more information about that (especially the Rick Nielsen project thing, never heard about that). If ever someone wants to comment, and add more explanation to this and that, feel free !!

Also, these books are made for being readt in full so I highly recommend you in buying those books, you will love them (especially the AC/DC one) ! My apologies for the cut and paste here.



Regards,

Olivier,
Belgium.

Great info and great idea. Thank you.

I remember reading about Queen in a Yes book and in a Beatles one (I'll paste the quotes and page numbers as soon as I find them). The former was about Yes recording at Super Bear studios in 1979 and produced by Roy, whom they didn't get along with at all; the latter was about the Trident piano, and it was a mistake: while it was a Bechstein for [i]Hey Jude[/i], it was a Steinway for early Queen albums; sources claiming otherwise (including all the 2003-2009 versions of my website) are wrong.

There are some magazine scans of an Interview with 2 members from Bon Jovi and the guitarist, Richie Sambora talked about Bri. 3rd page
[url=http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/showthread.php?t=50075]http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/showthread.php?t=50075[/url]





Elton the biography by David Buckley: -(Live Aid) "Queen made a huge impact. The doctor had told Freddie Mercury not to go on stage because he was ill and had a throat problem, but he went against his doctor's order and performed".



-(Elton's recognition to Aids) "However, another defining icon of the 70s and 80s, Freddie Mercury, would not be so lucky. For 5 years, the world watched as the singer's frame and countenance changed beyong all recognition, By 89, he was thin and gaunt; the last photograph of him in 1991 showed a skeletal man. He finally announced that he had Aids just one day before he succumbed to the disease on Nov 24, 1991".



-It is written here that Brian went to Elton's 50th Birthday (in 97) as Dame Edna.



-It also points out that John Reid (Elton's manager) was also Queen's.



-It says that Roger and John appeared on 2 of Elton's songs.



That's about it. And hello, my first post here.

[QUOTE]

[b]ruth.olivier wrote:[/b]

- In a book about [b]AC/DC [/b]called "[b]Maximum Rock'N'Roll[/b]", it said :
"Rising popularity and the cartoon horror of "Highway To Hell"'s title and cover art drew an offer of a starringrole in a movie called "Dracula Rock". Not too surprisingly it was turned down [by AC/DC] and was subsequently offered to Queen, which also declined".

Yes Fred was offered the lead role in the Dracula film thing. Remember reading in an interview with him that his response was,[/QUOTE][QUOTE]"Ugh, well I've got the teeth for it!" I think this was at a group press interview but with each member on his own with a group of press on each table then it all rotated round. Think it was c. 1975/76...




[/QUOTE]