album reissues with Universal confirmed on the 40th Anniversary

rhyeking wrote: Interesting list and I agree with pretty much all of it.

Why put "Soul Brother" with The Game? It's a Hot Space-related track.
No idea, I had in mind it was started in 1980...

If Universal can somehow remove Brian, Roger and staff from the process, and do a Mobile Fidelity type job on remastering the studio back catalogue I'll be very happy (and for once, pleasantly surprised). Throw in some proper vinyl reissues (cut from analogue) and even some hi res download access and they can have all my dollars.

I really couldn't care less about rare, unreleased, archived material. I listen to all that once or twice, pay the credit card bill and tuck the boxed sets away with the rest of them, only reaching for them when I move house. There is far more enjoyment to be had hearing extra detail, more natural drum sounds, clearer vocals, more defined bass notes etc from a wonderfully remastered studio album than you get from an outtake that wasn't good enough to make said album in the first place!!!

Brian and staff will find a way to fuck up all the releases anyway, so it's a moot point.

Re:

>>If Universal can somehow remove Brian, Roger and
staff from the process

Best of luck with that one..... ;-)

Reading some these posts makes one wonder if "fans" can ever be happy with anything that ever got released. No wonder Queen Productions ignores everyone here.

Rhyeking, re:

>>Reading some these posts makes one wonder if "fans" can ever be happy with anything that ever got released. No wonder Queen Productions ignores everyone here.

You say that, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm more guilty than most, but the *EVIDENCE* is there for everyone and QPL themselves to see.

The back catalogue has been mis-managed and there has been too great a reliance on re-issuing material will little or no heed paid to the sections of fans who already have Bohemian Rhapsody 20 times in their collections across various formats and releases.

QPL know for a fact that a comprehensive rarities collection (in any format) would placate huge numbers of the moaning minority, but still they refuse to do anything about it, instead concentrating on re-issuing GH collections year on year.

I'm really past caring what the fuck QPL do any more; if nothing else, they employ a buffoon as "Archivist" and allow him to bait the people without whom Queen would generate little interest in the wider music world.  We've all invested a great deal of emotional time, energy and no little money in the band and simply request a little bit of pay-back.

Virtually no one is interested any longer.

Benn Kempster wrote: Rhyeking, re:

>>Reading some these posts makes one wonder if "fans" can ever be happy with anything that ever got released. No wonder Queen Productions ignores everyone here.

You say that, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm more guilty than most, but the *EVIDENCE* is there for everyone and QPL themselves to see.

The back catalogue has been mis-managed and there has been too great a reliance on re-issuing material will little or no heed paid to the sections of fans who already have Bohemian Rhapsody 20 times in their collections across various formats and releases.

QPL know for a fact that a comprehensive rarities collection (in any format) would placate huge numbers of the moaning minority, but still they refuse to do anything about it, instead concentrating on re-issuing GH collections year on year.

I'm really past caring what the fuck QPL do any more; if nothing else, they employ a buffoon as "Archivist" and allow him to bait the people without whom Queen would generate little interest in the wider music world.  We've all invested a great deal of emotional time, energy and no little money in the band and simply request a little bit of pay-back.

Virtually no one is interested any longer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Where to start...?

Okay, first, I would love a rarities collection (demos, outtakes, whatever). It may happen. It may not. There's no way to know at this stage as Queen's priorities have shifted a few times over the last decade. Personally, I like the direction of new material, but I know many people don't. I don't know what else to tell you on this subject.

Secondly, I disagree that the back catalogue has been mismanaged. There are currently multiple remasters available worldwide, from different territories, based on what that territory has under contract to Queen Productions. If, for instance, their Japanese record company decides to promote the band differently than in the UK or the US, that's their perogative. I don't know what dicretionary power QP has over such decisions, but they approve what is released because it IS promotion.

Which brings me to my third point, that in North America Hollywood Records has been consistant and effective in promoting Queen. Their remasters are top-notch and their radio play ever present. There's bitching and crying over the many compilations they issue, but that is a result HR understanding that this continent is a consumer hell and the music buying public has the attention span of gold fish. Understand that HR is issuing these many releases for one reason, and it has nothing to do with us: To get new fans interested in Queen.

Everytime Queen does something in the media spotlight, HR is prepared to back them with a collection, to capitalize on the burst of attention.

Las Vegas version of We Will Rock You: The Musical is opening? Release a new edition of Greatest Hits!

Queen are to appear on American Idol? Release a collection (Stone Cold Classics)!

True story: A colleague of mine saw the Toronto production of WWRY and bought the GH:WWRY ed. in the lobby.

Worldwide, a 3 disc Platinum Collection of hits is not casual- or new-fan-friendly, so whittle it down to 1 disc (Absolute Greatest).

This promotion works, plain and simple.

Then a certain number of casual fans grow into hardcore fans, buying the albums and other releases.

I know what your going to say: What about us? The loyal fans who support this band!

All we're ever treated to are things like:

A Night At The Opera and The Game DVD-A
A Night At The Opera 30th Ann. Ed. CD + DVD
Greatest Video Hits 1 & 2
Live At The Bowl
Queen Rock Montreal
Live At Wembley

And like it or not, the band has released NEW material for those not content to relive 1973.

The Singles Collections are the only recent releases I sort of scratch my head about, as I feel they ought to contain more unique versions than they do if they are to appeal to the hardcore fans.

... on the other hand it's been 36 years since the Rainbow show, 35 years since the Xmas Hammersmith show, 33 years since Houston or Earl's Court, 31 since the Kampuchea Hammersmith show ... and still no proper release of any of these great concerts.

The Rainbow '74 (SHA Tour) concert did get released, though very limitedly, as part of the Box Of Trix.

I'd love to see the full, unaltered concert released in a 5.1 mix.

rhyeking wrote:

"Secondly, I disagree that the back catalogue has been mismanaged."

Multi-tracks have been lost - about half of News Of The World, a few other 70s songs, and allegedly the Concert For Kampuchea multis are missing too.  Thus the buffoonery Benn alluded to.

"Which brings me to my third point, that in North America Hollywood Records has been consistant and effective in promoting Queen."

I strongly disagree.  I didn't hear a peep about Made In Heaven nor The Cosmos Rocks in the media when they were released.  They have promoted the hits, not the records.

Queen are just about the only remaining major band whose archives have been left virtually untouched and unavailable to the public.  But maybe they don't want to release studio demos and 70s concerts.  Maybe Brian and Roger want the band to be remembered by the public for a dozen big hit songs and being fronted by the charismatic fellow with the moustache.  It's largely in their hands, and they're entitled to that choice since it's their band... as much as the hardcore fans may not like it.  But I certainly do sympathize with anyone who sees this as a problem.

I heard plenty about both Made In Heaven and The Cosmos Rocks, particularly from my local rock stations. I still hear plenty of hits AND album tracks.

Hell, every once in a while the one I listen to the most does a great series on live material and they play a mix of Queen songs from the different live releases.

As for the multi-tracks, were they lost or stolen? Was it before Jim Beach began gathering all the masters from the many studios Queen recorded in? Should we not blame the douchebag "collectors" who walked away with this stuff? No, we blame the artist. That makes a lot of sense.

For your information, artists have their work stolen sometimes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/art-worth-16386m-stolen-from-paris-in-heist-of-the-century-1978881.html

And occasionally things get lost when handled by third-parties. Which is pretty much what every industy entails, a series of middle-men between the artist and the audience.

And occassionally things get found, like the multi-tracks for King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man," which were presumed lost for 30-odd years. Or the presumed lost Layla (And Other Love Songs) multi-tracks.

And for some perspective, the original multi-tracks were, for a long time, largely ignored by artists and their management after the album master was created and copied and sent to record companies. It's only been in the last 20 years that the idea of RE-mastering the music from the source material was a priority. If you're to accuse Queen of mishandling their many, many old tapes, you have to throw pretty much every band and artist who recorded anything since 1967 onto that pile (possibly earlier).

And really, all these gripes come across as somewhat hollow moanings of people who simply want what they don't have and can't appreciate what they've got. Face it, many of you appear not to care about anything but getting old demos, and anything released otherwise fuels your perception that you're being mistreated as a "fan."

I have a shiney new nickel which says the next post will be exactly the sort of griping I've been talking about...

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wish that Queen HP'd stop release anything, anymore.

They SCREWED UP BIG TIME with every release & everything Queen related you could think of, since Freddie's death...not that when he was alive things were better.

Basically we're waiting for a decent release of the all catalogue since the 90's!...let alone anything rare or unreleased.

So please, Brian, Roger and John - STOP!

and do yourself a favour...go and check The Deep Purple Appreciation Society and see what a dedicated archivist/record company/fan base can do...

Where do you live Rhyeking?  I'm in Toronto, and nothing, and I mean nothing, from MIH or TCR is played on rock radio, and virtually no promotion for either.  Of course they are by miles the worst albums in Queen's catalogue so I understand why, but still, no effort to promote at all form Hollywood Records/

I get, among other things, Q107. I forget which stations I was listening to in 1995, (I'm sure the Mighty Q was one of them) but I remember hearing "Too Much Love," "Heaven For Everyone" and "A Winter's Tale" a lot. Before the album came out it was quite well advertised on the radio and HMV downtown. This was all before the internet took off (all we had were BBSs, remember those?). 

The Cosmos Rocks got mentioned more than once on Q late at night (the only time I really got to listen, while reading in bed) Sometimes I tune in in the morning to hear Derringer and I admit, he never said anything about it, but I was listening infrequently at that time of day.

I guess TCR could have used a lot more promotion in North America, if that's any indication.

rhyeking wrote: The Rainbow '74 (SHA Tour) concert did get released, though very limitedly, as part of the Box Of Trix.

I'd love to see the full, unaltered concert released in a 5.1 mix.
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That's why I said "still no proper release" ...

rhyeking, I strongly disagree that HR's remasters are "top notch".
The '91 CD's are absolutely woeful. 
Ditto, the 2009 vinyl cut from badly remastered digital.

Not that EMI have done much better.