And volume four is on the way!

I hold my hands up.......

And I honestly think these box sets are really good. The track listing may not always be as the original 7" singles, especially on the fourth box, because as you know we didn't want any duplicates, apart from Bo Rhap, which deserved it. But yes, they are great....I think Richard Gray also did a superb job on the covers and box themselves, and the sound guys done a superb job on the audio.

And that is what I, and many others think.

But people only want to hear and talk about any negative points.

I must admit that most of them sound GREAT (unlike the songs on Absolute Greatest, which sound terrible, especially BoRhap), I can't agree about the box. The boxes can get damaged VERY easily, especially the corners

Dear GT... I've copied my message from the topic at QOL, where we were asked what was wrong with box vol. 4.

I hope you can answer this.

First of all, I realise the arbitrary starting point of the series: a replica collection of the 7" singles that were #40 hits around the world.

- - -

Vol. 4
a) An exception to the no repeats rule with Bohemian Rhapsody, but why? Why not create another made up pairing of These Are The Days Of Our Lives with Lost Opportunity? You have a genuine release (the double A-side), a unique cover (the US version), and a rare b-side track. What could be a better release... Surely not a repeat of Bohemian Rhapsody with the standard Queen crest!
b) If you want to include the WWRY/WATC live versions (which is again more than fair), why not pair them up with You Don't Fool Me instead of Let Me Live? You didn't want to include the remixes, and you might just as well have left out the album version and left some space on the Let Me Live single for the final b-side...
You had a genuine single (Let Me Live) with a slight b-side issue and a terrific, uncommon picture of the band from 1973. What would have been a better place to put a b-side track from 1973 (Mad The Swine)?
c) The last single of the set wasn't modeled after the 7" disc, which is fine because we got more content.
But if you absolutely wanted to repeat Bohemian Rhapsody, why not put it as the last song of the series on this disc? "The Song Of The Millennium" and all that jive that was written on that release...

To sum it all up... Yes, we know you made up arbitrary rules for the series two years ago, and left out some good material because of it. What's worse is that you broke those arbitrary rules for the last installment, and made the product worse for the customers. That's unforgivable.

GT wrote: I hold my hands up.......

And I honestly think these box sets are really good. The track listing may not always be as the original 7" singles, especially on the fourth box, because as you know we didn't want any duplicates, apart from Bo Rhap, which deserved it. But yes, they are great....I think Richard Gray also did a superb job on the covers and box themselves, and the sound guys done a superb job on the audio.

And that is what I, and many others think.

But people only want to hear and talk about any negative points. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________
But there was no reason for there to actually be ANY negative points with this final set!!

That is the WHOLE POINT! 

Leaving off Lost Opportunity and Mad The Swine was pure bloody mindedness aimed at pissing the fans off.  That is all QPL are good for these days, isn't it.

And you're surely not so far gone that you actually think a pretty box makes up for the crappy tracklisting?!

But 'Mad The Swine' and 'Lost Opportunity' were not on any 7" singles - so why feature them?

GT wrote: But 'Mad The Swine' and 'Lost Opportunity' were not on any 7" singles - so why feature them?

Did I miss something, or wasn't the RAH mix of Under Pressure coupled with Bohemian Rhapsody on the 7" single?

If you had to create a new tracklisting on the final single, why put remixes instead of original songs?

As you know we didn't want to repeat 'Bo Rhap' again, so then we went with the CD version as the source of the other tracks with the 'Rah mix'.

So... You didn't wan to repeat Bohemian Rhapsody after repeating Bohemian Rhapsody?
And you didn't want to include non-7" tracks because you wanted to include non-7" tracks?

You have to be clearer than this, because you aren't making much sense!

I don't want to sound rude, but it does seem that this release wasn't exactly thought out.

I know you(?) made up the arbitrary rules to compile the songs in the first place, but after you threw them all away for the final installment you could have at least bent them in FAVOUR of the customers instead of AGAINST them.

Tero! wrote: I don't want to sound rude, but it does seem that this release wasn't exactly thought out.

I know you(?) made up the arbitrary rules to compile the songs in the first place, but after you threw them all away for the final installment you could have at least bent them in FAVOUR of the customers instead of AGAINST them.
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Yes!  That's EXACTLY right.

There is a lot of ''rule-bending'' on this set so why bend the rules in such a way that the set is the poorer for it and, as a result, the customer misses out?  Do you think the fans really wanted All God's People and The Hitman here? 

Are Lost Opportunity and Mad The Swine going to be featured on a Queen release somewhere else any time soon, GT?

If not, why on earth not include them HERE?  That's basically it now - those tracks are going to remain unavailable on a readily available official CD when they could so easily have been issued here.

We're wasting our time though, Tero.  Either GT is thick and doesn't see the clear point that is being made here or he is unable/unwilling to publicly state that there is a problem here.  It's one of the two.

There had to be rule bending in this final box otherwise there would have been at least 7 repeat tracks in this last box...........is that a preference? There would of been an outcry about that decision too.

And you know why the second repeat of 'Bo Rhap' happened......it was left in for historical merit.....as in it was a double A side.....and it was released to raise funds for charity.

This series was not made to bend in favour of the customer, but to repeat the track listing as near as possible to the original 7" single.
We only used non 7" tracks when we had to. If there wasn't a 7" made for that particular release then the tracks from the equivelent CD is the most obvious way to go.....yes?

What it really comes down to is an arbitrary choice.
You take the 7" tracklist from one single because of it's historical merit (and ignore the previous rules), and discard another 7" tracklist despite it's historical merit (and follow the previous rules). "Charity" is a nothing more than smokescreen to make people more sympathetic... You could have just donated all the profit from this whole release.

From my (and quite a few other people's) perspective this is another half-arsed product from QP which makes us more reluctant to part with our money. As long as you realise that, and can stand by your arbitrary choices, everything's going to be fine.

GT, will Mad The Swine and Lost Opportunity appear on any forthcoming release?

If not, then this truly was a lost opportunity.

Well, what about calming down people ?

GT wrote: I hold my hands up.......

And I honestly think these box sets are really good. The track listing may not always be as the original 7" singles, especially on the fourth box, because as you know we didn't want any duplicates, apart from Bo Rhap, which deserved it. But yes, they are great....I think Richard Gray also did a superb job on the covers and box themselves, and the sound guys done a superb job on the audio.

And that is what I, and many others think.

But people only want to hear and talk about any negative points.
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What a shame that Mad The Swine and Lost Opportunity will now never get remastered audio.

Real pity.