High Quality Version of Seven Seas of Rhye From TOTP
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jamster1111 · Member since
Anyone know where to find a higher quality color version of Queen performing Seven Seas of Rhye on Top Of the Pops in 1974? I know it exists as I saw it in the Stormtroppers in Sillouttes trailer. There has to be a better quality version somewhere without all the lines.
Bad Seed · Member since
Don't think it's freely available in that quality?
The shot of Roger was from the Bob Harris doc wasn't it? Maybe more stuff from it will see the light of day this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN_CHisKL-w I meant the whole thing and in real color without flickering back and forth to black and white. The version we have for some reason is such a distant to the master that the quality sucks. There's got to be a color better quality version somewhere. You would of though Queen Productions would have at least put it on GVH 1.
MERQRY · Member since
jamster1111 wrote: Anyone know where to find a higher quality color version of Queen performing Seven Seas of Rhye on Top Of the Pops in 1974?
Oh,yes i know where... In the Queen or BBC Archives... Why someone will have this full,in colour and in High Quality? The better version available is a fairly Higher generation Vhs transfer with only a few seconds in colour and in Vhs quality. There`s much Queen footage that only is in Tv and QPL archives and i think this is one of theses
Cheers!
guild93 · Member since
Thanks!
There is also a clip of Roger blowing a kiss at the camera, I'm sure this is not the Champions doco from '79/'80 but looks to be from the same shoot. I believe that it (and the "I've lost my shoe" clip) are from Fort Worth 1977. Why? It was documented that John Harris's material from this show was unearthed not that long ago and now we suddenly see new 1977 backstage USA footage. I doubt it's co-incidence.
Luke
Shaving Foamasi · Member since
That's obviously an off-air home recording. Remember that the BBC junked most of the Top Of The Pops recordings - actually the BBC junked a lot of their programmes recorded on expensive videotape as they were often reused to save costs - so I very much doubt if either QPL or the BBC have a full high-quality colour recording in their archives.
MERQRY · Member since
Shaving Foamasi wrote: That's obviously an off-air home recording. Remember that the BBC junked most of the Top Of The Pops recordings - actually the BBC junked a lot of their programmes recorded on expensive videotape as they were often reused to save costs - so I very much doubt if either QPL or the BBC have a full high-quality colour recording in their archives.
I Want to belive that QPL made or kept a copy.... anyway,yes the Seven seas Stormtrooper trailer footage doesn`t has the better quality... i`m sure not is a 16 mm transfer.
brians wig · Member since
As far as I'm aware, QPL only came across a decent copy in the last decade. I also remember Brian saying most of it was black and white, so I suspect they simply found the master copy of the one we've all had for years which, as someone said, is a domestic recording.
It is always possible though that they came across a black and white telecine copy, in which case there's a very good chance that the chroma dot information is ingrained into the picture which means that, if they are prepared to spend a bit of money, that information can be retrieved and a colour picture can be recreated. It won't be perfect, but it will be very good. They could even vidfire the picture to take the film copy back to an interlaced video look which is how it was shot.
I did email Brian this information with some website links a few years ago just incase....
sbazb · Member since
Hmmm... that trailer is interesting regarding the TOTP footage of Seven Seas of Rhye. All the copies of this footage that I've seen (bootlegs, YouTube) only have that particular section in black and white, whereas here it is in colour. Maybe they do have a higher quality version at Queen Productions, but I do believe, like the poster above, that Brian said their copy is mostly black and white and its therefore most likely that they just have the master copy of the off-air recording that the bootlegs are sourced from. That would be much better quality than what we have currently, but still only half the resolution of the master tape.
Does anyone know if TOTP performances were ever copied to film to be sold abroad?? Chances are that the master video tape does not exist at the BBC anymore as they would have released the footage on DVD by now if it did, but a film copy might be floating around somewhere. The colour could be recoverable from a good quality black and white film version using the Chroma Dot recovery technique (used successfully on episodes of 'Dr Who', 'Dad's Army' and 'Are You Being Served' that had their colour master tapes junked by the BBC)
The clip used in the trailer doesn't look like master video tape. It does have the characteristic look of re-coloured footage though. Possibly it was computer/hand coloured for this trailer (not too labour intensive as it's only on screen for a couple of seconds), but there is a slim chance that advice from the poster above led to a chroma dot colour recovery being done... Time will tell, but be cautious. This is Queen Productions after all, and we know not to get our hopes up!
guild93 · Member since
QP were looking for a better copy, see first post:
I have commented on this a few months ago on a seperate thread.
There are 3 TOTP's versions of SSOR, two of which are on youtube in varying quality. The 3rd version is where Freddie can be seen wearing his half black / half white costume and with Brian in white 'Queen 2' style white jacket and scarf. This is the version where Dave Lee Travis comes on stage with the band during Brian's solo dressed as a cleaner pushing a brush!
All 3 versions are in the Queen archive...the originals were wiped by the good old BBC so they are copies from other sources. DLT supplied to QPL the edition featuring himself from a copy of the show he had in his private collection. This is an excellent copy which is best described as being somewhere between black and white, and colour in appearance.
It was originally intended for TOTP SSOR to be included on Video Hits 1 but surfaced too late to be included. I'm sure an official release will come one day in some form.
Dean
jamster1111 · Member since
strangefrontier wrote: I have commented on this a few months ago on a seperate thread.
There are 3 TOTP's versions of SSOR, two of which are on youtube in varying quality. The 3rd version is where Freddie can be seen wearing his half black / half white costume and with Brian in white 'Queen 2' style white jacket and scarf. This is the version where Dave Lee Travis comes on stage with the band during Brian's solo dressed as a cleaner pushing a brush!
All 3 versions are in the Queen archive...the originals were wiped by the good old BBC so they are copies from other sources. DLT supplied to QPL the edition featuring himself from a copy of the show he had in his private collection. This is an excellent copy which is best described as being somewhere between black and white, and colour in appearance.
It was originally intended for TOTP SSOR to be included on Video Hits 1 but surfaced too late to be included. I'm sure an official release will come one day in some form.
Dean
I'm sure so too. But if this is so, which is the version they used in the Stormtroopers Trailer? It is all color and good quality in the first verse (all other versions are only color at the end)?
