An Archivist's view of the SiS exhibition

I'd love to see Roger's kit which he used during the Races sessions. Can be seen in the Somebody To Love video and he used the same setup for the Hyde Park concert. His biggest kit to date, if I recall correctly.

I'm going to pop down and have a browse tomorrow.....and I'd like to say that GB's first post on this thread is brimming with a zeal, enthusiasm and pride that I find infectious.

I also, as it happens, think that this isn't the place to start whining for anthologies and DVD's.  Why not enjoy this in itself first?

I saw someone mention here on QZ the Multitrack tapes at the exhibition...

I was there Saturday and noticed 2 or 3 of these tapes have actually fallen over in the display!!!  Really annoying, because it's not a simple job to put it back as it was; it entails the entire pane of glass being removed, by 2-3 people.  But anyway...

I chose one tape from each of the first 5 albums, plus a Rainbow, and Hyde Pk, plus a 1" video of Somebody To Love rushes (unused bits), and I chose particular items of interest... some of you have spotted, and some of you not!

The two fallen over, and therefore with their labels not viewable, are an original Hyde Pk audio multi, which I think is rather lovely in its way, and a Races one... the latter contains a version of SIMPLE MAN, which of course became White Man.

Other tapes include BANANA BLUES (working title of Misfire) and People Of The Earth (Prophet's Song), Happy Little F**k (Brighton Rock).  I've asked them if they'll put the tapes back up asap. I'd like to show more of these tapes for the touring version. I think such things are fascinating - but then I would, wouldn't I!!!!!

Thanks for your comments Greg. You are so lucky to be in charge of the archive! Hopefully one day the anthologies will come  out. Is the exhibition going on tour of the UK first or is London the only venue in this country?

Having also been on Saturday, I did spot the Hyde Park multi (maybe it fell down later), but the others had already toppled.

I've posted some pics at QOL, mostly the same tapeboxes as here...

but also a Smile acetate that seems to say pretty clearly that it lasts for six minutes.

a contract with the College of Estate Management for a show there in October '70

an ad RT & FM put up for their market stall

and what appears to a setlist for the resceduled Barbarella's gig in 74.

I also spent a very interesting couple of hours on the Rainbow laptop - I watched the entire show & the "Japan" compilation afterwards.  The Japan piece was the usual footage and I very nearly didn't bother - then I noticed - all the audio was demoes etc. - I heard an alternate vocal for MoTBQ with a very young-sounding FM, although it seemed to be the final backing track & lyrics.  Some Day One Day was a different vocal too.

Oh yes, on the issue of Now I'm Here - never mind when it was broadcast, IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERFORMANCE!  Guitar is different, vocal is diferent.....

Re: The Rainbow (first night) - can't see it being released, sadly.  Brian's guitar is missing for the first two minutes of NiH, there's a vocal fluff on Ogre Battle, drums keep getting turned ALLTHE WAY UP, piano sounds out of tune initially too.  However, it has some brilliant moments - Father To Son has a great solo, Flick Of The Wrist is brilliant, and the encore is superb - Big Spender, Modern Times Rock N Roll, then Jailhouse Rock.  I don't think there are many videos of MTRNR...

Elsewhere, Earl's Court & Hyde Park footage looked very very good indeed (although having both on one laptop makes for a long afternoon....)

One other small criticism - the studio footage of "STL" is marked as "recording...." - surely that's a trifle misleading?  It's the FILMING of the video, unless it is now being claiimed that there was a film crew present during recording?

I didn't bother with the 3D stuff at the end, and was surprised to see a merchandising opportunity being missed.  A lot of creativity has clearly gone into these displays, and even I can come up with some ideas based on that!!!

But overall, it was a really enjoyable few hours.

Penetration_Guru wrote:

Re: The Rainbow (first night) - can't see it being released, sadly.  Brian's guitar is missing for the first two minutes of NiH, there's a vocal fluff on Ogre Battle, drums keep getting turned ALLTHE WAY UP, piano sounds out of tune initially too. 
For a start - they should have 2 nights of video and audio to work with, and someone mentioned it was mono - so they haven't remixed it for the exhibition, and that's just a live mix done on the night of the show( the only reasonable explanation or the drums being mixed higher and higher throughout the show). Only GB, JSS etc know what is actually present on the muiltitracks and what can be done with it. I don't think they'd ever release both nights anyway (nor for Earls Court).

You've misunderstood - I didn't mean that the drums get progressively louder, I meant that on two or three occasions they get turned all the way up, randomly, for two seconds before being put back down....as if the guy on the mixing desk moved the wrong fader.

But that shouldn't be present on the multitracks. They should have been recording a seperate feed to what was being mixed to go out to the pa on the night. And even if it was, it could be fixed, if the audio on that channel doesn't distort at its loudest. And that's only one of the night's audio anyway.

Penetration_Guru wrote:

and what appears to a setlist for the resceduled Barbarella's gig in 74.

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Could you please post this?  This is an incredibly huge piece of information, as we have never seen a full setlist from this tour.

http://i54.tinypic.com/16c9b44.jpg

OK, so went back to the exhibition today and to my utter joy the Kit has been changed to the Silver Sparkle kit
Now I personally love this kit it was the first one I saw in real life some 30 years ago so very happy to see it.

Question
Why was it changed? it still is not the right kit for the period, however it is more accurate in terms of what Roger actually uses

Greg do you know what the thinking was here?

Either way I love it and will always hold fond memories of the kit when I saw it in Wembley 1980 so much so I now have the identical kit at home that has taken me 30 years to get together...

Also saw the footage of Roger on guitar and Fred on Drums...love it!

I'm so glad that they've changed Roger's kit (although still bemused as to why not one from the 'Early Years' in question?), but equally gutted to have missed one of my favourite kits of Roger's 'in the flesh'.

When I went, the tape boxes detailed by Greg were visible, and I was quite thrilled seeing early working titles of tracks that finally made the albums.  The snippets of Hyde Park 76 that I saw seemed to have totally remixed audio, as it sounded absolutely stunning, and bits of Earls Court 77 sounded much better than I have ever heard before.

I pray that each of the 'big' unreleased shows (Houston, Earls Court, Hyde Park, Budokan etc..) from this era get an individual DVD/Blur Ray/CD release (or combined in a box), but my fear is that we may get a 'Rare Lie' type 'Best of...' edit, which whilst this will be something, knowing what has been left out will be very hard to take!

Above everything, I really hope that the release of ther remasters, along with the exhibition, and the press coverage and general attention and reaction given, makes QPL realise the genuine interest, love, and fascination that the brilliance of their early work generates (hence leading to more era specific releases).  The seriousness with which this catalogue has been reviewed in the last few weeks is in stark contrast to the usual tongue-in-cheek jokiness that a lot of their 80's pop output gets treated with.  Finally, at last, the message may get through to them that it is, after all, all about the music.

Afternoon All,

I visited the exhibition on Saturday afternoon and I must say that I was more than impressed.

In retrospect, I wish I'd gone during the week as I suspect that because it was a) free and b) the weekend, there were probably a lot of casual 'walk-ins' which made it very busy and difficult to listen to/watch all the fantastic audio and video representations on offer. Not a bad thing though as I hope and believe that it will make ' the man in the street' appreciate that Queen's incredible legacy offers much much more than Bohemian Rhapsody, Live Aid and Freddie with a moustache in his Magic Tour outfit.

It's been said before within this thread but for me personally, one of the really thrilling aspects of the exhibition was experiencing some of the Earls Court 77 show with fantastic quality audio. My God, it sounded bloody good. If the exhibition is updated to span the next batch of albums, I'll be over the moon.....think clips of Houston & Hammy in perfect quality. Yum Yum.

Overall, it left me hopeful that there is indeed enough wonderful (and in some cases, surprising) footage available for a stunning DVD box set.

Cheers,

Keith.

Penetration_Guru wrote:

http://i54.tinypic.com/16c9b44.jpg

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Thanks for that !

I've almost decoded it, but it's hard to read what comes after Father To Son.   Perhaps it's White Queen, but I don't think that's what it says..

Procession
Father To Son
?
Ogre Battle
Seven Seas Of Rhye
Liar
Son And Daughter
Keep Yourself Alive
Great King Rat
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll
Big Spender
Jailhouse Rock

Hopefully someone can provide a better photo/scan ..

And.. do we assume this was written by a fan after the show from memory?  Perhaps some songs aren't in the right ofer.  Son And Daughter after Liar seems unlikely..