Rolling Stone: "Queen Putting Together Own Tribute Band for 2012 Tour"

kosimodo wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dREKkAk628I&feature=player_embedded#!

Initially the idea of the Queen Extravaganza struck me as absurd, but if this guy is in it, I'll be there.

That guy singing Somebody to Love is pretty damned good.  Would it be too much to ask to get him to replace the vocals on Cosmos Rocks ... ?

What a great voice - so smooth and controlled, and makes it look easy. HOWEVER, you will sadly have no chance of making the band based on just that - to stand out from the tens of thousands of auditionees any submission will need to stand out on other grounds, including charisma, presence, delivery etc. This chap undoubtedly has the voice, but based on this tape, not the other things they will be looking for

That Marc Martel guy singing STL sounds Canadian when he speaks.  French spelling of Marc makes me a bit suspicious too.  It's not completely clear, but I think non Americans may not be eligible, so that might be a problem, if he's a Canuck.

Ah ha!  Same guy I think, from a Canadian Christian band called Downhere, doing Bo Rhap: http://bibchr.blogspot.com/2010/02/bohemian-rhapsody-with-marc-martel-of.html And talking about his influences, including Fred, and singing opera: http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2009/06/downheres-marc-martel-sings-ne.html

I mentioned this guy before: http://www.queenzone.com/forums/1185183/christian-rockband-downhere.aspx
I have all his albums and I can tell you I'm impressed.

I wasn't.  But best of luck!

Surely Roger will lose interest before this thing sees itself through?
Can someone send over a stripper and cocaine to his house to divert his attention?

Absolutely diabolically bad.
If someone said, "OK, what's the most ridiculously fucked up project the two quasi active eccentric old ex musicians from Queen could do next?", I seriously don't think you could have even come up with this.

Did Roger not learn his lesson with The Cross? He advertised for those musicians and the results were clear on how atrocious that project was.

GratefulFan wrote:

That Marc Martel guy singing STL sounds Canadian when he speaks.  French spelling of Marc makes me a bit suspicious too.  It's not completely clear, but I think non Americans may not be eligible, so that might be a problem, if he's a Canuck.

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If he joins the Montreal musicians union, which is a division of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians), I think he'd be fine.

^  He must have already have work permits for the  US as his current band has tour dates throughout the fall there according to the band website.

It's been kind of funny watching the Extravaganza people scramble together new wording to accommodate Canadian contestants all of a sudden, while struggling with their perpetual inability to understand this whole Canada thing.  One could be forgiven for reading their About section and being a bit confused about this North American coast to coast tour of the USA,  an American talent search for North Americans who must be a permanent resident of the USA, or maybe Canada too if you're reading some other paragraph, but not Mexico or any of the other North American territories because.... because, well I don't know what the because is, but as long as you're some kind of generally northish Canamerican, I think you're in.

I heard Canada is the USA's attic, where Americans hide all their weird relatives. Don't shoot the messenger :P

Any road  up .... this tribute thing looks like some kind of pitch for a reality TV show, and I would guess it's the idea of some marketer at Universal. Like the musical, it holds no appeal for me. I'd rather see that Taylor Hawkins/Roger Taylor tour that was mentioned a while back. But I guess this confims what I've been saying since Paul Rodgers quit, I don't think we'll see any more "Queen" tours, even if the do get together for the odd show. Best I am hoping for now is an occasional archival release.

i don't understand why they can't tour
if you can replace Freddie with Paul then you can replace him with any competent singer

it's about what songs you performin the live setting...and if they take the queen live performance in a more "Smile" direction then almost anyone could carry off the singer role (except Tranqvilla)

GratefulFan wrote:

^  He must have already have work permits for the  US as his current band has tour dates throughout the fall there according to the band website.

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Then bingo.  It's not hard to get a P2 visa, but it's especially easy if you're in the union.  So if he's the guy, then he should be good to go.

Are you going to get into the mix Sir GH?

Holly2003 wrote: Don't shoot the messenger :P

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No worries.  I learned the hard way some time ago not to do anything around an Irishman that could cause sparks. :P