Brian May regarding Live 70's DVDs

Just out this interesting letter from his soapbox:

Tony Newman wrote:

Hello Brian

Just wondering if you could shed some light on why QPL or whomever is responsible for the lack of official LIVE 70’s Concert DVD or BluRay releases?

It seems we get more re-releases of all the same 80’s concerts than anything. Including the re-release of of the new greatest hits 1 & 2 (which doesn’t include The Miracle, Innuendo or Made In Heaven). We’ve seen We Will Rock You released a couple of times (2 different names), Live at Wembley 2-3 times, Live at the Bowl and now Hungarian Rhapsody for the second time (Live In Budapest). Do you know why we’re not getting Live at the Rainbow, Hyde Park, Earls Court, Houston 77?

Are there plans for any of these to be released in the future? I am an American fan of Queen since 1975. I am now 50 and have purchased EVERY single thing you guys have ever released... I would spend DOUBLE for any 70’s concerts as I’m sure many others would too... When I’m dead, I will purchase nothing. I’m sure it’s not about the money with you guys but if you read the many posts about the fans who still love the Queen we remembered from the 70’s you’d see there is a LOT of interest in the 70’s concerts.

I think the momentum you have right now with Lambert and the young crowd now getting behind Queen, it would be a great time to introduce them to the early Queen band. You guys were simply INCREDIBLE in the 70’s. So young and DANGEROUSLY LIVE!!! We see all of the YouTube vids from the 70’s era and some quite clear (possibly high def).

We would just like to see these get a proper release, even if it’s just on DVD... They deserve to be seen and WE THE FANS deserve to see them.

Thanks, if you reply!

Love you guys forever!!!

Tony Newman
USA

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Brian replied:

Well, Tony - I hear you, but it's not that simple.

I suppose it would be fine if we just shoved the contents of an old VHS video on a DVD, but everybody would immediately complain about the lack of quality.

Instead, our guys regard each possible new DVD as a challenge … and they spend many months on each one, researching the best undiscovered sources, compiling, repairing, restoring - sound and vision - and the result is always something very special.

Currently Budapest is nearly finished, but the Rainbow concerts are in the works too. I don't know what you mean by 'second time' for the Budapest show … it's certainly never been officially on DVD before, because we had to buy the rights and buy the actually film in order to make this DVD.

The simple answer is … we can only do so much.

But thanks for asking. We also think some of the early concerts are interesting to reclaim.

cheers

Bri

Great and honest reply from Brian.

Time is a thief.

It's good that Brian is reminded about the re-releases of all this stuff that the fans are already have.

[QUOTE] [b]people on streets wrote:[/b]
Great and honest reply from Brian.
[/QUOTE]

Really?

Although he's not said anything we don't know (apart from maybe the Rainbow showS coming), it's good to see him actually reply to this for once.

He doesn't really comment as to why we get the numerous re-releases of the same stuff, and the obvious answer to him is 'yes, we understand the work put into the releases, but why not put that work into, say, Earld Court or Houston rather than Wembley or Budapest?'.

No mention of Hammersmith 75 though, which I would have expected as the obvious rebuttal if it it still on the schedule as we've previously been told.

Most of us have seen the videos of Earls Court & Houston and it's hard to disagree with Brian. The fact is that they are both underwhelming from a technical point of view. It's a shame but there we go. In the current climate of HiDef, consumers expect more (unfortunately). Not to take away from the actual performances of course.

Still, great news about the Rainbow gig(s) :-)

"I suppose it would be fine if we just shoved the contents of an old VHS video on a DVD, but everybody would immediately complain about the lack of quality. "



What it really comes down to is that the "contents of an old VHS video is shoved on a DVD" anyway, and it's only a question whether that is done by a bootlegger or Queen Productions.

They aren't going to get any HD video or multitracks for overdubbing in the future either, so they might as well make the best possible release out of them officially.

I wish somebody in the inner circle of QP had the integrity to tell Brian that instead of agreeing with everything he says.

[QUOTE] [b]tero! 48531 wrote:[/b]
"I suppose it would be fine if we just shoved the contents of an old VHS video on a DVD, but everybody would immediately complain about the lack of quality. "
What it really comes down to is that the "contents of an old VHS video is shoved on a DVD" anyway, and it's only a question whether that is done by a bootlegger or Queen Productions.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. As if Wembley, Budapest, Montreal were originally made in DVD. This "everybody would immediately complain" comment is what annoys me. Isn't everybody "already complaining" for ages about the "top quality" rerererere-releases?

"I suppose it would be fine if we just shoved the contents of an old VHS video on a DVD"

But the 70`s gigs were NOT shot on vhs... they were (mainly) shot on VIDEO (i mean 1", 2" and -if i remeber well- on U-Matic), on FILM (some angles in Houston 77, and the Bob Harris footage) and aprently some gigs like Munich 79 and Japan 75 were originaly shot on film altough who knows if they still exist even on video...

Or Brian means they passed all his archive footage to vhs? i don`t think so cause nothing of the footage that they showed in for example the last BBC documentary looks like a vhs sourced footage...

Maybe the angles on concerts like Earls court aren`t good and i can understand it... but Rainbow 74, Ham 75, Hyde Park 76 and Hamm 79 are complete gigs that have a more that GOOD "angle work" (plus they have the multitracks of at least 3 of them)... and i must say 1" or 2" are very good formats to put on a dvd...

I can see Brian's point here, although it is frustrating for us. Getting existing material out on the new label is fine, but boy it's a slow process. My concern, like the original question say is that one day there won't be time left to get these things out.

"Or Brian means they passed all his archive footage to vhs? i don`t think so cause nothing of the footage that they showed in for example the last BBC documentary looks like a vhs sourced footage..."

Some of (if not all?) the SSOR TOTP footage came from off-air VHS recordings, or something along those lines

[QUOTE] [b]inu-liger wrote:[/b]
"Or Brian means they passed all his archive footage to vhs? i don`t think so cause nothing of the footage that they showed in for example the last BBC documentary looks like a vhs sourced footage..."
Some of (if not all?) the SSOR TOTP footage came from off-air VHS recordings, or something along those lines[/QUOTE]
Yeah i understand your point but Brian (me too altough i missed the word LIVE) was talking about LIVE footage... i don`t consider TOTP footage as LIVE

Well, we wait for gigs at the Rainbow Theatre. We hope that this will happen in November 2012

[/QUOTE]Brian replied:
Well, Tony - I hear you, but it's not that simple.
I suppose it would be fine if we just shoved the contents of an old VHS video on a DVD, but everybody would immediately complain about the lack of quality.

[/QUOTE]

Sure....When you tranfer original PAL to NTSC

Finding the best source material is half of the battle. I hate to say it Brian, but son - you've got to hire some people who know what the hell they are doing when it comes to DVD authoring. It *is not hard* to get the basics right. I get a damned ice cream headache when I think of the fucking mess that was made of the aspect ratios on GH2.