Royal Philharmonic plays The Queen Collection (1982)

Hi !

Don't know if this was discussed here before, but I'd like to ask you if anybody has heard about the band members' reception of this album. I don't recall the album being reviewed by the band and it seems strange esp. considering Freddie's love for classical music.

I wonder if the band was asked for any guidance in arranging Queen songs into classical music.

I think the band (sans Freddie, but don't quote me on this ... or anything for that matter) attended the recital, and that's the one on the record.

Thanks Sebastian, I wonder if their opinions on the arrangements surfaced somewhere...

I can imagine at the time Freddie probably thought 'This is quite good, I like that, perhaps I should use an orchestra'

Roger probably thought 'This is terrible'

Brian probably thought 'Nice project, reminds me of Flash'

John probably thought 'I'm bored, going skiing now'

I just completely made all that up by the way.

I rather enjoyed that "Queen Symphony" album that came out a while back, I wonder what Queen's opinions were on that one......I liked how it wasn't just note-for-note covers of Queen songs by an orchestra.....I've heard plenty of those kinds of things, even done with other bands' music, and it kinda gets boring after a while to me....

I wish Queen had done something like the iconic live S&M album that Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra came up with, especially when Freddie was alive.

Rumour has it Kamen talked Metallica into doing that project... question comes to mind if he had similar proposal around the time when Kamen and Queen worked together on the Highlander soundtrack...

I seem to remember Freddie and Roger attended the performance after recording Las Palabras De Amor for Top of the Pops. Hence the tuxedoes

[QUOTE] [b]MercurialFreddie wrote:[/b]

Rumour has it Kamen talked Metallica into doing that project... question comes to mind if he had similar proposal around the time when Kamen and Queen worked together on the Highlander soundtrack...[/QUOTE]


That really would have been so good; if Kiss and Metallica could do it and sound good then Queen in that format would have been phenomenal; imagine Brian's guitar woven in with full brass and string sections....

I really like Royal Philharmonic plays The Queen Collection (1982)! Queen's songs really work with a classical arrangement!

So taking into account DrumBrother's and Sebastian's info, probably whole band attended the recital... I'm curious if music journalists who (if) also attended, reviewed it and asked band members about their thoughts on the performance...

[QUOTE] [b]DrumBrother wrote:[/b]

I seem to remember Freddie and Roger attended the performance after recording Las Palabras De Amor for Top of the Pops. Hence the tuxedoes[/QUOTE]

I thought the performance was in December 1981?

i was at the performance. It was December 8th 1981 at the Royal Albert Hall London.

So no, Freddie and Roger did not attend after recording Las Palabras for TOTP since that was in June 1982.

To my knowledge no memberrs of Queen were there.

It was not like a formal classical concert. None of the audience were in dinner suits or tuxes.

The songs were arranged and the concert was conducted by Louis Clark who was popular at the time for a series of singles called 'Hooked On Classics' (clips of famous classical peices with an added disco back beat).

He was also invoved with arrangements and writing with E.L.O.

The show was politely received but, not being a rock concert, felt a bit underwhelming.

The original vinyl album released in 1982 featured the audience applause after each piece, but this seems to have been edited out of subsequent releases.

To my ears the ballads work better. Love of My Life was a flute solo and was absolutely beautiful.

Classical rock outs just sound wrong. The end of BR was awful just as it is on the numerous other 'clasical' versions.

@splicksplack

That´s a great post full of interesting information.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.