The Cross as a side-project

I'm sure some users that garner their attention to the side-projects now and again wonder how there wasn't more public attention. It seems obvious, but some classics clearly got side-lined by the record-buyers. Take The Cross. Shove It (the album) hit a minor #58, Cowboys and Indians was #74, the title track #84, and Heaven for Everyone and Power to Love both got to #83 - the latter is a surprise since its parent album sunk like a stone completely. Hell, Blue Rock was only released on vinyl in Germany and Italy, and again sunk without a trace (any German or Italian users out there that want to counter that?). My out-loud musing is this - how did one of the purest straightforward rock bands of the late 80s and early 90s get pretty much all but ignored, especially when Shove It was a conscious effort to include contemporary dance influences?

'The Cross' missed 3 vital ingredients,Freddie,Brian,and John! Roger can write great songs,but without the other 3 interjecting,lets face it,most of 'Rogers' songs sounds misguided and samey,and very very average!

Perhaps because they were not really that good. Yes there are some excellent moments on certain albums but there isn't really a lot to write home about.

Take 'The Cross' for example.

The band was formed because the drummer in Queen wanted a new band to pass his spare time.
How does this appeal to the greater audience?
A fan will buy the album because it's Roger Taylor from Queen.
A quarter of the general audience will say 'Who is Roger Taylor?', the other quarter will say 'Who's Queen?'.
Then in the remaining half, you have a mix of people who either think the Cross are good, don't like Roger Taylor's voice, don't like the album in general or genuinely aren't aware the 'The Cross' even exists.

Also, in terms of marketing and promotion, the band aren't a brand new band open to interpretation.
It's the drummer from Queen with a backing band, so, in itself, they will already have a certain image.

But ultimately, like I stated at the top, perhaps they just weren't good enough to break into the charts in a big way.
Can you imagine any singular member trying to become a groundbreaking artist from the very beginning without any help or influence from the other three.
Not even Freddie could have pulled it off.

I agree The Cross were never destined to be a world-wide hit or anything but I think they deserved a little more chart success and all that.....Blue Rock and MBADTK are actually pretty darn good albums! (I don't even count Shove It...it's Roger's 3rd solo album really...lol)

Come to think of it though, what "side project" really WAS ever a big hit? (someone will probably find one, I'm sure....lol)

i'd disagree about them being "not that good" - they may not have been great - but they were certainly better than most of what queen produced over the same period

as regards "deserved more chart success" - that's a silly thing to say - generally chart success is down to what people want to buy.

maybe they actually "deserved more critical recognition"

"Blue Rock" was also released on CD in Germany.

I like Rogers output be it with the Cross or Solo.I think Roger really just used the Cross to play live as Queen's live work was coming to an end .

"Queen's live work was coming to an end" begs the question of what Roger knew (or thought he knew) and when.

In 1987/88 it would be far from clear that Queen wouldn't tour again.

Maybe he just thought the gaps were getting a bit big (which I remember thinking at the time). So I was pleased to see The Cross at Chalk Farm. And HFE was great and PTL and some of Blue Rock. I thought The Cross were coming along nicely.

And I didn't much like "Happiness" though the last track touched me.

[QUOTE] [b]Martin Packer wrote:[/b]

"Queen's live work was coming to an end" begs the question of what Roger knew (or thought he knew) and when.

In 1987/88 it would be far from clear that Queen wouldn't tour again.

[/QUOTE]

Brian revealed in a MOJO interview ( if I remember correctly) that the band learned in 87 or 88 about Freddie`s AIDS disease.
- seems like that Bri changed his mind about that over the years.

There is also an John Deacon statement about the year 87`wich points in that direction.

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]Martin Packer wrote:[/b]

"Queen's live work was coming to an end" begs the question of what Roger knew (or thought he knew) and when.

In 1987/88 it would be far from clear that Queen wouldn't tour again.

[/QUOTE]

Brian revealed in a MOJO interview ( if I remember correctly) that the band learned in 87 or 88 about Freddie`s AIDS disease.
- seems like that Bri changed his mind about that over the years.

There is also an John Deacon statement about the year 87`wich points in that direction.

[/QUOTE]

Would love to see the exact quotes. This seems to be a giant mystery.

But - maybe that's the way it should be.

What happens in the band stays in the band...

BUOYED UP BY THEIR TRIUMPH, and the massive back-catalogue sales that Live Aid provoked, Queen set out on a massive trek through Europe - the first and only profitable tour in their entire career - in the summer of '86. But not long after that triumph, the three other band members were confronted with the news that Freddie Mercury had AIDS. "We discovered about Freddie in 1987 or '88: we were in Switzerland. We'd all known that something wasn't right, but that really did bring us together, knowing that he was on borrowed time. There was nowhere to run, so we just went on and did what we could. He was getting tragically frail towards the end.

^Brian`s statement in 99`....I will look for John`s statement also..

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
as regards "deserved more chart success" - that's a silly thing to say - generally chart success is down to what people want to buy.

maybe they actually "deserved more critical recognition"
[/QUOTE]


Yeah, good point there.....I'm just a silly bastard anyway....:P

Whilst the three The Cross albums are quite different (especially the first), I'm in agreement that they deserved a better deal of recogntion and had some pretty good songs amongst the more average ones.

Although 'Shove It' is pretty much a Roger solo album, songs like 'Cowboys & Indians', 'Stand Up For Love' and 'Contact' seemed, to me, to have quite good hit single potential, and if these had been able to be judged completely unbisedly by press/public, coudl have done well. Cosnidering Queen were a big band in Europe and the UK at the time, I think the Queen associateion actually probably worked against Roger once the press labelled it his 'pet' project.

'Mad, Bad...' was a total change of sound, and a result of the band having played live and coming more together as a 'rock' band. Again, 'Liar', 'Power to Love' and 'Final Destination' coudl potentially have been hits with the right marketing campaign and airplay (which was still pretty essential back then).

'Blue Rock' has that 'European feel, and has a more mature songwriting style throughout, but saw the band coming to an end due to Roger's need to tend to Queen as a result of the Freddie situation, and a lack of real support either from the label, the press and the fans. A shame, as none of the albums are a letdown, and each contain some greatr moments, and Roger's pretty superb vocal performances throughout really shouldn't be overlooked.

As an aside, I remember hearing 'Shove It' for the first time in a nightclub in my hometown.....I was just having a beer and the DJ put on a promo copy which he had just got that week, and said that he checked it out and loved it, and was by a band called 'The Cross'. I wasn't even awre of the band at that point, but my ears pricked up as soon as I heard Roger and the Queen samples! It actually sounded really fresh and different to a lot of stuff in the charts at that time, but still felt 'of the period'.....needless to say I asked him to play it again and he did!! :-)

I accidentally discovered the "Cowboys And Indians" cassette single in HMV in Oxford Street (close to where I was working at the time). I don't even know why I picked it up as it was by the then-unknown-to-me "The Cross". But something on the packaging alerted me to the fact it was Roger.

If it hadn't been for spotting that single and getting curious I wouldn't've known about The Cross for quite a while longer.

I think the only (big) hits from the side projects were:
Brian May - Too Much Love Will Kill You
Freddie Mercury - Living on my Own (1993 remix, released after his death).