A Few Things Explained - in reference to the recent Dutch Queen Day

Dear Queenzoners

Following my recent appearance at the Dutch Queen Day, where I explained a few things the Queen team worked on over the past year or so, and where I took some questions, I would like to make a few things clear. I took great care in what I said, and equal care in what I didn’t say, but inevitably certain details have been slightly misreported and it’s important to get these things right. Otherwise we might be in the situation at some point whereby, again, it’ll be “Greg said blah blah, but he was obviously lying because now we know that blah blah blah.”   So, for clarity and in order to avoid any such accusations that I invariably attract, and because I’m a nice chap really, I’ll respond to a few points that YourValentine wrote, as she seems to have mentioned most or all of the things I got into. This is as good a thread to reply to as any…

YV:  …it's not Greg Brook's fault what they release and what they don't release.

[b]GB[/b]:  This is true.   

YV:  A Queen 3D photography book is planned based on the photos taken by Brian on stage and off stage.

[b]GB[/b]:  Yes. This book is scheduled for next year and is shaping up extremely well. It has grown enormously from the originally proposed concept and not all photos were taken by Brian (sometimes Brian gave his camera to others, to take snaps, and also fans sometimes took 3-D shots – such as during the ’84 Works tour in Europe).  Denis (Pellerin) and I sat with Brian over several days and many hours in which he recalled copious great Queen stories and anecdotes, a lot of which I’d never heard before and were fascinating. We found Brian in wonderful form and reflective mood, with the images prompting all kinds of anecdotes. He went off on all kinds of unexpected tangents - all very interesting. There is some staggeringly good stuff that will surprise you, but nothing will amaze you more than some of the 3-D images of the band at work and play.  I described to the fans in Holland how startling it was for me, having spent 35 years looking at flat (2-D) images of Freddie, John, Brian and Roger, to suddenly see them in dramatically ‘real’ three dimensions… with, for example, Freddie’s nose closer to you (as the viewer) than his cheeks, and then his neck further away still, and with his hair, hands, fingers, mouth and eyes coming to life, right at you, with astonishing clarity.  It’s hard to explain. I predict you too will be startled by many of the 3-D images.  You ’think’ you know these four faces well, extremely well, because your brain has seen a thousand images of each of them… and yet suddenly here are those same four faces looking more real than your brain is accustomed to seeing - familiar but at once strangely UNfamiliar.  It’s really hard to relay now, but you’ll get what I mean as soon as you see John Deacon in 3-D casually perusing a toy shop in Zagreb in 1979.  Trust me, these images are fantastic!

YV: the long awaited Brian Queen memorabilia book is in the 10th year of the making and by now it will probably be 2 books, so it will take another 1-5 years to make.

[b]GB[/b]: Not quite correct.  It is the Queen Live book that would, or could, be released in two volumes, NOT the Queen memorabilia book.  The ‘I Want It All! book has been assembled by me, not Brian (though he is closely involved), but it is largely based around Brian’s personal collection of Queen memorabilia. The book has indeed been on and off for a decade now, but it will definitely happen, I hope in 2017 or 18 latest.  It’s so very close now.  Each year it got put back, was of course a pain, because it's an amazing looking project and I want it to be out there asap, but the delay always had the benefit that we could show/feature the memorabilia for each new project; all the boxed sets, promos, flyers, posters etc for the 2014 Rainbow products, the 2015 Hammersmith box, Queen On Air, etc, all the Universal CDs, promo boxes and Japanese discs.  It’s great that all these things will feature too – which would not have happened, obviously, if we’d put the book out in 2010.

The Queen Live book (a VASTLY dramatically updated version of my original book of 1995) will I’m sure happen at some point because all the work is more or less done now. It’s grown from a 35,000 word book to something closer to 200,000, and thus it’ll probably make sense to issue it in two volumes; Queen Live In The 1970s and Queen Live In The 1980s. I’m in conversation right now about how best to offer the book, and when, and if it could be an interactive product too – in which you can read text about any given Queen concert (with Freddie), but also watch the footage, or rehearsal, hear the audio of the show (or the sound check, if it exists), listen to the related interviews, look at the relevant merch, read the press reviews, as well as accounts from fans who were there (and see the photos they took) etc. I’d like there to be stand-alone physical books, but an interactive sister-product too.  Time will tell. Sooner than later.

YV:  A Queen monopoly game is in said pipeline (meaning we don't know when it will come out) based on Queen tours. So you can buy a Wembley Stadium etc. We will get this because Brian is such a big monopoly fan.

[b]GB[/b]:  Yes, Brian mentioned this first, quite some time ago.  He is indeed a fan of Monopoly, as is Roger, and both have contributed ideas for this.  This too is coming along very nicely. It looks fab, plays well, and is great fun.  Lots of attention to detail, as you might expect. Not sure when it will happen yet.  Look out for rather nice little metal Queenified icons (the pieces you move around the board).

YV: -By the end of the year they want to release a Queen radio edition based on the BBC recordings. There will be a 2CD and 6 CD edition. The 6 CDs contain the BBC sessions interviews and live material that somehow is connected to the radio theme. No video material is in this package.

[b]GB[/b]: True.  The BBC Sessions / Queen On Air press release goes out soon, with full details. This is an extremely long overdue product.  All six BBC sessions together for the first time, and some other surprises too along the way.

YV: - In November we can look forward to the Greatest Hits vinyl release… …The funny thing was that GB did not want to "confirm this" but reluctantly did when he was told that the item is already on amazon.

[b]GB[/b]: True. I didn’t know if the details were public knowledge yet. Someone in the audience told me it was, and proved it, and thus I was happy to confirm.

YV: No more 70s concert DVDs will be released although they are "looking" at the material (Houston, EC, HP etc) and maybe some day there will be a compilation - or not.

[b]GB[/b]:  True-ish. But this old news.  We’ve been looking at what we have for a long time, to see what could be featured on products, or not.  We’ve looked at everything, and yes that would naturally include Earls Court, Houston, Hyde Park, etc.  That is NOT to say that these are our next product. They are not. I did not say that, though some audience members took that inference. Whether any of those shows will ever be released, is not known to me, not my decision, and thus my guess is as good as yours.  Still !!!  All I can do is be part of the studio-based Queen Team (Justin, Kris, Richard, GB) that investigates these things for the band. I cannot say more because I don’t know more. Our next live DVD could be anything; we've not got into yet. Too many other things happening at the moment.

YV: we can also forget about the anthology or any outtakes/demos…

[b]GB[/b]: True. This has not been mentioned for many years and thus it’s not likely to happen any time soon. 

YV: - also in the famous pipelines: the Brian May solo box.

[b]GB[/b]: Brian has been interested in a BM solo product for ages.  This too is not new news.  He said as far back as the Freddie ‘Solo’ box of 2000 that he’d like to consider a BM collectors set

[QUOTE]
[b] YV[/b]: -By the end of the year they want to release a Queen radio edition based on the BBC recordings. There will be a 2CD and 6 CD edition. The 6 CDs contain the BBC sessions interviews and live material that somehow is connected to the radio theme. No video material is in this package.

[b]GB[/b]: True. The BBC Sessions / Queen On Air press release goes out soon, with full details. This is an extremely long overdue product. All six BBC sessions together for the first time, and some other surprises too along the way.
[/QUOTE]
You know that the press release for the BBC box is out for something like 2 weeks now, right?

[QUOTE] [b]Queen Archivist wrote:[/b] It looks fab, plays well, and [b]is great fun.[/b]  Lots of attention to detail, as you might expect. [/QUOTE]

Oh Greg, I don't think you've ever played Monopoly. If there's anything to split friends, family, and loved ones in general... It's Monopoly ;)

Thanks for clarifying some stuff!

Pitrek... You know that the press release for the BBC box is out for something like 2 weeks now, right? 

GB: Yes I know. But not everything is in the press release !

On YourValentine post there's also this

[i]- Greatest Video hits: a lot of blahblah but no specifics. promo videos are also in that pipeline and won't come out for a long time. They could make re-edits from all the rushes they have but why speculate, in the end the few promo clips we do not have will be missing anyway, because they are such perfectionists etc etc.[/i]

What's really the status on this? Will we ever get post The Miracle videos on DVD/Blu-Ray and surround? What was really the the hold back to not release the rest of the videos on DVD after GVH2 in 2003?

In another post discussing the Queen On Air release, "on my way up" user posted a link for a response you made in 2006 here [url=http://www.queenzone.com/forums/869477/queen-on-film-what-is-actually-really-out-there.aspx?page=2]http://www.queenzone.com/forums/869477/queen-on-film-what-is-actually-really-out-there.aspx?page=2[/url] where you say [i]"A Queen BBC session, containing a mega rare item no-one knows exists..including us until 2 years ago. We just paid a fan for that." [/i]

After all, what is this "mega rare item no-one know exists"?

Not this bell end again....
How has he still got a job?

,,,,,, and we're off.

Dear Mr Brooks

I appreciate everything you do and try to do. I believe you do your stuff the best you can. I'm looking forward to buy Queen 3D book and Queen Live books. I'm excited about that. I hope there won't beany mistakes or misinformation. You have contact both with the band, studio-based team and with the fans. Could you tell them that we want more live FULL concerts without unnecessary auto-tune and meaningless overdubs? Like Hyde Park, Earls Court, Hammy 79, something from South America 1981, Rio 85 (first full night) ? I know you won't release them all at the same time but we would love to listen and watch them before we die.

Yours sincerely

[QUOTE]

[b]Chopin1995 wrote: [/b] Dear Mr Brooks

I appreciate everything you do and try to do. I believe you do your stuff the best you can. I'm looking forward to buy Queen 3D book and Queen Live books. I'm excited about that. I hope there won't beany mistakes or misinformation. You have contact both with the band, studio-based team and with the fans. Could you tell them that we want more live FULL concerts without unnecessary auto-tune and meaningless overdubs? Like Hyde Park, Earls Court, Hammy 79, something from South America 1981, Rio 85 (first full night) ? I know you won't release them all at the same time but we would love to listen and watch them before we die.

Yours sincerely[/QUOTE]

^this. I would like to know, would an audio-only release of a concert be out of the question? I think a CD/Vinyl/Digital release of either Hyde Park '76 or some other concert would be very successful

[QUOTE] [b]Queen Archivist wrote:[/b]

Pitrek... You know that the press release for the BBC box is out for something like 2 weeks now, right? 

GB: Yes I know. But not everything is in the press release ![/QUOTE]

Someone suggested a few weeks ago that there was a difference between the boxset discs of the sessions and the standalone 2 disc version, so it would be worth buying both.

Would you care to confirm or deny that please?
If there is, then I hope the boxset release contains all the inbetween song banter form the DJs....
I'd like to think Brian took on board my comments of a while ago about including those if they had them...

Greg, I'm glad you clarified a few points here, I am personally sadend that the 70's DVD's are not on a higher priority from the band, so many of us would love to see it, so anytime you get a chance to mention that please do.

As for the anthology... well I think we all kind of new it wasn't going to happen, I can understand the bands reasoning, but I do still hope one day it comes to light, I've been listening recently a lot to the Youtube clips of Queen tracks one instrument at a time, and it's been fascinating so I for one would be very interested in hearing 'work in progess' but I suspect there's no chance of that until long after Queen have stopped working as a functioning unit.

Thanks for the update - good to see what is potentially planned to manage our expectations, whilst disheartening to see some of the most sought after things are not in mind.

Can you comment on the 'mega rare' BBC item that doesn't make it into ' On Air'? As it's not been included, and any anthology set is pretty much ruled out, would it hurt to tell us what this is as it seems we'll never hear it? (unless the oriignal collector/owner of it releases a copy).


The Monopoly set: "Lots of attention to detail, as you might expect". Sadly, no - based on so many errors and isues with previous products and releases, I would mostly NOT expect lots of attention to detail.

I think the fans who put them where they are deserve a bit more,we bought all their albums,provided them with priviledged lifestyles,and all we want is to relive that feeling of knowing that we are going to hear something new(to our ears) one day,i do not believe 'Brian' and 'Roger' know of our pain,neither really wanted 'Forever' released,im sure if it was all put in front of them,they would make an 'Anthology' amazing,personally i think 'Jim Beach' cant be arsed,hes too old to be bothered, and i dont think things get past him! 'Queen Rules'!

I'm very happy to see that this topic is turning into a nice, serene debate and rightfully so.
Indeed, there is no reason to blame the Queen archivist - or anyone else from the "studio-based Queen team" - for the fact the "deluxe version" of the "On air" is such a poor product...

Now, what I would like to add, is that I feel that this community of die-hard Queen fans has become more than a bit tired of the same routine we are experiencing here.

What am I talking about? Well, we - and I mean the most loyal and devoted Queen fans who buy all Queen music available (in many cases also the various versions!) and collect all concert recordings we can find - are well aware of the wealth of material Queen has in their archives. We are also well aware of what products MAY happen. You don't need to be Albert Einstein to see what's possible since many other big bands - from the same era as Queen (and there are many since this era was huge for rock ('n roll)) - are releasing that kind of stuff.

We often hear Queen kept much more in their archive than other bands, yet we have to experience that very little of all this is coming our way in terms of product. The "deluxe versions" of releases - which are now the norm in the market - offer nothing new. It was the case with "A night at the Odeon" (just 1 song from the soundcheck on vinyl) and it happens now with "On air" (indeed a release which was long due).

For years we have kept the faith, also because the Queen archivist told us to do so (I also eat more fruit thanks to you, Greg, since that was another advice of yours ;-) ) but I feel like that faith is diminishing. Our hopes went up with the Live at the Rainbow release but after that things have gone to how they were before again.... Being: a huge fanbase looking forward for comprehensive releases taking in ALSO a lot of rarities, simply not happening.

And what is the routine, you may ask?
Well, the routine is that - now that our hopes have gone down again since many of the things we are hoping for are simply not happening (compare to other bands please, some releasing plenty of audio only concerts for their devoted fans!) - the Queen archivist shows up (and I don't blame the archivist for playing the role that was given to him by his employer) again to give us new hope in what the future MAY bring.

To be honest, I've had enough of this routine and would like to see more materialising instead of just talking... A great example is the rare BBC item you once mentioned but doesn't seem to feature on this release... High hopes, low return.

[QUOTE] [b]Queen Archivist wrote:[/b] It looks fab, plays well, and [b]is great fun.[/b]  Lots of attention to detail, as you might expect. [/QUOTE]

Oh Greg, I don't think you've ever played Monopoly. If there's anything to split friends, family, and loved ones in general... It's Monopoly ;)

Thanks for clarifying some stuff![/QUOTE]


GB: Yes I think you're right. A family battle at Christmas time, fuelled by a game of Queen Monopoly! I'm up for that.