Informative interviews at the Queen Fan Club Conventions

Togg wrote:

Been in the fan club since 1980, never been to a convention and dont really ever intend to go, not really what I wish to do, I listen to Queen, play the songs myself and watch concerts, but dressing up like them and playing games is not my thing, I'd be interested to hear what folk who worked with them say, sure, but I'm not that interested that I have to spend a whole weekend doing it.

I buy the products when something interesting comes out, go to all the tours and and love reading the more technical side of what Brian and Roger do, I have collected a vast amount of Queen releated music equipment, and I'd go to a Red Special meet up, but again, not really interested in playing football and dressing like Freddie...

GB: Fair enough, Togg, but there are some really fab anecdotes that come up at the conventions from the good folk on stage. Mike Moran, for example, was quite emotional at certain points when relaying a story about Freddie inviting him for dinner one evening - and the huge trouble Freddie had gone to.

These things only happen at the conventions and are seriously worth being part of That's my opinion anyway.

GB: Queen Archivist wrote:

- such as Freddie's last ever vocal sessions, and that's not being even mentioned on QZ, much less debated or analysed like everything else usually would be, whereas random speculation such as whether Freddie was autistic or not is deemed to be MORE thread/post-worthy.

Hi Greg

As for Freddie`s last (vocal) session(s). Justin Shirley Smith was kind enough to make contact to us QZoners in the past. Actually the subject has been discussed widely on QZ.

Here is a piece of his contribution...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hi Chris

Cole Moreton seemed to be genuinely moved by his visit to the studio and wrote a nice article. In the course of the writing however he missed one detail on this subject: I told him we had been investigating tape-box labels and track-sheets and, in fact, any documents we could find relating to these recordings in 1991. Cole only mentioned the tape-box labels - perhaps thinking it was enough information for most people ! ... Anyway, I thought I'd just correct that here where I reckon there are some people who care more about these things.

Please remember Cole's job is to sensationalise whenever he can, hence: "Now, The Telegraph can disclose, the mystery has been solved." etc.

You would be right to be doubtful had we just taken one tape-box label date as proof of a recording date.

The tape-box label in question is Reel #7 and is dated "13-5-91". The second item on this tape is "Mother Love (Original)". This leads me to believe that work on Mother Love was not started before that date.

The track sheet for "Mother Love (Original)" shows that Freddie sang a number of takes and includes detailed notes about each take. For example: "FM v1 + Mid8 + v2" and "FM mid8 + v2 + whisper Mother Love" and "FM Mid8 last line" etc. There is also a Brian vocal track. There is no date on this track-sheet. The instrumentation at this stage is just drum-machine, keyboard and three takes of guitar.

The next version is "Mother Love New Master" on Reel #6. This version clearly started as a copy (digital clone) of "original".

The track sheet for "Mother Love New Master" is dated "16-5-91". This track-sheet shows all the same vocal takes with the same detailed notes copied through. The only differences are in the instrumentation: drum-machine, keyboard, guitar (Take 1 only - incidentally the same as in the final mix), bass and "Hi Note"[synth]. The one remaining difference is "Vox Comp" instead of "Brian Vocal". The fact that all the vocal takes were copied over with exactly the same distinctive notes leads me to believe Freddie had recorded these vocals on, or before, 16th May 1991.

The next version is "Mother Love (Master 2) New Arrange" on Reel #2. This version clearly started as a copy (digital clone) and edit of "New Master".

The track sheet for "Mother Love (Master 2) New Arrange" is dated "22-5-91". The track-sheet contents are all identical to "New Master".

The last stereo rough-mix tape from these sessions is dated "22-5-91" and contains Mother Love.

I can find no evidence of any work on Mother Love after the 22nd May 1991.

Regarding "A Winter's Tale", the track-sheets show that Freddie's vocal was compiled on "10 May '91" which means that he recorded it on, or before, that date.

Although the fact that I worked on the sessions and have a pretty good memory of what happened is helpful, particularly in deciphering the documents, I cannot say I recall the exact order and dates of events. I have instead preferred to trust the written notes and dates from 1991 for this message and the information I gave to Cole.

Regards
Justin Shirley-Smith

GB: Queen Archivist wrote:

Fireplace wrote:

Oh noes, Sir Archivist disapproves of the topic content on QZ. May as well pack it in guys, without the support of this community pillar we're done for anyway. How dare people who are actually musically inclined discuss Brian's equipment? Why would anyone be interested in how the music was put together when you can get real genuine 1975 replica balloons with a box set? Why discuss musicians when you could just as well go out and buy their branded vodka?

Just to be fair I'll answer your question as well. I did not attend the convention as it was not possible to travel to England just for the weekend. Some of us actually live outside the UK (yes, there is life there) and work for a living. Your description of some of the programme items certainly sounds interesting and entertaining and I can imagine most of us here would feel it's worth attending if it's within their reach.

If you feel the need to plug the convention, fair enough, we all stand to benefit from keeping the interest in Queen alive. Just do so without slagging of the other topics of conversation as they are just another manifestation of that same interest.

GB: How old are you, Fireplace? 13?

I wasn't slagging off other topics. I'm merely saying that the interviews at the convention, particularly the most recent one, invariably cover some very serious and significant Queen history - such as Freddie's last ever vocal sessions, and that's not being even mentioned on QZ, much less debated or analysed like everything else usually would be, whereas random speculation such as whether Freddie was autistic or not is deemed to be MORE thread/post-worthy.

Fireplace, you need to Surround yourself with some people that might be able to help you a bit with seeing that not everything on QZ is a dig.

Fireplace, Surround. See what I did there.

You're clearly a Hearth-hearted Mantle case !!!

You agree with my post then? Much appreciated.

Benn Kempster wrote:

HOWEVER, the value is ABSOLUTELY in what Greg has highlighted here. In trying to be all things to all people, the Convention HAS to appease both them and me and the contributions from the likes of Mick Rock, Mike Moran, Crystal et al must be absolutely invaluable. Personally, I'd probably pay to stream interviews like this, but provided that the questions were anything BUT questions about Freddie's love life and Brian's hair.

I hear you, although then there's also the problem with interviews often being really similar to each other... which makes sense, considering the vast majority of their public will probably be hearing those stories for the first time. It is tad disappointing, I must admit, that every time Mack gets interviewed on a magazine or book he spends three quarters of it telling the same story of how he was in California when he heard the band were interested in recording at Musicland, blah, blah, blah ... and then he tells the same CLTCL story and the backing track and the Tele and how they were impressed by his methods ... and then maybe he talks about AOBtD and how it was almost left off the album, etc ... he's probably got some fascinating stories to tell about, say, the Flash Gordon OST or the guest musician on Action This Day, or even his involvement with The Works and Magic, perhaps even stuff about Let Me Live or the Gibson Firebird on HTF, etc., but no, it's always the same tales... and it's not his fault, it's just the way it is. I know, I know ... better to have him telling the same stories than not having him at all, and if I dare say otherwise I'm just whining and moaning, etc., etc...

Same for Mike Moran: how many times has he retold the same story of his head-on collision and the 'In My Defence' recordings (even when the question had absolutely nothing to do with it)? Again, not his fault, it's setting up the context of how his partnership with Freddie started, but I would just love it if at least once he (and others) went full-on *new stories* mode. What he said about Killer Queen in the Netherlands was priceless - half an hour of stories like that would be absolutely outstanding.

cdrom wrote:

well i am extremely curious about the convention. I doubt I will ever be able to attend, but I would definitely appreciate being there.
New stories told from professionals working with the band is exactly what I find interesting. I've read many books about the band, but for the most part, it's the same stories told over and over again. It would be amazing( to me) if someone could relate some of these interesting new stories on here.

check your inbox for a private message... thanks.

Sebastian wrote:

Same for Mike Moran:.....What he said about Killer Queen in the Netherlands was priceless - half an hour of stories like that would be absolutely outstanding.

Hi Seb.

I ty to keep up with most of the non-idiotic posts here, but haven't yet seen this Killer Queen story (I suppose this is a great example of the points made in this thread as to convention gems being missed amongst the rubbish)....can you easily relate what the story entails, or even better point me to somewhere I can read/see this?

Many thanks

I agree with a lot of the comments. I joined the fan club in 89 and attended 13 conventions in a row between 92-04. I found the early ones were exciting to attend...seeing concerts etc for the first time and met some interesting people. In my time I managed to meet the likes of Tim Staffell, Spike Edney and Mick Rock to name just a few, and the conventions gave you the opportunity for this to happen but by 2000, the conventions were becoming a bit stale for me and it was all a bit predictable. I've got some wonderful items from the market place over the years but in the end it became all about the market place for me and not a lot else other than meeting people from the previous years so I retired from attending and haven't seen or heard anything to make me want to go back. I have to agree that the themed disco's and fancy dress were very cringy at times as has already been mentioned and seeing an overweight man dressed as Freddie at Live Aid is not for me!

Unfortunately the convention and fan club didn't really move with the times and when the fan club had to reduce the amount of mags to 3 a year (for financial reasons) I decided not to renew my membership. The internet really killed things for the fan club I feel and the promised member section has never materialised to my knowledge either which I thought was a great idea.

It must be said that Jacky and the team have always done a fantastic job and without them I wouldn't have experienced the good times that I did but things move on and paying out for the accommodation and the travel involved is simply not possible for everyone and I feel no longer good value.

GB: Queen Archivist wrote:

Togg wrote:

Been in the fan club since 1980, never been to a convention and dont really ever intend to go, not really what I wish to do, I listen to Queen, play the songs myself and watch concerts, but dressing up like them and playing games is not my thing, I'd be interested to hear what folk who worked with them say, sure, but I'm not that interested that I have to spend a whole weekend doing it.

I buy the products when something interesting comes out, go to all the tours and and love reading the more technical side of what Brian and Roger do, I have collected a vast amount of Queen releated music equipment, and I'd go to a Red Special meet up, but again, not really interested in playing football and dressing like Freddie...

GB: Fair enough, Togg, but there are some really fab anecdotes that come up at the conventions from the good folk on stage. Mike Moran, for example, was quite emotional at certain points when relaying a story about Freddie inviting him for dinner one evening - and the huge trouble Freddie had gone to.

These things only happen at the conventions and are seriously worth being part of That's my opinion anyway.

You are probably right, in fact I'd be very interested to hear him and others speak, but it's a bit of a mission to do a whole weekend, plus my wife is not exactly a massive fan so it would be hard to get her there, and weekends tend to be fairly family orientated if you know what I mean...  I'm sure I've missed some crackers, but sadly it gets rather difficult when you have other things that have to happen over weekends

Sebastian wrote:

It takes a while for him to get to the point but it's worth it

Thanks very much!

I wonder will we ever hear those different takes of Freddie's vocals for Mother Love.

It was Greg's archive sessions that kept me going back year after year, but those, sadly, have stopped now. I can only imagine that QPL don't want anyone hearing or seeing anything they probably have no intention of releasing :(

These days, it's become such a habit that I keep going back - if only to meet up with people I only ever see there.
I can't dance, the live concerts don't appeal much, the market place is a bit crap these days as there are not many dealers and all the interesting stuff costs £hundreds.

QTV doesn't even play anything you can't buy from a shop these last 10 years (in fact, there was no QTV this year). Even this years auction was shite: there was no list of what was to be auctioned like there usually is and when the items were finally brought out on stage, I'd say 90% of them were just signed photos and set lists (from Rog, Brian, John and Kerry).
It's a shame they didn't get a dozen QAL tourbooks fully signed by the band: THAT would raise more interest I think and raise more money.

The glory days are gone, sadly, but the guest speakers are generally interesting and I won't stop going: partly in fear for missing something interesting or amazing.

Oh and yes, to answer a previous question: there WERE two unheard tracks played this year: not by Greg: they were sneaked in by John Brough.
They were 90 second snippets of an unnamed instrumental with Freddie la-la-ing over the top and early lyric version of "My Life HAs Been Saved" which, sadly and frustratingly, was faded out just as it was getting interesting (think about those snippets of demos from "The Miracle" album....).

I have to say, I don't know what QPL problem is with demos being played at convention.
People STILL talk over the top of something they've never heard before and the quality of any recordings made isn't brilliant.
It's not like folks won't buy them if they were officially released just because they've already got a shitty quality copy from convention.

brians wig wrote:

I have to say, I don't know what QPL problem is with demos being played at convention.
People STILL talk over the top of something they've never heard before and the quality of any recordings made isn't brilliant.
It's not like folks won't buy them if they were officially released just because they've already got a shitty quality copy from convention.

Absolutely - if anything it makes us more eager to buy a decent quality version after hearing 45 seconds recorded on an iphone at the back of a noisy hall!

Sebastian, re:

>It is tad disappointing, I must admit, that every time Mack gets interviewed on a magazine or book he spends three quarters of it telling the same story of how he was in California when he heard the band were interested in recording at Musicland, blah, blah, blah

But the wankers asking the same questions will always get the same answers. What needs to prompt an interviewee to open up is a creative interviewer who is able to elicit answers to questions that jog a memory or two and create an atmosphere of memories being stirred and the actual interview going to new places. Obviously, there are times when the interviewee restricts the nature of questions that are being asked, but someone like David Wigg (regardless of what one may think of him) was able to get some cracking stuff out of Freddie who was NOTORIOUSLY guarded.

When was the last interview with ANYONE connected to the band that was publicly available and actually gave anyone something that they didn't know?

Days of Our Lives was good. Rhys Thomas clearly is a fan and knows his stuff. We found out how the original version of Stone Cold Crazy sounded. I expected a lot more discussion about that on here but people seem more interested in creating top 10 lists or pondering when Freddie got Aids.