Creating An Anthology Collection

Hello, fellow QueenZoners.

For quite some time, Queen Productions have intended upon releasing an 'Anthology' CD, similar to the acclaimed Beatles' collections from the 1990's. In 2011 they took the first steps, releasing several unheard recordings on their Digital Remaster series, but alas, no serious efforts have been made since, much to the dismay of dedicated Queen fans.

Due to the demand, and need for a cohesive and organised collection of Queen outtakes, I have taken it upon myself to create a proper 'Anthology' CD set, titled 'Through The Years'. The CD will chronicle the band's career from the early days of The Reaction, 1984, Ibex, and Smile, to the present day. This collection will encompass demos, outtakes, instrumentals, remixes - the works!

However, seeing how much of a task it would be to compile this set, single-handedly, I ask for any of you who are willing to contribute any information, or recordings, to leave a post below. I hope to work with the rest of the QZ community to produce something to an incredibly high standard, that will include a digital booklet with recording notes, information, credits for contributors, and photos. Once this compilation is complete I will upload it to Queenzone, without any Ads or other inconveniences to MEGA, the file hosting service, so that any one who wishes to access the compilation and add it to their collection can do so, with ease.

If you wish to contribute, please leave a comment below, or send me a message.
If you have any tracks you would suggest to be included, please leave a comment with the link to the relevant post that contains this track.

Right now, the compilation contains several types of content,

Demos, and Outtakes (ie. De Lane Lea Demos)
Alternate or Unused Mixes (ie. Bohemian Rhapsody, With Unused Vocal Takes)
Instrumentals, Backing Tracks, A Cappellas (ie. Somebody To Love, Piano-Vocal Mix)
New mixes, using the original multi-track stems (ie. Play The Game, with no synthesizers)
BBC Sessions (sourced from the 'On Air' release)
B-Sides (2011 remasters)

I look forward to sharing the compilation with you!

AudioSynthesis

[b][EDIT, 29/06/2017][/b]
The response to my initial post has been very welcoming, and many have made generous offers from their personal collection. I will be sure to credit them all, when the compilation is complete. As for now, the first volume is nearly complete, and almost ready to be uploaded.

Nice one for the first post on QZ!

I predict this is going to be controversial, although I for one support this project. I don't think I can contribute much but we'll see.

Funny that you mentioned "Play The Game" with no synths, I mixed that myself recently. I'll say that "The Show Must Go On" without synths sounds so different as well.

I made my set which fills a massive 26 volumes 2 years ago and it has been changing ever since i got some very special material. I found it a joy to work on it but it took me a year because Queen's body of work is so huge. When you want to take on a project like this you need time and lots of it. I'm sure some dedicated fans will help you with it and i for one who like to see the outcome and maybe i am willing to help because if Queen Productions don't wanna do it, maybe we can do it ourselves and believe me when i say there is so much rare stuff among the fans that maybe Roger and Brian have forgotten about. Like CMI said, nice first thread.

Ambitious project. It could take longer than your high school summer vacation.

Starting off with a bang aren't you? Let's see what you got!

I actually have a collection with demos, outtakes, BBC sessions, from Queen, and also demos/outtakes/lives from Freddie, Brian, Roger, Ibex, The Reactions, etc. I only removed official stuff. Check my signature.

You can use it to start the project, with the proper credit of course.

waiting for it, i hope you share with us

[QUOTE] [b]AudioSynthesis wrote:[/b]

Right now, the compilation contains several types of content,

Demos, and Outtakes (ie. De Lane Lea Demos)
Alternate or Unused Mixes (ie. Bohemian Rhapsody, With Unused Vocal Takes)
Instrumentals, Backing Tracks, A Cappellas (ie. Somebody To Love, Piano-Vocal Mix)
New mixes, using the original multi-track stems (ie. Play The Game, with no synthesizers)
BBC Sessions (sourced from the 'On Air' release)
B-Sides (2011 remasters)

[/QUOTE]
Queen stuff is complicated, probably more categories are needed. Standalone versions, Hollywood Records remixes, 12" versions, eYe remixes?

Hopefully everything of the fan-made kind will be denoted as such. I know these are made with good intentions, it's just, it's useful to know what's a source recording and what's the result of somebody's personal vision.

I'd be more than happy to contribute material.

Can you list the material you already have that is being used for the basis of the set so that there's no duplication etc?

Watching this with interest - There is certainly a wealth of stuff out there. I made up my own Anthology but I've broken it up recently. I also had built a Queen Chronology to accompany the same fan made book. I'm on V2 of that now. The Anthology was completist but almost too Complete. There was stuff I just didn't care to listen to...but the completist in me was still glad to have such as documentary edits and the like...So I've been paring down my own for V2...partially inspired by CMI's "Super Deluxe Albums" (in the Fan Mix section). IT is fun so I'm interested to see what you come up with :)

I agree that it would need dedicated categories/volumes - a proper structure. I'd love to see it run chronologically, but there's an OCD in me that hates to see demos get mixed up with b-sides etc. Therefore, any work like this I've tried has seen discs with demos running chronologically, remixes running chronologically etc.

I'd break it into sections like this:

Pre-Queen
Queen - 70s demos and out-takes
Queen - 80s demos and out-takes
Queen - 90s demos and out-takes (it would be great to split these by album, but I don't think there's enough leaked material among us to justify that)
Queen - Complete BBC sessions (I know we got "On-Air", but running order is incorrect and there's some division caused by the inclusion of DJ talk)
Queen - B-Sides
Queen - 12" Collection (were they ALL included in the official release?)
Queen - Remixes (split into Hollywood/EYE etc etc)
Queen - Collection of Curios (basically collaborations and oddities that don't have a "home")
Queen - Rare live (collection of songs rarely played live, or done differently - for instance Hangman and complete version of Friends Will Be Friends)
Solo - split into similar structure as above. I wouldn't include the Freddie box-set stuff, just unreleased material such as the Garden Lodge tapes, the complete Barcelona tapes etc. Solo material might not be enough to justify stand-alone discs for demos/remixes but it would go without saying that there would be separate volumes for each individual member of the band).

I'd also stay away from the crappy convention recordings. None of that "property of..." stuff lol.

^ OR you could make that a separate disc...:P Queen - Property of Queen Productions: The Convention Recordings ;) In all curiousness, I kept them because some of them are VERY interesting....but yeah it's a judgment call.

I would LOVE to help! Let me know what material you have so far!

Ready to help and share 'my' stuff.