Does anybody know any obvious reasons why during 'Hot Space Tour' Morgan Fisher was replaced by Fred Mandel and later for 'The Works Tour' Mr Mandel was replaced by Spike Edney, though Fred helped Queen with the recording of the album?
P.S. For newbies and QZers who haven't hear about those guys: Fisher, Mandel and Edney were additional keyboard players (Spike played guitar on 'Hammer To Fall' as well) during Queen's 1982-1986 concerts and helped Queen in the studio for some tracks.
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Morgan had fear of planes, so they had to replace him unless he was willing to swim all the way to USA :)
Fred Mandel quit right after finishing recording The Works because he was hired by Elton John. Still he played piano, synth and guitar in the Mr. Bad Guy album, which was still on working process, so that shows his friendship with Freddie (at least) hadn`t been affected.
Spike never quit because he got along well with the guys, even though imo the other two were better keyboard players than him. But to play one chord per bar in Ga Ga you don`t need a virtuoso
Fred Mandel quit right after finishing recording The Works because he was hired by Elton John. Still he played piano, synth and guitar in the Mr. Bad Guy album, which was still on working process, so that shows his friendship with Freddie (at least) hadn`t been affected.
Spike never quit because he got along well with the guys, even though imo the other two were better keyboard players than him. But to play one chord per bar in Ga Ga you don`t need a virtuoso
Spike never quit because he got along well with the guys, even though imo the other two were better keyboard players than him. But to play one chord per bar in Ga Ga you don`t need a virtuoso
I'm agree. Enspecially Fred was a very good pianist (listen to Living on my own or Crazy little live in Japan 82, I think the best version I've ever heard). Spike was a keybord-man, not a piano-player.
spike played even on a kind of magic(the song) in budapest(in john solo you can also hear a piano)?
i hear a piano but nobody is playing so i believe it's spike who is playing somewhere
i hear a piano but nobody is playing so i believe it's spike who is playing somewhere
Hardly a discovery. The same applies to many other songs from that tour.
who plays?spike or a computer?
They never played any computer programmed songs on concerts because they deemed it too risky.
Fred Mandel had apparently fear of foreign countries, in Japan he stayed in his hotel room 99% of time (except for the concerts, of course).
Morgan fears of planes, Fred of foreign countries - what a great band could be if'd put them altogether (with Spike... I don't know what he afraids of) :)
Spike, of course. There's keyboards in nearly every song.
and why in some songs he is on stage and some others he'is off stage playing?
He was on stage during 'Tutti Frutti', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and for play guitar on 'Hammer To Fall', for the rest of the songs he wasn't, but he played keyboards and didn't have to be on stage for it.
He was on stage during 'Tutti Frutti', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and for play guitar on 'Hammer To Fall', for the rest of the songs he wasn't, but he played keyboards and didn't have to be on stage for it.
the question is:why in some songs is on stage and in some others is off stage?
queen didn' t want the others to see that they a fifth member to play live?
He was on stage all the time (in one corner, that is). It's the videos that give the impression of him being absent, because the cameras ignored his keyboard-booth (except for one short bit in the Budapest-vid). Of course they kept him low profile, because he obviously wasn't part of Queen as such.
That doesn't mean he was hidden though. I'd risk the claim that to any person with a pair of functioning ears it was more than obvious that there was a fifth person playing, even if he couldn't be seen that often (and I'm sure he appears in the tour programmes...?). I mean, their use of keyboards wasn't really that subtle during their later tours and they're quite clearly live. I doubt a computer program could have pulled off all that varied keyboard stuff in exactly the same way (and in a live situation), especially the vocoder-stuff Spike does in One Vision and Radio Ga Ga.
That doesn't mean he was hidden though. I'd risk the claim that to any person with a pair of functioning ears it was more than obvious that there was a fifth person playing, even if he couldn't be seen that often (and I'm sure he appears in the tour programmes...?). I mean, their use of keyboards wasn't really that subtle during their later tours and they're quite clearly live. I doubt a computer program could have pulled off all that varied keyboard stuff in exactly the same way (and in a live situation), especially the vocoder-stuff Spike does in One Vision and Radio Ga Ga.
I don't know where this story about Morgan Fisher being "afraid of planes" comes from but it looks like an urban myth, really.
He already had a band with Tim Staffel and then played for Mott The Hoople - that's where the Queen connection comes from.
Parts of his biography (official website):
1981-84: Played keyboards on Queen’s 1982 tour of Europe, then travelled in India, Europe and USA.
1985-88: Moved to Japan and built The Handmade Studio. Recorded ambient albums (“Look at Life”, “Inside Satie”, “Water Music”, “Flow Overflow”, “Life Under The Floor”, “Peace in the Heart of the City”) and music for art videos, films and television.
A lot of travelling for someone with a fear of flying.
He already had a band with Tim Staffel and then played for Mott The Hoople - that's where the Queen connection comes from.
Parts of his biography (official website):
1981-84: Played keyboards on Queen’s 1982 tour of Europe, then travelled in India, Europe and USA.
1985-88: Moved to Japan and built The Handmade Studio. Recorded ambient albums (“Look at Life”, “Inside Satie”, “Water Music”, “Flow Overflow”, “Life Under The Floor”, “Peace in the Heart of the City”) and music for art videos, films and television.
A lot of travelling for someone with a fear of flying.