Official International Queen Fan Club magazine Spring 2015 · 6 The Ocial International Queen Fan...

The Official International Queen Fan Club | Spring 2015QUEEN

32 The Official International Queen Fan Club Spring 2015

Hi Folks

Ol’ Bri here.

This is not going to be a long epistle … I’m on the trot, as usual. I’ve become an activist, as you may

have seen.

After 5 years of banging my head against a brick wall trying to get a better deal for animals, I realised

that the only chance of achieving anything significant was to change the Government, and change the

System. So that’s what I’m out there doing with my Common Decency campaign—trying to encourage

all those people who didn’t vote last time to vote in this coming election on May 7th. Please do visit

our site www.commondecency.org.uk if you feel there’s no point in voting, no hope of change. I

believe we CAN make our voices heard.

And—well not many people know this yet, but I’ve been working on a new piece of music with Kerry,

which very much aligns with the concept of “One Voice”. It’s a lovely song which I’ve arranged and

produced for Kerry … and as usual, she delivers a scorching performance. So it will be great to have

a new track out there very soon. If it weren’t for music, the fuel inside me, that provides the energy I

need, I would run dry.

QUEEN !! Well, so many of you saw Queen and Adam Lambert out there … I think it was a tour to

be well proud of—for all of us … great team, great audiences … nights to remember. So thanks for

the support … it certainly felt like, with the outrageous but always respectful Adam out there in front,

Queen was alive and well, and I’m certain Freddie would be smiling wickedly !

We’re off for the Summer, while Adam promotes his new solo album … and already the buzz is very

good for that. I have a whole team of Glamberts on Twitter now, informing me of his every move !! We

will be back together in September for what should be a monumental tour of South America, centered

on Rock in Rio … 30 years after we headlined the very first Rock in Rio with Freddie. Amazing !

The Freddie Film, believe it or not, is still on track, with a new script being developed at this moment

by a writer we’re all excited about. It’s been a long road, but this has to be right—we get one shot at

doing Freddie justice—some things are worth waiting for ! As I speak, We Will Rock You the musical

(sorry—Rock Theatrical!) is no longer throbbing in the heart of London, which makes us all sad, but

it is very much alive and well elsewhere … I recently helped to open the German show in Hamburg,

which is a cracker … and soon I’ll be seeing the first performance on a ship … the Anthem of The

Seas—where it will reside for quite a while !

We are plotting to reopen in London, of course … we know there is a huge will out there for the return

of the VIBE !!

Well there’s lots more in the pipeline, including a celebration of 40 years of Bohemian Rhapsody,

including a massive Queen Vinyl treat for those who are into it ! Watch this space. Thanks as always

to Jacky !

Onwards !

And … hey … let’s vote the Common Decency way !! Spread the word ! It’s a vote for equal

opportunity, a voice of compassion for animals, and the reclamation of our democracy !! Give us back

our voice !

OK … that’s enough from me !

Love to all

Bri XXX

LONG SERVING MEMBERSRICHARD SACHSE—New York (25 years)ALI PEEK—Devon (20 years)CATHERINE GARDYNE—Scotland (20 years)NEIL LANGFORD—West MidlandsCARLOS FDEZ—Spain (20 years)STEVEN JONES—Worcester (28 years)STEPHEN BURGESS—Finland

RIP DONNA THOMAS27th August 1971 – 27th December 2014

Our condolences go to the family and friends of the lovely Donna Thomas who was sadly taken from us in December. Only The Good Die Young… RIP Donna.

I hope you are all well out there in Queenland?! It has been a busy 2015 so far for Queen—the UK/European tour was a huge success—and I am sure whoever saw any shows was blown away, I certainly was! And there are more plans in the pipeline—including the iconic Rock In Rio and various releases.

We are now working towards our 2015 convention—our THIRTIETH! Who would have thought?! November 6th – 9th 2015. Loads of great plans and ideas, and we are sure it will be the best yet!! If you haven’t booked yet, then make this your first—you won’t regret it! Details in this issue.

Other events…

Freddie For A Day in Montreux, May 16th – 17th; details from www.mercuryphoenixtrust.com

Newcastle Queen Day VIII—a great weekend! For details go to www.facebook.com/events/864447003566678/

Polish Queen Convention—www.facebook.com/events/900949303270543/

The North American Breakthru, July 24th – 26th in Detroit, for full details go to www.queenbreakthru.com. Always a great weekend, and hopefully I will see you there!

The Official Freddie Mercury Birthday Party, Montreux, September 5th—details and tickets www.queenonline.com in the store.

For details on all Queen events make sure you check our Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/3093335789/

If you have anything you might wish to have included in the fan club magazine then please do send it to me at

[email protected]—your stories, reviews, photos etc are always welcome! We have a new designer starting with this issue—welcome to Tennant—I think you will all agree he has stepped up to the plate rather well!

That’s it for this issue, I hope you enjoy it! Take care of you and yours!

Love

Hi Everyone!


This is our THIRTIETH annual convention, and we intend to make it our biggest and BEST!For full information and booking details please go to www.arenatravel.com, or contact:

Arena Travel, Explorer House, 2 Betts Avenue, Ipswich, Suffolk IP5 3RH | 01473 660800 | [email protected]

QUEE

N NE

WS

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT ROCKED BIG BEN LIVE!Queen and Adam were asked by the BBC to headline a New Year’s Eve show at the Westminster Central Hall, close to Big Ben.

The exclusive show was broadcast live on BBC, they played prior to the clock striking, and continued after the spectacular fireworks over the Thames. It was watched by over 12 million people!

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT TO ROCK RIO!

Thirty years on, Queen return with Adam Lambert to the scene of the history making 1985 Rock in Rio Concerts for ‘Rock in Rio 30 Years’.

Following 67 sold-out concerts performed together around the world, Queen + Adam Lambert head to South America to top the opening night at Rock in Rio Brazil “30 Years Celebration” edition on Friday September 18th.

Rock in Rio President and Founder Roberto Medina said, “30 years ago, Queen performed in front of 250,000 people who fell in love with the band, and it became one of the most iconic moments of Rock in Rio. I am positive that the moments from 30 years ago will be rejuvenated and rejoiced with Queen + Adam Lambert, making it again a moment no one will ever forget.”

Rio de Janeiro, February 26th, 2015

This concert takes place on the 39th anniversary of Queen’s famous Hyde Park concert!!

30TH INTERNATIONAL

FAN CLUBCONVENTION

2015PONTINS SOUTHPORTH O L I D AY PA R KFRI 6TH – MON 9TH NOV 2015

QUEEN

The convention is on the move again! We are returning to Southport. It has been 19 years since we were last at this popular site and as Bohemian Rhapsody and A Night At The Opera are both 40 years old there will be a triple celebration at the event!

The 30th Convention will be a jam packed event from start to finish with programmes in two main function rooms and outdoor activities from the moment fans arrive to when they leave.

The annual weekend convention is the ‘Crown Jewel’ in the calendar of Queen Fans. At previous gatherings we have had guests which have included Freddie’s school friend Bruce Murray from his first band The Hectics. Brian’s groups 1984 and Smile have been represented, Ibex reformed for a one-off show, Freddie’s sister Kashmira has joined the happy throng, Freddie’s P.A. Peter Freestone, Queens roadies, photographers, fan club secretaries

and producers such as Mack and Mike Moran to name but a few all of whom are integral to the Queen story!

This is a unique opportunity to hear stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Plus Freddie’s stamp collection, photographic exhibition, costumes, Brian’s Red Special, Roger’s drum kit and Freddie’s Rolls Royce have all made an appearance and much more! We have been extremely lucky and there’s more... We will have excellent live music on the stage and special guest appearances. We have already started negotiating with some great guests for the event and our live bands will be announced very soon!

There is a unique electric atmosphere at the convention and if you haven’t been before this is the time to come along and join in this BIG celebration. The show does indeed go on!! This party never ends… …bring it on!

PONTINS SOUTHPORT HOLIDAY PARKSince we were here in 1996, Pontin’s Southport has undergone some major changes and they are continuing with their improvements over the next year!

Along with all the Queen entertainment – also on site is a new leisure centre – with heated swimming pool, arcade, our own pub, Indian and Chinese restaurant, newly opened Captain Cods for fish, chips and kebabs, the Java Coffee Lounge for a coffee and of course the main restaurant with hot & cold self-service buffet and plenty of choices.


The Fun in Space LP will be reissued on vinyl for the time since its 1981 release. The first run will be on clear vinyl (with black vinyl to follow) and contains a reproduction of the original album’s full colour inner sleeve with lyrics. The CD version, housed in a digipak, contains three bonus tracks: both sides of Taylor’s 1977 solo offering (“I Wanna Testify” b/w “Turn on the TV”) and the UK single version of the album’s “My Country I & II” (issued as “My Country”).

Strange Frontier will be reissued on translucent red vinyl for the first pressing (black vinyl for future runs) with all original packaging elements replicated. The CD, contained in a digipak, features five bonus tracks: remixes of the album’s singles “Man on Fire,” “I Cry for You (Love, Hope

and Confusion)” and “Strange Frontier.” It also contains the B-side to the title cut, “Two Sharp Pencils (Get Bad).”

With this material currently only available in the 10 CD + 1 DVD collection The Lot, this is the first time versions of the individual albums will be offered outside of that package.

Released by Omnivore Records in the US, both titles were released on 24th March (US) and available from the Queenonline store (www.queenonline.com) April 6th.

QUEEN WIN THREE ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK AWARDS

Queen is the winner of three 2015 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards, taking the Tour, Live Album/Video and Commercial of the Year categories.

For Tour Of The Year, Queen +Adam Lambert’s trip across North America ended up with 57% of the vote. Not even the combined firepower of Foreigner, Styx and former Eagles guitarist Don Felder on their ‘Soundtrack Of Summer’ tour (29%) could touch Queen. None of the other nominees had as much as five percent.

Queen faced their biggest challenge in the Live Album or Video Of The Year category. Their “Live At The Rainbow ’74” release, which gave fans a glimpse at the band just as they were about to break through, had nearly 41%. At 30%, Toto’s ‘35th Anniversary Tour: Live in Poland’ was good enough for second, with Guns ‘n’ Roses’ ‘Appetite for Democracy 3D’ (almost 10%) taking third place.

But it was for Commercial Of The Year where Queen proved its muscle. Just as the film studios will save their Oscar-worthy films for Christmas time, the Verizon commercial which used ‘I Want It All’ that aired throughout the holiday season won the prize. It took 64% of the vote, with its nearest competitor, Mötley Crüe’s spot for Dodge Charger, got only 6% of the votes.

BO RHAP TOPS ITV POLL!Bohemian Rhapsody was voted the Nation’s Favourite ’70s song in a recent poll (February 2015). It beat the likes of Abba to the top slot—of course!!

We Are The Champions also came out top in the Classic Rock “Top 10 Victory Songs”

Freddie was also voted The Greatest Front Man of All Time by the First Dedicated Real Music Exchange!

ULTIMATE GUITAR POLLYet another poll crowned Brian as the Ultimate Guitarist! On his soapbox Brian said:

“Before we go any further I’m gonna have to say I don’t for a moment think I’m ‘best’ … a better player than all those wonderful players, many of whom are the reason I’m a guitarist at all ? ... Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton ? ... well, I don’t think so. I’m just happy to have been considered on the same page as these heroes of mine.

“But the fact that so many people voted me to the top in this very enjoyable bit of fun means a lot to me. To me there is no way to categorise or rank rock guitarists ... the greatest thing is that they’re all different and impossible to compare. But this is the first time I’ve been honoured by so many people as a significant player, so I’m very grateful.

“I have one request. If there is a trophy being awarded for this, I’d like to share it with Dimebag Darrell, who isn’t around to enjoy the fact that so many folks are still devoted to him and his great playing. It was a special honour being paired with Dimebag in the final.”

www.brianmay.comMany thanks to Jen Tunney on brianmay.com for the following statistics!

Total number of votes: around 400,000Total number of comments: over 7,500Total number of views: around 2,000,000Most decisive triumph: Brian May vs. Robert Fripp—79.85% to 20.15%Tightest clash: Dimebag Darrell vs. David Gilmour—51.03% to 48.97%Final: Brian May vs Dimebag Darrell 60.03% (32,432 votes) to 39.97% (21,597 votes). Total votes: 54,029

QUEEN EXTRAVAGANZAThe fabulous QUEX are on the road again.

‘A Night At The Opera’ 40th Anniversary UK Tour now on general sale!

“I’m incredibly proud of these guys and it’s going to be a nostalgic and stunning

night out for anyone who goes.”Roger Taylor

The Queen Extravaganza is specially designed to enable new fans, together with fans of old, to celebrate the music of Queen and has already played phenomenally successful dates across the world.

Tickets on sale now at www.ticketmaster.co.uk/queenextravaganza

30th October Assembly, Leamington Spa 31st October The Forum, Bath 1st November Guildhall, Portsmouth 2nd November Assembly, Worthing 5th November Colosseum, Watford 6th November City Hall, Newcastle 8th November Fairfields Hall, Croydon 9th November GLive, Guildford 10th November Usher Hall, Edinburgh 12th November Corn Exchange, Cambridge 13th November Engine Shed, Lincoln 14th November Open, Norwich 16th November Town Hall, Birmingham 18th November Hexagon, Reading 19th November St Davids Hall, Cardiff 20th November City Hall, Salisbury 21st November GL1, Gloucester

See full results at www.ultimate-guitar.com

OFFICIAL FREDDIE MERCURY BIRTHDAY PARTY

ROGER ALBUMS RE-ISSUED

For the first time, an Official Birthday Party has been organised in the place Freddie loved—beautiful Montreux —in September.

It will be held in the Casino, alongside the excellent Queen—The Studio Experience. Dress code is simple—black and white, but in the spirit of Freddie! For full details and booking information go to the Queenonline store (www.queenonline.com). The event will be hosted by Peter Freestone, and Queen archivist Greg Brooks will be a special guest. More guests and bands to be announced soon!

ultimateclassicrock.com


I’m standing here between my two heroes: Brian on my right, and Roger in front of me just three meters away. After greeting Anita he asked her something which I

did not understand, and pointed to his arm, and answering something like “it’s a bit fuzzy”. Anita approached him and I realized they were talking about Roger’s new tattoo, done in San Francisco. I said “Ah, the tattoo! I saw the picture.” And he looked at me a bit puzzled, thinking how does she know? Brian went on to explain to him that Sarina had just tweeted a photo of him as he was getting the tattoo. He laughed politely and then said goodbye. I responded back with a goodbye and a wave. He seemed to be in a very good mood and was very polite to me. I didn’t even try to get my camera or get close out of fear of losing the opportunity to continue with Brian the few moments I had left.

Then Pete asked me “Do you want an autograph on this?” (he meant the guitar), so I answered of course, if it’s not a problem! Pete took it out of its carrying bag and handed it to Brian. Brian began signing while I was distracted watching Roger leave the room. By the time I turned my eyes towards the guitar, Brian had already put his signature and then asked me “Julie? J-U-L-I-E?” and I said “Yes, well you can add a -TA, Julieta.” So, just as he had done a couple of times before on Twitter, he spelled my name with a double ‘tt’; which really gives me great pleasure! That’s how he writes it! At that moment I saw my autographed guitar and I felt like in a dream—was I awake? Somebody pinch me, please!

I took this opportunity to tell him that I follow him on Twitter from the start and that I’m UltraJuls on there. With the kindness that characterises his answers, he tells me “oh yeah, I’ve seen your name, I should follow you.” I could have fainted right there for the eighth time since I had gotten there. Somewhere amongst all the talking about Twitter he offered me his seat, which totally surprised me, how could I take his seat!?!?! Impossible! I said, “no, I cannot, no, please, you sit.” Then Pete says to me, “but you’re going to want a photo, aren’t you?” …Of course! I pulled my camera out of my bag and handed it to him. Brian hugged me… I felt a bit ashamed that he would notice I was shaking so much! But anyway, I held him tight. It was a tight hug! I felt how skinny he is, right through his waistcoat. I can remember perfectly if I close my eyes. I was surprised to see that with my huge platforms, he did not seem to be as tall as I had expected, though he still was way taller than I. He leaned toward me to take the picture. He did not smell of anything in particular… …just clean.

To my surprise, Pete did not only take one photo, but four, and they came out gorgeous! Seeing the photos later I got surprised at the genuine smile that Brian and I remembered strongly he had also held me by the shoulder, leaning his face against my head... I loved my photos, I cannot be a bit humble about it…☺

After taking the photos, Pete picked my guitar up, already inside its bag and slung it over his shoulder. It was time to

leave. I said goodbye to Brian telling him how grateful I was for everything and that he is my hero. We hugged. And I went to the door, I turned around for one last time, realising that Anita was not there anymore. I said goodbye for the last time with a terrible desire to be able to stay there, but knowing that it was time to leave, so I just said to him to say goodbye to Anita from me, and he told me he would, smiling friendly, so friendly!

I left the room, feeling all shakey… I was following Pete, who was carrying my guitar, my guitar!! What are the odds of that!! haha! We entered the elevator and I said, “Pete, we need to take a selfie, and you‘re carrying my guitar!” I can not believe it, so we settled for the selfie and the truth is it came out very well… …a funny moment, actually.

Halfway to the door, he said “wait, you have to see some thing!” and he turned to the left to go into the stage… I, not believing that this was really happening, tried to follow as fast as I could—the stage was dark.

I managed to take a picture of the curtain, but not of the setlist that was stuck next to the piece of ramp-catwalk on stage.

He lit his flashlight to help me find my way, and what I saw then almost made me lose my balance—the Red Special!

Pete held it in front of me. I walked over, bent down

JULIETTA‘SSTORY…CONTINUED FROM THE LAST ISSUE

“Pete, we need to take a selfie, and you‘re

carrying my guitar! ”

“I MET BRIAN IN VEGAS“BY JULIETA BADILLO

PART TWOto look at her closely, and asked if I could touch her. He said yes. The wood looks so… so… so wooden, you can see the wear, veins, like when you see your grandparents’ furniture, which are real wood, you know? And the lower part of the neck, where it ends, or begins, depending how you look at it, is all worn, with peeling edges. The knobs look antique, silver and old, again, as the ones you would see in a radio of at your grandparents’, and the tip of the tremolo bar, also very worn with faded shades. I never thought I would get to see it so close nevermind touch it.

Pete then handed it to me and asked me if I wanted a picture? And I said, “Sure!” and Pete adds, “Just do not drop it!”. I laughed and said, “of course not!” I took her in my hands, I put the strap over my head and felt how heavy the strap was over my shoulder. It was dark, so I could not see well but it had some stuff attached with sorts of pockets to put sixpences and other things in them, but I could not distinguish too well. I concentrated on putting my left hand on its neck and feel its frets, and I thought I should put my fingers on the strings in a decent position!! …and so my mortal fingers touched strings 1, 2 and 3 of the legendary Old Lady! …and the photo? It came out perfect! Pete made sure to set the flash and shoot. And then show me so I could check if it had come out well! What about the royal treatment I received?

I removed the shoulder strap, carefully and not really wanting to, of course, I returned the royal legendary guitar to Pete. I started moving out of Pete’s spot on the stage where he sets up all the equipment and he asks me, “Did you get any picks?” and I said, “No, a couple of sixpences that Steve gave me.” Then he stretched his hand and took a pick with the image of a crest on one side, and Brian’s autograph on the other—he showed me and gave it to me, then reached out again and gave me a couple more, I must have been too much fun to look at with my face of total awe.

We walked back towards the exit of the stage again, and then to the exit to the street. Before leaving I asked him if I could take another picture of him holding my Red Baby.

We said goodbye and he told me he’d see me a little later at the show, which was about to begin. I thanked him again

for all their kindness and he said do not thank me, thank Jamie. ...so of course, ‘THANK YOU, Jamie’ for giving me this unforgettable experience, you cannot imagine what you did for me! And thanks, of course, to Pete for making my experience perfect: autograph, photos, stage visit, taking the risk of handing me the Red Special… …everything was perfect. The nice welcome earlier by Steve and the two sixpences, the chance to greet Roger, Anita and even saying what I had meant for a while to Neil. And of course, Brian being so Brian. It could have not gone any more perfect.

PS. On the way back to my room at the hotel, I swear I was floating, I did not feel the floor. People kept looking at my stupid grin from ear to ear, I smiled back. When I got back to my room, I put the guitar on the bed, I took a photo of my autograph. I uploaded it in an effort to convince myself that everything that just had happened was true, and I also did an immediate backup of my photos with Brian, with the RS and Pete… …then I began to sob and could not stop. I still do when I have a chance to be alone and remember what happened. :‚)

Once inside the venue, I told Anne what had happened, and I met Pete, who saluted me from the stage. I went to my place, unable to find Dal and her sister, and I spent the whole concert trying to get in the best possible place because the man who was in front of me, was a giant!

And me? I am the happiest fan. I just lived one of the best experiences of my entire life!

11Spring 2015

THIS IS MY STORY—ME MERELY A QUEEN FAN WHO BECAME A DIRECTOR OF A QUEEN TV SPECIAL

again about the South American ’81 show, or about how Smile turned into Queen, those are things people have seen before. So if he wants to spend money on this, we needed to make something “ground-breaking”, something that hasn’t been done before. We brainstormed for about 30 seconds and agreed we needed to tell the story of Queens success in our country—Queen’s success in the Netherlands. He loved this idea. We made a new appointment for a week later, then I would have to make a presentation of the concept.

The ConceptSo a week later I returned. The director, René, asked me if I did my homework. I just laughed! Before I did the presentation I got to meet the whole team I was working with; the producer, the cameramen, the editors, and other people involved.

I did the presentation and everyone was enthusiastic about my concept. Big issue for me was that this could only be a success if we had access to the Dutch TV archives. To browse and look for footage that was shot in the past. That was not a problem the producer told me, “well if you want to search other countries’ TV station archives as well, that can be possible. Scandinavia, Germany, France, Belgium, BBC etc.” In the beginning I liked this idea and got the chance to browse these foreign stations. But I also got to learn that these things cost a lot of time and a lot of money as well. We got in contact with the BBC and knew what they had to offer of Queen material. We even bought some footage from the BBC. But I am not sure those will make it into the final cut. In the end, this was not the concept. We had to search the Dutch archives.

Retrieving Footage of QueenThe head start was the fact that the production company also is the preserver of the “AVRO” (TV Channel) archive. The AVRO recorded quite a lot of Queen footage over the years, as I knew. The total archive has no less than 45,000 DigiBeta tapes.

Imagine: November 1974 Holland had a music programme named “TopPop” and they had a new and relatively unknown band coming in named “Queen”. The band arrived at the studio to perform their recent hit “Killer Queen”. The band is ready, the cameramen are ready, they start rolling their cameras. They probably shot this footage on Ampex video reels. When finished they took the tapes to the editor. He would make a nice mix of all camera angles, and give those expensive Ampex tapes back to the cameramen, and the end result will be broadcast. The cameramen will re-use the tapes, so record over the previously shot footage, for the next artist. So the separate angles are gone forever.

From Queen fan to Queen Documentary Directorby Sikke van der Veen

Let me introduce myself, my name is Sikke van der Veen, I was born and grew up in the far North of the Netherlands.

As a teenager I started collecting, this was a time before the internet existed. We needed to go to record fairs, or use collectors magazines and visit shady streets in Amsterdam to search for those smelly second hand record shops. I was really fond of vinyl bootlegs (funny fact recently I found out I had no less than three Zoom Queen vinyl bootlegs, I sold two of them, and yet again I found a fourth copy) and 7” singles. Late 90’s I got hold of some studio reel-to-reel tapes, and some acetates and got really interested in these obscure formats. I got hooked on collecting all kinds of weird formats and I had some master tapes from Innuendo previously owned by Gerry Hibbert (from Hibbert & Ralph) but it was such a weird tape, nobody could tell me what it was. So after using Google I learnt this was a Sony D1 or a D2, a format which was only used from 1989 – 1992. A full digital video format. A (playback) machine in 1989 cost about £100,000. Lucky for me there were still two of these machines in my country.

a Sony D1/D2 tape from Innuendo

I really wanted to find out what the content was of those D1/D2 tapes, so I made an appointment with the studio. When I got there I had little time, I just wanted to hand the tape over for a transfer and pick a new date to retrieve the tape and the results. A guy opened the door and told me he was doing transfers of video stuff, but not for consumers. But because these tapes were so extremely rare he got curious. All I was thinking at this point was, “Wow this going to be expensive.” So he looked at the tape and asked what my link with Queen was all about. We chatted a long time, he kept asking questions, and listened carefully to my replies. After about half a hour he said, “I own a TV production company as well, and I want to make a Queen documentary with you.” He liked my enthusiasm and also told me he needed a serious Queen fan to make such a product. I told him that there are already a ton of Queen documentaries out there, we don’t need to tell the public

10 The Official International Queen Fan Club

12 The Official International Queen Fan Club

Only the editors cut remains, these were woven into the TV programme, as it was broadcast. These broadcasts were mostly (’70s period) made from 1” or 2” video reels. These tapes were saved for reruns, or later use. Late ’90s these were all digitised to DigiBeta tapes. Now (2014) these DigiBeta tapes are being transferred again to a file on a server. The thing is that Queen did two performances (though mimed) for TopPop in November ’74, the first is the version we used in our special. The second is Queen in front of a chroma screen (blue screen) there is a slim chance this one can be found in the DigiBeta tape archive, time will tell. It’s a slim chance because we have no evidence this performance was ever broadcast in the past.

Greg Brooks to the rescueWe had full access to the AVRO archives, but there so many more Dutch TV channels that broadcast Queen. We contacted them, and most of them presented us whatever was recorded of Queen in the past. But as soon as we requested tapes which featured Queen footage we got reactions like “well we don’t want a claim from Queen”, “Queen huh, that will cost you a lot”, “No Queen tapes are allowed to be used”. Whatever reaction they gave us, the bottom line was always they weren’t eager to hand out these tapes, or asked ridiculous amounts of money for it. We located some left over material of Queen that was filmed in Holland, some 16 mm film reels, the content didn’t make the final broadcast back then. And it is really rare these things are being kept. Mostly the material was thrown away. This and some other leads we were hunting down, cost us a lot of time, we were mainly busy trying to get our hands on all the material, this literally cost us weeks. So the producer got annoyed, we were only spending money and hadn’t made anything for weeks. All those stations were giving us such a hard time.

So we located the material mentioned above and some more leads, some unseen live stuff. But no matter how hard we tried, we got zero result, well the only result was an angry producer who saw his investment being vaporised as time went by. So for me there was only one option left, give my friend Greg a phone call and see if he was willing to help us. I phoned him and talked about what we were doing and mailed him some samples of what we had found already. The same day we got a signed letter by Jim Beach addressed to anyone concerned saying that it was in Queen’s own interest that all tapes/films should be handed over to us for investigation. We got the letter in the evening at about 21.00 hrs. We were still working that day and emailed the letter to all stations, or archives we had tried to contact. Greg (and Jim) gave us a little miracle, the day after we got everything we wanted, and one archive even phoned us in the morning to come by and collect the tapes we had been asking for. So a big thanks to Greg Brooks and Jim Beach.

Third parties involvedNews spreads fast! The result was a lot of emails and phonecalls asking what we were doing, it even gained the attention of Universal. They contacted us and invited us to a meeting. The end result was that our show would be ready about the same time as the new album “Queen Forever”. They were very enthusiastic about our documentary, so they helped us where they could. My question was of course let’s browse the old EMI archives, but the CEO of Universal said that all the archives from EMI were thrown away, and there was nothing left except a handful of promo photo’s. So no contracts, promo folders, footage etc.

Also when third parties get involved and deals are being made, it meant we had to change the concept to make it a 60 minute

special about their greatest hits, instead of our wish to make a 120 minute documentary of their career in Holland. A lot of great and unseen interviews and live footage has been left out. For example, Brian did a live show in 2011 in Vlissingen, great footage exists from this show and we had great pro shots of the Queen and Paul Rodgers concerts from 2005, and their Amsterdam gig from 2002.

The interviewsOf course we needed to shoot interviews. We needed famous Dutch people on our show, but I also liked the concept to film one or two fans who had a story. I was eager to do these items. And there were also some “special” fans I wanted in the film. One of them was a woman who graduated from the University of Amsterdam doing research on the popularity of Queen’s music. This all happened in the mid ’80s, but this idea was discarded due to the changes we had to make.

Still there were plenty of famous Dutch people we could interview. The problem is, they are famous (well at least in my country) and most of them think they can ask a lot of money for something like this. So we left them out because they were asking huge sums of money, but also we needed to drop the items we were building around these people, which is a shame there were some great items and stories.

The voiceover was clear from the very start: Erik de Zwart, a TV host and radio DJ—his

voice is very recognisable, and he has the nick name “mister top 40”. He

was also one of the three people in my country who got the chance to interview Freddie Mercury. As we all know Freddie wasn’t

keen on doing interviews. Another fact; his hobby is trains, trains and trains. So he arranged for us to film him in the very same train where he had interviewed Queen back in 1982 (though the train has been repainted into its original colours in the meantime). He was fun to work with and he had great stories.

And of course a man famous in Holland, Japan and from the Queen conventions: Robby Valentine. He really did do a great item. And he and his girlfriend, Marlies, were so nice to us. Look out for his album ‘Bizarro World’, it is great.

Nowhere in this world is the song “It’s a Beautiful Day”as famous as in Holland. This is thanks to Lenie ’t Hart. She spent her whole life on the welfare of seals. At one time she made a TV commercial to raise funds for her seal care centre. She knew only one song fitted the commercial “It’s a Beautiful Day”. But when she contacted the record companies and commercial agencies to arrange to use that song, she was laughed at. This is never going to happen, do you know how much money this will cost, was what she was told. In the end she got in contact with Jim Beach and he granted her all of Queen’s music to be used for free. She is so proud of this fact! And a lovely person, imagine giving up your life for the welfare of animals? This woman will make Brian May really proud! And for all people from UK who have seen our special, even if you don’t understand what was being said, I am sure the seal coming out of its cage, ready to be released again, made you smile!

filming Lenie by the sea

a section of the 45,000 DigiBeta tapes from the AVRO archive

We found more Queen footage; like Queen in Leiden 1982 when they were traveling by the CEO train of our National Railways (NS) from Leiden back to Amsterdam. And the 1979 footage of the Ahoy concert and soundcheck. There was also an interview but I guess it was cut out in the final version that was broadcast. All the AVRO footage we used was retrieved from their masters, so an upgrade to all previous broadcast sources. It will take a couple of years for all these tapes to be digitised, but we have some information that some more Queen footage will be found the next few years when all tapes are digital.

a broadcasting tape of the 1987 Queen Special: The Story of Queen—as you can see this one has been

transferred in 2001 to a DigiBeta. The Ampex master has been thrown away after this process

Sikke and Lenie

13Spring 2015


The editingWhen people asked me how it must be to have the privilege to make a Queen TV documentary, I always told them, “fun but boring !” Boring?… well yes a lot of time spent is wasted time. Imagine looking through hundreds of DigiBeta tapes, to try to get the Queen bit. But sometimes these tapes had corrupt/incorrect meta tags. So the content we were looking for was mislabelled on the tape, or the tape was swapped with another tape. And bear in mind that the person who wrote down the meta tags weren’t Queen fans, they were employees who got paid to make descriptions on whatever was on the tapes. So the description on the meta tags was many times far from whatever was on the tape. I can imagine what our Queen archivist has to bear. Of course in the end it was all fun. So was the editing.

We saved a big part of our budget to hire a talented editor. An editor is the person who puts it all together. But the directors need to take part to sort out the time line, and to tell which footage needs to be woven in to each other. This was great fun, a team of mostly 4 – 5 people in the editing room of the studio. But long days… we did one weekend late October, working days from 08.00 till 02.00 hrs. And the day after, the Sunday morning, I got a text message at 08.30 saying “Where are you, we cannot do this without you?” I was already driving to the studio by then, but still very sleepy. Again we finished way after midnight. Though it was fun as I said, because all the separate parts came together. Though the editor could work for hours on just a few seconds of footage. Believe me 4 – 5 people in a tiny studio, a lot of beer and a lot of swearing, fast food and a deadline. Luckily we all shared a good sense of humour, a laughed till tears many times.

When we finished the “rough edit” it had a running time of 130 minutes. The hardest part was to cut it down to 60 minutes. There is a general rule in the movie-making world, “Doing your own edit is killing your darlings.” So we wisely left the final cut to the editor. A couple of days later I got a promo DVD, but I couldn’t bear to play it.

Finally I got the guts to do so. I was happy with the end result, but couldn’t stop thinking of what was cut out, or shortened. Some live stuff was replaced for promo clips or, as for the Rotterdam 1979 footage, they shortened it, left out ‘I’m In Love With My Car’, and ‘We Will Rock You’, and replaced the audio with the album version instead of the live version

of ‘Bicycle Race’. We had a far better ending for ‘Somebody To Love’ live Rotterdam ’ 77.

The interviews were cut down in half for the most part. Well understand this; it needs to be a format for the general public. I hope all die hard fans can understand this point as well.

The Broadcast and HighlightsAt the time I wrote this, we were less than a week from the première broadcast. I was spending a lot of time on radio stations, writing articles for local papers, and our TV campaign would be running on various channels to announce the special. Many people came to see a preview. The people involved, Hannie from our fanclub, some fans, and some TV/music people, CEOs and CFOs of various labels. And all feedback from them was positive!

It drew a lot of attention from Queen fans, and I have already been asked if there is an option for airing it at the 2015 UK convention—if this happens, I will ask a volunteer to do an English voiceover.

Also many questions about if this will be available on DVD. This is a slim chance, perhaps if Universal is willing it could happen, the problem for us, there is a big difference in clearing copyright for a TV broadcast to clearing the same rights for a DVD release. The difference is $, and a lot of money needs to be paid. I remember Rhys Thomas saying that the TV version of ‘Days of Our Lives’ is slightly different to the DVD release because of clearing those extremely costly rights. So unless there’s a miracle I don’t think a DVD release will happen.

Epilogue Understand that the programme we made is far from the quality that Rhys Thomas made out of ‘Days of Our Lives’. He was working with another budget and full access to the Queen archive. We had a limited budget, and access to all European TV archives as long as our budget would stretch. And further we were submitted to donations of material and officially released Queen products we could extract from.

Highlights for me was the bit from Lenie ’t Hart, though it was cut down to one third, I love this item. The interview of Queen which is all over the special was filmed in September 1984, before the concert in Leiden. At one time you can hear the support act playing while Brian is answering questions. These 16 mm cans were left for almost 30 years. And even in the final edit about 10% of the interview is used. And of course the Rotterdam ’77 footage. I loved to see Queen getting the awards on the boat. Though we could only find one camera angle, but you can see clearly a second camera in the footage, some day one day…

I am a Queen fan, I made this to search for and save lost, forgotten Queen material. I know Greg Brooks is the archivist, I like to name myself Queen’s Archaeologist. I think it is necessary to look out forever for material still out there. And we still have good leads to hunt down especially one thing from a neighbouring country. So I won’t end the search. Especially when I learned that things are still deleted and thrown away, e.g. in 2011 they deleted a full Queen special which was never broadcast. It was a 1979 TV special. It was deleted forever. All of the uncut footage will be saved at a good place somewhere near London.

I really hope my documentary made a lot of Dutchies happy and they had a great night at their telly’s, making them happy with the music of the world’s best bands. Hope it will boost album sales for Queen Forever, hope it will satisfy the never ending hunger of Queen fans for a while, hope it will be available for all of you in the end…

If any one has a question or remark feel free to contact me on Facebook.

Hope this was a good read for you all. Cheers from a chilly Holland—Sikke van der Veen.a reel of Ampex video tape

hard at work in the edit suite

Sikke and Brian

filming with Robbie Valentine

“Where are you, we cannot do this without you?”

Photos and stories from the recent US and European toursAdditional photos courtesy of Richard Gray

For the past number of weeks I have been on a journey reading reports of friends who have attended many gigs around the UK and Europe to see Queen+Adam Lambert.

The excitement has been yelling out of the laptop for me to get roped into it all, I felt at times I was there at the scene with everyone. The majority of the posts have been positive and in full support of this latest collaboration in Queen’s history. Now let’s be honest, none of us are getting younger, especially those of us who have been around the Queen machine since the early days. If we’re getting older so are the band members! The youthfulness of Adam has shown, for me, that Brian and Roger are of my older generation. Hats off to them for the gruelling schedule they put themselves under! If Freddie were alive would he have undertaken a tour like this? I think not somehow. This tour has given the opportunity for the younger fan base to witness what it was like at shows in days gone by. Now I’m making myself sound old! For them to see Brian and Roger play the Queen songs has been pure joy, not just for the fans but for Brian and Roger too! It has given people the opportunity to get out there, and for some, to go on tour themselves. This unique opportunity has given the chance for people to bad mouth the band for having the audacity to go on the road again with a whipper snapper from a TV show. That’s their prerogative. Nobody has the right to tell someone how to do their job. This is Brian’s and Roger’s job, both have played since their youth, just like Adam has too. The band have been damned for touring and they would have been also if they had sat on their backsides and reaped the rewards of record sales.

So off they went, embarking on a record-breaking sold out tour of America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and now Europe, including a few gigs in their home country of the United Kingdom. The tour came to an end in February, the last three gigs included one in my home city of Liverpool, a city that embraced Queen from the beginning. This was my opportunity to witness what all the fuss had been about over the past nine months! I was lucky to see the current formation of the band a couple of years ago in London. I was impressed and felt Adam was the front man Paul Rodgers was not! I must say Brian and Roger have chosen well.

My favourite bit of a concert is when the lights go out and the atmosphere explodes. I hate knowing what the opening song is and I actually avoided it on a few Queen tours in the past but with social media what it is today there was no way I would avoid it this time. One Vision isn’t one of my favourite songs, though I think if it had been Procession/Now I’m Here like America it would have destroyed me, especially after seeing it so much on the Rainbow footage over the last six months!

The day arrived for me to go and see the show. Firstly, pre-gig drinks with friends old and new. Five years since I’ve been to the arena. It looked small compared to some of the photos of other venues I’ve seen on this tour. Adam Lambert without a doubt is an exceptional singer and performer and he has put 101% heart and soul into this project.

This was a big production on a colossal scale. It felt like a Queen gig and it looked like a Queen gig, I recognised the drummer and guitarist! This is 2015 and it is now a Queen+ gig and nothing wrong with that! What I got most of all out of the show, and boy it was a show, was how happy Brian and Roger looked. I have never seen them look so content on stage in many years. Both played exceptionally well, with help from the rest of the band. Adam proved his vocal talent during the opening of Save Me and Who Wants To Live Forever. Both beautifully executed. Yes the show was a greatest hits set list, similar to their other 21st century shows but the crowd lapped it up and sang along. The lighting rig built around a letter Q was perfect and looked terrific and helped the performance look polished, rehearsed and Queeniefied!

After the show was some post drink celebrations and I spent it again with old and new friends. It was a cracking night! I just loved the buzz off the royal followers who had been following the tour around.

Now wouldn’t it be great if on the next tour, if there will ever be one, they have some new material to perform? There is a great album there I’m sure. Talent will out my dears!

Jim Jenkins


This was the only show I could get to, so I had to wait such a long long time for the whole Queen circus to

come to town. I’d been following other fans travelling all over Europe and I think I’d developed that pre-show excitement well before going into Liverpool that night. They don’t disappoint do they? The atmosphere in the audience was practically tangible. The couple next to me were expecting the imminent birth of their grandchild and were keeping their eyes on their phones for messages. I think their son (in the fanclub) had given them the tickets, as he was obviously busy elsewhere. What a night!

Bea Wright, Liverpool

This is me, totally shattered after hours on my feet and

more dancing and singing in one night than I normally do in a year! I’m in front of the stage at the Birmingham gig on 23rd Jan 2015. The picture was taken by my wonderful friend Brendan Mullen who bought me the ticket as a present to cheer me up after a rubbish couple of years. I’d not have been able to go otherwise. We met through Queen and have been friends for years and we’ve been to many conventions and events together. It was a brilliant night and I loved every minute of it :-)

Caroline Adams in Birmingham

My son, Michael, has been a huge Queen fan since his early teens, and has never seen them in concert live, so

I gave him a front row ticket in Las Vegas for his birthday—he loved the experience so much he wrote an essay on the experience and the fans ate it up! Then, he promptly bought tickets to the second show in Las Vegas and I went with him to the last show in North America, in Toronto, all front row seats. He now has a much-renewed interest in the magnificent Queen Catalogue and is a new Adam fan.

You can read his essay about discovering the fans who he met at these concerts and how the QAL concert experience touched him online at http://bit.ly/1IbHXvx

Brenda English

Like all of us, from the moment I booked the tickets we couldn’t wait. Come the 24th February, I had to take

the day off work to cope with the mixture of tension and excitement and to make sure we were there well ahead of time.

In Queen terms, the Arena has always special for us as we saw them play here more times than any other venue. We purposely booked standing tickets and picked our spot by the mixing desk so we could be “shaking the soles of our feet”… …and we did.

I looked up at the exact spot where I sat on the Spring Tour in ’78 and thought who could have believed I would be back here again, watching Queen 37 years later. Felt like we were 16 again. One of the memories that will live on forever was the sight of so many people having such a great time. With Adam, this is Queen for a whole new generation.

Cliff Bownes, Wembley

Cristian Mancilla, O2 London

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Dagmara Szymanska (left) in Krakow with friends, meeting Brian backstage!

Photos above by Richard Morrow at Glasgow Hydro


My husband gave me tickets to the concert in Birmingham, 23rd January for our 20th wedding anniversary but I had

to take my friends as he has no taste in music! I am wearing the WWRY leather jacket I won in the auction at last year’s convention.

Helen Lawless, Birmingham

Leo Pelz and friends, Milan Jenny Hodge meeting Neil! at WembleyPhoto by Michael Bundgaard in Denmark Photo by Tennant at Manchester Arena

They say great friendships can be formed in an instant and they can :) Thanks to Queen, these six people started

the day in Sheffield as strangers and left as friends. Having shared the day reminding each other of the reasons why we love Queen. If I could sum the whole tour up in one pic it would be this one, not for the quality but shows both worlds colliding and a symbol perhaps for a tradition to be passed between generations of fans of Queen, Freddie and Adam :)

Diane Marfell and friends in Sheffield

Photos above by Richard Morrow

at Glasgow Hydro



QUEEN FOREVER—LIMITED EDITION 4 VINYL LP BOX SET

“Live At The Rainbow ’74” was released in the UK in September 2014 on various formats. Here is a promotional CD featuring the November 1974 concert and released by Virgin/Universal records at the time. The 5” CD was issued in a fold out paper sleeve with the album artwork on the front and track listing on the back, and presented inside a plastic cover.

Collectors CornerMore treasured items from our expert Gary Taylor

LIVE AT THE RAINBOW

QUEEN FOREVER

LET ME IN YOUR HEART AGAINLOVE KILLS

LET ME IN YOUR HEART AGAIN

A 2-track promotional CD featuring the track ‘Let Me In Your Heart Again’ and taken from the ‘Queen Forever’ compilation album, was released by Virgin/Universal in the EU in early 2015. The 5” CD featured the remastered version (4.34) and the William Orbit Mix (6.41), which was previously only available as a download. It was printed in a plastic jewel case with a red card insert that featured a similar front cover to the promo CD that was released by Hollywood records in the USA in 2014.

This is a new box set that has been released in Italy only. It is called ‘The Queen Collection’ and over a period of 21 weeks will eventually include all of Queen’s 15 studio albums on CD as well as 4 live albums on CD and 2 live DVDs—21 titles in total.

The set was released in conjunction with the Italian television guide ‘TV Sorrisi e Canzoni’, the biggest selling weekly TV magazine by far in the country.

The first CD to be issued was ‘A Kind Of Magic’, and with that package you also get a specially designed thick card box to hold all the CDs and DVDs. This was released on March 3rd 2015 and was only available through selected kiosks, or newsagents, in Italy. The final DVD in this series will appear on July 21st.

Each CD and DVD is issued as a special maxi digi-pack format with enhanced booklets that include photos, lyrics

and info on the history of each album. All the text was written by Gary Taylor, Greg Brooks and Phil Symes. The box and CD packaging was designed by Richard Gray and is presented in a blister pack with a card backing that also includes all the information about this release on the front and on the back of the set.

THE QUEEN COLLECTION

A 1-track promotional CD featuring the track ‘Love Kills’, and taken from the ‘Queen Forever’ compilation album, was released in the UK by Virgin/Universal in February 2015. The 5” CD was issued in a fold out paper sleeve with the album artwork on the front and track title and release sticker on the back, and presented inside a plastic cover.

‘Forever’ was released in the UK in November 2014 on various formats. Here is a promotional CD from Virgin records in France which was presented in a card sleeve as opposed to the UK paper sleeve version.

A 1-track promotional CD featuring the track ‘Let Me In Your Heart Again’, and taken from the ‘Queen Forever’ compilation album, was released in the UK by Virgin/Universal in December 2014. The 5” CD was issued in a fold out paper sleeve with the album artwork on the front and track title and release sticker on the back, and presented inside a plastic cover.

Since its initial release on CD in 2014, ‘Forever’ will now be released as a limited edition four vinyl LP boxed set featuring 36 tracks, on 13th April 2015, and is issued in the lead up to ‘Record Store Day’ on April 18th. The set will also include an additional bonus one-sided 12” single of the William Orbit mix of ‘Let Me In Your Heart Again’ with a laser etching of the album cover illustration on the ‘B’ side. The Orbit mix was held back from the ‘Forever’ CD release and only appeared for a limited period on download to support the Coca-Cola (RED) AIDS awareness campaign mounted at the end of last year.

DISC 1: SIDE A Let Me In Your Heart Again / Love Kills – the ballad / There Must Be More To Life Than This (William Orbit Mix) / Play The Game / Dear Friends. SIDE B You’re My Best Friend / Love Of My Life / Drowse / You Take My Breath Away / Spread Your Wings. | DISC 2: SIDE A Long Away / Lily Of The Valley / Don’t Try So Hard / Bijou / These Are The Days Of Our Lives. SIDE B Nevermore / Las Palabras De Amor / Who Wants To Live Forever / I Was Born To Love You. | DISC 3: SIDE A Somebody To Love / Crazy Little Thing Called Love / Friends Will Be Friends / Jealousy. SIDE B One Year of Love / A Winter’s Tale / ’39 / Mother Love. | DISC 4: SIDE A It’s A Hard Life / Save Me / Made In Heaven / Too Much Love Will Kill You. SIDE B Sail Away Sweet Sister / The Miracle / Is This The World We Created…? / In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited / Forever.

Three generations of the Fordham-Dunmore clan are (left to right): Dan, Alex, Dave and Al.

The Official International Queen Fan ClubP.O. Box 141, West Horsley, Surrey KT24 9AJ | +44 (0) 1483 281995 | [email protected] Design and artwork by Tennant | www.cforce.co.uk Print and distribution by Fox Print Services LLP | www.fox-ms.co.uk © OIQFC 2015

Lily Alexandra Parkin, born 7/7/14. Granddaughter of Tony and Eve Herson. Welcome to the world little lady!

This is the lovely Margie Winter (right) and her gorgeous granddaughter Amber, in beautiful Montreux. Margie was the “cleaning lady” at the Queen offices in Pembridge Road, and at Freddie’s house at Garden Lodge. But she was more than just the cleaner to us all! She has some stories to tell… and so efficient was she, that we all used to say, if something had been “tidied”—it had been Margied!! I still say it to this day! Jacky

Linda Curtis, Italy

Markus Wanner and Sylvia backstage in Zurich

Official International Queen Fan Club magazine Spring 2015 · 6 The Ocial International Queen Fan...

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