NEW YORK (www.queenonline.com) - As long-time QUEEN aficionado, JUSTIN HAWKANS, singer of THE DARKNESS, said recently: 'For total and utter, unadulterated, no-holds-barred entertainment, you just cannot beat [Queen]. Christ on a bike, those guys knew how to put on a show!'
They certainly did. Which is why news of Queen's imminent return to the stage - in partnership with PAUL RODGERS, legendary former Free and Bad Company singer -- has been greeted with such excitement by their millions of fans since news leaked out over the internet just before Christmas.
Now after weeks of speculation BRIAN MAY, ROGER TAYLOR and Paul Rodgers have unveiled their Spring 2005 tour plans in full, kicking off with their first show together as Queen + Paul Rodgers - a special preview concert at London's Brixton Academy on Monday, March 28, 2005.
The first of what will be a lengthy tour, it will be followed by 25 further dates in the UK and around Europe and marks the first time Queen have toured since 1986. There will be seven UK dates in all, including a second London show at the culmination of the tour when they play Wembley Pavilion on Wednesday, May 11th.
Says Brian May: 'I never thought I would be doing this again. I was always against the idea of putting someone in there trying to impersonate Freddie in any way. Then suddenly I'm looking at this guy who doesn't in any sense try to take the place of Freddie. He's nothing like Freddie because he comes from his own place.
'Suddenly I thought, 'Yes we can do this', we could do one more tour and the songs would mean something new. This would not be like rehashing, trying to pretend Freddie's still here; suddenly we can reinterpret these songs with someone who understands what he's about, someone who relates to us. Suddenly it felt right. It's colossal, and I can't quite believe it.'
Roger Taylor: 'Paul is not someone trying to be Freddie. He's someone trying to take this somewhere else, in his own direction. Freddie was a great fan of his – we saw Free loads of times at The Marquee. He is one of the people who have influenced all of the singers who are out there at the moment and I'm very excited about working it all out.'
Says Rodgers: 'POWERFUL and REAL, EXPLOSIVE and DYNAMIC. That's how it felt when Queen and I played together in London. With the chill factor off the scale...Let's do more was the unanimous feeling.'
Queen + Paul Rodgers will be performing Queen songs, plus several familiar songs made famous by Rodgers. Taylor says that the creative decisions will be made between the three of them, each of them carrying equal weight in the decision-making. 'The problem we have is in the embarrassment of riches in material to choose from; there's the whole Queen catalogue, and then you have so many great songs from Paul's catalogue.
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We've done a few charity one-offs and they've ended up being pretty frustrating – you do a bit of work, rehearse up a bit and then you do a few songs and it's over. This gives us the opportunity to rehearse it properly and develop it and I'm sure we'll come up with some things none of us have thought of or are expecting. The whole creative process is one of the things that appeals to me because you never know what will happen.'
For May, the new line-up presents 'so many new possibilities. Freddie never sang, for instance, 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love' on any Queen tour, though he might have enjoyed it! And, of course, there were many of our songs which Freddie was never able to perform because of the way things turned out towards the end – for instance, 'Innuendo', 'I Want It All', 'The Show Must Go On'....' The thought occurred: 'Wouldn't it be great if, just supposing, we did it now?! Personally, I can't wait!'
The idea originally sprang from May's performance with Rodgers at the Fender Strat's 50th Anniversary show in London last September. 'We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in 'All Right Now' that suddenly it seemed blindingly obvious that there was 'something happening here '.'
Says Roger Taylor: 'After the Fender gig Brian got on the phone to me and said 'You really have to look at what we just did'. And he sent over a tape. And I could see what he was talking about. Paul had been one of our role models in the late 60's and 70's with Free, a singer we aspired to be.
When I saw the tape he was fantastic, and it set Brian and I thinking.'
The idea only really took hold, however, after May and Taylor together with Paul Rodgers played in public for the first time together just a few weeks later, bringing the house to its feet at the televised first annual UK Hall of Fame Awards in London, with blistering versions of 'We Will Rock You', 'We Are The Champions', and the finale, 'All Right Now'.
Says May: 'It just came up out of the blue. Apparently we had won one of the categories and the request was there for us to play. I had already had the conversation with Roger at this point, about how brilliant Paul was, and, since, very conveniently, he had also been asked to perform, we agreed we would ask Paul if he would team up with us at this event. The rest in a way is already history.
The show went so incredibly well from our point of view, and we got so many rave reactions from out there, we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together.'
Roger Taylor: 'A lot of our music is blues based and Paul is really a very soulful blues singer and at that point we thought this would be a very good direction to go in.'
They immediately began 'looking at venues', says May, 'discussing how we might approach our collective material, etc. It's very exciting. Ever since the run-up to that Awards show, I felt in my waters that something big and scary was happening. Scary because as soon as you press the button for something like this you set a massive juggernaut into motion which cannot be stopped! So bang goes the home life, and anything else we might have planned for the coming months. Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes...'
As for the inevitable cynics, May simply has this to say: 'How about just letting yourselves enjoy the fun? Life is too short to be mindlessly negative because of feeling left out, or fearful of 'not being cool'. The only reason to go out there and be away from my family on tour is because we love it, and want to create, maybe just once more, what thousands of people tell us they would like to see. Finally, here is an opportunity for us to do once again what we do best -- play rock for real!'
Roger Taylor: 'I always hoped we would tour again and I'm thrilled we're doing it. It feels good and it smells good, and I know we're doing it with the right singer for the right reasons.'
As the Brixton Academy show is the first date of the tour, demand is expected to far exceed the number of tickets available. Therefore, the band has decided to limit all tickets to registered fans only, to be made available in the form of a 'lottery'. Designed to ensure all tickets go direct to real fans and not ticket touts, none of the tickets for the Brixton show will be on general sale. Instead, all members of the Official International Queen Fan Club registered before December 11, 2004 - the date news of the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour first surfaced - have been automatically entered into the lottery draw, plus all similarly registered users of Queenonline.com and paulrodgers.com - with a maximum ticket limit of two per registered applicant.
The lottery will be administered by the same audit system used by UEFA in the distribution of tickets for Euro 2004, overseen by Price, Waterhouse & Cooper. Successful applicants should be informed on or before Friday, January 21, 2005. (Please note: anybody attempting to enter the lottery more than once will have all of their booking refunded, without notification and with no option to repurchase. Any customer attempting to resell their tickets will also have all of their booking refunded, without notification and with no option to repurchase.)
Queen began their fantastic journey in 1968 when Roger Taylor together with guitarist Brian May and friend Tim Staffell, formed the group Smile. When Tim decided to leave, in his place came Freddie Mercury, then working on a clothes stall in Kensington market which he and Roger owned. It was the flamboyant and creatively unstoppable Mercury who renamed the group Queen. A year later, bassist John Deacon joined the band, completing the line-up which would spend the next 20 years writing and recording such multi-million-selling albums as 'Sheer Heart Attack', 'A Night At The Opera', 'News Of The World' and 'The Works', not to mention countless, unforgettable hit singles. Queen ranks second only to The Beatles as the band with the longest period spent on the UK singles and album charts, a total of 1725 weeks, or put otherwise - a staggering 33 years.
Since Mercury's untimely death from Aids in November 1991, Queen have collaborated on a one-off basis with many different artists. They have recorded with Robbie Williams ('We Are The Champions' from the soundtrack to the 2001 movie 'A Knight's Tale') and performed live with Elton John, George Michael, Bob Geldof and David Bowie, to name a few. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (USA), the Songwriters Hall of Fame (USA), and recently the inaugural UK Music Hall of Fame. They hold places in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Rock Walk of Fame. Their appearance in the 2002 Jubilee Party At The Palace provided one of the defining images of that year, when Brian May performed a live version of the national anthem from the roof of Buckingham Palace.
Their musical 'We Will Rock You' continues to be a sell-out in London almost three years on from its May 2002 opening with successful productions now running in Las Vegas, Spain, Russia, Australia and Germany where it recently premiered to the best opening ever. In one month in Cologne it has sold over a quarter of a million tickets and is currently sold out three months in advance.
Brian and Roger were among the founding artists behind Nelson Mandela's 46664 HIV/AIDS worldwide campaign which was launched last November with an all-star concert which saw artists including Anastacia, Beyonce, Bono, The Edge, Eurythmics, Ms. Dynamite unite with a host of South African artists for a landmark event that was seen on television around the world by more than 2 billion people.
Queen will return to South Africa – this time with Paul Rodgers – for a second 46664 concert on the eve of their forthcoming tour. The concert takes place at Fancourt on March 19th and will additionally feature Annie Lennox and Katie Melua. The event is designed to bring worldwide attention to the rising numbers of women living with HIV/AIDS.
Queen bassist John Deacon has currently retired from the stage. One of rock's most distinctive vocalists, as well as writer of some of the most enduring rock classics of the past three decades, Paul Rodgers first came to prominence as singer with early 1970s rockers Free, who had a worldwide hit with 'All Right Now'. For May and Taylor the band's 'Fire and Water' album was 'one of our bibles when we were starting off'.
When Free disbanded in 1973, Rodgers formed Bad Company with former Mott The Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, where he enjoyed even greater success. Bad Company notched up 6 multi platinum albums and created worldwide hits such as 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love' and 'Feel Like Makin' Love', both of which have become worldwide rock anthems. He partnered with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in The Firm in the mid-80s as well as pursuing a Grammy nominated solo career.
As well as being considered 'the best singer in the world in our genre' (Brian May), Rodgers is also regarded among his contemporaries as one of the most outstanding songwriters and musicians of his generation. Having written many of Bad Company's biggest hits, including 'Rock and Roll Fantasy', 'Shooting Star', and 'Run with The Pack', Rodgers also provided the guitar parts to many of these recordings. Bad Company's greatest hits compilation '10 from 6' remains an essential primer for rock fans throughout the world.
Says Rodgers: 'We intend to merge our styles and our music at the point where they meet most naturally. Soulful rock with raw emotion... See you there!'
Queen + Paul Rodgers 2005 Tour Dates
Mon 28 March London, Brixton Academy
Wed 30 March Paris, Zenith
Fri 1 April Madrid, Palacio De Deportes
Sat 2 April Barcelona, Sant Jordi
Mon 4 April Rome, Palalottomatica
Tue 5 April Milan, Forum
Thu 7 April Firenze, Mandela Forum
Fri 8 April Pesaro, Palas
Sun 10 April Basel, St. Jakobshalle
Wed 13 April Vienna, Stadthalle
Thu 14 April Munich, Olympiahalle
Sat 16 April Prague, Saska Arena
Sun 17 April Leipzig, Arena
Tue 19 April Frankfurt, Festhalle
Wed 20 April Antwerp, Sports Palais
Sat 23 April Budapest, Sportarena
Mon 25 April Dormund, Westfalenhalle
Tue 26 April Rotterdam, Ahoy
Thu 28 April Hamburg, Color Line Arena,
Sat 30 April Stockholm, The Globe
Tue 3 May Newcastle, Arena
Wed 4 May Manchester, MEN Arena
Fri 6 May Birmingham, NEC
Sat 7 May Cardiff Arena
Mon 9 May Sheffield, Arena
Wed 11 May Wembley, Pavillion
Tickets for all shows went on sale Saturday, January 22nd. Tickets for the shows in Birmingham, NEC and Cardiff Arena (May 6th and May 7th, respectively) sold out in just a matter of hours. All other dates were close to being sold out as well by the end of Saturday.
For more information, see www.paulrodgers.com or www.queenonline.com for details.
All shows will be strictly non-smoking!
