Queen Rise from the Ashes of the Phoenix...
Afterweeks 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 28 March, 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 11 May.
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.”
Queen + Paul Rodgers will be performing Queen songs, plus several familiar songs made famous by Rodgers in both Free and Bad Co. 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.
“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!”
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About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
