Newsgroup: it.fan.musica.queen
Titolo: Queen - 2011 Baker's Dozen

http://www.queenzone.com/forums/forum_topic_view.aspx?q=1294397
 
 
It's that time of year again - Baker's Dozen time! Hope everyone's
enjoying the holiday season.
 
Here are what I think are the thirteen best unofficial recordings of Queen
to come out in 2011.
 
 
1) BBC Session 2 master
It may not be the multi-track master, but it is a stereo mix from it.
These tracks have circulated for years, but not quite like this. They are
an excellent snapshot of Queen in 1973, and highly recommended listening
in this quality.
 
2) London 9-13-73 - quadrophonic restoration
Fans discovered that some of the Golders Green Hippodrome radio broadcasts
were actually done in quadrophonic sound, and thereby concluded that the
reason why Freddie's voice was so buried on the circulating recordings of
this show is because the stereo mix focused on two channels where
Freddie's voice wasn't prominent. A restoration process resulted in a
glorious new listen to this show with the vocal much closer to the
forefront of the mix.
 
3) London 3-31-74 - reel-to-reel tape
Four of the seven tracks from the Rainbow Theatre soundboard emerged in
late 2011 in absolutely superb quality. They were broadcast on the radio
in 1975, but this recording discovered is from a reel-to-reel tape
intended for broadcast. This may well be the best-sounding recording of
Queen on stage on the 1970s.
 
4) Providence 4-27-74 - master
Dan Lampinski's superb audience recordings from November 1974 through 1980
(including Queen in Boston '76) took the music collecting world by storm
in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, his earlier recordings taped with average gear
began to emerge, and amongst them was Queen in Providence '74. It is the
second-earliest Queen tape from a US show known to exist, and it offers
great insight into Queen's second (and last) tour as a support act. Mott
The Hoople's headlining set was recorded as well.
 
5) Tokyo 4-19-75 - alternate source
The year began with a bang when the (almost) complete first show in Japan
was heard for the first time. A breathtaking listen, even in average sound
quality.
 
6) Tokyo 3-22-76 - "Get Your Knickers Off" (Tarantura)
For the first time, a Mr. Peach recording introduced a new show to the
Queen canon. The opening night of the Japanese 'A Night At The Opera' tour
was heard for the first time, although the recording is a bit more distant
than Peach's Himeji and Fukuoka recordings. Nonetheless, collectors can
only hope there are more shows like this on Tarantura's "to do" list.
 
7) London 6-6-77 - audience recording
This audience tape of the first night at Earls Court confirms that Freddie
had mic problems throughout the show (unlike the Hyde Park '76 mic
dropouts that exist only on the video). This is a much-welcomed
alternative to the dry-sounding video feed, even if the quality isn't
great overall. The taper finally took the recorder out of his pocket by
the encore, so a couple tracks sound pretty good.
 
8) New York 12-2-77 - Super 8 master
This distant video emerged in September, the first 8mm video to be seen
from this tour. It is only three minutes of footage (a single 8mm reel),
but any 70s footage of Queen is invigorating upon initial viewing.
 
9) Tokyo 4-14-79 - "Bootleg Race" (Tarantura)
Even though much compression was added, it is still the best-sounding
audience tape of Queen in 1979. The quality of the recording makes the
flaws in Freddie's voice painfully clear, but overall it is still an
excellent performance well worth hearing.
 
10) Tokyo 2-17-81 - "Teo Torriatte" (Tarantura)
This is another great-sounding Mr. Peach tape, but this one was absolutely
mauled by compression added after the fact. The recording is still one of
the best of the year, but one can only wonder how glorious the unaltered
master tape sounds. I'd add the "Need Your Loving Tonight" bootleg of the
2-13-81 show to the list, but it suffers from the same issues. Since there
are six other sources from that show (two of which sound just about as
good), it didn't make the cut.
 
11) Kassel 5-18-82 - upgrade
This is a very underrated Hot Space show, and a substantial upgrade
appeared in 2011. Freddie Mercury was arguably at his creative peak on
stage in the spring of 1982, and this performance from him and the band is
at least as good as the offically-released Milton Keynes show. Sheer Heart
Attack being the secondsong in (not part of the encore, where it usually
sat) also makes this a very interesting recording for the collection.
 
12) Providence 8-26-80 - upgrade
This is a great copy of the Providence audience tape. Unfortunately it's
missing the first couple minutes of Jailhouse Rock, but it's by far the
best recording from August 1980. The first known (albeit sloppy)
performance of Dragon Attack is contained herein.
 
13) Tokyo 5-9-85 - "Last Stand At Budokan"
Nearly every Japanese show was taped, and half of them have more than one
audience source. In March, a fourth source from Queen's last show at the
Budokan emerged. It is a close second to the source Wardour bootlegged,
but it is still a great recording in its own right.
 
 
Thanks especially to the tapers - without you, most of this joy simply
wouldn't exist !
 
Looking forward to seeing everyone's lists and opinions.
 
Honourable mentions:
 
1) Stormtroopers in Stilettoes exhibition, London
 
To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the band held an exhibition in London
focusing on their first five studio albums. Plenty of memorabilia was
seen, as well as previously unseen video footage of the band. Highlights
included November '77 pre-tour rehearsal footage from Shepperton Studios
in London, soundcheck footage from Houston '77 (including a bit with
Freddie Mercury on drums and Roger Taylor playing Brian May's Red
Special), and concert footage from Hyde Park '76 and Earls Court '77 with
better sound than ever before.
 
New footage from Tokyo '75 was also seen (a much longer version of footage
seen in the 2004 'Killer Queen' documentary that was previously said to be
from Preston '73). Any or all of this material may have come from
thousands of tapes dumped on the band by EMI after they left the record
label and signed a deal with Universal.
 
2) Queen re-released most of their back catalogue in 2011, and many of the
studio album bonus tracks are noteworthy. The De Lane Lea demos from 1971
and BBC material sound better than ever before, and live versions of You
Take My Breath Away from Hyde Park '76 and '39 from the second night at
Earls Court '77 knocked the socks off many. As with the exhibition
footage, the hope of the faithful is that these live tracks are teasers
for DVD releases to come.
 
Many unheard studio takes/demos from the 1977 to 1980 period were also
included, such as the original demo of It's A Beautiful Day (a track that
was eventually finished for Made In Heaven in 1995), and demos for some of
the Flash Gordon soundtrack compositions.
 
3) "Days Of Our Lives" documentary, BBC Two
 
Hands down, this is the best Queen documentary ever produced. Plenty of
unseen footage was included, such as alternate angles from Houston '77 and
colour footage from the These Are The Days Of Our Lives video shoot.
Equally interesting were the new interviews with Brian May and Roger
Taylor, as they spoke very candidly and openly about many things they had
never previously touched upon.
 
The documentary was released on DVD and Blu-ray with many extras (a few
more on Bluray), and a Japanese Blu-ray is pending for 2012 with even more
extras than the UK/US Blu-ray.
 
4) "Live At Wembley Stadium" disc 2
 
The 2011 re-release of the famous Wembley '86 concert included the uncut
first night. After 20+ years of seeing and hearing the second night on a
plethora of official releases, this was a very refreshing inclusion. A
much more relaxed (and rain-soaked) band are captured here than was seen
on the legendary second night.
 
-- 
 
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 enjoying the holiday season.
 
e tutto questo SOLO nel 2011... della serie... "mah, non c'è mai niente da
parlare riguardo i VERI Queen, quelli 1971-1991...". Questa è la prova che
NON è vero! :-)
