Under Pressure?
I have looked on YT, but either find Queen singing the song, or Bowie.
But, it seems like waay back in the 80's there was a video of Bowie singing with Queen.
If so, does anyone have a link to it?
Just the composite (Fred @ Wembley 86 + Bowie 92' Wembley Tribute Concert for Life) from the crappy Rah Mix.
Neither could be reached for filming...and also, I'm pretty sure David Bowie didn't like the results until somewhere in the 90's (please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not as huge a bowie fan though he's done great work)
Maybe Vanilla Ice's shit inspired him to include it in their setlists.
There is an original promo video. It doesnt feature any band footage, but it does show some rioting in Belfast and so Top of the Pops banned it as they didn't show videos with political themes. G&R's "Welcome to the Jungle" was banned for the same reason.
That is so wrong, you getting confused with the police or something. Totp made a video to go with it, buildings falling down and crowds of people walking etc. it wasn't banned by the BBC they made it!
Multiple online sources credit it as an original promo film put together by David Mallet who did extensive work with both Queen and David Bowie. I don't know how accurate it is, but Queenpedia additionally claims that two edits exist as TOTP refused to air the originat cut that included political images of explosions in Northern Ireland.
The official video was made from stock footage and no, it was not made by TOTP. They may have made edits, but they have nothing to do with the 'original'.
I only know what I've read, but all the elements make sense - that topical images like that would be well suited for a pressure themed video, that there would be sensitivity to them in Britain and that Holly would recall the issue as it is likely to have been somewhat more noteworthy/newsworthy/discussion worthy in NI. Queenpedia claims the original cut was unreleased so it simply may have never gotten on the general radar.
I'm in NI too, can't remember any ban, why ban footage of a riot, nothing special there but I guess I could be wrong, I still have a notion the video was a BBC thing.
Senna wrote:
I'm in NI too, can't remember any ban, why ban footage of a riot, nothing special there but I guess I could be wrong, I still have a notion the video was a BBC thing.
Well for the reasons I stated -- BBC TotP had a policy of banning controversial videos, including those that made reference to rioting in NI. The Police's Invisible Sun was banned, as was Guns & Roses' Welcome to the Jungle. I have a lasting memory -- which could be wrong -- that UP was banned by TotP. GF's info suggests that's the case, with an edited version being shown eventually. Again, I can't confirm that, but it matches with my memory of events. As for whether or not it's a BBC video or an oficial promo video, again, GF's info suggests it's an offical promo rather than something TotP put together. I dont; know if TotP ever did this. They usually used a dance troupe like Pan's People for those occasions when a band didn't provide a promo video -- with predictably hilarious results. (The BBC/Old Grey Whistle Test did make a promo video for Keep Yourself Alive though, many years before.) To confuse matters even more, here's a list of banned music on the BBC and UP isn't on it: link
Then again, Welcome to the Jungle isn;t on there either, and it was banned, so that list isn't complete.
It's too bad it can't be easily clearer. It's a small but nonetheless interesting collision of politics, Queen history and pop culture. The version we're all familiar with does include images of rioting and a burning vehicle - I don't personally recognize those images as from NI specifically but they either are or could be, which should be about the same thing for the censors. It's a bit confusing because my reading of the queenpedia entry is that the version we know with the rioting *is* the censored version, and that the earlier unreleased version was unacceptable because of footage of explosions specifically. link
Though predictable, it's interesting how lists of banned videos so closely track their respective cultures. MTV for example typically bans for morality and religion and personal or shock violence vs. political violence and themes. MuchMusic in Canada used to take heat for pretty much not banning anything. The most we'd usually do is throw marginal videos in late night rotation. That's evolved some as the politics have become more uptight to the point that we recently embarrassed ourselves on the world stage by briefly banning 'Money for Nothing' on the radio for the 'fagots' reference.
There's 3 short scenes of rioting: in the first the police are definitely not N.Irish. The 2nd image of a burning van could be from anywhere. The 3rd image of police in riot gear doesn't look like N.Irish police either, although it's harder to tell. Maybe the BBC thought rioting in general was fine to show, but N.Irish people rioting wasn't -- possibly because of really bad 1970s haircuts, "mexican villain" moustaches, and flared Bay City Roller tartan trousers that everyone in NI had in those days. And that's just the police: you should see how the rioters were dressed ;)