Hi
The other day I was watching Queen live in Milton Keynes on Sky Arts 1 and noticed that at the end of Save Me some high notes are played on the piano
Neither Freddie or Brian are by the piano and I don't think that Spike Edney was playing keyboard on that tour (but I could be wrong)
I know it's kind of a random question, but does anyone know who was playing the piano at the end of the song?
Thanks
xxx
Queen of the Bohemians
It was the keyboard player "Morgan Fisher", who played with queen for the European leg of the Hot Space tour. The American, leg of the tour, the Keyboard player was "Fred mandel" The story goes that "Morgan" didn't quite Gel with the band & refused to go to America, so they sent him a letter saying that they no longer needed a keyboard player, as Freddie would play for the most. ( or something like that???)
A Word In Your Ear wrote: It was the keyboard player "Morgan Fisher", who played with queen for the European leg of the Hot Space tour. The American, leg of the tour, the Keyboard player was "Fred mandel" The story goes that "Morgan" didn't quite Gel with the band & refused to go to America, so they sent him a letter saying that they no longer needed a keyboard player, as Freddie would play for the most. ( or something like that???)
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SOMETHING like that is probably correct. I think they told him that they 'didn't need a keyboard player', but then they went and hired Spike Edney...
Of course I might be wrong.
Sebastian wrote: They hired Fred Mandel. Spike would enter much later. TBH, I've never been fond of him: while he's good, Fred Mandel's waaaaaaaaay better,
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That's a rather interesting use of the words "much later". A good one-and-a-half years (Mandel had his last performance November 3rd 1982, while Edney had his first gig August 24, 1984. I presume he was hired some time before actually performing) is hardly "much later" unless you're discussing a kindergarten curriculum.
In terms of sending Morgan a telegram and then having a bloke filling in for him, Spike did come 'much later' (especially considering the band toured North America, toured Japan, took a break, went back together and recorded an album all during that gap). Compared to the average age of a healthy human, it's indeed a 'short' period (let alone compared to how old the universe is). Likewise, for a person choking or drowning, someone arriving to help afer half an hour came 'much later' (or 'too late', to be exact). So yes: it's relative.
andreas_mercury wrote:
"niether mandel or edney are any good at keyboards TBH ...."
Mandel has played with Alice Cooper, Elton John, and Supertramp... and he even played on The Wall for crying out loud. And from Spike's page on sasband.com:
"In between other Queen and SAS Band commitments, Spike has also recorded, toured and performed with other legendary artists such as: Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, The Manic Street Preachers, David Bowie, Roger Daltrey, George Michael, George Benson, Elton John, Robert Plant, Paul Stanley, Joe Walsh, Jon Lord, Slash, Bill Wyman, Peter Green, Lisa Stansfield, Def Leppard, Axl Rose, Joe Cocker, Curtis Stigers, The Beautiful South and Luciano Pavarotti."
If you're judging these guys only by the work they did with Queen, don't forget that the gig is what it is. It may not demand your best playing if that's not what the gig calls for. If you have a resume that looks like this, it should speak volumes about your abilities as a musician.
@ Bob: While I agree both Spike and Fred are good (though Fred's waaaaaaaay better), I don't think a CV necessarily 'speaks volumes' about one's ability. Should we consider John Deacon a professional percussionist because he hit the triangle once per night during some early tours?
Same case here: Spike being hired by Pavarotti... I may be wrong, but I think that's only when Luciano and Brian dueted on TMLWKY, where Spike played the piano. So, technically, it's not like Pavarotti could pick a thousand pianists and chose Spike, it's more about the guest artist picking one with enough skills to play a simple song in G Major. Hardly the same situation.
While Fred Mandel's great, most of what he played for Alice Cooper was fairly basic, so it doesn't necessarily prove he was proficient. Same for Spike and what he played for Geldof, etc.
Sir GH wrote:
"In between other Queen and SAS Band commitments, Spike has also recorded, toured and performed with other legendary artists such as: Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, The Manic Street Preachers, David Bowie, Roger Daltrey, George Michael, George Benson, Elton John, Robert Plant, Paul Stanley, Joe Walsh, Jon Lord, Slash, Bill Wyman, Peter Green, Lisa Stansfield, Def Leppard, Axl Rose, Joe Cocker, Curtis Stigers, The Beautiful South and Luciano Pavarotti."
If you're judging these guys only by the work they did with Queen, don't forget that the gig is what it is. It may not demand your best playing if that's not what the gig calls for. If you have a resume that looks like this, it should speak volumes about your abilities as a musician.
Sure, but half of the list is of artists Spike performed with as part of Queen's live band. Bowie, Daltrey, George Michael, Elton John, Robert Plant, Slash, Lisa Stansfield, Def Leppard, Axl Rose, Luciano Pavarotti etc ;)
Of course you guys are right. I never said either of them are prodigies... but their resumes at least indicate that they're far from "not any good at keyboards" as was originally claimed.