Queen recently launched a new exhibition in Montreux, Switzerland entitled The Studio Experience, and fans have created a 3-part video feature on the opening gala and a tour of the facility.
Located in the original Mountain Studios (as part of the Casino Barrière de Montreux), the exhibition charts the band's association with the studios, their personal relationship with the Swiss town, and the albums that were written and recorded there between 1978 – 1995.
Queen: The Studio Experience highlights Freddie Mercury’s personal ties with Montreux and the studio where in his final months Freddie would spend as much time as his health would allow, recording his very last vocal tracks.
An extensive display of memorabilia from the original studio and from the band’s personal archives of the period are featured, including original Queen handwritten song lyrics, band members’ own instruments and costumes, studio tape boxes - many showing the original and subsequently changed titles of tracks, as well as combining specially created interactive audio and visual environments.
The exhibition’s centrepiece is the original control room used by the band and where Freddie recorded his final vocals, complete with the actual microphone used in those sessions. Visitors are even given the opportunity to sit in the very studio chair Freddie used in those final days of recording, and to take control of legendary producer/engineer David Richards’ mixing desk to create custom mixes of Queen tracks.
Mercury left Montreux for the last time on November 10, 1991, passing away in London exactly two weeks later, on the evening of Sunday November 24. His last work recorded there appeared on the band’s last album “Made in Heaven”, November 1995; it became one of Queen’s biggest-selling albums, reaching sales of more than 20 million units across the world.
Admission to Queen: The Studio Experience is free with donations going to The Mercury Phoenix Trust and received with thanks.
For details, visit queenstudioexperience.com link