I have a question. How was the edition of this lp? I mean, it was edited by the label Band of Joy, under licenced of EMI.
But, how was the idea to put out this record? etc...
Just my personal memorys...to me "At the Beeb" (CD) came surprisingly. Like someone put it in the shelfs in a secret manner.I can't remember an advertising campaign for that album in Germany.
Yep, I discovered it while browsing a record shop, I was a massive Queen fan but knew nothing about it until I actually picked it up off a shelf.
I think the LP is a great release though.
My sister gave me as a birthday present, At the bbc (hollywood records), in 1997 or so, when I was a teenager., Allways was interesd in the record story.
I remember stumbling across At the Beeb in a used record shop in Wilmington, DE back in 89. I though it was a live bootleg & snatched it up, At the time I knew nothing about the BBC recordings, I loved its raw, live sound.
I still own the vinyl testpress for this one with a slightly alternate front sleeve and an incomplete back sleeve.
Nice release. I always considered it to be part of Queen's discography until many years later.
It IS part of their discography! Even if it is out of print now. But is it?! I don't recall hearing anything about that. I have no idea if some company goes out of business if something like that goes out of print as well or not. The reason I think only eight songs were released were because one that's all that is needed for a full l.p. so they decided to take their time releasing those recordings so they could do more in the future. Plus I think at the time it was something for the fans while they were realizing that they probably were not going to be touring much if at all again at that point as a four piece with the four original members. It was just they could not say that at the time. I think it is a classic as it is as a stand alone compilation...and a studio l.p. at the same time.
I think it's also fair to say at the time Band Of Joy had access to the sessions there were a couple that were considered lost, and rather than duplicate songs they chose the 2 sessions quite wisely. The UK 'Beeb' cover is great. Unusual, but I love it. Even the weird sleevenotes are cool. I borrowed my mate's cassette version when it was first out and was dead jealous of it!
They released quite a few other collections of BBC sessions from other bands which were 20 tracks or something - I guess the Queen one was part of their whole late 80s archival project (Magic Years etc) and a good stopgap release. A shame, if it came out even a year later, I think it would've been a better release with more packaging and tracks, but as it is, it was one which gave me much happiness.