| musicland munich 20.03.2015 19:40 |
I was a bit lost into some old memorys of the mid and late 80's the past days. Thinking back of those days made me aware that my personal fandom dramatically changed. I mean back then it was " QUEEEEEEEEEEEN" and nowadays it's just "queen" :( But that change doesn't came over night. We became a gang of five Queen- Fans, we were going for camping holidays wearing band-Shirts and we also had a Queen flag waving above our tents. We meet with absolute strangers( fans) and shared our beer and grillables with them. just for the fun of it. But for us around 1994 it seemed to be all over - more or less and never came back in the old manner. Today I recognize a similar effect on various QueenCommunitys on the web.The German board is almost dead. The Fan days were cut down to a absolute minimum because the organizer is afraid of the financial risks. Of course the situation is different in the UK but in many countrys it's close to be dying of thirst (Exodus). Not a ranting...just mentioned. |
| Annette 21.03.2015 16:30 |
Maybe I can help to change the internet situation a little bit. My name is Annette and I am not only a passionate reader of your posts since several months, I am also from Germany and made the same experiences as you. My personal story is different, because I as a fan I am a late-comer and unfortunately never saw Queen live. I have never been the kind a woman that becomes easily a fan or falls in love with a musician or actor (often the female form of fandome). Not even as a teenager. I always liked Queen, but only on a greatest-hits-level. After a three hours TV documentary in german TV in 2012 my interest rose. I started reading books, downloaded the albums and more or less stopped listening to other music. What happened then is hard to describe: It wasn' t a certain moment or song, but suddently I could feel the magic you also became aware of years and decades ago.I was absolutly fascinated by the music and this didn' t change till now. I even bought high-class earphones recently that delete surrounding noise to hear it in the tube on my way to work and during lunch break in a quality this music deserves. I kept being a fan private, because I don't want to explain it to people who will never understand. But I felt more and more the need to contact with other people who feel like me. I started searching and realised exact the situation you described.I became member of the international fan club, but only found a nearly dead forum. I even joined facebook but had the same impression, a lot of you told of in another thread. I also registered on Queen online a few days ago. It is also rather quiet, but I like it. Hope there isn't a rivalry between this two forums. You didn't know it, but you were a great help and pleasure for me during the last month and I thank you all for the profound and high-level discussions that I secretly could read. It was the best apprenticeship one can get. I registered some weeks ago, but didn' t dare to post because I was a bit frightend if I would fit in a group with such a huge knowledge. When reading your worries about the increasing quiteness or even death of communication, I decided that it is time to stop these silly thoughts. So I am here and would lke to help to stop communication from dying. I hope you agee, that being a fan means to feel and to live Queen with passion, regardless the number of years one does so. |
| musicland munich 22.03.2015 03:09 |
^ Dear Annette, I can understand your behavior very well. As far I remember the German Board Queenfcg.de still has around 1000 registred members. A group of maybe a dozen people still doing postings. The Administrator is doing his best with posting "news", but the content is sometimes very very poor. So signing in to QZ was a good move instead of just lurking around here. You're welcome :) I think you've maybe noticed that but QZ C-A-N be a place of some unpleasentries and fightings because of a lack in moderation and a gang of "Trolls". The guys and girls here will be a bit carefull with Newbies, we had another case of someone who "trolls" the board with his stupidity. Check out the "sharing the music" section, you will find links to download Queen Live Bootlegs and performances in TV etc. As for the situation of any further fan days. I think that there is no turnig back to a situation that can be compared to the late 80 or early 90's. Life changed but as I said in my original post I don't wanna do a ranting here. Just speaking right from the heart. |
| Sebastian 22.03.2015 04:57 |
Children tend to idolise and idealise their parents. To their eyes, they're absolutely perfect and the undisputable best at everything. They're essentially superheroes or semigods. Puberty kicks in, and from then on parents start to change: they switch from role models to enemies to party-poopers to embarrassing to 'lame' to annoying to wise to walking cashpoints to sitcom antagonist to good/bad coppers to mates to therapists to mentors to demons, and they keep moving around all the spectrum, sometimes simultaneously representing several archetypes. When someone becomes a 'fan' of, in this case, a rock band, that's in many ways a way to infantilise oneself and return to that 'safety' of seeing someone else as a superhero. The difference is, in this case, there's no time limit: plenty of people remain 'babies' for a lifetime. Just see how many are willing to issue death threats to anyone who dares questioning their idol's alleged perfection. QZ, for all its faults, has some big advantages: its main attraction is its forum, which encourages discussion and debate instead of pointless worship. Plenty of fans (though I utterly hate that word especially for this context) are neither idealising nor demonising them and have learnt to humanise them. Fortunately, even though there are still many who refuse to grow up (and will continue to do so), the amount of people who've reached that 'maturity' has increased. So yeah, there'll always be those willing to kill each other because someone said Roger couldn't have composed 'Innuendo' (true story, I did receive loads of threats when I had my website just because of that), but then there are just as many who would think about it and either agree or disagree without taking it out of proportion. So, (mis?)quoting Mr Bowie, 'turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes.' |
| Annette 22.03.2015 05:06 |
Thank you for the welcome and for the recommondation of the 'sharing the music' section. I agree that it is not useful to be sad that good times passed by. I am also glad that situations, events, my own behaviour etc. had happened and don' t cry because it is over. That is what I think sometimes when I regret that I never saw Queen live. Recently the UCI cinemas showed Rock Montreal and watching it on the huge screen and in surrounding sound, I got a glimpse of the athmosphere. It must have been so wonderful. I am happy that it happened and I got the chance to see it on film or listen to the albums and to have my very own fantasies and dreams about the concerts. Thanks also for mentioning the tone. I noticed that it becomes rough sometimes and think the reasons are the lack of moderation and the long periode most of you know each other. If people are familiar to each other, they often talk in a language, that may seem odd to strangers. And if it is a discussion about themes everybody feels strong about, I understand that one has a strong position. I am conscious that my desire for contact and discussion affords sometimes tolerance and decided to stay strictly out of this discussions. I couldn' t even manage them in a language that is not my native one. I hope everybody is gentle with me and believes, that I feel as serious about Queen as the ones who are fans since decades and will never jugde my questions or my not so huge base of knowlegde as stupidty.I am really interested and want to develop my knowledge. Years ago, I have been to a not Queen-related forum mainly used by women. You would not know about the tone and the language of these girls. 'Fight of cats' will hopefully be the right translation for what we both know as 'Zickenkrieg'. Unfortunatly internet communications sometimes tend to be much harder than face-to-face talk. |
| Annette 22.03.2015 05:37 |
sorry, Sebastian I adressed the reply above to musicland. My computer didn' t update your post and I saw it just after replieing to musicland. You are absolutly right. Even if there might be some not so grown-up members here, Queenzone seemed to me the most serious place to talk in an adult manner about Queen. That is what I want. When I joined facebook some days ago I was shocked that so many (often rather aged) woman seem to be in love with members of the band. Silly, sticky texts like "My Roger" or photos with captions like "can' t stop looking in the eyes of Freddie" were mentioned and liked more than the few serious topics. That is not the kind of woman I am and absolutly not that kind of fan, I would like to be. Because of my lack of live experience, I sometimes fantasize how I it may have been in reality (see above post), but I always do it in an adult way.If I ever show some kind of childish, intolerant behaviour, please correct me / save me from making myself ridiculous. :-) |
| Chief Mouse 22.03.2015 06:17 |
Annette, you seem reasonable :-) Welcome! Please do participate in discussions, every opinion is welcome unless you start being like those people Sebastian described. |
| musicland munich 22.03.2015 06:21 |
Annette wrote: ... questions or my not so huge base of knowlegde as stupidty.I am really interested and want to develop my knowledge. .Oh, I wasn't referring to somebodys individual knowledge about the band. People come here and doing "fakes", wich has taken place on this board lately. Somebody claimed to release an actually unreleased show. But it turns out he's just a well known cheater on this forum. That's why I've mentioned "stupidity" ...or in German " Lügner und Betrüger"...so be aware ;) |
| Annette 22.03.2015 15:07 |
@ Chief Mouse, thank you for welcoming me. I' ll be aware of the ones Sebastian described. To my impression you are one of the most active members. May I ask you to give a hint if I fall in a trap without noticing it myself. @ Musicland, I really didn' t understand it. But now its clear. |
| tomchristie22 22.03.2015 23:30 |
Sebastian wrote: So, (mis?)quoting Mr Bowie, 'turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes.''Strange' is correct - the 'strain' or 'strange' debate is settled by the following anecdote which was posted on his official website some time ago: "...we were singing 'Changes' for the purposes of a sound-check. When we reached the chorus David stopped the band, walked over to Gui and me, and asked us to sing our part. We duly obliged. David doubled up with laughter. For two-and-a-half months we had been singing 'turn and face the strain' instead of 'turn and face the strange'. From then on, every time we performed that song David would stick his arse out towards us and make like he was trying to squeeze one out, which would make us both laugh and fluff the line even worse." The reason it's so hard to tell is because the word 'strange' overlaps with 'Ch-ch-changes', so the 'Ch' sounds mask the 'g' sound, meaning it's near impossible to tell if the 'g' sound is actually there. |
| CPL593h 23.03.2015 09:29 |
Hi, I'm new here too, I've been lurking the forums for months and finally decided to post my first message a few months ago. Since then, I sometimes post a message when I like a topic. I can feel that this forum isn't what it used to be, but it still by far the best thing I've discovered in ages related to Queen. I think that what brought me here for the first time was a search for a good version of Hammy'75. Boy what I found here in terms of live recordings was a real slap in my face. I'm a bit sad not to have discovered QueenZone 10 years ago or more, I would have loved be a part of the long archived topics. And I was able to speak English a lot better than now: I've lost a lot by not practicing the last few years. I'm 38 -- I was born when the guys were recording ADATR -- and I live in Belgium. I've been a Queen fan since the age of 14 of 15, thanks to a friend who made me a mixtape that hooked me instantly. My "fanship" is contemporary to Freddie by only one year. Of course, I've never had the chance to see them live (I was 10 when they gave their '86 Knebworth gig). I've never been a fan of any other band as I am a fan for Queen... I have been a Zeppelin fan in my teenage years, a David Bowie fan in my late '20s, a Roxy Music fan (hence my screen name here) in my early 30's and a few years ago, I was very interested in Brian Wilson's work. I still like all of them, but wouldn't call me a "long term fan" of any of them. Contrast that with the fact that I've been a Queen fan for more or less a quarter of a century, without interruption. For me, Queen has something really unique, that I really can't explain. I can relate to a lot of things Annette said, especially when she talks about "adult fans". I've never been the kind of proselytising fan, always kept it more or less for myself (it's sometimes a bit of a burden to my wife, but well...). I keep being shy posting here, since a few of you have been here for more than a decade and have a more than encyclopedic knowledge of Queen: my personal knowledge is not bad at all, but with the likes of Sebastian or Wizard here, you have to check your facts twice before posting! So... I never took the time to introduce myself, and thought it was a good topic to do so. Welcome Annette! |
| hobbit in Rhye 23.03.2015 13:04 |
Welcome Annette, CPL593h and all the new QZers (that makes me feel old). Don't let the encyclopedia scare you away, there're still lots of silly tarts like me roaming in here: I like discussions, but I also love and hate and worship and gossip, I refuse to grow up (though not in the sense that Sebastian meant). I need you guys. |
| Annette 23.03.2015 16:44 |
@ hobbit-in-RhyeThank you for welcoming me. I feel already familiar and am absolutely convinced now that is was the right decision to come here and not waste time on other sides where some ladies still dive "in the deeeeeeep blue ocean of Roger Taylors eyes". Probably in search for their brain .... There is no need to feel old. Being a baby-fan (not in the way Sebastian meant) can also happen when the time you were a real baby is long ago. In one of the books it was mentioned (maybe by Phil Sutcliffe) that Freddies life seemed to begin when the Bulsaras came to London in 1964. My life began in the same year, I am born at the end of october1964. @CPL593h, it is great not being the only newbie. I had the same fears of the huge knowledge of most of the members here and also wondered if I could handle discussions in english. But then I thought Queen were four guys with open-minded characters who never refused to make new experiences and meet new people, so real fans would be the same. And so it is. @Tomchristie22, I don' t know anything about David Bowie (except a litte bit about his work with Queen) but always thought he was that distant kind of rock star that is beyond reach. "David would stick his arse out and ....... trying to squeeze one out." just changed that image. He seems to have a good sense of humour. |
| musicland munich 24.03.2015 11:30 |
CPL593h wrote: ...encyclopedic knowledge of Queen: my personal knowledge is not bad at all, but with the likes of Sebastian or Wizard here, you have to check your facts twice before posting! So... I never took the time to introduce myself, and thought it was a good topic to do so. Welcome Annette!Welcome :) And a good thing that there are people like Seb and Wiz, wonder what mystery about Queen people would imagine and post here if they don't receiving some ratio and facts from those guys :) |
| winterspelt 25.03.2015 00:49 |
Nice to see some new members, welcome! (Yeah, totally offtopic, but still, welcome!) |
| tomchristie22 25.03.2015 02:10 |
Annette wrote: @Tomchristie22, I don' t know anything about David Bowie (except a litte bit about his work with Queen) but always thought he was that distant kind of rock star that is beyond reach. "David would stick his arse out and ....... trying to squeeze one out." just changed that image. He seems to have a good sense of humour.Haha, indeed. The fact that he's assumed so many different personas, some of them literally from out of this world probably contributes to that out of reach sort of vibe. |