| Serry... 20.11.2004 18:15 |
Does anybody know any obvious reasons why during 'Hot Space Tour' Morgan Fisher was replaced by Fred Mandel and later for 'The Works Tour' Mr Mandel was replaced by Spike Edney, though Fred helped Queen with the recording of the album? P.S. For newbies and QZers who haven't hear about those guys: Fisher, Mandel and Edney were additional keyboard players (Spike played guitar on 'Hammer To Fall' as well) during Queen's 1982-1986 concerts and helped Queen in the studio for some tracks. |
| Sebastian 20.11.2004 23:01 |
Morgan had fear of planes, so they had to replace him unless he was willing to swim all the way to USA :) Fred Mandel quit right after finishing recording The Works because he was hired by Elton John. Still he played piano, synth and guitar in the Mr. Bad Guy album, which was still on working process, so that shows his friendship with Freddie (at least) hadn't been affected. Spike never quit because he got along well with the guys, even though imo the other two were better keyboard players than him. But to play one chord per bar in Ga Ga you don't need a virtuoso |
| Zizzu 21.11.2004 06:48 |
Sebastian wrote: Spike never quit because he got along well with the guys, even though imo the other two were better keyboard players than him. But to play one chord per bar in Ga Ga you don't need a virtuosoI'm agree. Enspecially Fred was a very good pianist (listen to Living on my own or Crazy little live in Japan 82, I think the best version I've ever heard). Spike was a keybord-man, not a piano-player. |
| gabriel79 21.11.2004 12:55 |
spike played even on a kind of magic(the song) in budapest(in john solo you can also hear a piano)? i hear a piano but nobody is playing so i believe it's spike who is playing somewhere |
| deleted user 21.11.2004 12:58 |
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| gabriel79 21.11.2004 13:36 |
Philipp Nothaft wrote: Hardly a discovery. The same applies to many other songs from that tour.who plays?spike or a computer? |
| deleted user 21.11.2004 17:15 |
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| deleted user 21.11.2004 23:27 |
gabriel79 wrote: who plays?spike or a computer?They never played any computer programmed songs on concerts because they deemed it too risky. |
| Mr. Scully 22.11.2004 03:49 |
Fred Mandel had apparently fear of foreign countries, in Japan he stayed in his hotel room 99% of time (except for the concerts, of course). |
| Serry... 22.11.2004 07:24 |
Morgan fears of planes, Fred of foreign countries - what a great band could be if'd put them altogether (with Spike... I don't know what he afraids of) :) |
| gabriel79 22.11.2004 07:47 |
Philipp Nothaft wrote: Spike, of course. There's keyboards in nearly every song.and why in some songs he is on stage and some others he'is off stage playing? |
| Serry... 22.11.2004 08:16 |
He was on stage during 'Tutti Frutti', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and for play guitar on 'Hammer To Fall', for the rest of the songs he wasn't, but he played keyboards and didn't have to be on stage for it. |
| gabriel79 22.11.2004 09:13 |
Serry Funster wrote: He was on stage during 'Tutti Frutti', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and for play guitar on 'Hammer To Fall', for the rest of the songs he wasn't, but he played keyboards and didn't have to be on stage for it.the question is:why in some songs is on stage and in some others is off stage? queen didn' t want the others to see that they a fifth member to play live? |
| deleted user 22.11.2004 09:29 |
He was on stage all the time (in one corner, that is). It's the videos that give the impression of him being absent, because the cameras ignored his keyboard-booth (except for one short bit in the Budapest-vid). Of course they kept him low profile, because he obviously wasn't part of Queen as such. That doesn't mean he was hidden though. I'd risk the claim that to any person with a pair of functioning ears it was more than obvious that there was a fifth person playing, even if he couldn't be seen that often (and I'm sure he appears in the tour programmes...?). I mean, their use of keyboards wasn't really that subtle during their later tours and they're quite clearly live. I doubt a computer program could have pulled off all that varied keyboard stuff in exactly the same way (and in a live situation), especially the vocoder-stuff Spike does in One Vision and Radio Ga Ga. |
| YourValentine 22.11.2004 09:58 |
I don't know where this story about Morgan Fisher being "afraid of planes" comes from but it looks like an urban myth, really. He already had a band with Tim Staffel and then played for Mott The Hoople - that's where the Queen connection comes from. Parts of his biography (official website): 1981-84: Played keyboards on Queen’s 1982 tour of Europe, then travelled in India, Europe and USA. 1985-88: Moved to Japan and built The Handmade Studio. Recorded ambient albums (“Look at Life”, “Inside Satie”, “Water Music”, “Flow Overflow”, “Life Under The Floor”, “Peace in the Heart of the City”) and music for art videos, films and television. A lot of travelling for someone with a fear of flying. |
| Sebastian 22.11.2004 10:02 |
Maybe he got over his fear by travelling to India :) Yes, good point, it can be an urban legend like Paul's death, although not such a controversial one. |
| deleted user 22.11.2004 13:13 |
And why the heck is Morgan Fisher wearing that HORRIBLE pink jumpsuit? He looks like he came out of the asylum for loony faggots... |
| YourValentine 22.11.2004 14:52 |
Look at the picture displayed on the QZ main page at the momennt - Freddie seemed to like it :) - but then he was a "faggot" himself, right? |
| Serry... 22.11.2004 16:48 |
gabriel79 wrote:'On stage' - I mean that he could be seen on the video. He was on stage for whole show, watch carefully for Magic Tour videos and you'd see him.Serry Funster wrote: He was on stage during 'Tutti Frutti', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and for play guitar on 'Hammer To Fall', for the rest of the songs he wasn't, but he played keyboards and didn't have to be on stage for it.the question is:why in some songs is on stage and in some others is off stage? queen didn' t want the others to see that they a fifth member to play live? |
| deleted user 22.11.2004 19:00 |
YourValentine wrote: Look at the picture displayed on the QZ main page at the momennt - Freddie seemed to like it :) - but then he was a "faggot" himself, right?I forgot that bit down there huh! ;-) |
| akindofmagic 23.11.2004 00:34 |
What about Mike Moran?never happened on Queen's history? As a matter of fact he shadowed Spike on late 80's early 90's, playing on Queen and Solo albums, on Freddie's tribute and even replecing Spike on The Cross! |
| Serry... 23.11.2004 09:09 |
On Tritbute he played on just one song (Somebody To Love) as I remember, and Spike played on that show too, but for most of the songs. In my opinion, Mike was more than just a session-musician and he didn't work with Queen so much as Spike did. He composed songs for 'Barcelona', he's a great arranger - Spike's job was a little bit different. |
| Sebastian 23.11.2004 09:29 |
Yes Queen music is not for piano virtuosos. It'd be like hiring Yo-Yo-Ma. A great musician, but there's no sace for his instrument in a Queen song. Or maybe some very simple stuff, that would make him waste his talent. Although imo they're wasting Jamie Moses. He had a great time in Brian's solo tours - he got to sing amazing harmonies, play the solo of Let Your Heart Rule Your Head, do a duel with Brian in Resurrection, play the great acoustic solo of Another World, and join Brian for some two-part lead stuff (e.g. Back To The Light). In those "Queen" concerts of last years all he does is one-chord-per-bar in Ga Ga and imitate the bass-line in Tie Your Mother Down. Such a talented person, what a waste. |
| GiantSpider 23.11.2004 11:41 |
Spike get's a mention in the Live At Wembley DVD booklet (Adition Guitars, Keyboards & Vocals:Spike Edney(He's the one doing the mistimed "It's A Kind Of Magic"'s)) Brian Intrudeces him at the FM tribute & doesn't Mike Moran. He was Fred's manager: not Queen's. |
| deleted user 23.11.2004 15:12 |
Sebastian wrote: Although imo they're wasting Jamie Moses. He had a great time in Brian's solo tours - he got to sing amazing harmonies, play the solo of Let Your Heart Rule Your Head, do a duel with Brian in Resurrection, play the great acoustic solo of Another World, and join Brian for some two-part lead stuff (e.g. Back To The Light). In those "Queen" concerts of last years all he does is one-chord-per-bar in Ga Ga and imitate the bass-line in Tie Your Mother Down. Such a talented person, what a waste.IMO (and I risk the claim that many pro musicians would agree) you can't waste a good musician. It's not a question of what you play, but how you play it. Every lick can be a challenge. A good musician is always gonna be brill, no matter how simple his riffs. Rhythm guitar is fundamental. You will need a good guitar-player if you want some half-decent rhythm guitar. Brian knows this and so he will hardly hire anyone less proficient than Jamie Moses to do rhythm stuff. Judging from your point, any guitarist that Brian might possibly hire would be a waste of talent, because they'd all be pretty good. He would hardly take a shite guitarist. If Jamie Moses would consider his job as boring or not worthy of his talent, he wouldn't do it. No-one forced him to play just rhythm with "The Cross" in 1999, either. And Jamie Moses may be a good player, no doubt, but he's certainly not beyond the skill of many other guitar-players. I don't think he's too good for his job. In fact, no-one is too good to play rhythm. However, there are many self-satisfied fretboard-masturbators who suck at playing rhythm. Lead guitar is overrated. |
| Sebastian 24.11.2004 03:16 |
Yes I agree that rhythm guitar isn't the "scale down from lead guitar" as many people think. I should have added that, for instance, Jamie played very interesting rhythm stuff too, it wasn't only his leads in China Belle and others: in Tear It Up he got to play the guitar alone most of time, in Fat Bots he was the only one playing during second verse, etc. The interactivity between the two guitar players was great. They were both lead and they were both rhythm. The way you put it makes a lot of sense: to enjoy a good car you don't need to always be in fifth gear. But, you can't enjoy it either if you just use the first. For that matter you can buy a bicycle. |