THIS IS THE LETTER THAT BRI WROTE TO THE FANS AND IT WAS PUBLISHED ON QUEENWORLD.COM
Hi Folks, Brian here.....
A HUGE MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!!!
For the first time in...well how long is it? .... we are getting ourselves in shape for...getting around to thinking about....making a start on planning a possible..... TOUR!!!!
I never thought I'd be saying this, but we were so blown away by the way Paul Rodgers sang with us at the recent UK HALL OF FAME awards (yes, I know it was a pretty crappy show, but WE were good..ha ha!!!! no false modesty here!!!!) that...we decided it would be fun to try some gigs with him. He feels the same, so there is great excitement all round. Now, before you all reach for your pens in outrage, let me say this: there's no question of "replacing Freddie". The tour will probably be billed as QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS, so there's no suggestion that he's "in Queen". But we do feel there is a good opportunity to create something new here, at the level of excellence we have always sought, and the chance to make a lot of people happy. No, we are not doing it for the money - if we had adopted that attitude we would have been out there long ago with the big guns, Elton John, or even George Michael...but though it was tempting, we never did. Somehow listening to Mr Rodgers there was a groundswell of gut feelings that "something was going on here", and in Rock and Roll there are few things as important as gut feelings. It's perhaps significant Paul Rodgers and Free were one of our greatest inspirations in the early days of Queen, and Freddie absolutely loved his singing. We used to play their songs for fun, before we really had written much of our own material, and we even modelled an early song on the FREE approach - "Hangman". It's too early to give full details, but we hope to hit a few cities around Europe (including the UK) in the spring. WATCH OUT!! if it goes well, well, who knows where we might end up.
This of course, has been one of our busiest years ever, with the imminent opening of We Will Rock You Cologne, we now have six productions around the world, all cracking on down with great casts and bands and strong production teams. It's amazing. No-one could have predicted this. And of course the "Mother Ship", our first We Will Rock You in the Dominion Tottenham Court Road, is still blazing as fiercely as ever, thanks to your massive support.
EXTRA!! Watch out for an exclusive download for Christmas - a new version of "No-One But You" produced by me, sung beautifully by the originator of the role of Meat, the brilliant Kerry Ellis, with full orchestral backdrop, plus me and Roger playing. We will be offering this exclusively on Queenonline, and hopefully we will be making some CD's (remember those old things?!) for sale at the Theatre, as well as mail order. These days the Record Business is changing so fast...it will be unrecognisable in a couple of years. Let's hope it evolves in a way which allows the musicians themselves to make enough money out of their work to feed themselves. it will not be easy.
EXTRA!! Roger's "Invincible Hope" track (studio version), written for last year's 46664 concert which we organised for nelson Mandela's AIDS in Africa crusade, will be released on an EP of four songs, by the English 46664 company. The EP will also feature Paul McCartney, who also wrote a song specially for the 46664 cause.
The future? The sky still seems to be the limit. This seems to be a time when Queen, by some miracle, is more visible than ever - thanks to the great support you give us..many thanks from us, the cottage industry called Queen, and have a wonderful Christmas season out there!!!
With Love
BRIAN
December 2004.
the_hero wrote: Hangman (live) is all over the internet
That's not what they mean... It's about possibility of them actually DOING IT on new tour... And besides- no version of Hangman is in really, REALLY (and I mean REALLY!!!) good quality...
some people say that bri & roger are waiting for John's answer (about if he is gonna tour with they)
IMO, John will stay at home, enjoyning his retirement
Please John!!!!!!!come back to the world!!!!!!!!!!
KingMercury wrote: some people say that bri & roger are waiting for John's answer (about if he is gonna tour with they)
IMO, John will stay at home, enjoyning his retirement
Please John!!!!!!!come back to the world!!!!!!!!!!
John wouldn't say 'no' after your words... He just can't do it!
Hmm! Let's wait and see the next Queen Project.. The only thing I understand And Like are THE EXTRAS... the other things are related with wait and see.... about our beloved John, he is very very quiet for now, probably if Queen + Paul Rodgers make a Mistake or a bad show, WE SURELY will read about John with the OPORTUNE opinion about Queen, as he DID with Queen+ Five or Queen+ Robbie Williams...
WAIT AND SEE.... the time will say the last word
deleted user 22.12.2004 10:25
He said something about Queen + 5ive ? Did I miss something ?