Queen + Paul Rodgers

Infobox musical artist
Name = Queen + Paul Rodgers


Img_capt = Queen + Paul Rodgers at the NEC, Birmingham, 5/6/05.
l-r: Danny Miranda, Roger Taylor, Brian May, Jamie Moses and Paul Rodgers.
Img_size = 250 px
Landscape = yes
Background = group_or_band
Origin = England
Genre = Rock, Hard rock
Years_active = 2004 – present
Label = Hollywood Records (US/Canada)
Parlophone (rest of the world)
Associated_acts = Queen, Bad Company, Free, Smile, The Cross
URL = [http://www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com Official Site]
Current_members = Brian May (Queen) Roger Taylor (Queen) Paul Rodgers Additional musicians: Spike Edney Danny Miranda Jamie Moses
Past_members = The Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration began in late 2004 when Queen were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Guitarist Brian May had previously performed with Paul Rodgers (formerly of Bad Company, Free, The Firm and The Law) on several occasions, including at the Royal Albert Hall.
Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen, and Brian May have been active in the music industry since the death of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991 and the retirement of bassist John Deacon at the end of the 1990s.

Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers are the principal members of the band, supplemented on tour by Queen's former touring keyboard player Spike Edney (who had also been a member of Roger Taylor's band The Cross and Brian May's line-up, where he supplied piano/keyboards and backing vocals, and had indeed provided additional piano on Queen's "A Kind of Magic" album and played live with them on the subsequent Magic Tour in 1986), rhythm guitarist Jamie Moses (formerly of Merlin, The Pretenders, The Hollies and the Brian May Band), bassist Danny Miranda (formerly of Blue Öyster Cult and the Las Vegas production of the "We Will Rock You" musical).

Beginnings

The origins of the collaboration came when Brian May played at the Fender Strat Pack concert in 2004. As he had done so many times before (but beforehand nothing really happened as far as Queen were concerned), he joined Paul Rodgers for a rendition of Free's classic, "All Right Now". After this Brian spoke of a chemistry between the two of them. Following this, Brian invited Paul to play with Queen at their induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame where they played "We Will Rock You", "We Are The Champions" and "All Right Now". Again citing a new excitement with Rodgers, the three announced their world tour in 2005.

2005-06 Tour

The group's first public performance was at a concert in South Africa in March 2005 in support of Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS awareness campaign. The tour began properly with a concert at the Brixton Academy venue in London, with tickets sold primarily to members of the official Queen fan club. An arena tour of Europe followed in the spring of 2005, with dates at venues such as Wembley Arena, Cardiff International Arena and Le Zenith in France. Four outdoor stadium dates were scheduled for the first time in Portugal at Estadio do Restelo (Att: 30.000), at Rhein-Energie Stadion in Cologne, Germany (Att:27.500), Gelredome in Arnhem, the Netherlands (Att:25.000) and at Hyde Park in the UK (Att:65.000) in the summer of 2005.

The Estadio do Restelo concert took place on the 2 July 2005. The Queen + Paul Rodgers concert was planned to be one of the stages for Live 8 but only a message was sent before "'39". Two songs were dedicated to Live 8 - "Say It's Not True", a song by Roger Taylor for Nelson Mandela's fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and was introduced by Roger in Lisbon: "This is a song from Nelson Mandela and for HIV/AIDS Africa, especially today on Live 8 day. This is a song to Lisbon." After this song Brian May dedicated "'39" to Bob Geldof and introduced the song "Olá Lisboa! I would like to make a salute to all our comrades and friends who are doing such a wonderful job and trying that children through out the world are no longer hungry, let's make a big noise for Bob Geldof and Live 8". The Hyde Park concert took place on the 15 July 2005. The band and management gave away thousands of free tickets to emergency services people for helping in the aftermath of the July 7th London bombings which caused the concert to be postponed by a week. British comedian Peter Kay, who had also appeared during the encore at their Manchester gig in May of that year, warmed the crowd up, with the band Razorlight serving as the support act. The concert was attended by some 65,000 people and Queen + Paul Rodgers performed for over 2 hours.

A typical set list mainly focused on Queen's best-known hits, with songs such as "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". In an interview that was published in the San Jose Mercury News, Paul Rodgers stated that the one song they would not be able play while on tour is "Killer Queen" due to the fact that: "the melodies are just too on the spot." The typical set also included some songs from the back catalogues of Free and Bad Company, such as "All Right Now", "Wishing Well", "Feel Like Making Love", and "Bad Company". Brian May and Roger Taylor sang lead on some songs. May: "Hammer to Fall" (the first part only), "Love of My Life", "'39" (which he sang lead on the studio version originally). Taylor: "Radio Ga Ga" (Both verses and first two choruses), "These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Say It's Not True" (a new song) and "I'm in Love with My Car" (which he sang lead on the studio version originally as well). He would often leave the drum kit (the exception being "I'm in Love with My Car") while a drum machine played on "Radio Ga Ga" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives". For "Say It's Not True", he would be accompanied by auxiliary band members Danny Miranda and Jamie Moses who both played acoustic guitars (except for the 46664 concert, in which Roger was accompanied by Brian and Jamie - which was the only time Brian played guitar on this song during the tour).

In addition to well known favourites and hits, there were a number of occasional 'surprise' additions to the setlist, including: "I Was Born to Love You" (Japan only), "Imagine" (John Lennon cover, Hyde Park only), "Teo Torriatte" (Japan only), "Too Much Love Will Kill You" (feat. Katie Melua, South Africa only), '"Long Away" (selected shows only), "Tavaszi Szel" (Budapest only) and "Let There Be Drums" (Sandy Nelson cover performed at most gigs). "Sunshine of Your Love" was played in Newcastle as testament to the Cream reunion gig in London going on at the same time (3rd May). Brian May was present at that show the night before, which possibly inspired him to do it (2nd May). The band also added "Dragon Attack" to a number of shows on the 2006 North American tour.

Queen + Paul Rodgers followed the European tour with a series of performances in the fall of 2005, in such diverse locations as Aruba, Japan and the United States of America. Slash, former lead guitarist of the band Guns N' Roses and currently of Velvet Revolver, joined the band onstage for "Can't Get Enough" during their show at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, the second of their two-show trial run in North America (22nd October 2005).

In the winter/spring of 2006, Queen + Paul Rodgers played a 23-date tour of North America. The tour started at the American Airlines Arena in Miami (first Florida date since 1978, first USA shows since 1982) and ended with a sold-out performance in Vancouver, Canada (where they also, among other surprises that occurred during the show, covered the Jimi Hendrix song "Red House" - the "only" performance of this song on the tour).

On June 27th, 2008, Queen + Paul Rodgers performed at Hyde Park in London for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration. The performance included a portion of "One Vision", "Tie Your Mother Down", "Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", and "All Right Now".

2008-09 Tour

The tour kicked off on 12 September at the Freedom Square in Kharkiv and will continue through Europe, Middle East-South America and North America.

The concert kicked off at 19.15 and started with "One Vision", with the opening sampled from the Live at Wembley '86 concert, followed by "Tie Your Mother Down", "The Show Must Go On", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Another One Bites the Dust", "Hammer To Fall", "I Want It All", "I Want To Break Free", "A Kind Of Magic", "Seagull", "Love Of My Life", "'39", "I'm In Love With My Car", "Say It's Not True", "Wishing Well", "Shooting Star", "Bad Company", "Bijou", "Last Horizon", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "C-lebrity", "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Radio Ga Ga", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Cosmos Rockin'", "All Right Now", "We Will Rock" You and "We Are The Champions".

The concert is was organized by Elena Franchuk's Anti-AIDS Fund. There was an attendance of 350 000 people.

Other performances

Queen + Paul Rodgers appeared on "Al Murray's Happy Hour" in April (2008) performing "C-lebrity" for the first time from their debut album "The Cosmos Rocks".

Media releases

Queen + Paul Rodgers released a single for World AIDS Day (December 1) in 2007. The track, "Say It's Not True", written by Roger Taylor became first available for free download on www.queenonline.com, www.46664.com, www.46664global.com, www.paulrodgers.com and www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com on November 30, and was subsequently released as a proper CD single on December 31.

Previously, Queen + Paul Rodgers have released a live CD called "Return of the Champions" and a DVD of the same name. Both featured recordings from their Sheffield Hallam FM Arena concert on 9 May 2005. The DVD also features a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" from Hyde Park. A single featuring "Reaching Out"/"Tie Your Mother Down"/"Fat Bottomed Girls" was also released. In addition, an American promo featuring two tracks taken from the Italian leg of the European tour was available with some copies of "Return of the Champions".

Soundboard recordings exist of all European shows, except those in Ireland and Sweden. Sheffield, Lisbon, Hyde Park and possibly Budapest concerts were professionally filmed. The Tokyo show on October 26, 2005 was also professionally filmed and televised, and later released on DVD exclusively in Japan in April 2006, entitled "Super Live in Japan". Many soundboard recordings of tracks were released for download on the Queen official website, with blank Q+PR CD-Rs to burn these tracks available for purchase.

Also there are many bootlegs from nearly every show of the 2005/2006 tour in audio, and some video.

Discography

ingles

; from "Return of the Champions":
* "Reaching Out+Tie Your Mother Down" / "Fat Bottomed Girls" - CD & Online Download Single (CD Single in Europe only) - #39 UK (Download chart); non-album singles:
*"Live in Italy" - Promo CD Single 2005 (Italy) (featuring "Seagull" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" from two dates in Italy)
*"Bohemian Rhapsody (Live At Hyde Park)" - Online Download Single; from "The Cosmos Rocks":
*"Say It's Not True" - CD Single - #90 UK
*"C-lebrity" - CD & Online Download Single - #33 UK Pop Singles Chart, #1 UK Rock Singles Chart

tudio albums

*"The Cosmos Rocks" - CD, 2008 - #5 UK

Live albums

*"Return of the Champions" - CD, 2005 - #12 UK

DVDs

*"Return of the Champions" - DVD, 2005
*"Super Live in Japan" - DVD, 2006 (Japan)

External links

* [http://www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com/ Queen + Paul Rodgers official site]
* [http://www.brianmay.com/ Brian May's official site]
* [http://www.paulrodgers.com Official Paul Rodgers site]