Queen 'Keep Yourself Alive' demo tape hits the auction block

It is the recording that started it all; the one that introduced Queen to America and the one that was used for their first-ever radio play in 1973.


October 2019 - Backstage Auctions is honored to present this rare and one of a kind piece of Queen history in their upcoming Rock and Pop Auction event. “It’s truly a privilege to have Queen’s 1973 demo tape featured in our auction and to give fans and collectors around the world the opportunity to own this Holy Grail piece of music history,” explains Backstage Auctions founder Jacques van Gool.  

The history of the tape and how it became Queen’s introduction to America as well as all the individuals that made it happen is quite remarkable.  Elektra Records founder and president Jac Holzman received the 1973 Queen 'Keep Yourself Alive' demo from the bands' manager Norman Sheffield in the hope that he would sign them to his label for the US markets. Enthused about the band and their potential, Holzman went to see Queen perform at the infamous London Marquee and subsequently signed Queen to Elektra Records. This is when Holtzman issued his company wide memo "I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE OF POP MUSIC AND IT IS QUEEN" which everyone promptly threw into the trash except for the local promo man in Boston, Ric Aliberte.

The single ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ was released in October 1973. Aliberte right away took the 45 to WBCN-FM 's Maxanne Sartori.  Sartori wanted to broadcast it on her show but Program Director Norm Wiener insisted all new music be played using 15-IPS tape only, as he wanted the sound of WBCN-FM to be pristine. Aliberte requested the tape and the only copy available was Jac Holtzman's copy. As Holtzman had just sold Elektra Records and left the company, Ruth Manning, the New York Elektra office manager, gave Aliberte the ONLY copy she had; Holtzman's copy!

Aliberte brought the tape to WBCN-FM and Sartori immediately played it three times a day on her show. Soon Queen was a station favorite and all the DJ's started to spin multiple tracks from the now released vinyl LP. Aliberte retrieved the tape from the station and has had it ever since. This recording has been carefully preserved by Aliberte for the past 46 years and he recently showed it to Brian May, who graciously signed the back of the box. “Brian couldn’t believe that I still had the tape, he recalled the story very well,” says Aliberte. 

The tape was recently evaluated at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles by former VP and studio head Michael Frondelli, a famous engineer and producer in his own right, to check the quality. It turns out to be in perfect condition with the original alignment tones for accurate playback at the top of the reel.

To quote Michael Frondelli "In my 40 years as a recording engineer and producer, 9 years at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios and as the former VP for Capitol Records Studios for 11 years, I have never seen or even heard of an analog tape ever being sent to a label or radio station, let alone one with alignment tones with this ‘Master’ quality. This so-called demo was truly a master deal closer. I see this as historical evidence of a truly confident, brilliant artist strategy!"

Fans and collectors worldwide can participate in the auction hosted by Backstage Auctions. The item can currently be previewed online now and the online auction bidding will run from October 19, 2019 through October 27, 2019.

Learn more here: Queen 1973 Original Demo Tape

For more information and to register for your VIP All Access Pass for The Rock and Pop 2019 Auction visit:  www.backstageauctions.com 

DVD Review: Queen – A Night At The Odeon, Live At Hammersmith '75

DVD Review: Queen – A Night At The Odeon, Live At Hammersmith '75
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: A

Queen - A Night At The Odeon,
Live At Hammersmith '75 2015

Fog machines on full blast, the stage at the grand old Hammersmith Odeon was immersed in clouds of billowing smoke. Colorful lights circled about, as Queen strutted and preened through the bombastic epic "In the Lap of the Gods ... Revisited" like luminous peacocks in satin suits.

And when they were done, blue balloons and festive streamers fell from the rafters on an ecstatic audience begging for more. Even the toy sex doll seen surfing the crowd seemed to want an encore. And she got one.

Far from spent, on Christmas Eve in 1975, Queen – riding high on the chart-topping success of "Bohemian Rhapsody," celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – re-emerged, vamping through their take on "Big Spender" and then careening into a raw, raucous medley of old-time rock 'n' roll covers based around Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock." A heady celebration, indeed, this performance, filmed beautifully for the U.K. TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test," was as memorable and glorious as any for Queen, and it has now been released by Eagle Rock Entertainment in various formats as "A Night At The Odeon, Live At Hammersmith '75."

Along with a full CD, DVD and Blu-ray package complete with a never-before-seen "second encore" of "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "See What A Fool I've Been," there are separate DVD and Blu-ray versions with other bonus material. Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor reminisce about being broke and riddled with self-doubt, how wonderful the night in question was and what made this particular period in Queen history so transformative, when the album A Night At The Opera was soaring in popularity, with "Old Grey Whistle Test" presenter Bob Harris in a nostalgic and revealing 22-minute documentary. That's included with rare and rather dodgy, but still vital, footage of Queen on their much-ballyhooed 1975 tour of the Far East playing "Now I'm Here," "Killer Queen" and "In the Lap of the Gods ... Revisited" in the release's "Live at Budokan" segment.

In stark contrast, the vintage video imagery of the triumphant Hammersmith Odeon gig is sumptuous, capturing with superb camera work all the bluster, theatricality and assured brilliance of a band on fire. May's harmonic, echo-laden solo turn during "Brighton Rock" is truly mesmerizing and that great tone of his bites your ear lobe throughout, while Taylor's drumming is controlled fury and John Deacon's bass work becomes the elastic glue that holds it all together. Not surprisingly, though, it's Freddie Mercury who steals the show, his voice so pure and his expression fierce and unabashedly dramatic, while his piano playing displays both an incredibly deft touch and an ability to pound keys into submission when so moved.

Honest-to-God hits are hard to come by in an interesting set list that reflects Queen's position then as relative up-and-comers, but small portions of the lively, bouncing romp "Killer Queen" and the ominously powerful "The March of the Black Queen" are bookended by the lovely intro and outro of "Bohemian Rhapsody." Just for kicks, they tack on a vaudevillian bit of "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" to the back end of this neat and tidy little medley that is entertaining. For openers, Queen charges right into an uplifting, soaring "Now I'm Here" and follows by staging a cinematic, expansive "Orge Battle," before tenderly treating "White Queen (As It Began)" like the elegant maiden she is and getting swept up in the dizzying frenzy of "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Liar."

Here is a young, hungry Queen feeling its oats, buoyed by its recent success and eager to show off its exquisite song craft, dazzling chops and the audacious showmanship of Mercury. What a night it was.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Roger Taylor – Fun in Space/Strange Frontier

CD Review: Roger Taylor – Fun in Space
Omnivore Recordings
All Access Rating: A-

CD Review: Roger Taylor – Strange Frontier
Omnivore Recordings
All Access Rating: B

Roger Taylor - Fun In Space and Strange Frontier 2015

Somewhat overlooked in Queen, what with Freddie Mercury's flamboyance and Brian May's dazzling guitar tricks hogging the spotlight, drummer Roger Taylor put out some rather interesting solo work in the late '70s and early '80s to hardly any fanfare whatsoever.

His obligations with Queen prevented Taylor from doing much, if any, promotion for 1981's Fun In Space or 1984's Strange Frontier, and that certainly contributed to the relative anonymity of both releases – Fun In Space preceded by the 1977 single "I Wanna Testify," which also made very little noise, which is strange considering Taylor's rather sizable songwriting contributions to some of Queen's biggest hits, the divisive "Radio Ga Ga" among them.

Making them ripe for reassessment, Omnivore Recordings is reissuing both Taylor solo outings on March 24 as expanded CDs, along with various vinyl editions. Stripped of Queen's theatricality and bombast, Fun In Space and Strange Frontier are more humble and modest records, although Taylor's wild and intimate studio experimentation and clever, down-to-earth songwriting manage to sparkle through the airbrushed '80s-style production values.

Of the two, both very much a product of their synthesizer-washed times, Fun In Space – recorded in Montreux, Switzerland in the down time between Queen tours in 1980 – is livelier, more whimsical and eclectic, as Taylor produced it himself and performed everything, save for some keyboard work by engineer David Richards. The jazz-rock ease of "Future Management" is reminiscent of Steely Dan's lighter moods, albeit with a chorus that is sharp and cutting, and offers glistening contrast from the bustling, energetic shakedowns and shuffles of "No Violins" and "Let's Get Crazy," the latter a feverish rockabilly workout with "snap, crackle, pop" drumming from Taylor.

Strange and menacing shapes, skittering percussion and swells of synthesizer make a sonic lava lamp of "Fun In Space," while the galloping beats and silvery guitar of "Good Times Are Now" run fast and clean, the circling guitar hooks and grooves of "Airheads" are unexpectedly weird and nasty, and "My Country I & II" is an oddly melodic and entertaining mix of guitar jangle, swirling keyboards and drumming hydraulics. And all of this comes with a single version of "My Country" and bonus tracks "I Wanna Testify" – a tight, funky little number with doo-wop backing vocals that is utterly infectious – and a jagged, herky-jerky "Turn on the TV" that fades out with a solar-powered guitar solo.

Neatly arranged, with unexpected delights planted throughout, Fun In Space is a colorful surprise party, whereas the dated electro-pop environs of Strange Frontier – partly recorded in Munich while Queen made The Works – find Taylor in a dour and mostly somber mood, his overly dramatic and futuristic reading of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" and the disjointed and chaotic "Abandonfire" lacking the fire and drive of the politically charged title track and "Man On Fire," where Taylor's frustration with modern living boils over.

On Fun In Space, Taylor seems playful, this mad scientist drawing inspiration from David Bowie's Let's Dance period, whereas on Strange Frontier, his muse is Bruce Springsteen, mixing introspection with grand socio-political statements but relying almost entirely on synths and electronic beats to deliver the messages, with less varied instrumentation. That's not to say that Strange Frontier is lacking for memorable melodies, the somnambulistic drift of both "Beautiful Dream" and "It's An Illusion" seeping into the subconscious like a cat burglar, and "I Cry For You" brimming with passion.

Padded with four throwaway remixes, two of them for Strange Frontier's closer "I Cry For You," and the extra track "Two Sharp Pencils (Get Bad)," Taylor's second solo outing at times seems forced. Even his cover of Springsteen's "Racing in the Street," while still imbued with blue-collar longing, comes off as mere imitation rather than a vigorous overhaul. On the other hand, Strange Frontier isn't without its charms, for all of its flaws. Taylor can have all the fun he wants right here on earth when he's adequately inspired.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Magnum - On the 13th Day

CD Review: Magnum - On the 13^th Day

Steamhammer/SPV

All Access Review: B+

Magnum - On the 13th Day 2012

If Jon Bon Jovi was belting out “So Let It Rain” in that raspy, dog-eared voice of his to a swarm of horny middle-aged housewives some New York City morning on the “Today” show, the Twitter universe would be abuzz with news of the blow-dried superstar’s newest surefire hit single. As it is, the sweeping, big-hearted anthem – one of many here – from Magnum’s latest opus, On the 13^th Day, out via Steamhammer/SPV, will go largely unheard, and that’s too bad. That track and others on the exhilarating new record deserve a better fate.

The less cynical among us might actually weep openly when Magnum singer Bob Catley, doing his best Roger Daltrey impersonation, wrings out a range of emotions in delivering the line, “You know that I don’t give a damn/I’m only me, that’s who I am,” while a deluge of keyboards and guitar pours down on his proud face. It’s a song of empowerment and gritting one’s teeth as reality prepares to do its worst to a true underdog story, not so different really from John Parr’s emotional – some might say, “Cheesy” – reading of “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).” And like that ‘80s touchstone, it doesn’t seem to fit in with what’s trendy and happening right now in music. That’s okay with Magnum; the old British progressive-metal warhorse never concerned itself with such things anyway. Even in their salad days, when Magnum’s pop-infused hard rock once had Europe all agog for the melodic fare of records such as On a Storyteller’s Night and the Roger Taylor-produced Vigilante, the band’s art-rock sensibility was a hard sell in America, the promise land for any metal-related acts of that time.

These days, it is the alliance of Catley and songwriter/guitarist Tony Clarkin that holds Magnum together, and although some might find the big emotional swings and melodic bombast of On the 13^th Day a little heavy-handed – “Putting Things in Place” being a prime example of Magnum at their most overwrought – only the most hard-hearted corporate raider could fail to be moved by the working-class sentiments of “Shadow Town” and its giant chorus. An uplifting epic carried on broad-shouldered synthesizers, luxurious piano and magnificent guitar ascents – interrupted for a stretch by some elegant and agile soloing – “Shadow Town” talks of the closing of factories, greed and the misery of the poor with all the poetic righteousness and fervor of a Springsteen. And yet, Magnum will never in a million years see that kind of critical acclaim. 

Undeterred, Magnum carries on, perhaps wondering if their propensity for crafting irresistible, if occasionally trite, melodies and generating overwhelming sonic force would find sympathetic ears in Europe’s burgeoning power-metal movement. What could be more attractive to that crowd than the tumescent string movements marching through “Didn’t like You Anyway” like a symphonic army? How, indeed, could they possibly ignore the majestic phalanx of clean-burning guitars and silvery synthesizers that provide the rocket-booster thrust to the 7:20 opener “All the Dreamers” needed to drive it skyward or the street-tough, switchblade hooks of “Blood Red Laughter,” a rousing song that absolutely has Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger?”

So what if On the 13^th Day seems like a throwback to the unabashedly earnest songwriting of the ‘80s. There are enough wonderfully complex piano parts, rising synth swells and clever little guitar puzzles here to appease hardcore prog enthusiasts looking for classically inspired passages and envelope-pushing musicianship, and when the spirit moves them, as it does on the relentless “Dance of the Black Tattoo” and the bitter “Broken Promises,” Magnum can swing a hammer with the best of them, slamming down heavy riffage and crunching rhythms. Indifference from the world at large may disappoint Magnum, but it’s gratifying to see them still plugging away. Maybe these underdogs will, again, have their day.

-            Peter Lindblad

 

DVD Review: Freddie Mercury - Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender

DVD Review: Freddie Mercury - Freddy Mercury: The Great Pretender

Eagle Vision

All Access Review: A-

Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender 2012

At death’s door, Freddie Mercury decided to reveal in a press release that he, indeed, had full-blown AIDs and that he wasn’t long for this world. The news wasn’t surprising. In public appearances around that time, Mercury appeared gaunt, as if he was simply wasting away to nothing. The rumor mill had been spinning out of control for a while, with many speculating that Mercury was in the throes of the deadly disease, and when the end came, the vultures descended to viciously pick his bones clean. Mercilessly, the British tabloids savaged Mercury and his personal life, taking him to task for his reckless promiscuity and his libertine lifestyle. Judgment day had arrived for this modern-day Oscar Wilde, only it was the armchair moralists and the gossipmongers rendering their verdicts, not Mercury’s maker.

Coming to his defense, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor went on TV to attempt to restore his good name and talk about the Freddie Mercury they knew, the quiet, more reserved aesthete who was completely at odds with the over-sexed madman in press portrayals. And there was more – much more, as it turned out – to Mercury than meets the eye, as the new documentary film “Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender” makes so abundantly clear. Mostly concerned with the extreme highs and lows – both professional and personal – that Mercury experienced between the recording of his first solo album, the disastrous Mr. Bad Guy, and his tragic ending, “Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender,” out via Eagle Entertainment, weaves together electrifying live footage – the Live Aid stuff, with Mercury exhorting the massive crowd to sing with him, is captivating – with candid, behind-the-scenes images of the singer and impactful interview snippets from the likes of May and Taylor, as well as friends and associates such as television personality Paul Gambaccini and Queen manager Jim Beach, to manufacture a colorful narrative fabric that Mercury would wear like a royal cape.

Edited and produced by Rhys Thomas, a diehard Queen fanatic, the documentary artfully explores how Mercury immersed himself in New York City’s wild gay club life and became fascinated with disco and Donna Summer, this along with his deep and abiding love and appreciation of opera and the ballet, which resulted in his sublime 1979 performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with the Royal Ballet. Going further, through Mercury’s own truthful admission, Thomas reveals the extent to which Mercury felt disengaged and distanced from his Queen band mates, due to their different outside interests, and the bullheadedness Mercury exhibited in steering Hot Space into more dance-oriented territory, which heated the friction between Mercury and May to an almost unbearable temperature.

And while all this controversy and drama certainly makes for good viewing, Thomas is also careful to attend to the smaller, more mundane aspects of Mercury's life, laying bare the vulnerabilities that made him uncertain in interpersonal relationships. Loyal to a fault, as his divisive relationship with former manager Paul Prenter illustrates – in the film, Taylor dismissively says of Prenter, “The less said about him the better” – Mercury was a cat lover, who could be shy and retiring offstage and willingly lament the fact that he didn’t have many close friends, as he did in a poignant talk about his star-crossed relationship with girlfriend Mary Austin in the movie, Mercury wasn’t the arrogant superman his dazzling onstage persona would suggest. He did have his endearing qualities, though, as his giddy adoration of opera singer Montserrat Caballe – whose friendship with Mercury is treated with such tenderness and pure joy in the film – so aptly demonstrates. It was Mercury’s determination to work with her that brought the two vocalists together for one of the most spectacular collaborations in music history, as their clarion calls sent the massive international hit single “Barcelona” soaring to the heavens. Outside of Queen, it was Mercury’s greatest triumph; more than that, it washed away the bad taste left in his mouth from Mr. Bad Guy, the result of a bloated contract with Mercury as a solo artist that caused excruciating financial pain to his record label.

Driving right through that intersection where art and life collide, “Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender” pulls no punches, and yet it is a warm, wistful eulogy to an artist who never stopped creating, even as AIDS ravaged his body. Startlingly honest and forthright about Mercury’s failings and his grand ambitions, the film introduces the world to Mercury’s flawed humanity, and through Thomas’s multi-faceted portrait, the once-blurry and undefined picture of Mercury, the man, comes sharply into focus. Near the end, as is outlined in Thomas’s heartfelt liner notes to the DVD, Beach once asked Mercury what he wanted done with his legacy and all that he’d left behind. Mercury responded, in typical devil-may-care fashion, by saying, “You can do whatever you like with my image, my music, remix it, re-release it, whatever – just never make me boring.” Mission accomplished.

-            Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: Queen - Greatest Video Hits

DVD Review: Queen - Greatest Video Hits

Eagle Vision

All Access Review: A-

Queen - Greatest Video Hits 2012

Donning a studded, black leather jacket in the video to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” Freddie Mercury vamped around the air-brushed set like a cabaret version of Marlon Brando from “The Wild One,” strutting down a runway with a smoldering quartet of sexy male and female dancers in tow. In paying homage to rock ‘n’ roll’s envelope-pushing past, the always dramatic Mercury cut a very Elvis-like figure, coyly straddling that line between innocent, fun romanticism and explicit sexuality – much as Elvis did.

Where the King was only filmed from the waist up in certain TV performances, Mercury and his “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” playmates only hinted at the lascivious desires boiling up inside of them. Two years later, when Queen needed a visual accompaniment to “Body Language,” Mercury – largely responsible for the video’s steamy content – held nothing back, letting all of his deepest, darkest sexual impulses loose in a writhing orgy of sweaty skin and nubile bodies . As Roger Taylor and Brian May reveal in the surprisingly candid commentary included with “Greatest Video Hits,” the engrossing new compilation of Queen videos from Eagle Vision, the racy imagery was reflective of Mercury’s extreme nature and his increasingly reckless immersion in a homosexual subculture that laughed at prudish convention. And while that side of Mercury’s life may have provided titillating fodder for tabloid exploitation, there was more – much more, in fact – to Queen’s ever-evolving marriage of musical and visual artistry than stylized carnal fantasies, as “Greatest Video Hits” so magnificently illustrates.

Spread across two discs, this collection gathers 33 of Queen’s most inspired cinematic adventures – “Flash” and “A Kind of Magic,” influenced by the movie “Highlander,” being two of the most brilliant – vividly restored and fit into a widescreen format with remixed sound. There’s the lighthearted comedic romp “I Want To Break Free,” an infamous cross-dressing parody of the British soap opera “Coronation Street” directed by David Mallet that was banned by MTV, and the highly conceptual “Under Pressure” and “Radio Ga Ga,” which mixed vintage shots of Queen’s past and scenes from the visionary 1927 science-fiction film “Metropolis.” Evidence of Queen’s cheeky nature is found in “Bicycle Race,” featuring clips of comely naked lasses riding 10-speeds around a track without a care in the world, while the simple, straight-forward performance video of Queen playing “Hammer To Fall,” “Killer Queen,””Friends Will Be Friends” and “Another One Bites the Dust” – in all its grainy 16mm glory – remind one and all of the power and majesty of Queen’s prowess as a captivating, dynamic live band.

And we’re just scratching the surface here. Iconic videos of “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and, of course, the aforementioned “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are included, as well as later works from when Queen tried to hold it together through May’s marital problems and Mercury’s disintegrating health, such “Breakthru,” which sees the foursome enduring a rather dangerous ride atop a train, and the joyously adorable “The Miracle,” with young children enthusiastically mimicking the roles of May, Mercury, Taylor and John Deacon.

These treasures alone would make “Greatest Video Hits” essential viewing, although what renders it priceless is that savagely honest and witty commentary track. So full of great anecdotes, unflinching opinions and rare insights, it goads May and Taylor into discussing the unvarnished truth behind every single video and song in the collection. Taking viewers behind the curtain, they are brutal when assessing “Scandal,” with Taylor admitting he was bored silly while making both the song and the video and May wishing it would have been more substantive considering how emotionally invested he was in the subject matter – namely, how gossip and rumor can damage not only reputations, but lives as well, as his was by the English press. Even more scathing when the subject turns to the staging of the ridiculously decadent “It’s a Hard Life,” May and Taylor can’t help chuckling at how “stupid” they look in ostentatious costuming that made a horse of Taylor and a colorful bird of paradise of Mercury. Even Queen, evidently, knew when things had gone too far.

Providing the perfect coda to “Greatest Video Hits” is the rousing anthem “One Vision.” Directed by Austrians Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, the video is memorable for its innovative morphing of Queen’s famed 1975 pose from “Bohemian Rhapsody” into an updated portrait of the band in 1985, but, in “fly on the wall” fashion, it also peeks in on recording sessions for the track at Musicland Studios. While May remembers the sort of bunker atmosphere of the place being rather drab and depressing, the guitarist points out how galvanizing the song was for the band and what a unifying message it had for fans, as well. Even if it’s not entirely thorough – the videos for “Innuendo” and “The Show Must Go On” are missing – “Greatest Video Hits” is, in a sense, a similar vehicle for that communal vibe May found so appealing. Watch them all and bask in the warm Queen-related nostalgia that, chances are, someone else is also experiencing in a place that, suddenly, doesn’t feel so far, far away.

-            Peter Lindblad