Fun in Space
Occupation
- Roger Taylor: drums, percussion, electric and acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals
- David Richards: additional keyboards ( " Approx 50 % of keyboards. " )
Fun in Space is a 1981 released album by Roger Taylor. This LP is the first solo album by a member of the British band Queen.
The album
Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen, took in Space Fun in the Mountain Studios in Montreux, which belonged to the band at the time. All songs on the album were written by him. He sang every song and played all the instruments himself; additional keyboards took David Richards, the longtime co-producer of Queen, on. Fun in Space was released in April 1981, four months after Queens Flash Gordon soundtrack or immediately after their first Latin American tour.
The stylistic range of the album ranges from ballads with acoustic guitar ( Laugh or Cry, even Magic Is Loose ), harder, fast rock songs (such as Let's Get Crazy ) and New Wave allusions to extended, synthesizer and drums dominated pieces ( such as the final theme song ).
The front of the cover shows an alien, reading a magazine, is pictured on the Roger Taylor on the cover. On the back of the album, the roles are reversed: Here Taylor reads an issue of the horror comics magazine Creepy, whose title page again shows the extraterrestrial beings. The design of album covers designed by Hipgnosis, a group of designers who had, for example, designed numerous album covers for Pink Floyd, especially in the seventies. The photos submitted, inter alia, by musician and photographer Peter Christopherson. The model of the aliens had Tim Staffell customized, like Taylor was formerly a member of the Queen 's predecessor band Smile.
Taylor's final words in his short accompanying commentary on the album - "PPS 157 synthesizer. " - Are an allusion to Queens " no synthesizers " Credo in the seventies and juxtaposed with the essential role of the instrument on the album.
The two songs Laugh or Cry and Let's Get Crazy in 1988 played in the context of Taylor's first tour with his band The Cross also live. End of the nineties the band coming from the track Interlude in Constantinople served as a concert intro at Taylor Electric Fire tour.
In 1996, the album Fun in Space - digitally remastered - CD out.
The album was produced, written and arranged by Roger Taylor. Sound engineer was David Richards. As an additional engineer André Jauchet was involved in the recording of the song Airheads.
Title list
Reception in the media
Future Management ( Single):
Sounds ( UK ), 1981: "It's a song reggaeish Which is bearable enough. A laudable attempt to step out of the shadow of the toothy one. "
NME ( UK ), 1981: " Roger does a Rundgren and plays everything apart from Scrabble. A plodding regatta de blanc did drags rather than just lays back. "
Fun in Space ( album ):
Record Mirror ( UK ), 1981: "This is Son of Flash Gordon, It has similar comic book style characteristics. Listening to this is the most fun you'll have apart from playing Space Invaders. "
Melody Maker ( UK ), 1981: arrogance " Revelling in bombastic, so redolent of Queen. A rich man 's self -indulgence run riot over two sides of an album. "
All Music Guide (USA), by Geoff Orens, " Queen drummer Roger Taylor 's first solo album is a fairly strong set of up-tempo rockers and well -written ballads featuring Taylor's rough voice and effective croon. [ ... ] More guitar -based and less bombastic than the work of his cohorts did in ribbon. That's not to say Taylor does not get over- dramatic. On ' Future Management ' and ' Magic Is Loose, ' Taylor's vocals are quite over the top. HOWEVER, 'No Violins ' and ' Let's Get Crazy' balance things out with some fairly straight forward rock numbers did show the influence of 1950s rock & roll. Surprisingly, Taylor [ ... ] shows himself quite adept at writing slower pieces on the lovely ' Laugh or Cry. ' The interesting sci - fi ballad 'Fun Is Space' is a striking and beautiful mix of classic rock and futuristic keyboard backdrops. The true highlight of the album though is the marvelous ' My Country Parts 1 & 2 ' A powerful anthem of disillusionment with politics and was the middle of the song picks up in intensity with some fine drumming from Taylor. "
My Country ( Single):
Melody Maker ( UK ), 1981: "Queen Are not my favorite band, but there is no doubting Their drummer's multi - instrumental and vocal prowess. A worthy bit of barrier breaking, but hardly top 40 material. "
Chart positions
Fun in Space is Taylor's most successful in the charts solo album. In the UK charts, it reached # 18; in Germany it made it to number 42, the first single Future Management was ranked 49 on the British charts. As the second single in the UK was published an abbreviated ( 3:40 minutes long ) version of My Country, which did not reach the charts.