Return of the Champions
Occupation
- Brian May - electric - and acoustic lead guitar, vocals
- Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, vocals
- Paul Rodgers - vocals, electric guitar in Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Accompanist:
- Spike Edney - keyboards, backing vocals
- Jamie Moses - acoustic - and electric rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Danny Miranda - Bass ( Fender Precision ), acoustic guitar in Say It's Not True, background vocals
Return of the Champions is published in 2005, fifth live album by British rock group Queen and the first album by Queen Paul Rodgers. They contain the live recording of a concert at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on 9 May 2005.
The album
In November 2004, Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers were at Queens admission into the UK Music Hall of Fame for the first time on live together. In December and May Taylor announced that they would go in the following year for the first time in 19 years on tour together - with Rodgers as the lead vocalist. Both sides stressed that this is not the official successor of the Queen singer who died in 1991 Freddie Mercury. This was reflected in the chosen for the tour called " Queen Paul Rodgers " expressed. In addition, Rodgers ' oriented towards blues vocal style differs fundamentally from Mercury's vocal performance. Queen bassist John Deacon, who was musically inactive since the late nineties, did not participate in the new cooperation. The last tour of Queen original members had taken place in 1986.
My first concert of Queen and Paul Rodgers completed on 19 March 2005 in South Africa on the occasion of the new edition of the initiated by Nelson Mandela Foundation 46664 charity concert, which should contribute to the fight against AIDS. For the six -strong Cast Queens decades of live keyboardist Spike Edney, bassist Danny Miranda and Jamie Moses for the first time, an additional rhythm guitarist. The relatively short -organized, yet largely sold-out European tour lasted from 28 March to 14 May 2005, included a total of 28 indoor concerts. During the year, followed by several open-air performances in Europe as well as concerts in Aruba, in the U.S. and in Japan.
With a playing time of sometimes more than two hours, the duration of the concert was longer than in many previous queen performances. More often than usual, there were minor changes in the set list. About half of the songs was in 1986 as part of the Magic Tour, Queen's last tour, stood on the program. There were also some older pieces ( as I'm in Love with My Car, '39 or Fat Bottomed Girls ) and titles that were published only after the Magic Tour (such as I Want It All and The Show Must Go On). The sung by Taylor Say It's Not True had been presented in 2003 at the first 46664 concert. In addition to the vast majority of Queen songs each have a handful ( frequently changing ) songs by Paul Rodgers ' former bands Free and Bad Company was played (including All Right Now ). The concert opener Reaching Out was published in 1996 under the project name "Rock Therapy" as a charity single in favor of the Nordoff -Robbins Music Therapy Centre; Brian May and Paul Rodgers had recorded the song together with other musicians. With the instrumental piece Last Horizon was uncharacteristic of Queen concerts, only on a solo album ( Mays Back to the Light) published title also part of the band program. Taylor's drum solo Let There Be Drums, a cover version of the piece by Sandy Nelson, premiered a few days after the tour starts.
A pre-programmed drum machine came in These Are the Days of Our Lives and in the first part of Radio Ga Ga for use, so Roger Taylor left his drums and lead vocals front could recite on stage. In Bohemian Rhapsody, the final piece before the encores, Freddie Mercury and Paul Rodgers shared the vocals, which meant a lot of the emotional highlights of the concerts. A video recording, the Mercury at the piano while Queens last appearance at Wembley showed (see also Live at Wembley Stadium ), was first projected behind the stage. Rodgers ' singing began at the Hard Rock section, the final part of the two sang a duet.
The concert in Sheffield on 9 May 2005 in front of more than 10,000 spectators was one of the last performances by Queen and Paul Rodgers in their halls tour through Europe. Return of the Champions includes, apart from one exception, essentially the entire concert. Not represented on the album or on the DVD is Eminem coming from the tape piece Lose Yourself, which served as a concert intro, during which shortly Mays guitar could be heard. As the only song from the live set is missing from the published transcript of the title Under Pressure, who was on this day only the third time on the setlist and was announced by Brian May during the concert follows: This is Actually 's something that we probably won ' t put on the DVD so this is for you. This is like a bonus track. The concert recording was edited on several spots before publication.
The filming of the concert in Sheffield led the director David Mallet, who had previously been responsible for some music videos of Queen and the concert recording of the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. The Return of the Champions DVD includes both stereo and 5.1 surround sound.
In some countries appeared to coincide with the album or the DVD a CD- single release with the titles Reaching Out / Tie Your Mother Down and Fat Bottomed Girls.
Title list
In the intro to Fat Bottomed Girls is a short excerpt from White Man was cited; as part of its Guitar Solo played May the piece of Chinese Torture.
The DVD contains two additional tracks. That remix of It's a Beautiful Day, which was used in most concerts with Eminem's Lose Yourself as an intro and only available as an Internet download was, appeared for the first time in a phonogram. As an additional bonus track, the DVD includes a live version of John Lennon's Imagine. On the occasion of the terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005 in London, due to which her concert had to be postponed for a week, Queen Paul Rodgers played on 15 July 2005 in Hyde Park, a cover version of this piece. The lead vocals shared by May, Taylor and Rodgers.
It was recorded the sound recording by Justin Shirley -Smith and Peter Brandt. The mixes come from Justin Shirley -Smith; Another engineer was Joshua J. Macrae.
Chart positions
Album
- # 12 - Great Britain ( silver).
- # 13 - Germany.
- # 14 - Japan.
- # 19 - Netherlands / Austria.
- # 42 - Switzerland.
- # 80 - France.
- # 84 - United States.
DVD
- # 1 - Great Britain ( platinum).
- # 2 - Germany / Netherlands / Austria.
- # 3 - Sweden.
- # 4 - Italy.
- # 7 - Portugal.