Reviews  QFN-18
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10th INTERNATIONAL QUEEN FAN CLUB CONVENTION - SOUTHPORT '95
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One of the best weekends of the year is the annual Queen Fan
Club Convention which this year was held on Friday 5 May
until Sunday 7 May at the usual venue Pontin's Holiday Camp,
Southport.

This was our 3rd convention (we only wish we had done them
all!) and as ever proved to be a great weekend attended by
almost 2000 fans from all parts of the World including
Russia, Japan, Australia, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland,
and 2 complete coach loads from Holland, many of which have
become good friends of ours. Everyone who came to the
convention was given a 'goodie' bag which contained a metal
badge, fridge magnet, Queen pass, pen, car sticker and a
stick of rock. 

Friday got off to a tremendous start with an official
welcome from Jacky, a video message from the band, and then
a few words from a special guest, Spike Edney, who had come
along to join us for the weekend. The main events are held
in the ballroom which had two large video screens at one end
which showed Queen videos all day and a light show as good
as any seen at a concert. After the Queen Mastermind Final a
Charity Auction was held with many signed items being sold
including a nice signed photo of Freddie, Roger's drum
sticks, various other signed items, and a Queen Gold Disc!
After the auction the night continued with a Queen Disco
which lasted until the early hours of Saturday morning.

After only a couple hours sleep it was Saturday and the fun
was about to start again. During the day there were various
competitions to enter such as Six-a-side Football, Crazy
Golf, Netball, a 5km Fun Run (for those with energy to
spare!), Tug-of-War Final (the early rounds being held on
Friday), Darts, Game for a Knockout, and even a Treasure
Hunt! For the less energetic people Freddie's stamp
collection was on display, and a special set of postcards
showing some of Freddie's stamps could be bought, which had
a special hand-stamp on the back. 

The morning also saw the opening of 'The Market Place' where
it was possible to buy records, CDs, Posters, Videos,
Magazines, in fact almost anything which was 'Queen
Related'. It quickly became very packed in the Market Place
with fans trying to get those long required items that so
far had eluded them!! Also during the day (and also Sunday
morning) Spike was available for autographs. A small charge
of 1 per autograph was charged with the proceeds going to
charity (a great idea Spike, and many thanks for all the
signings!). 

Because it was the 10th convention, and the 25th anniversary
of Queen, a purple vinyl re-pressing of Bohemian Rhapsody
was available to everyone there. These were limited to 2000
numbered copies (one each) and this was the only place they
would be on sale for only 5 with all profits donated to The
Mercury Phoenix Trust. Although there was enough for one
each this did not stop a long queue forming to obtain this
single.

Saturday night in the ballroom saw the Talent Competition
and Prize Presentations followed by the Queen Mime
Competition and the Fancy Dress Competition. The night then
continued with a Themed Queen Celebration Disco Party and
everyone had been asked to dress-up in anything 'Queen
Related'. Lots did and for those who didn't there was a
small fine of 1 for charity (another great idea!). The
night was running behind programme, however we were assured
that nothing would be omitted and it wasn't, and the disco
finally ended just after 3.00am.

After just a few hours it was Sunday morning and time to get
up and rush down to the ballroom to see the celebration
cake. Well what can I say the cake was just fantastic, very
large and covered in icing with a large Queen Emblem in the
centre. During the morning Jacky presented 'Childline' with
a cheque for 20,000 which had been raised in the charity
auction on Friday.

Later in the morning there was a Queen Disco which continued
until 2.00pm when sadly the weekend had come to an end. All
that remained now was to say 'goodbye' to friends both old
and new and start the long journey home. 

The atmosphere during the weekend like always had been 'A
Kind of Magic' and I am sure everyone there had a great time
and would like to say "Thanks" to Jacky and Val, Keith and
Arena Travel, everyone who helped during the weekend, and
especially to Queen for making it all possible. 

We look forward to next year, but at least before then there
is the Dutch Convention in October!!

Review by Joy & Tony Whitelock
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GA GA - THE VICTORIA HALL, HANLEY, STOKE-ON-TRENT.
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On Friday 17 March Ga Ga appeared at The Victoria Hall,
Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Ga Ga are a three piece cover band.
Graham the drummer, Dave the bass guitarist, and John the
lead guitarist and vocalist, from Liverpool.

The doors at the venue were opened in good time which was a
relief because it was a very cold night. In the foyer of the
Hall Ga Ga merchandise was on sale. This consisted of Ga Ga
T-shirts, Ga Ga posters, and a limited edition print of 'As
It Began' which is limited to 1000 prints and these were all
numbered and signed by the artist. A very reasonably priced
programme was also on sale which included a write-up on each
of the three members of the band, details about the crew,
some good pictures of the band and even a Quick Queen Quiz,
which was something to do while waiting for the show to
start. 

Just before 8.00pm the house lights went down and Ga Ga took
the stage. Their first set included such classic hits as
'Tie your Mother Down', 'I Want to Break Free', 'Under
Pressure', 'Somebody to Love', and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. John
sang 'Love of my Life' for Freddie with the crowd joining in
with such enthusiasm that I am sure Freddie heard it! The
band also played 'I'm Going slightly Mad' with Dave the bass
guitarist, wearing a hat made of bananas and a gorilla came
onto the stage to join in. The first set ended with
'Brighton Rock' with an excellent guitar solo from John, and
then there was an interval of about 20 minutes.

After the interval Ga Ga took the stage again with 'One
Vision'. The second set included 'A Kind of Magic', 'These
are the Days of our Lives', Crazy Little Thing Called Love',
'Another One Bites the Dust', Keep Yourself Alive',
'Headlong', 'Hammer to Fall' (at this point John announced
that they had been booked to play here again next April -
much to the delight of the crowd) and 'The Show Must Go On'.
The crowd loved every minute of the show and Ga Ga did
several encores, which started with John again thanking
everyone for coming and consisted of 'Spread Your Wings',
'Now I'm Here', and then the classic songs 'Radio Ga Ga'
with the whole audience joining in, 'We Will Rock You', and
'We Are the Champions'. As Ga Ga left the stage they could
be heard to say "Long Live Queen". 

The concert finally ended with a tape of 'God Save the
Queen' being played and the band came back onto the stage
carrying a Queen Flag! Each member individually thanked
everyone for coming and sadly the show was over. 

The show had lasted for just over two hours in which time a
very wide and varied repertoire of Queen songs had been
played with something to please every Queen fan present!

For those of you who have not yet seen Ga Ga they do not
look like Queen or dress like Queen, but they do sound like
Queen! The band have no intentions to ever dress like Queen
or to try and be Queen but they do a great tribute to Queen,
so keep a look out and when Ga Ga plays in your area do go
and see them, we are sure you will be very glad you did!   

Concert Review by Joy and Tony Whitelock.
_________________________________________________________________


QUEEN RENDEZVOUS - HAGGERSTON CASTLE 21st/23rd APRIL 1995.
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We arrived at Haggerston castle at approximately 5.00pm
after a journey of 430 miles, fortunately Ian a friend drove
from Stafford where we picked up the rest of our group,
Joyce and John. Straight away we went down to the hall to
find out what was happening and were lucky enough to watch
Ga Ga (a Queen cover band) doing their sound check and meet
John Bryce the organiser \of the weekend event.

On Friday night the doors opened at 9.00pm and following a
welcome speech by John, Ga Ga took the stage for the first
of their two sets, and performed several Queen greats
including 'I Want to Break Free , 'Somebody to Love', 'Love
of my Life' and ended their first set with 'Brighton Rock'.
After approximately a half hour break Ga Ga again took the
stage and performed more Queen greats including, 'A Kind of
Magic', 'These are the Days of our Lives', 'Bohemian
Rhapsody', 'The Show Must Go On', 'Radio Ga Ga', and
included ending with an encore of 'We Will Rock You', 'We
Are the Champions' and of course finished with 'God Save The
Queen' at midnight. Ga Ga were very well received by the
audience and given well deserved applause throughout their
act.

The night then continued with a Queen Disco until 1.00am
with most of the records played being requests by the fans
present. During the night and throughout the weekend there
was official merchandise on sale including a celebration
T-shirt of the event. Ga Ga also had a stall selling their
programme, tickets for their forthcoming concert in Glasgow
and limited edition Queen prints. A great night and a very
good start to the weekend.

Saturday the action started at midday, with everyone bring
given a printed programme for the day which included a lucky
number for the raffle prizes which were to be drawn at
intervals throughout the day. These were drawn each time the
weekend theme music was played which was Seaside Rendezvous
by Queen! Everyone was also given a list of the Queen videos
and asked to indicate their top five, this would be used to
make a list of the top twenty Queen videos which would be
played as the day went on. As expected Bohemian Rhapsody was
voted number 1 and played just before midnight.

During the day the time was taken up watching videos,
listening to Queen music, and playing a  Hot Space  quiz
which involved naming which member of Queen had written
which song, everyone could enter and it proved to be great
fun, (even if we were knocked out before the Final). There
was also a Queen general knowledge quiz which everyone could
enter during the day with the top three entries being
selected for a Queen master mind which had a signed CD for
the winner!

A buffet was provided at 6.00pm which went down very well.
After this there was another live band called 'Drowse' in
the evening which performed Queen songs in their own
acoustic style and were well received by the audience
(thanks Kevin). The night also included Queen Karaoke, and
another great Queen disco. The day finally came to a close
about 1.00am and had been thoroughly enjoyed by those
present!

Sunday was a lot more relaxed with a Queen Auction and
several record Dealers present. There was quite a selection
of Queen items on sale and people had a chance to say their
Good-byes, although a few people like ourselves had booked
our caravans until Monday morning and therefore were staying
to have yet a few more drinks and sample the ordinary
entertainment laid on by Haggerston Castle for the regular
holiday makers!

Finally it just remains for us to say a big "Thank You" to
John Bryce and all his helpers for organising a great Queen
weekend. It was well worth the long journey and we look
forward to seeing you all there next year.

Review by Joy & Tony Whitelock.
_________________________________________________________________ 


SAS CONCERTS
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Tony and I went to see the SAS band in concert at The Bottom
LineClub on Saturday 25 February and 4 March 1995, the third
and forth concerts of a four week event. Unfortunately Roger
turned up on the second week and joined in on the last song
'All theYoung Dudes' but sadly we missed him. We both
enjoyed each weekand I have enclosed a short review of both
the concerts we attended, together with a copy of the set
list from both events, which you will note are now called
'The Schindler' and 'Schindler4'.

25 February 1995;

We arrived at The Bottom Line Club at approximately 6.30pm
and joined other Queen fans in the bar waiting for the
tickets to goon sale! Well, straight away things got off to
a good start as 'Clayton Moss' casually walked through the
bar and went outside. Much to our delight Clayton stopped to
have photos taken and to sign a few items. The atmosphere
was very laid back in the bar and several others such as
Jamie Moses, and Spike appeared and posed for photos and
autographs.

The doors opened at 8.00pm and the hall quickly filled up.
On sale inside was Spike's T-shirts which said  'SPIKEY SAYS
BOLLOCKS'  on them. After the support act the SAS band took
the stage and opened with Chris Thompson on vocals, songs
included 'Davey', 'Since You've Been Gone', and 'Dirty
Mind'. After Chris Thompson, Jamie did a solo called 'Little
Wing', and Duck from The Rhino Men sang vocals on 'Rock and
Roll Star'. After this Paul Rogers took over vocals and sang
five songs including 'My Girl', '6345789', and 'Trouble'.
Chris Thompson then came back on stage and sang 'Hammer to
Fall' which really got the crowd going!

The Encore consisted of three songs (unfortunately 'All the
Young Dudes' was on the set list but not sang on the night!
- possibly due to time running out) with various people
coming back onto the stage. Also Cathy Porter came straight
from the musical she is currently in to sing 'Easy Money'.
Sadly only too quickly the night came to an end - but at
least there was next week which promised to be even bigger
and better!

4 March 1995;

We arrived at about the same time (6.30pm) and found the bar
was quite busy with Queen fans and as last week several
stars including Jamie Moses and Tony Hadley came out into
the bar for photos etc.

The doors again opened about 8.00pm and the hall filled up
quicker this week. After the support act the SAS band took
the stage and again opened with Chris Thompson on vocals
singing 'Davy' followed by 'Love the One Your With'. After
Chris, the lead vocals was taken over by Mark Shaw who went
on to sing 'Tie Your Mother Down' which again got the crowd
going and followed by 'Substitute'. Next on stage for lead
vocals was Tony Hadley for two songs followed by Paul Young
for a further two songs. Spike had promised an 'All Star
Night' and it had certainly started out that way.

Next on stage was Fish who again sang two songs, followed by
Madeline Bell and then Paul Young. The crowd were loving
every minute of it and Mark Shaw came back on stage to sing
'Now I'm Here'. Tony Hadley and Chris Thompson were back on
stage and sang a couple more songs including 'Hammer to
Fall'. At one point during the concert Jamie dedicated a
song (With a Little Help from my Friends) to 'The Hedgehogs'
- what a great night!!

The encore consisted of four songs and as last week Cathy
Porter came straight from the theatre to join in with some
of the last songs along with Chris Thompson, Paul Young,
Mark Shaw, and Tony Hadley. The last song of the night was
'All the Young Dudes' with everyone coming back onto stage
and the crowd singing along as loud as possible! A good end
to a great night. 

Finally Spike announced that the SAS Band were booked at The
Bottom Line Club for two more nights in May, so if you've
not yet seen them, try to get along for one of these
concerts - you never know who might turn up!

Review by Joy & Tony Whitelock (The Hedgehogs!)
_________________________________________________________________


'Q' - FEBRUARY 1995  QUEEN - GREATEST HITS I & II
(Parlophone 7243 8 31264 2)

UNASHAMED - Why did people love Queen?
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If it's not offensive to say so given the grievous
circumstances of Freddie Mercury's later years, Queen really
were a lucky band. The thought crystallises when listening
to their two Greatest Hits albums (now boxed together for
your convenience, apparently); amid an entertaining
collection of marvels and oddities, stand three almighty,
yet really rather horrible, singles that took the band into
specific realms of legendariness which would otherwise,
surely, have remained beyond their outermost fantasies.

While impartial bystanders commonly regard 'We Will Rock
You' (horribly revamped by Meat Loaf and Brian May at
Wembley before Christmas) and 'We Are The Champions' as
Queen's artistic nadir, it was no surprise that this
galumphing 1977 double A-side sold in enormous numbers.
Crassly obvious anthems, both tracks were bespoke for the
multitude who enjoy a bit of self-reverential chest-beating
and are too young for 'My Way'. But what took the biscuit
and made a lunge for the fondant fancies too, was that they
"had legs" - which marched Queen into some surprising
places. The gonzo drumbeat at the start of 'We Will Rock
You' was adopted as a rabble-rouser by American football
and, to this day, is played interminably over stadia PAs
during TV-dictated commercial breaks. And 'We Are The
Champions' became an enduring terrace chant wherever a few
thousand are gathered together to worship at the altar of
the sporting gods. Freddie Mercury : sport. Butch blokes
bellowing ditties popularised by a camp chap in ballet
tights. Contradictory concepts, one would have thought. But
there it is.

Then, a few years later, there was the remarkable case of 'I
Want To Break Free'. It's a carthorse canter of a song and
the band's soap opera drag video showed just how seriously
they took it's "impassioned" fulminations. But as they
toured the world promoting 'The Works' album, Queen
discovered that the pop-picking oppressed of the globe had
adopted it as an inspirational protest and liberation song.
On stage in Argentina, before he'd got the hang of it,
Freddie had to whip his falsies out fast for fear of riot as
the crowd howled their disgust at this desecration. Thus, in
parts of the developing world, unashamed squillionaires
Queen are still perceived as the voice of revolution....

Simply, they could do no wrong. Critics might carp from time
to time, but there was always a new crowd to get them wrong
and love them. That could be a characteristic of a model pop
group and Queen were close enough to the finished article to
raise notions of parallels with the Beatles. The Beatles
took a fiercely independent music they truly loved, R & B,
and turned it into a sweeter, softer thing that crossed all
cultural divides. Queen did much the same with heavy metal.

Their prime heroes were Led Zeppelin who, proudly, never
released a single and scorned the audience the Top 30
implied. Queen took a different line, of course, and still,
once in a while, made the charts with a
heads-down-and-frowning hard rocker in the old way (through
to 'Headlong', just before Mercury died). But instead of
disappearing into imitative anonymity, they sustained the
basic oomph of classic metal, via guitar and drums and
placed it in the weirdest and most unpredictable of
settings. Chiefly, like Paul McCartney, they were very fond
of the music hall. It's knees-up jollifications were forever
debunking their more high-flown and overblown exploits. Even
their debut hit, 'Seven Seas Of Rhye', plummeted out of
heroic declamations in their early swords-and-sorcery vein
to close with a daffily endearing pub chorus of 'I Do Like
To Be Beside The Seaside'.

After that, they wrote their own vaudeville songs right
through from 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' (1977) to 'I'm
Going Slightly Mad' (1991) and gave their penchant for hit
single farce enough elbow room to unleash 'Bicycle Race's'
massed bike bell break. It's a short step from these
carefully constructed jests to other areas of pastiche. If
Queen's one-off Elvis routine, 'Crazy Little Thing Called
Love', is another classy pub act, their escapades when
disguised as choirs and entire opera companies are more
sophisticated affairs altogether.

These tremendous vocal elaborations are probably the
ultimate in Queen's whole-nine-yards dedication to leaving
no possibility unexplored. Laborious as the process must
have been in pre-digital days, the result on record was,
first, the pleasure of hearing a brilliant trick pulled off,
an aural illusion of the Copperfield calibre. After that
came appreciation that a flood of energy could flow from
such detailed and painstaking work.

The tone and mood of these passages varies considerably.
'You're My Best Friend', one of their less modular and more
straightforward pieces, is a warm, optimistic bath of
harmonies. In 'Somebody To Love' it's Freddie and friends
posing as a Gospel choir. Much later, the opening moments of
'Breakthru' found them recalling pop chorales of the '50s
like the Ray Conniff Singers and in 'The Miracle', by
catching a trace of a children's choir's bland innocence
they lend a little credulity to the sweeping foolishness of
the lines, "That time will come/One day you'll see/When we
can all be free"

As to operatics, while Freddie was always that way inclined,
declaiming melodramatic passions to the back row given the
smallest excuse, the fact is he peaked first time out, with
'Bohemian Rhapsody'. 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo', suggested
the ambition to go further still smouldered to the end, but
it was no use. "Bismillah, no!" and "Mama mia, mama mia!"
are silly things of beauty and preposterous joys forever.
Even those who've never seen the funny side of Queen can
surely thank them for all the pleasure they've had over the
years through denouncing their "pretentiousness" and
generally taking the piss.

In sum, although Queen grew to be a stadium-scale rock act
and doubtless acquired a considerable tonnage of grandiose
delusions, their saving grace was always that in their
writing and their studio work they were still aware of
smaller stages, entertainment and variety in the showbiz
sense. Like music hall troupers, they were versatile - turn
their hand to anything, love to. You want a disco/dance
twist on the old routine? John Deacon, the quiet-one bass
player came up with 'Another One Bites The Dust' and it was
massive. 'Radio Ga Ga' and 'A Kind Of Magic' proved it was
no fluke.

The mystery of Queen is their emotional content. Were the
multitudes who were absolutely devoted to them merely
fascinated by the gaudy surface of their music or did they
find something more profound beneath the ornamentation?
Certainly, Freddie Mercury, as singer and leading writer,
had much he chose to hide: that he was gay and, latterly,
that he had AIDS. An understandable refusal to share such
fundamentals about his life may have led naturally to an
intense focus on the superficial and seems to be of a piece
with his craftmanly concentration on detail.

Perhaps, for the devotees, it's a matter of understanding
and responding to theatricality itself, rather than specific
content. Taken at face value, some of Queen's most intensely
"sincere" lyrics are strictly for sentimental nitwits : "One
thing we're all waiting for/ Is peace on Earth/ An end to
war" (The Miracle) or "My make-up may be flaking/ But my
smile still stays on" (The Show Must Go On). But the
evidence of their massive success is that they operated in a
realm of big sound, big gesture and heightened language
where, to a large audience, what would ordinarily be taken
as overwrought looks normal and appropriate.

Often, they're probably twanging the same heartstrings as
Barry Manilow, though they never displayed his unease or
lack of confidence under the scrutiny of sceptics. Another
comparison is brought to mind by 'Who Wants To Live
Forever', a May song from 1986, which holds up as the
strongest straight ballad among the hit singles. It's
noisily stoic assertion of grace and hope under extreme
pressure would have been a show-stopper for Andrew Lloyd
Webber.

Well, it just isn't critics' music. It's camp. It frankly
admits that, for since reality is not nice, elsewhere is the
place to be. And seasonal record tokens have been exchanged
for far less serviceable wisdom.
_________________________________________________________________



GA GA AT THE VICTORIA HALL, HANLEY, STOKE-ON-TRENT MAY 18TH
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1995 REVIEW BY MARGARET HOPPER (QFN GIRL FRIDAY!)
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Ga Ga had already played at this venue in March of this year
and were not due to return until April 1996. However, due to
popular demand they had scheduled another show two months
later. I had not seen their show in March, but on hearing
that they were returning so soon I felt that this time we
should go along. I had never heard any of the Queen tribute
bands before, thinking that they would probably be a little
embarrassing to watch while they attempted to do justice to
those very difficult Queen songs, but I decided that the
only way I would know was to actually attend a show and
chose Ga Ga's as I had heard such glowing reports of them
from many different sources.

The show was due to start at 7.30pm and we were there in
good time. Already a good crowd was beginning to grow along
with a good atmosphere and people were walking around
parading their Queen gear which always makes for a friendly
beginning. Ga Ga merchandise was on sale in the foyer which
quite a few people visited. The hall downstairs was full and
the stage set, when at 7.45pm the lights went down to the
familiar strains of Brian May's 'Red Special' opening the
show with 'Procession' which made an unusual start to the
proceedings. Ga Ga then took the stage to enthusiastic
applause. I was pleased to see that their clothes were their
own and showed their own personality rather than trying to
copy Queen's stage clothes. I was immediately impressed with
the lead vocalist and guitarist, John Holmes - his voice was
strong and clear - this held my attention straightaway. The
three of them then launched themselves into a brilliant
version of 'Tie Your Mother Down' which had everybody
rocking immediately. I knew after this that I was probably
in for a treat for the next couple of hours and I was not to
be disappointed! The crowd were in a sing-along mood after
the opening and so this was followed up by 'I Want To Break
Free' with lots of audience participation. John then said
they wanted to do a song which had gone straight to number 1
for Queen when it had been released. We then heard the
familiar sound of the bass intro to 'Under Pressure' which
Dave, the bass player carried off very well. John then said
they would do a song which hadn't done too well for Queen as
a single, but it was one of their favourites - 'Spread Your
Wings'. It was a refreshing change to hear something a
little different and the crowd certainly enjoyed singing
along. This was followed by a storming 'Somebody To Love'
and I would challenge George Michael that he could sing this
no better than the lead singer of Ga Ga. It was an emotional
rendering and everybody in that crowd adored it. They were
given a very loud response from the crowd to this song. John
then walked over to the keyboards while the other two left
the stage and proceeded to play 'Love Of My Life'. This was
the original version as first appeared on 'A Night At The
Opera' and was great to hear it sang as was originally done.
The crowd of course tried to raise the roof during the song,
joining in as much as they could, but on the very high top
note when John let us sing it on our own, there was raucous
laughter afterwards as most people couldn't reach the note
and John asked for the cat to be let out! We all enjoyed
ourselves anyway and John did applaud us afterwards. The
other two came back on stage for a wonderful end to the
first set of the evening when a 20 minute 'Brighton Rock'
kept everybody hypnotised whilst watching John's fingers
master his guitar in much the same way as we do with Brian
May. Fantastic!

There followed a 15 minute interval to catch a quick drink
before proceedings started again. There was a real buzz in
the bar as people discussed how brilliant the show was. At
9.00pm the show started again with what is my personal
favourite - 'One Vision'. First we had a tape playing of
Queen performing this which I think always sends a bit of a
shiver down the spine when you are waiting for something to
happen on stage. The beginning of the song is always quite
an eerie sound and certainly gets the audience going with
anticipation! Ga Ga then came back on stage to take over the
song from Freddie! They did not perform the whole song, but
used it as a lead-in to an absolutely fabulous version of 'A
Kind Of Magic'. By this time no-one was sitting down, we
were all at a Queen concert now, this was just fantastic
stuff!  The band had changed into Queen T-shirts for the
second half which of course was very appropriate and fitted
in with the rest of our apparel. After this John said he
would calm things down a little and dedicated the next song
to Freddie - 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives' which was
performed by all three excellently. The drummer, Graham
managed to compete very well with the talents of Roger
Taylor. After the tears had been wiped away from the last
song, it was time for a little comedy with an excellent
version of 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' complete with bananas on
Dave's head! A wide and varied selection of Queen songs
followed, all sang and played fabulously well by the band.
These included 'Who Wants To Live Forever' (everybody got on
their feet at the end to applaud this, it was done so well),
'Another One Bites The Dust' (very funky), 'In The Lap Of
The Gods... Revisited', 'Keep Yourself Alive', 'Headlong'
(just brilliant, the crowd loved this),'Crazy Little Thing
Called Love', 'Now I'm Here' and after thanking the audience
and saying they would be back a fabulous 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
involving every single person in the crowd. We even had
fireworks in the correct places of the song. John said
afterwards that we should give ourselves a round of
applause, we had sang our hearts out! The band then left the
stage.

After thunderous applause and much stamping of the old feet,
Ga Ga came back to do an emotional 'The Show Must Go On'
(extremely well sung, put Elton John's version to shame in
my humble opinion) and the evergreen 'Hammer To Fall'. They
then left the stage once again, but were soon back to
perform their namesake 'Radio Ga Ga', the crowd responding
as expected and a good hand-clapping few minutes was had by
all. Graham then struck up with the intro to 'We Will Rock
You' and the crowd were off again. Nobody wanted this to
end. This fabulous version was followed naturally by 'We Are
The Champions' and this time it really was the end. Ga Ga
came back to take their bows holding a Queen flag aloft and
left the stage for the final time yelling "Long Live Queen" 
to wild applause and shouts of "More" and also to the
strains of Brian May once again playing us all out with 'God
Save The Queen'. What a night!

If any of you, like me, are dubious about Queen tribute
bands, do make sure you see this band. They really are the
next best thing to Queen themselves. If there is any slight
criticism it would have to be that as there are only three
of them, they cannot hope to get the depth of sound or
harmony that Queen achieved, but apart from that they are
three excellent musicians, especially John Holmes with his
fabulous voice, they deserve to go far in the music
business. Roll on next April when they will be back here to
play agai
. There will not be any hesitation about seeing them again I
can assure you. 
_________________________________________________________________


FAIRYTALES OF YESTERDAY BY HELEN CHARLOTTE HILL
--------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW BY MARGARET HOPPER
--------------------------------------------------------------
Helen has advertised her work in QFN and other publications
over quite a long period of time now. She is obviously a
very talented artist and now has quite a long list of
goodies which she sells. Among these goodies are letterlopes
which are notepaper and envelope in one, the notepaper being
completely surrounded by drawings of the members of Queen,
Crown buttons, many and varied rubber stamps (Queen crest,
Phoenix, Freddie, Roger etc), Magnets and Badges, Stickers
and mini shirts which stick on to notepaper or cards. These
are all good ideas and completely different to the run of
the mill stuff which you can get elsewhere. There has
obviously gone a lot of thought into these designs and they
are all extremely well done.

Helen has now written two Tributezines to Freddie. Her first
'On A Rollercoaster Ride' has now been followed up by
'Fairytales of Yesterday' which I had the privilege of
reading recently. Helen's work is mainly poems dedicated to
Freddie, but also includes prose and many accurate drawings
which are a great credit to Helen's talents and her great
love and devotion, especially to Freddie but I am sure the
band as a whole. The magazine starts with a personal letter
to Freddie where she tries to explain to him exactly how she
feels now that he is no longer with us. Helen had the great
luck a few years ago of meeting Freddie very briefly and
having her photograph taken with him - an event I think most
of us females would like to have experienced! This memory
has stayed with Helen since and who can blame her, I know it
would have stayed with me for sure. She writes in great
detail so well about this meeting that you can imagine it so
clearly and almost think that it did happen to you. Her
poems are all different, some of them deep and quite sad and
others more light-hearted, but all with the total dedication
that she feels to the man who we all love and miss. 

I think we all wish that we could express our feelings about
the loss we feel since Freddie left us in the same way that
Helen has managed to do so beautifully, but her natural
talent she appears to have for writing down her innermost
feelings is a unique one. We can all share these feelings
though and make them our own by getting a copy of this
Tributezine from Helen. She has managed to write her poems
(in the words of a recently departed D.J.)' in the best
possible taste' and I would congratulate her on her
sensitivity and delicacy.
_________________________________________________________________


ROGER TAYLOR CONCERTS
--------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEWS BY ANDREAS SPIEKERMANN, GERMANY
--------------------------------------------------------------
At last I'm able to write to you again with some news.

Last year ('94) I was able to go to Gosport and see the
premiere of Roger's new band. Although I had some great
difficulties in getting to Gosport in time for the concert
(thanks to British Rail I was forced to stay one day in
London and I arrived in Gosport just one hour before the
start of the concert) I got what I came for. I must say that
I was a little bit bored by the support act. 'The Rhinomen'
and their set seemed to last forever, but with Roger's set
all was forgotten, though I must say that the sound was not
particularly good, but considering that it was a circus-tent
it was probably the best one could get. A good description
of the concert itself was given in a previous edition of QFN
, so I don't want to focus on that here. Well, the concert
was over much too soon and people were already leaving when
some of the used drum-sticks were thrown to the remaining
fans. I could get hold of one, but can't say whether it was
used by Josh or Roger. I also could get hold of a copy of
the original set-list. I asked one of the guys who were at
the side of the stage where Roger left, if there were any
chances to get a set-list and he went off to come back with
an unused list! (cheers, mate!). The officials then wanted
to get the tent cleared very quickly and it was said that
Roger had left the site and everyone should leave now. Well,
the festival site was cleared a little later, but a number
of fans - I would say about 40 - were still waiting at the
rear entrance of the site where the backstage area could be
seen. After one hour of waiting one of the roadies came to
us and told us that if we didn't run we could come onto the
site and Roger would give some autographs and yes it
happened, we walked - some maybe a little quicker than
others - and nobody ran. We were told to wait at a fence
near the back of the tent and then groups of ten fans were
allowed inside. Everyone queued up to wait to meet Roger who
was sitting by a table. Everyone was allowed just one
autograph, but one of the managers took pictures of one and
Roger if one had a camera! Sadly I couldn't talk to Roger as
much as I wanted to, but I also didn't want to have the
other fans waiting for too long (anyway it was already the
4th time I met him). He signed my copy of the 'I Wanna
Testify' 7" from the Netherlands in picture sleeve. I asked
him whether he would tour in Germany too and he said "Yes.
If they want me there" - well there's no doubt about that. I
also wanted to talk with him about the LP by the group
called FOX on which he sang on the track 'Survival' of which
I had a copy. I also had a bootleg called 'Roger And Out'
which has a copy of an interview with Roger of the same
title on the cover and I would have liked to ask him what he
thinks about bootlegs in general, but as I said before there
was no time for that.

I send you a tape which I could get of that concert. The
sound for the first ten minutes is not that good, but it
includes the two instrumental songs which are played as an
introduction before the concert. As I learned to know in
Gosport, they are featured on a CD called 'The Positiva
Collection' which is made by EMI-UK. When I first heard them
at Gosport I thought that they were tracks by Roger and
might appear on the album or as bonus tracks on a single
(like 'In Charge Of My Heart' by The Cross), but those
thoughts were soon dismissed after the show when someone
asked the man behind the mixing desk about these tracks and
he showed him that CD.

I also attended Spike's Party Night on the 29th July. A pity
that neither Roger nor Brian appeared, but we had our fun
anyway. I couldn't get a recording or set-list this time. I
saw that both nights were filmed by some people in the
audience, but I couldn't find anyone who has a recording to
offer. The concert of Roger was also filmed by DoRo and
parts of it you can see on the videotape that I send you.
It's a special report that could be seen on German TV
station VIVA in September coinciding with the release of the
album. Of course, the comments are in German, but I think
you can still understand Roger. Anyway, should you need a
transcription of the show, let me know and I'll see what I
can do.

The tape also includes Roger's performance of 'Foreign Sand'
on German TV show 'Big Bubbles'. I think it's very strange
that he appeared on that show, because all the other guests,
apart from Al Jareau, were dance floor acts! The show took
place in Munich's 'P1'. I'm not sure whether it was a live
transmission or a recorded set. I think that it might have
been a recording, because Roger was in Germany in October
and he did a concert in Cologne on the 14th!

At the beginning of October I was told by a friend that
Roger would appear in Cologne for a concert, but he didn't
know where and when. So I went to my local record shop where
I used to work a few years ago and asked them for the phone
number of EMI- Germany. I had to call EMI three times before
I could find someone who could confirm that Roger and band
would give a concert on October 14th at the old LP
manufacturing place of EMI in Cologne. I contacted about 40
fans and told them about that concert. There were no adverts
anywhere, not even the German Fan Club knew about it - so I
was really surprised that still about 200 fans turned up.
Well most of them were Dutch fans who knew about this
concert, because the information could be heard on the
answer-machine of the Dutch Fan Club! Well, I also had the
information that Roger's appearance was planned as a pure
press presentation at first, but he told EMI that he
wouldn't come without an audience. It was also said that EMI
had a list of all German members of the O.I.Q.F.C. and that
everyone should have received a letter from EMI with
information about that concert. Well, I don't know if that
is true, but there were no letters sent. The promotion for
Roger is very poor, there can be no adverts found that
inform the fans about the releases and the videos can be
seen only by accident on TV. Sad, sad, sad. Now EMI is
promoting the 'Greatest Hits I & II' set very strongly with
TV adverts, but no news about 'Happiness?' which Rudi
Dolezal told me personally in Gosport would be the main
single in Germany! Well, I always thought that the lack of
promotion had cost The Cross their deserved success and now
I begin to fear that the same will happen to Roger.

Anyway - back to the concert. The gates at EMI were opened
at about 1800 hrs, but final admission to the concert hall
was granted only at 2000 hrs. The concert itself started at
about 2100 hrs! A long time to wait, but enough time to chat
to other fans and to take a look at the tour merchandise.
The 'tourbook' is very strange, it has very large pictures,
but I can't find any tourdates. A few days after the concert
I could get a tape recording of the concert of which I send
you a copy - so I won't go into detail about the concert. I
just want to say that the sound was better here than in
Gosport and that there was no support act! This time there
wasn't a chance to get an autograph. A number of fans waited
a long time outside the EMI site, but no-one was let in and
Roger soon left.
____________________________________________________________________

END


