Current News  QFN-20 - Winter 95/96
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Made In Heaven - Album Launch
29th October - Hammersmith Apollo - London

This event was announced in the official fan club magazine
(Autumn), on their answer machine, and in QFN-19 (and in
early Spetember through QFNs 'Advance Notice' service). The
ticket price was just 5, and for this fans received a free
good quality t-shirt (black with the 'Made In Heaven' logo
on the front in white and 'I heard it first on... etc.' on
the back), plus a set of the three posters which later came
with the vinyl album. These photos are reproduce within the
CD booklet. There was originally a mention of a
track-listing for the album, but I don't think it
materialised. I certainly didn't get, or see one.

By the side of the main stage which was empty except for a
screen at th back, there was a smaller, or more of a
platform with instruments set up on it and many fans must
have though they were in for a treat. Although as no
recognisable instruments were visible it was obvious to
anyone who took a close look that neither Brian, John or
Roger was about to get up. No comments were made by Jacky,
ans I assume it was for the evenings performance -
accompanying music to David Copperfeild the magician.

The day was planned to begin at 12.30 with the first of two
play throughs of the album, but the free t-shirt kept
everyone queing far too long, and eventually the show began
about 40 minutes behind schedule. Just before it did though,
Roger turned up (complete with 'salty dog' grey beard) to
say a few words, and I mean a few words. Like "Thanks for
coming, I hope you enjoy it. Thank you", and he was gone.
Apparently he was on his way to Ibiza and his car was
waiting outside. It was expected all three members would be
there, at this, their last opportunity to thank their loyal
fans for their support over the last twenty years, but it
was not to be. I for one wanted to thank them and say
goodbye to Queen, for they are no more - there will be no
more albums or tours, no more Queen... not as we know them
anyway. 

Jacky picked a ticket stub from a box and the lucky winner
was presented with a copy of 'The Queen Cabinet' which is
modelled on a platinum award design and contains all 20
Queen CDs. Two CDs (Queen's first and last) are displayed on
the front along with a thin brass plaque and a hologram of
Freddie. A signed copy of the CD was also won, as was a
vinyl copy complete with lyric book.

The original plan to play the album through twice with the
video inbetween was changed because of the time loss.
Consequently, it was decide to show the video (Champions..')
first and then play the album. Jacky said a few words about
the video which goes with 'Heaven For Everyone' (The Stelarc
one called 'Evolution', not the Mallet one with the old
footage by the French film pioneer Mlis ) and read some
accompanying text from the artist who devised the contents
(more of this later) of the video, but instead of the
correct track playing we saw the video of 'Heaven...' but
hear the music to 'Beautiful Day'. The correct version was
played at the end of the 2 hour 'Champions...' video.

Whilst the album was playing a large screen on the stage
displayed still and moving images of either Queen from the
official video or views from a helicopter (its shadow could
be seen sometimes) swooping over what looked like the
English countryside and along the coast, and sometimes over
clifftops - very dramatic. Did anyone recognise the
landscape?

On two ocassions the video tape stopped, the screen went
black, the tape rewound a little (5 minutes) and then began
again. 

Nothing was for sale on the day as had been hoped, but this
did not cause a problem as the release date was only a week
away. 

The French launch of the album was on Monday 31st October at
The Zenith in Paris, and was presented by Brian May! Both
EMI and M6 (a TV station) had invited 3000 guests - fans and
professionals.

In the foyer of The Hammersmith Appollo 'Red Ribbon
International' were  in attendance, and they had just
received orders totalling 400,000 ribbons, which had to be
distributed all over Europe the following week. They had 400
packs of 1000 unmade ribbons which they asked fans attending
the event to help with. Each pack contain 15cm strips of red
ribbons and small gold saftey, plus asmall diagram of how to
fold and pin the ribbons. The accompanying literature said
it would take between 2 an 4 hours to make and they would be
very grateful. The return postage was paid and a large
padded envelope provided. So, if in future you see the 'Red
Ribbon' people anywhere make sure you offer to help - it's
easy, and can be done whilst you're watching TV. It's very
_______________________________________________________________

Made In Heaven
Released 6th November 1995
Highest Chart position - No. 1 (1 week)

The album was released on the 6th November 1995 world-wide
on cassette, CD and vinyl. Neither the previously announced
blue nor gold vinyl editions appeared, but a limited edition
ivory coloured one did - approx 50,000 worldwide (the fan
club mag lists how many each country gets - only 47,555
acounted for this way though). These coloured vinyl releases
have some errors on the (printed) lyrics, which will be
corrected for the black vinyl - collectors please note.

The vinyl comes with a set of three 12" gatefold posters.
Each members favourite photograph of themselves with
Freddie. The same photographs are reproduced inside the CD
lyric booklet. 

The cover of 'Made In Heaven' is slightly different for the
CD and vinyl release. The same scene (the Freddie statue and
Brian, John and Roger were superimposed later) was
photographed at both sunset, and sunrise - one is tinted
with blue, and the other with light brown). Apparently it
coudn't be decide which should be used, so finally it was
decided the sunset was used on the CD, and the sunrise for
the vinyl ('It's A Beautiful Day' anyone? Sunrise to sunset
that is). Both recordings include their opposite photograph
in the packaging, as the CD is a picture CD and has the the
sunrise image, plus the inner of the gatefold vinyl gets its
opposite too.

The yellow fuzzy vertical stripes between the words on the
lyric sheets inside the album cover are apparently Freddie's
soundbites. A soundbite is the visual representation
produced on a computer screen of a sound, in this case
Freddie's voice. This being the case the fuzzy lines should
be horizontal and they'd look more like reconisable to
anyone who has seen a real one. Think of an osciloscope
displaying a green wavy line, and maybe that will help if
you are unsure of this type of display.

Both the CD and vinyl came with a small (CD-sized) full
colour 4 page information sheet showing all 20 officially
released album covers, and all the video covers too. The
front of the sheet has the Queen crest on, whilst the
reverse has details about 'The Official Queen Worldwide Web
Site' (for computer users with an Internet
account/connection). The small sheet also advertises 'Queen
- Roadworks' a book by Gerry Stickells,   - "a unique
insiders view of 25 years of Queen on tour" it claims.
Though how it will manage this, as they only toured from a
1970 to 1986 - 16 years total, will be revealed when it is
published hopefully sometime in 1996.    

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theraputic. 
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Heaven For Everyone Released (UK) 23/10/95 Highest UK
position - No.2

The first single from the new album was a good choice. The
track title tied in well with the album title, and it is a
great song. Again like recent Queen-related releases this is
a two part CD set. Although both CD's where available
together rather than a week apart as stated on the cover.

The first CD also includes 'It's A Beautiful Day' which is
different to both the album versions, (normal and reprise)
and is my personal favourite of the three. The single and
album version of 'Heaven For Everyone' are also here. The CD
cover features the top half of the album statue pose of
Freddie in the sunset version. This image, but from a
slightly different angle is also printed onto the actual CD.
The CD inner tray is the type which flips over to accomodate
another CD (next weeks release of the single), with the
revealed card cover announcing the second release and its
tracks.

Part two of this set has the sunrise cover, and is in a
normal thin single CD case, which I suppose you're meant to
discard and place the CD with the first weeks double CD
tray.  Does anyone actually do this? As well as the single
version of 'Heaven For Everyone', there are also digital
remastered versions of 'Keep Yourself Alive', ' Seven Seas
Of Rhye', and ' Killer Queen'.

The cassette version only includes 'It's A Beautiful Day' as
well as the  single.

There was no commercial vinyl release, although there were
8,500 pressed for jukeboxes. The 7" vinyl release doesn't
have a paper label as it has a large centre hole for the
jukebox, so the ink-free text was created by injection
moulding and is raised to the touch. An A6 jukebox title
card and A4 poster was also part of the promo pack. A promo
CD was also produced, and is a one track picture disc in a
normal CD case. 

The fan club is looking into the possiblity of having vinyl
versions of the albums non-vinyl releases pressed up for fan
club members to complete their vinyl collection. 

Both the above releases advertise the new Queen Worldwide
Web site, (on the Internet) launched on 6th November 1995
which is getting 25,000 visitors per week. You'll need a
computer, a modem, and an Internet account if you want to
view the information and keep up to date with Queen-related
activities which can be updated daily. 

The video for 'Heaven For Everyone' is a piece of
performance art entitled 'Evolution' and performed by an
Australian artist named 'Stelarc'. In the video 'Stelarc' is
film using a third mechanical arm which is strapped to his
own right arm . The robot arm copies the human arm and
finger movements through a series of electrodes which are
attacted to the artists skin. The video was shown at the
launch, though I haven't seen it on the TV. When the single
was shown on UK TV a montage of various Queen clips was
shown.

A documentary in which the artist 'Stelarc' could also be
seen, was broadcast on UK TV in late December 1995 on the
programme 'Tx' which explored the way man and machine are
interacting more than ever before, exploring the boundaries
of art and culture.
_______________________________________________________

A Winter's Tale.
Released 11th December
Highest UK position No. ?

The week before the release of this single a Parlophone /
the fan club postcard was mailed out. The front is a photo
of part of the album cover with the chalet etc, but no
figures, with the opening words from the song superimposed in
white ink in Freddie's hand writing. The reverse has more
song words and announces the release date and the fact that
again the release is a two part CD set. The BFI film for
this release was video was shot on the Isle of Skye. 

The first CD has 'A Winter's Tale', 'Thank God It's
Christmas', and Rock In Rio Blues' (digital master) - a
blues jam played live on their '86 tour . This release was
specially designed with wrap around Christmas packaging
connected to the actual card CD box.

This outer wrapping is green with the song title printed all
over in white. There is also a mock christmas label which
says 'Merry Christmas' with the words 'to', and 'from' where
you can insert names in the blank spaces, and send it as a
present to someone.

The card wrapping can be carfully detatched along a
perforation to leave just the normal card CD box/case if so
desired, (but I bet no one will!) The front of the box is
like the postcard detailed above, but with extra song words
because of its larger size. The reverse has the full version
of the album cover (when opened out revealing all four
members) plus above this are the song titles and a small
illustration of a graphic from the Internet Web site.

The inner card box has a few sheets of coloured paper
reproduce again with Freddie's hand-written lyrics on, and
does the cream coloured CD with black text.

The second part of this set is in a normal single CD tray
box with the same cover design as the first release, but
without the special wrapping. The CD itself is printed red
with the songwords overprinted in black. The extra digital
remastered tracks are 'Now I'm Here', 'You're My Best
Friend', and 'Somebody To Love'.

A jukebox 7" exists for 'A Winter's Tale' which includes an
ink-free label, a jukebox tent card and an A4 poster.
There's also a two track DJs promo which includes 'Thank God
It's Christmas'.

_________________________________________________________________________

'You Don't Fool Me' is the next release for Europe, released
on the 26th February, on CD, Cassette and possibly on a
limited edition coloured vinyl.

_________________________________________________________________________

The next UK single is to be 'Too Much Love Will Kill You'.
Due for release on the 26th of February, on CD, Cassette and
possibly coloured vinyl. The video is called 'Songs are like
tatoos'.
_________________________________________________________________________

Queen Deluxe Box Set.

Release Date: November 13th
Cat. No: QUEEN BOX 20
Barcode: 7243 8 39009 2 5

Each case will be individually numbered, feature a Freddie
Mercury hologram, contain 20 high quality litho printed
picture gold CD's and include an embossed 16 page colour
booklet containing photographs from the album covers.


The box will be packaged to ensure safe arrival instore and
easy assembly at home. For transit purpooses the cabinet
will be housed within a polystyrene case and double walled
protective cardboard box. Included within a section of the
polystyrene case will be the 20CDs individually packed in
protective envelopes.

Full assembly instructions, fixtures and fittings will be
included within packaging.

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The Queen Phenomenon

A 60 minute edited TV version of the 'Champions Of The
World' video was broadcast on UK TV on Channel 4 on the 4th
December 1995. Apparently this version is slightly different
to the official video release as it contains a different
voice over for UK TV. It didn't seem to be that different
though except in length. 
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