Magazine Round-Up  QFN-21
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Record Collector - March 1996
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Freddie is on the cover of this issue, which concludes the
in-depth series entitled, 'Queen Before Queen', which have
been running for the last 5 previous months. This time they
consentrate on Freddie and his pre-Queen exploits with
previous bands Ibex, Wreckage and Sour Milk Sea.

The article includes six previously unpublished photographs
containing Freddie, and there are also posters, tickets,
local newspaper reviews illustrated for the above bands.
There is also a letter reproduced, written (in 1969) by
Freddie, and just about readable. Interesting stuff! The
address on the letter is 40 Ferry Road, Barnes, London - the
same area as the current Official Fan Club address.

This issue also includes a little the author David Brett,
who is writing a biography about about Freddie. Mr Brett has
recently moved house and his new address is 71 Giles Mount,
Pontefract, West Yorkshire. WF8 4BJ. If you'd like to
contact him about any personal experiences with Freddie that
you have had, he'd be glad to hear from you. QFN mentioned
this project about 12 months ago by the way.

The 'Information Station' page lists and illustrates the
promo picture disc CD of 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' as
being worth 25. Differing from the commercial release by
having both album and single version of the title-track, but
not the 'Spread You Wings' digital remaster. Even though
there was/is a 7" commercial vinyl version of 'Too Much
Love...', collectors please note there is also a 7" black
juke-box only version too, just like the releases for
'Heaven...' and A Winter's Tale'. 

The letters page includes two detailed letters, which
provide much extra information relative to a Smile article
which appeared in Record Collector 167.

Andrew Young wrote in to tell us that Tim Stafell, who was a
member of the group 'Morgan' (after Smile) recorded not one
but two albums, the second wasn't released in the UK as
planned, nor when originally recorded, (pre-1973), but in
1976 and only in America under the title 'Brown Out', it was
then re-issued in the UK in 1978 on Cherry Red Records under
the title 'The Sleeper Wakes'.

Morgan split in 1973 and Morgan Fisher went on to join Mott
The Hoople, Maurice Bacon (the third member of Morgan)
joined John Ottway's band, and Tim formed a group called
Refugee, but seemingly didn't record as nothing has
surfaced.  

However, Morgan Fisher recorded a solo album during the
'Brown Out' sessions, althought it's not known if Tim
Stafell was involved. This solo album was released
eventually in 1984 on Maurice Bacon's 'Strike Back' label
under the name 'Ivories'. As we all know, Morgan Fisher
played keyboards on Queen's 1982 tour and that little fact
brings the collaborations full-circle.

The second part of Andrew's letter informs us that The
American Queen Fan Club 'Royal Vision' have announced that a
recording of the Smile song 'Polar Bear' has been discovered
with Freddie on vocals, along with a recording of Queen's
'Play The Game' with Andy Gibb (The Bee Gees) on vocals.
There were also reports of a Smile recording of 'White
Queen', but it's suspected that this was a home recording
and not from a proper studio.

The second letter in this issue, is from Chris Smith who was
in the original line-up of Smile. So Smile were originally a
four-piece, with Chris playing organ and sinning backing
vocals. Chris claims only to have played a couple if gigs
before he left of his own accord, rather than being sacked
as reported in the original article (RC 197) to which
Chris's letter is a response.

Chris finishes by telling us that he now has his own band
'King Ivory Band' who play Clapton/Dire Staits-type blues.
The 'King Ivory Band, are also include in the news pages of
this same issue of Record Collector, and elswhere in this
issue of QFN.

Finally, in response to either or both of the above letters,
Record Collector replies that they have since discovered
more information relative to the original Smile article, and
go on to inform us of the fact that Brian's band '1984' were
captured on a colour 8mm home movie by a friend - Chris
Hanshaw, at a fancy dress party at Imperial College in 1966.
The film is silent and lasts only for about 5-minutes and
concentrates on the whole party rather than the band. 

There is also a little information on what members of other
Queen-related groups  are doing now, (Ibex / Sour Milk Sea /
Wreckage), so if you need to know then get a back issue of
the March 1996 Record Collector. Lastly there is an
illustration of the 'Beck Amplification' acetate label, on
which John Deacon recorded three track when he was with the
band 'Opposition'. This is a Queen-filled issue of RC, which
no fan should be without.
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Record Collector - April 1996
-----------------------------
Just a couple of Queen bits in this issue.

Firstly, Brownie McGhee has died aged 80 (born 30/11/1915 -
died 16/02/1996). It has been suggested in a couple of books
/ articles over the years that Brownie McGhee and his
harp-playing partner Sonny Terry (who died in 1986) were the
real authors of 'See What A Fool I've Been', commonly
believed to be a Queen original, so this might explain why
the Queen version never materialised on their debut album.
However the song is credited to Brian May where it appears
on the b-side of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye'. 

If anyone knows of concrete evidence either way, I for one
would like to settle this mystery.

The other Queen-related news in this issue of RC is about
three Queen books which are now available in paperback.
There is a single paragraph which covers Laura Jackson's
'Queen & I - The Brian May' story, David Evans and David
Minns 'Freddie Mercury - More Of The real Life', and Greg
Brook's 'Queen Live' which I don't think was originally
released as a hardback anyway. The first two books have been
updated since they were last published with pages of new
information added.
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Guitar School - April 1996 - 2.75
(1115 Broadway, New York, NY 10010).
------------------------------------
The cover of this bi-monthly specialist magazine features
Queen on the cover in the famous 'folded arms' Bohemian
Rhapsody pose, and a quarter-page Freddie and Brian picture
on the inside cover.

Inside the magazine there are two separate Queen articles.
The first is an 18-page, guitar-score transcription to 'Keep
Yourself Alive'. The first page contains a technical
introduction by Askold Buk, who reveals that Brian took two
different approaches for the massive harmonies on the track,
which are - diatonic double-stops (using mostly thirds), and
layered single-note passages - one string at a time. So now
you know!

The other Queen piece is actually a couple of photographs,
and a 6-page article, edited from the Laura Jackson book
'Queen & I'. Plus a screen-shot of a Queen site on the
Internet called 'Another One Bytes the Dust'. 

Elsewhere in this issue, there is also mention of a
California-based band named Smile, with a guitarist named
Mike Rosas.
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Bassist & Bass Techniques
April 1996 - Price 2.25
Back Issues - Tel: 01353 668586
Alexander House, Forehill, Ely, Cambs. CB7 4AF
----------------------------------------------

It was because Freddie was on the cover of this that I
noticed it in my local WH.Smiths (UK magazine shop). John is
peering out from behind Freddie and I think might even be
singing! There is a 3-page in-depth feature (some of which
is lifted from the book 'Queen - The Early Years'). The
article itself is headed 'The Invisible Man' and is about
John. It mentions the different bass guitars he's used
throughout his career, with a few quotes from the man
himself, and a full-page colour photograph of John with his
black Fender Precision bass.

Also in this issue are the musical scores for the bass
guitar, (stave and tabulature notation) for Killer Queen,
Another One Bites The Dust, Bicycle Race and Bohemian
Rhapsody.

Finally in this issue, is a very positive mention of the
what the magazine claims to be the Official Queen site on
the internet, although gives a different address to the one
on official literature, the magazine then says "...it must
be one of the best band sites avaialble..." so check it out
if you can. 

Below are two Queen-related addresses if you have Internet
The first IS the official site.
access. http://www.fujiint.co.uk/QUEEN/
http://www.s-gimb.lj.edus.si/peter/queen/queen.html
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Loaded - April 1996
-------------------
Loaded is probably a bit off the beaten track for most
people. It's not even a music magazine, but here goes.

Loaded is a mans magazine, but certainly not a pornographic
magazine I must add! Loaded is full of things men like -
sex, alcohol, sex, behaving badly, bodily functions and of
course sex - you get the picture? It's quite funny really if
you don't take it too seriuosly. It could be compared to the
UK TV programme 'Men Behaving Badly'.

Anyway, Loaded recently printed an interview with the
outragious UK comedian Malcolm Hardee, in which he admits,
it was him who stole Freddie Mercury's pink Rolls-Royce
birthday cake! The whole story is quite funny, and basically
he and two friends were booked along with other acts to
perform at one of Freddie's party's (it doesn't say which
year), but at the last minute were told they couldn't go on!
Anyway to cut a long story short Malcolm and friends were a
bit annoyed and decided to take the 4,500 cake as payment.
Although when they realised the seriousness of what they'd
done the next day (the police came aound, but they'd been
tipped off), they quickly took it around to the Old Memorial
Nursing Home and told them it was a free Christmas cake for
all the old people.

The full story is in Malcolm's book to be published summer
1996. Some UK readers may remember Malcom was of of the
original members of an act who did the 'Ballon Dance' on the
programme 'OTT' in the late seventies/early eighties. The
three men would do a simple dance totally naked except for a
couple of ballons to hide their private parts. "You had to
be there..." as the saying goes. 
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Total Guitar - April 1996 / issue 17 - 3.95
Back issues - 5 - UK / 6 Europe / 7 Elsewhere.
Payable to Future Publishing.
Future Publishing,
FREEPOST (BS4900), Somerton,
Somerset TA11 6BR - UK.
-------------------------------------------------
The cover of this magazine features Brian, and a free CD,
although there is only a photo of Eric Clapton on the CD
cover.

The editorial informs that Brian was "dead chuffed" (very
pleased) that Total Guitar the magazine would be covering
his best solos and gave the 'thumbs up' on the choice, which
he described as "very interesting".

The feature in the magazine includes a 12-page special with
small reproductions of all Queen's albums, guitar scores for
the 10 tracks featured on the CD, plus a comment about each
track. Ie - "...either it (Bohemian Rhapsody) is the
greatest rock single of all-time, or a bag of over-indulgent
shite. Very rarely will you hear it described as 'Okey'."

The CD contains guitar solos, and backing tracks from the
following Queen tracks, (not the full songs), plus things by
other artists. The Queen section lasts about 7 and half
minutes total, so don't expect the full songs.

Brighton Rock, Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your
Mother Down, We Will Rock You, Hammer To Fall, A Kind Of
Magic, Who Wants To Live Forever, I Want It All, Heaven For
Everyone (2 separate backing tracks are played for this last
track).

First the solos are played, then the set is repeated with
just the backing track and no solos (so a guitarist can play
along with the CD).

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Record Collector Back issues    
----------------------------

As many readers of QFN wrote in enquiring about the
magazines refered to in the 'Magazine Round-Up' of the
newsletter, here for a start are the back issues  of
'Record Collector' which feature Queen articles.

Comments/Contents     Number  Date
------------------------------------               
Rarities               69    May 85     
Solo & Discographies   96    Aug 87
? & Discographies      102   Feb 88
Top 100 Rarities       110   Oct 88
Rare Pic Sleeves       114   Feb 89
Brian May Interview    114   Feb 89
Live 73-79             118   Jun 89
Live Discography       118   Jun 89
On CD                  123   Nov 89
Live 1980's            133   Sep 90
Revised Discography    139   Mch 91
Solo Update & Discog   144   Aug 91
Hollywood Remasters    149   Jan 92
Freddie Tribute        149   Jan 92
On Video               154   Jun 92
Poll result (2nd)      158   Oct 92
Smile & Larry Lurex    160   Dec 92
Cross Discography      160   Dec 92
Bo Rhap history        167   Jul 93
Remasters              171   Nov 93
Japanese pic sleeves   178   Jun 94
Collaborations (Pt 1)  188   Apr 95
Collaborations (Pt 2)  189   May 95
The Reaction Actates   191   Jul 95
Before Queen pt1 BM    195   Nov 95
Before Queen pt2 RT    196   Dec 95
Before Queen pt3 Smile 197   Jan 96
Before Queen pt4 JD    198   Feb 96
Before Queen pt5 FM    199   Mar 96

Many issues also contain snippets of Queen-related
information too, as do the above listed.

Cost per issue of Record Collector - (UK/Europe only):
UK        - 3.50
Europe    - 4.20

Prices correct at time of publication of this issue.

Cheques/Postal Orders payable to:
PARKER PUBLISHING 
Send your name and address printed clearly in block capitol
letters to

Magazine Editor
Record Collector
45 St Mary's Rd
Ealing
London
W5 5RQ

Please mention QFN when ordering anything from Record Collector.
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