When I first heard about Queen, well, Brian May and Roger Taylor, coming out of retirement for the first time since Freddy Mercury's death, I can't say that I was all that interested. Especially since they chose Paul Rodgers to handle the vocal chores. I mean come on! Rodger's is certainly one of the greatest rock singers of all time, but to sing Freddy Mercury's songs? Could these two guys be more polar opposites? My wife has commented numerous times about how macho looking and sounding Rodgers is. Now, you can describe Mercury's unique style in many ways, but macho is not one of them. He was certainly no Rob Halford. Oh, wait a minute.
I figured, if anything, Queen would pick some Brit-pop singer like Robbie Williams, or maybe that skinny dude from The Darkness to replace Mercury. At least somebody who embodies his style a little bit more. The curious thing was that I started seeing all of these great reviews for the new Queen and Rodgers collaboration, aptly titled Queen + Paul Rodgers Return Of The Champions. So when I came across the DVD on sale one day, I said what the hell, lets give her a try - and I'm glad I did.
Return Of The Champions was filmed at Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, England on May 9th, 2005. The show was brilliantly captured by award winning director David Mallet using eighteen high-definition cameras and it looks and sounds amazing. Then again, all of the Queen concert videos put most others to shame. The show kicks off humbly with Rodgers walking alone down a huge catwalk that extends from the still curtain covered stage while singing "Reaching Out", the new single that was released to promote the DVD/CD. The song lasts for only a minute and then Brian May strolls out from behind the curtain playing the killer intro riff to "Tie Your Mother Down". Cued exactly with Roger Taylor's first cymbal crash, the billion watt light show (I'm not kidding) kicks in full force just as the curtain drops. The crowd is now in ecstasy.
For every miscue, like Rodgers' gritty, muscular take of the glam-pop tune "I Want To Break Free", he propels other songs like "I Want It All" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" to new heights. Obviously for most Queen fans the last couple of Mercury-led concert films, Live At Wembley Stadium, and On Fire At The Bowl are going to be a much more satisfying experience. Although this setlist has a few of the great old-time rockers like "Tie Your Mother Down", "I’m In Love With My Car", and "We Will Rock You", they mostly stuck to the more recent, light-pop fluff such as "These Are The Days Of Our Lives", and "Radio Ga Ga". To make matters worse, they handed them over to Roger "must have smoked three packs of Marlboros a day" Taylor to sing. OK, he actually did a nice job.
The inclusion of "Last Horizon" from Brian May's 1993 solo album Back To The Light, and "Say It’s Not True", a song they wrote for the Nelson Mandela AIDS Concert: African Prayer album, also add to the uniqueness of this disk. Freddy Mercury comes to life on the giant video screen during several of the songs, and the best occasion is when he shows up to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the rest of band plays live. Rodgers joins in for the ending rock-out section as he and Mercury alternate lines. It actually worked better than it sounds.
Article comments
1 - NO mention of John Deacon? THey ALWAYS forget the bass player!
Seriously, thanks for the review.
2 - Barry Stoller
Hearing "Feel Like Making Love" and "Can't Get Enough" at a "Queen" concert shows that Brian May has obviously donated his brain to science - prematurely.
Queen, to their credit, understood the high-wattage needs of their mainstream audience yet, at their best, were never afraid to poke some self-conscious fun at themselves and their idiom. "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Radio Ga Ga" are the complete inverse of the humorless, unthinking Bad Company.
BTW, I noticed notice the absence of "Somebody To Love"; as a "straight" (no irony or mockery) Queen tune, perfect for a "soulful rocker," I can only conclude Paul Rodgers didn't feel man enough to take on Mercury's greatest vocal.
3 - Christopher Rose
WHAT?
Brian May has the debatable right to get someone in to tour Queen but then allowing this sad stand-in to bring some of his old Bad Company rubbish with him? Now THAT is blasphemy!
May all involved with this horrendous travesty be forced to listen to elevator music for ever. A curse on all your houses!!
4 - Paul Roy
I didn't realize I was the only one who enjoys both Queen AND Bad Company. I just never thought I'd see their songs them being played together by a band made up of Queen and Paul Rodgers, but I guess that is why this venture is called Queen + Paul Rodgers.
5 - JR
Actually, there are two of us.
6 - Vern Halen
I like both BC and Queen. This album makes me wonder what Queen might have sounded like without Freddie Mercury - perhaps a simplified blues rock band. There's precedent - "Sleeping On the Sidewalk" from News of the World is certainly in the same blues rock vein as Bad Company. They certainly play the Rodgers' material well anyway.
7 - LE
Maybe its just me but....I really feel that this tour is in bad taste.Freddie Mercury's voice and presence can never be replaced nor should it be attempted in my opinion.
8 - proy1
Queen isn't the first band to carry on after the loss of a key member. Anybody heard of AC/DC?? Thank god they carried on after Bon and gave us perhaps the greatest hard rock album of all time. Too bad Zeppelin didn't do the same. I don't have a problem with this Queen (+ Paul Rodgers) tour at all.
9 - Kate
I have tickets for the Chicago show (3/23) and cannot wait to see the guys! I have both the "Return of the Champions" CD and DVD and love 'em. Paul is not Freddy, but I never got the impressions from various interviews that Brian May or Roger Taylor wanted him to be.
10 - Oleh
Freddie
11 - Larry R
If you can pretend that this is not Queen and Paul Rodgers, and just listen and watch the group as a rock band, you will totally enjoy the experience. It's great music, tastefully done, and totally pleasant. What I call a treatsicle.