6.30.14 Adam News and Info

This picture reminds me of......



.....this!

“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak




Adam photo source: Ivy @lierre_Vert
Adam fans: Finally a couple of HQ pro-pics, enjoy: daisy-roots.livejournal.com/165344.html





We say goodbye to Nick from the Q+AL Tour!



28th June 2014
QueenOnline on Tour: Notes From The Road Part 12

As promised, 50 Random Facts from the Queen + Adam Lambert North American Tour...

Last show for me tonight...sob!

Nick

***

There are 13 trucks pulling the stage and backstage equipment around this tour.

The crew is made up of Brits, Americans, Canadians, one Irishman and one New Zealander.

Our Head Carpenter "Keano" was a tree surgeon in the village I am from, Writtle in Essex.

The show is shot on 5 cameras every night.

Jil our Production Coordinator used to work for Lord of The Dance Michael Flatley.

There are 285,994 light 'actions' per show - this means a movement or being on or off.

Adam sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" for his "American Idol" audition.

Pete, Head of Catering used to be Kurt Cobain's cook.

He has also gone on to cater for Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures and Queens Of The Stone Age.

Brian has 18 Vox AC 30 Amps on the tour with him.

Rob our stage designer cycles to the venue from the hotel at every opportunity.

We seem to be following Cher and Heart around the same venues. We find traces of them at each venue.

Rufus Taylor on meeting Paul McCartney when he was tiny found it easier to call him "Beatle Guy" than remember his name.

I had to bring over Marmite, Chocolate Buttons and UK Mars Bars for some ex-pats that now live in LA.

There are 44 Crew on this tour, made up of the Production Team, Riggers, Carpenters, Lighting, Video, Audio, FX, and Backline Team.

Adam's first ever live show with Queen was at Independence Square in Kiev, in front of 300,000 people.

We have 4 buses carrying the 44 crew. 12 bunks on each bus.

The next gig for one of our lighting team, Robin, is with Oprah Winfrey.

We are carrying 36 tonnes/ 80,000Ilbs of equipment on the road.

Our printer in the Production Office is called Malcolm.

I made that last fact up.

We have 4 confetti cannons in the kit - not always used.

Neil Fairclough and I could talk about Queen and music in general for about 6 weeks non-stop.

Benji in the Lighting team also worked on the Queen Extravaganza US Tours.

There are 27 different T-shirts to chose from on the Tour Merchandise stand.

I have interviewed Rufus and Neil for the Official Queen Podcast.

I am not going to take pictures of the band member’s dressing rooms and upload them.

Carpenter Andy Bews was the drummer in early 2000s UK rock hopefuls 100 Reasons and I once reviewed their debut album.

After show Toweling Robes - Brian: black, Roger: black, Spike: light grey: Neil and Rufus: dark blue. Adam puts on a clean T-shirt.

Leah, who works in Adam's team, used to work for the late, great Jeff Buckley.

Roger on average uses 6-8 pairs of drumsticks a night - although he has been know to use just one pair.

You can get a good haircut in Calgary. Thanks Mohammad.

On average we take 3.5 hours to load out of a venue each night.

There are over 1000 flight cases being carried on this tour. I did not count them.

I am collecting the entire set list print outs during my time here.

Before the Edmonton show the crowd performed a Mexican Wave.

This is the longest I have ever been away from my kids.

Adam's dad was a DJ at his college radio station and he played a LOT of Queen songs.

On this trek Sting's Fields of Gold is always used to test the audio equipment before sound check. The track is good for setting the PA tones.

We are carrying specialist electrical equipment that converts US power to our UK needs.

In Calgary Brian and Roger were given the "Freedom Of The City".

We use about 40 local crew at each show...and they all get a Queen + Adam Lambert T-shirt to wear and keep.

VIP and stage side seated guests are given a backstage tour before the show.

There is over 30 miles of cable used in the whole show.

There are over 1million pixels in the main stage LED screen.

Neil only uses a pick on Under Pressure and he has used the same three picks since LA rehearsals.

The gold fans that Adam uses in Killer Queen - I spray-painted those.

Prior to sound check Pete has been known to play 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' by The Darkness.

I had the best hot dog ever - a 'Japa Dog' - in Vancouver.

On upload of this update I have just 9 hours left on tour.

Link: www.queenonline.com/en/news-archive/queenonline-on-tour-notes-from-the-road-part-12/



Before Queen.....
6.30.14 by Q3

Before Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor were part of a band called Smile. The third member of the band was Tim Staffell as singer and bassist. They recorded 6 songs before they disbanded in 1970. But some of this music lived on and can be heard on Queen's first album including one full track, "Doin' All Right".

"Doin' All Right" was recorded by Smile for Mercury in June 1969 at Trident Studios. It was later recorded by Queen with Freddie replacing Tim on lead vocals. Freddie sounds a bit different on this track because he was trying to sound like Tim's version. This US promotional recording was never published commercially, however, in September of the same year, Mercury Records commissioned Smile to record three more songs: "April Lady" (Stanley Lucas), "Blag", a May instrumental, and "Polar Bear", a "gentle song about a polar bear" written and led by May, at De Lane Lea Studios. Again, the record was not released at the time.

Smile disbanded in 1970 but the music formed part of the foundation that became Queen.

There are many bootleg versions of Smile recording. Two legitimate releases of the six Smile tracks have since been issued:

Gettin' Smile (LP) from Japan, released 23 September 1982, on Mercury Records. The sleeve contains notoriously inaccurate lyrics and songwriting credits for the songs. This release was used for all subsequent bootlegs which contain the songs.

youtu.be/-UHsxZyUtpA


Ghost of a Smile (CD) from the Netherlands, released in 1997, on Pseudonym Records. The CD booklet is comprehensive and features new liner notes by Staffell. All the tracks were newly remastered. The album also features two versions of the Eddie Howell/Freddie Mercury collaboration "The Man from Manhattan" (no relation to Smile, except that May plays guitar on it).

"The Man from Manhattan" Eddie Howell featuring Freddie Mercury
Brian May on lead guitar

youtu.be/YKkIMrvYeZc


Share your concert review!!
6.28.14 by Q3

Everyone wants to read about your concert experience. So, if you are inclined to share, please do. It is fun to read them even if you attended the same concert. Everyone has a different experience and sees different things.

If you do want to share a review, please post it in the CONCERT thread. Then, so we don’t miss it, post a short note with a link to your review in the current Daily News thread.

If you already posted it in both places, that fine. Just leave it as it is. If you did not post it in the concert thread, please post a copy in the concert thread so we can include it in the concert archive.

Thanks to all who have shared. And I hope/expect to read hundreds more! So post away!

2014 Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Dates



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