7.22.14. Adam News and Info

Don't Stop Him Now: Adam Lambert Talks Queen Tour, Next Album

by Lyndsey Parker


Adam Lambert may wrapping up a U.S. tour fronting Queen, but his schedule will be busy for quite a while. A Queen + Adam Lambert tour of Australia and New Zealand kicks off Aug. 22; he's currently campaigning for AT&T's "Live Proud" project; and of course, there's his shrouded-in-secrecy third album, reportedly due for release in early 2015 (Adam won't confirm the date just yet).

In between whirlwind tourdates and recording sessions, Adam chatted with Yahoo Music about the challenges of filling Freddie Mercury's (fabulous) shoes, winning over Queen crowds, and how this summer's Queen experience may affect his solo music going forward. Don't stop him now, he's having too good a time…

YAHOO MUSIC: You've been on the road in the U.S. with Queen for more than a month now. How's it going?

ADAM: It's going really well. We've had a lot of warmth; you really feel the crowd come closer and closer as the show progresses. I mean, the first couple of songs, I can kind of look out and feel a little bit of "OK, all right, we're checking you out, we don't know yet…" And then there are certain moments in the show where I can feel the audience give in to all of it — which is part of what this is all supposed to be, like this suspension of disbelief. It's a little bit of an escape and a journey. Parts of it are supposed to be ridiculous; that's the spirit of the band, that's what they always were, so that's one of the reasons why I wasn't shy with the fashion or some of my choices energetically onstage. That's the spirit of this band, that's how it was originally intended to be presented, and I want to try my damnedest to bring that spirit to life again!

You definitely weren't shy with the fashion. At one point in the show, you even wear a glittering crown…

Ha, everybody is all about this crown! I mean, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of symbolism in it. I just kind of thought, "The band is Queen, I should get a crown!" Freddie came onstage famously with a cloak, like a cape and crown, at one point, and I just thought that was so camp and ridiculous and hilarious, so I wanted to do it too… although my crown is a little sparklier.

Some Queen purists on message boards gave you a hard time about that crown… like you were trying to be Freddie or something…

Well, what I think is really cool about the show is that we've purposely, visually and musically, tried to not stray too far from the O.G. Queen, even though it's a new incarnation. I think we all kind of agreed, "Let's recreate some of these moments and iconic sounds and looks and styles" — even with the fashion, I looked at a lot of Freddie's old costumes and where he was getting his inspiration from and what time period, and kind of tried to go there a little bit.

Was it daunting taking on Freddie's solo song "Love Kills" in concert, since he never performed it himself during his lifetime?

Yeah, in a way, but that was also the exciting thing about it — that it's harder to compare that one, as opposed to me singing "Who Wants to Live Forever," where you can listen to the original of that and go, "Well, Freddie's amazing…"

What have you enjoyed most about singing the Queen classics?

I have a theater background and I've done outlandish, over-the-top stuff, so when we get to those songs in the set, it's an easy fit. But I also really like doing the funkier, bluesier stuff. I also like that at the end of "Somebody to Love," I can kind of go to church a little bit with it. These are the kind of moments that I always love when I'm onstage, and I get to play dress-up!

Do you think that beyond touring, you and Queen would ever make an album of all-new material? That would be interesting.

I don't know. You can never say never at this point. I mean, if I had someone tell me five years ago, "Oh, you're going to be on a summer arena tour with Queen," I would have said, "Really?" So I'm sure if it's the right thing and we all feel like it's the right time, the right song or whatever, it could happen. It's not really in the mix yet, right now. We definitely are just trying to focus on what's ahead of us in the next month. And, on the horizon, I've been working on my album…

How do you think your Queen experience will affect that album? How has it influenced you?

I think one of the cool things about being on tour with this group is that it opens up a lot of different doors musically. I mean, Queen do Southern bluesy rock, they do pop, they do glam/theatrical/operatic s---, they do punk. Their music goes all over the place and obviously spans decades, and so it kind of makes me feel, for my upcoming album, really liberated to do whatever the f--- I want, song to song. I think that nowadays, trying to box oneself into a genre is kind of outdated; it doesn't feel like that's what's happening. I think everybody is going, "OK, I'm going to borrow from this, that, and the other thing; these are my references, and I'll mix it all together in some new way." I think there's going to be some new sounds on this album that I haven't really gone into before, and some stuff that's very signature me, and some stuff that's a little retro, but not too retro…

You definitely drew a lot from the '70s and '80s on your first two albums.

Totally, there's some things from every decade that you could point out. I love a lot of '70s stuff; I love a lot of stuff from the '90s. It's funny how trends change, you know? Now all of a sudden, all this '90s-sounding house music is becoming pop now, and it's like, who would have saw that coming?

I kind of think your album Trespassing was ahead of its time by a year or so. It had Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams on it, then a year later Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" blew up, and now Nile and Pharrell are everywhere…

You know, it's funny. I think what's funny about the music business, that I've learned kind of the hard way, is that part of it is the music — you have to have good songs, obviously, or else your product isn't there — but so much of it is about timing and positioning. The business of music is really tricky, and everything has to kind of work in unison, in harmony, to make for a successful release. And that's just something I'm still learning about. I think with this one coming up, without being able to give away all the details of the business plan, it's a much different situation: different label, different producers, different people involved, different management. It's all going to be a different ballgame, so I'm really excited.

Link:music.yahoo.com/blogs/reality-rocks/don-t-stop-him-now--adam-lambert-talks-queen-tour--next-album-222130036.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory




Fun Tweets!!


Adam's been having a fine time out on the town in NYC


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Late night kick w @thecharlbrown instagram.com/p/quN-hHONEv/





ADAM LAMBERT @adamlambert
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ADAM LAMBERT @adamlambert
Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care

(Note: Adam is referring to some of his "lyrics" during the Gimme That Love call and response at Merriweather. Begins about 7:57 in the video below)

youtu.be/WIQIlU3-CTM




Merriweather Reviews


Adam Lambert a natural fit with Queen at Merriweather Post Pavilion


By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun

11:34 a.m. EDT, July 21, 2014

(To view photos from last night's show, visit the Darkroom's gallery.)

True story: I was watching "American Idol" one night during the season that Adam Lambert was competing. I said to my wife – Mrs. Brown will vouch for this – “that guy should sing with Queen.”

The band was casting about for a new frontman after ending its five-year partnership with former Free/Bad Company/The Firm/The Law singer Paul Rodgers, and Lambert was enlivening another dreary season of Idol with his three-octave range, upper-register confidence and flamboyant stage presence.

The point being: This whole thing was kind of my idea.

So I’m delighted to report that the pairing of the 32-year-old singer with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Dr. Brian May (original singer Freddie Mercury died in 1991, and bass player John Deacon has lost interest) is a near-complete success.

At Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday night, Lambert managed to be both respectful in his approach to the material – all of which dated from Mercury’s tenure – and confident as he worked a catwalk that curved around from behind the drum riser and out through the first several rows.

(Also through a comprehensive regimen of costume changes. I took notes through the first several, but got lost somewhere between the gold-tasseled black tunic and the zebra-striped blouse.)

And while Lambert’s voice is neither as full nor as rich as Mercury’s – he wouldn’t have been onstage if his predecessor had been available – it does cut with a contemporary R&B edge that had the effect of updating the band’s sound.

About that sound: May (one of the great innovators of rock guitar) and Taylor (one of its most influential drummers), augmented by a bassist, a keyboard player and a second drummer, brought the familiar, unmistakable thunder. May conducted the ensemble from his homemade Red Special, alternating between his melodic, endlessly sustaining lead runs and end-of-the-world barre chords.

Still, bombast wants balance. The show worked when Lambert was strutting, posing and winking over the heaviest of metal. It flagged after he departed, leaving Queen Mach II to pursue its Jazz Odyssey, a succession of overlong instrumental solos.

An early highlight was “Killer Queen,” which Lambert delivered, salaciously, stretched out on a purple velvet couch. Also “Another One Bites The Dust,” which was made to be played loud. Arranging “Radio Ga Ga” around May’s guitar, instead of the keyboards of the studio version, has improved it; the more experienced Queen fans among the audience joined in the ritual double-claps of the chorus.

In introducing "’39," May – a genuine astrophysicist (he is the author of both “A Survey Of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud” and “Fat-Bottomed Girls”) – spoke of traveling through time. But the show, with its multiple generations (Lambert is young enough to be May’s son; Taylor’s actual son, Rufus Tiger, doubled him on drums), its laser lights, disco ball and early-MTV video effects, and its long familiar music, existed largely outside of time.

An emotional high-point came during May’s “Love of My Life,” which he sang solo on guitar. Before he began, May said Mercury used to stand at his side as he sang it. During the performance, his old friend returned, fading in on the video screen behind the stage to sing the final line.

From that point on, Mercury was seldom far from view. He appeared, with May, Taylor and Deacon, goofing around in the 40-year-old clips that were projected on the video screen during “These Are The Days Of Our Lives,” and returned for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the inevitable finale, to trade passages with Lambert.

It was not quite a passing of the torch, but a poignant tribute, and a fine conclusion to a satisfying evening.

LINK: t.co/wY20RkVpAN


Adam Lambert leads a cross-generational Queen through the hits at Merriweather



Adam Lambert and Brian May of Queen perform at Merriweather Post Pavilion. (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)


By Dave McKenna July 21 at 12:14 PM

Adam Lambert is the latest in a line of Freddie Mercury fill-ins to front Queen in the last couple decades. (Elton John, Robbie Williams and Paul Rodgers came before him.)

At 32, he’s also the youngest, and the May-December aspect of the alliance was impossible to ignore during Sunday’s Merriweather Post Pavilion show whenever he stood next to drummer John Taylor, who turns 65 this week, or guitarist Brian May, now 67.

But somebody’s gotta sing these songs. A 2006 survey rated Queen’s first greatest hits collection as by far the greatest selling record in England’s history; press materials for the current tour claim that it can be found in “one in three British households.” (That poll also ranked Queen’s “Greatest Hits II” as the seventh biggest British album of all time.) And Lambert is likely the best choice out there. His fame came via a second-place finish on “American Idol” in 2009, and in the season finale, he performed “We Are the Champions” alongside Taylor and May. He still seems a little shocked by his hiring as Mercury’s stand-in, however.

“I’m onstage with Queen!” Lambert squealed, after getting up from the lavender couch he sprawled all over while crooning “Killer Queen,” wearing the second of many leather-spike-sequined ensembles he’d sport on the evening. Mercury was far more than just a singer, and early in the show Lambert occasionally stumbled when trying to entertain the fans in nonmusical ways; he spit a drink on the crowd awkwardly, and he didn’t seem comfortable introducing “Fat Bottomed Girls” with a crude and not-safe-for-work order for large females in the crowd to dance.

But Lambert showed he could handle the rockier passages in the Queen songbook, and he got the huge crowd jazzed by belting out “Tie Your Mother Down” and “I Want It All.” Lambert ended “Somebody to Love” with the sort of Christina Aguilera-like multi-octavial blitz that helped him catch Simon Cowell’s eye and ears back on “Idol.”

Lambert led his elders on “Another One Bites,” the pop dance tune that was the band’s biggest selling U.S. single. It was written by Queen’s original bassist, John Deacon, who has declined to join any of the band’s tours since Mercury’s 1991 death from AIDS complications.

Lambert was occasionally subservient, however. He went backstage a few times as May came front and center. May is viewed as having one of the bigger brains in rock; his PhD thesis in astrophysics is entitled “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.” He briefly tried explaining Einstein’s theory of relativity to the crowd before leading the singalong on the folkie time-travel tune, “39.” Less brainy was May’s decision to walk around the stage alone, save for his guitar, lasers and smoke, for a brutally long solo that started off stagnant and remained inert. Fans could rightly wish for a time machine to get back the 15 minutes or so they’d spent watching that.

The show also flagged as a result of other non-brainy staging decisions. Neil Fairclough, Deacon’s understudy, was given a bass solo while others left the stage. He’s likely a fine musician, but it’s even likelier no more than a few of the folks who showed up could even name him, and likeliest that even fewer wanted to see a bass solo. Momentum flagged again when Taylor moved to a second drum kit so he could do a percussion duet with his son, Rufus Taylor.

Lowest of all, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the prototype Queen song, was hardly given its due. The tune’s inclusion in the 1992 film “Wayne’s World” allowed secret Queen lovers everywhere to start belting out this operatic bombast whenever it came on the car radio. But on this night, half of “Rhapsody” was played via a pre-recorded video shown on the amphitheater’s big screens. The live bodies returned in time for May’s gargantuan outro guitar solo, but that staging still turned what should have been a home run into a ho-hum.

Things picked up one last time when Lambert came out for the encore of “We Are the Champions,” sporting a glittery crown on his head. Hail the new king of Queen.
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/adam-lambert-leads-a-cross-generational-queen-through-the-hits-at-merriweather/2014/07/21/419100a0-10e1-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906_story.html?wprss=rss_entertainment





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6.28.14 by Q3

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2014 Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Dates



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