While I am quite surprised he went to Chicago, and is actually relaxing, it makes me very happy to think of him kicking back for a few days in the middle of this grueling tour!
It is intriguing, Roger is always pretty quiet but Brian has gone silent and he is usually pretty chatty...gotta wonder if maybe they are all up to something.
Not sure why it would be in Chicago....but there was the bit in the Planet Rock article where it said something to the effect of there were plans for a release of an Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition of News of the World this fall....It hasn't been officially mentioned anywhere...just the one article. Not sure if they let the cat out of the bag, but Queen fans jumped on it.
IT was combined with an Abbey Roads Studio engineer tweeting a pic of having listened to the original masters of NOTW and then said he couldn't comment on why he had them out.
So SOMETHING is afoot. OF course what usually happens in Queen world. Some unofficial leak happens, and fans whip themselves into a frenzy about what could be released...We look at the recent Sgt. Peppers reissues and some of the Pink Floyd reissues and drool...
And then what we usually end up getting are bonus tracks that we've all had from elsewhere and some weird reproduction of tour items, and nonsense...
OR in the case of the 2011 reissues a bonus EP of 5 tracks...of which 1 or 2 might be useful.
ALREADY there's talk of 3 releases...a standard release, a 3 CD release, and some type of big package.
We know at least some of what's available:
- There was a Bob Harris documentary in the works during the NOTW tour that was never finished for various reasons...some of the footage was later used for other documentaries, etc. Rhys Thomas (who was behind Days of Our Lives and The Great Pretender docs) stated that there was hope to clean that up and finish it at one point. Now would be the time.
- Houston 1977
This was just one track of a full playlist - the boots are out there and a clean version exists in the archives. A great gig. Only negatives is a few tracks are not played that were played that tour (like It's Late)
- Other live gigs
- A few demos have surfaced that could be used.
If it was up to me?
5 Disc
Disc 1: Album Remastered
Disc 2: Demos, Outtakes, Alternate Takes
Disc 3: Live in Houston 1977 Blu Ray
Disc 4: News of the World Tour Highlights
Disc 5: Bob Harris Documentary
But that's a pipe dream. My trained pessimistic self says:
Disc 1: Album Remastered
Disc 2: Bonus tracks to include the BBC Session (we already have), single edits we have, the demo we have, a few live tracks
So we'd get a few tracks we didn't have but not much....
ANYWAYS
to the initial post - they might have taken a few days off to look at what the update is with this project and to watch, give their okay, etc. etc.