“You can do anything with my work, but never make me boring.”
Freddie Mercury
“Freddie was extreme; he was absolute; he was all or nothing; he was always or never. Freddie Mercury was never boring.”
Rami Malek
'Never Boring'
The Freddie Mercury Solo Box Set
Global Release on Hollywood Records & Mercury Records on October 11 2019
Iconic. Incomparable. Irreplaceable. But never, ever boring. Freddie Mercury's spirit is every bit as central to the fabric of popular music today as it was during his unforgettable lifetime. The spectacular global success of the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, with global box office takings now close to one billion US dollars, was a powerful testament to Freddie's presence as the ultimate rock frontman with Queen. But now comes a unique release to showcase the full range of his musical talents and passions, and their indelible imprint on the worlds of pop, opera and far beyond.
Set for release byHollywood Records in North America and Mercury Records in the rest of the world on October 11 2019, the “Never Boring” box set brings together for the first time a specially-curated selection of Freddie Mercury’s music, visuals and written and spoken words. It is a collection to jog the memory of fans, old and new, as to why Freddie remains such a beloved figure, nearly 30 years after his death. The set reminds us that Freddie was an exceptional singer, songwriter, performer and human being whose special kind of magic is captured in this exceptional collection of his solo work.
The package is meticulously compiled and produced by Queen’s longtime sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson and Joshua J Macrae who also co-produced the Bohemian Rhapsody film official soundtrack album which became one of the biggest selling albums of 2018/2019. The album has remained high the UK charts since its release in November 2018 and in the US became Queen’s biggest selling album in 38 years.
Taken from the very best original source material available, the full “Never Boring” collection contains three CDs with 32 tracks; a Blu-ray and DVD featuring 13 promo videos and interview; a 120-page 10”x10” hardback book full photos, many of them rare and unpublished, as well as thoughts and choice quotes from Freddie himself, and an introduction from Rami Malek, who earned an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Specially created insert packaging includes a double-sided poster containing an image of Freddie and an original work from synesthetic artist Jack Coulter inspired by the song “Mr Bad Guy”.
The three CDs include a new 12-track compilation of many of Freddie’s greatest solo performances; a newly mixed 11-track special edition of “Mr Bad Guy”; and the nine-track 2012 special edition of “Barcelona” featuring full orchestra. The Blu-ray and DVD of Freddie’s promos and his stage performances with Montserrat Caballé include eight that have been painstakingly reassembled from the original 35mm film rushes to give them the best-ever visual and sound quality.
It will also be possible to buy and listen to the albums individually on CD, vinyl and on digital and streaming services.
Much of the music and the promo videos featured in the “Never Boring” collection date from the period from late 1984, when “Mr Bad Guy” was recorded in Munich through to Freddie’s last ever on stage performance, at a special festival on the steps of Montjuïc in Barcelona on October 8 1988. It was a festival specially staged in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain to welcome the Olympic flag to Barcelona.
“I had a lot of ideas bursting to get out,” Freddie once explained, “and there were a lot of musical territories I wanted to explore which I really couldn’t do within Queen. I wanted to cover such things as reggae rhythms and I did a couple of tracks with an orchestra.”
The set includes the recently discovered track “Time Waits For No One” produced by Dave Clark which has recently taken the internet by storm and a haunting little known track “Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow” immortalised in a new animated video by award winning duo Beth David and Esteban Bravo.
For all the 2019 ‘special edition’ tracks on “Never Boring” and the “Mr Bad Guy” album, sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson have taken the very best original source material available. They went back not to previously remastered and mixed tapes, but to the original source multi-track tapes, so that they could build a new mix true to Freddie’s original versions, now taking advantage of the time, resources and technology that Freddie may not have originally had available to him in the 1980s. All offer ultimate quality, first generation vocals showing off Freddie’s incredible vocal range.
The special edition of the “Barcelona” album had been reworked in 2012 using similar methods, but what was missed by many at the time was that the 2012 edition replaced the previous instrumental tracks with new, live symphonic orchestration and percussion, rather than synthesisers and drum machines used on the original album.
Specially arranged by Queen orchestral arranger Stuart Morley, the80-piece Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra now performs the symphonic score, while Rufus Taylor — the son of Queen’s Roger Taylor — plays drums on ‘The Golden Boy’ and ‘How Can I Go On’, a track that also features John Deacon’s bass guitar. The special edition of the “Barcelona” album is now waiting to be rediscovered by fans of Freddie and Montserrat.
The same painstaking care in rebuilding the audio tracks has been used to bring all of Freddie’s original video promos to life again.
To recreate the new promos from Freddie’s original storyboards, eight of the promos have been totally reassembled from the original 35mm film rushes to give them the best resolution and sound quality possible. This required the team to go through all the film rushes to find those that exactly matched the footage originally chosen and used by Freddie, and then to recreate any special effects used at the time. Some of the promos have needed substantial restoration, with artists manually restoring frames that were damaged or missing.
Bonus videos include the first performance of ‘Barcelona’ by Freddie and Montserrat Caballé in front of a live audience at the Ku Klub (now Privilege Ibiza) in May 1987; the extended version of ‘The Great Pretender’, which includes backstage footage of Freddie’s very special backing singers preparing, they being Roger Taylor, Peter Straker and Freddie in drag; and a rare “Time” interview with Freddie and Dave Clark.
Roger Taylor’s contribution as a backing singer on ‘The Great Pretender’ is not the only link to Queen on “Never Boring”. Roger also plays percussion on ‘Love Kills’ which also features Brian May on lead guitar and John Deacon on rhythm guitar. As mentioned, John also plays bass on ‘How Can I Go On’ and Brian contributes guitar to ‘She Blows Hot and Cold’.
The entire “Never Boring” package reflects Freddie’s eclectic tastes and love for life. As he himself said: “Some people can take second best, but I can’t. I look upon it as defeat. If you’ve got the taste of being number one, then number two isn’t good enough.”
Rami Malek, who won best actor at all the major global award ceremonies for his performance as Freddie in “Bohemian Rhapsody” says: “'Never Boring' brings to your life a piece of Freddie. I hope you’re able to sit with this collection and let the music, images and excerpts of Freddie Mercury’s life inspire you, like it did me.
“I hope you remember that your uniqueness is a gift, and what you do with it is your gift to theworld. I hope like Freddie, you’re able to smile in the eye of a storm, focus on life’s silver linings, live boldly, and most importantly, live a life which is Never Boring.”
Track listings:
NEVER BORING
The Great Pretender
I Was Born To Love You
Barcelona
In My Defence
Love Kills
How Can I Go On (Single Version)
Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow
Living On My Own (Radio Mix)
The Golden Boy (Single Edit)
Time Waits For No One
She Blows Hot And Cold
Made In Heaven
MR. BAD GUY - SPECIAL EDITION
Let’s Turn It On
Made In Heaven
I Was Born To Love You
Foolin’ Around
Your Kind Of Lover
Mr. Bad Guy
Man Made Paradise
There Must Be More To Life Than This
Living On My Own
My Love Is Dangerous
Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow
BARCELONA - SPECIAL EDITION
Barcelona
La Japonaise
The Fallen Priest
Ensueño
The Golden Boy
Guide Me Home
How Can I Go On
Exercises In Free LoveY
Overture Piccante
NEVER BORING - BLU-RAY / DVD
Made In Heaven
The Great Pretender
Living On My Own
Barcelona
I Was Born To Love You
Time Waits For No One
In My Defence
Living On My Own (Radio Mix)
The Golden Boy (La Nit performance, Barcelona)
How Can I Go On (La Nit performance, Barcelona)
Barcelona (La Nit performance, Barcelona)
Bonus Videos
Freddie Mercury & Dave Clark “Time” Interview
The Great Pretender (Extended Version)
Barcelona (Ku Klub performance, Ibiza)
Links:
Pre-order links for box set and individual albums:
Box Set:
Never Boring (Deluxe): https://hollywoodrecs.co/NeverBoringDeluxe
Individual titles:
Never Boring: https://hollywoodrecs.co/NeverBoring
Mr Bad Guy: https://hollywoodrecs.co/MrBadGuy
Barcelona: https://hollywoodrecs.co/FreddieBarcelona
Published to coincide with the release of the ‘Never Boring’ CD/DVD package, comes a newly updated edition of the book “Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words”.Compiled and edited by official Queen archivist Greg Brooks and Queen visuals producer Simon Lupton, this new expanded edition contains over 8,000 words of text not present in the original print. The additional material has been drawn from sources not available or known to the authors at the time of compiling the original work, much of it never before published before and sourced from newly discovered interviews given by Mercury for magazine and newspaper articles that were ultimately not used, as well as from rare radio programmes or Queen Specials found on precious old cassette recordings and reel-to-reel tapes discovered within the Freddie archive. The nearest thing to a Freddie Mercury autobiography as it is possible to achieve, “A Life, In His Own Words” is a meticulously assembled collection of moving, witty, and often irreverent quotes from the man himself. Told across 20 chapters and 194 pages, this is Freddie’s life in his own words - delivered in his own inimitable, unpredictable, invariably funny, often poignant, and always entertaining way. “Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words”.Now available to order from Amazon on Kindle and in print.
“LOVE ME LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW” MUSIC VIDEO OUT TODAY MARKING FREDDIE MERCURY’S BIRTHDAY AND THE MERCURY PHOENIX TRUST
Video directed by celebrated directors Esteban Bravo and Beth David
Sept 5, 2019– To mark Freddie Mercury’s 73rd birthday and the work of the Mercury Phoenix Trust (MPT), Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, has released a new video which can be found HERE by directors Esteban Bravo and Beth David for Mercury’s “Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow,” with animation from Woodblock. The visual accompaniment to Mercury’s 1985 track honors his life and legacy in a compelling short story about the power of love while continuing to bring awareness to the global fight against AIDS.
Dave Rocco, EVP, Creative, UMG said in making this announcement, “Of the many responsibilities we have to our artists, safeguarding their legacies is perhaps the most important one. As far-reaching and as radical a legacy as Freddie Mercury’s, it is our duty to ensure he continues to provoke, educate and inspire.
In speaking with Jim Beach about ‘Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow,’ we knew this piece had to be made in Freddie’s image: honest, brave and, most of all, beautiful. We wanted to tell a story not of two men, but rather of a connection and the ineffable power love has in conquering incomprehension and fear. It is a reflection of the thread that runs throughout Freddie’s oeuvre. It is what made him “never boring,” and part of why his magic lives on.
Beth and Estaban share these extraordinary traits, but most importantly they love, respect and understand Freddie. They are incredibly gifted and emotive storytellers who represent and are part of the LGBTQ+ community. We could not be more grateful for their stunning work.”
Directors Esteban Bravo and Beth David said of making this short film, “We wanted to tell a story that was relevant to Freddie's life, but not explicitly about him. The AIDS crisis of the 1980s is a huge part of LGBT+ history, and it's something that we knew needed to be handled with care. It's a fine line to walk between shedding light on a subject, and perpetuating a stigma, and we were cautious not to lean into tropes and stereotypes that might hurt the modern understanding of the AIDS virus, rather than help it.
In researching the HIV/AIDS virus and the way it affects the body's immune system, we were inspired to take a look at the story through a more microscopic lens. It is a love story between two white blood cells, one of which has become infected by the virus. This perspective gave us a more direct visual representation of our conflict, which allowed us to explore the more nuanced struggles the characters face in their relationship with each other, their perceptions of themselves, and society's perception, bias, and neglect of them.
The LGBT+ community fought for years for the right to proper research and healthcare, and because of that fight, millions of lives have been saved. We wanted to celebrate that victory. Through perseverance, strength, and love, our characters not only survive, but live long, healthy lives together.”
Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrowis taken from “Never Boring”,the definitive Freddie Mercury solo collection, which will be released worldwide on October 11th2019 through Universal Music Group, Hollywood Records & Mercury Records.
About The Mercury Phoenix Trust
Following the moving and hugely successful Tribute Concert in 1992, Brian May, Roger Taylor and Jim Beach set up The Mercury Phoenix Trust (MPT) in memory of the iconic
Freddie Mercury who died from AIDS related causes in 1991. The Trust is a core part of rock band Queen and Freddie’s legacy, with the passion and power behind the music forming the bedrock of the MPT. The MPT has reached millions in the fight against HIV/AIDS worldwide, providing USD17 million to over 1,000 projects in 56 countries. The MPT predominantly funds smaller organisations it assesses and vets as they effectively work at grassroots level, where governments, larger NGOs and markets don’t often reach. Through grassroots movements, events and social media, the MPT provides a platform for the voice of youth to be heard. It also provides a way in which Freddie’s devoted followers and new generations of fans can celebrate his life, keeping Freddie’s memory powerfully alive. With an estimated 36.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS and 1.8 million more becoming newly infected with HIV in 2017 alone, the battle is far from over making the work of the
MPT and its global partners all the more essential.
Should Every Beatles Album be Remixed?
Check out music critic/guitar master TJR's latest video where he examines whether every Beatles album should be remixed, and he asks the question should all be included in a deluxe box set:
https://youtu.be/eEIcz_26qu4
Miranda Lambert is "Pretty Bitchin' " with latest 'Wildcard' sneak peek
LEAD SINGLE “IT ALL COMES OUT IN THE WASH” HITS TOP 20
WILDCARD ARRIVES NOV. 1, 2019
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| Photo Credit: Ellen von Unwerth |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Miranda Lambert is tantalizing eager fans today, releasing “Pretty Bitchin,” the latest look into Wildcard – her hotly-anticipated studio album releasing Nov. 1 on Vanner Records/RCA Nashville.
“‘Pretty Bitchin’’ is so much fun. Everything in it explains me…it talks about airstreams, Tito’s, having a band and awesome fans,” said Lambert. “It’s a good thank you to life for being amazing and for getting to live this dream. It’s definitely pretty bitchin’.”
The Grammy Award winner recently debuted the music video for her Top 20 single “It All Comes Out in the Wash.” Directed by frequent collaborator Trey Fanjoy, the mud-slinging clip was filmed outside Nashville and features Lambert behind the wheel in an off-roading adventure, and a subsequent trip to the car wash to clean up. Watch here. Lambert co-wrote the “delightful, sprightly rocker” (Rolling Stone) with The Love Junkies (Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose).
Wildcard also features recently-released “foot-stompin’ barnburner” (NPR) “Locomotive,” “crunchy, frisky jam” (Stereogum) “Mess with My Head,” “irresistibly catchy” (SPIN) “Bluebird,” and “instant honky-tonk jukebox classic” (Billboard) “Way Too Pretty for Prison,” which features Maren Morris. Listeners can pre-order and pre-add the album to their collections now.
To welcome this new artistic chapter, Lambert will hit the road for the Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour this fall, with special guests Morris and Elle King, as well as Pistol Annies, Tenille Townes, Ashley McBryde and Caylee Hammack on various dates (details here). Tickets are on sale now.
About Miranda Lambert: Vanner Records/RCA recording artist Miranda Lambert will release her highly anticipated new studio album Wildcard Nov. 1, which includes her latest country radio single, “It All Comes Out in the Wash.” This fall, Miranda will embark on her rotating, all-girl “Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars” tour featuring Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes, Caylee Hammack, and the Pistol Annies. This follows two extensive tours in 2018, “Living Like Hippies” in the winter/spring and “The Bandwagon” summer tour with Little Big Town.
The most decorated artist in the history of the Academy of Country Music, Lambert is the recipient of more than 70 prestigious awards and special honors: 33 ACM Awards (including 9 ACM Female Vocalist of the Year Awards), 13 CMA Awards (Country Music Association), 2 GRAMMY Awards, the Harmony Award (Nashville Symphony), Artist in Residence (Country Music Hall of Fame), the ACM Gene Weed Milestone Award, and several others.
The celebrated singer/songwriter has released six studio albums that all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Album Charts, including the critically acclaimed double record The Weight of These Wings (2016), Platinum (2014), Four The Record (2011), Revolution (2009), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2007) and Kerosene (2005). In addition, she released three albums with her trio, the Pistol Annies.
Her clothing and cowboy boot collection, Idyllwind, is a private-label brand sold at all Boot Barn stores nationwide. www.idyllwind.com
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