9.18.16 Q+AL perform for 55,000 in Singapore!!
Sept 18, 2016 1:04:29 GMT -5
Post by Q3 on Sept 18, 2016 1:04:29 GMT -5
http://instagr.am/p/BKe2itAB0mf
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Queen + Adam Lambert at Singapore Grand Prix fb.me/7FjT3ne8B
A few random thoughts…
September 18, 2016 by Q3
It’s early Sunday morning and my head is filled with disconnected thoughts. I started out writing something very serious about all the issues in the world and why we need music and art. After I wrote it, I decided that I would delete it all and just focus on the goodness and light and joy that Adam, Brian, Roger and the whole Queen team are bringing to the world.
We need music and art in the world. They are part of what make life worth living.
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Brian, Roger and Adam – how did this happen? When I think about the odds of these musicians ending up on that stage together, creating these events, in 2016, I shake my head is utter amazement.
For starters, Queen exists in spite of critics and music “experts” and rock snobs. Queen was a band whose recordings rarely were respected by critics or hard core rock fans when they were released.
Rolling Stone pretty much dismissed Queen's A Night at the Opera and all of their other albums in their 1976 review:
“In less than three years, with four albums, Queen has risen from the heavy-metal minor leagues to a position approaching that of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. But the group has some annoying weaknesses, notably a tendency toward lyrical abstraction. In addition, the imagination that inspired the slick ragtime jazz (with vaudeville overtones) of Sheer Heart Attack's "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" becomes obsessive on A Night at the Opera, where the same stylistic idea is reworked, into three songs. But ultimately, the group's willingness to experiment, even when they fail, makes them interesting. …. On "The Prophet's Song," the best track, May's powerful guitar perfectly complements the rich, multitracked harmonies of lead singer Freddie Mercury.”
Yes, Rolling Stone’s critic did not even mention “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the review of ANATO. (I just posted an excerpt but I did not cut out that reference.) I like "Prophet's Song" but it is not BoRhap.
The band’s sold-out concerts also did not generate rave reviews…..
The New York Times, reviewing a 1978 appearance at Madison Square Garden wrote: “Lyrically, Queen’s songs manage to be pretentious and irrelevant. Musically, for all the virtuosity—though it was cheating a bit to turn over the complex middle portion of their ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to a taped version, with empty stage and flashing lights—the songs still sound mostly pretty empty, all flash and calculation.”
It is astounding that anyone from Queen is still performing in 2016 – and two of the original band members are still touring the world – 45 years after the band got together.
Now, to the most unlikely part: add in an American Idol runner-up who is half their age, and who first learned of Queen because of the movie, Wayne’s World - and you have the unlikely trio who are at the center of bring a real live Queen concert experience to fans.
An unlikely trio of two old rockers and an American pop singer who rose to fame on a reality TV show? And they are getting more critical respect than Queen usually got in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Think about the joy and celebration of a huge audience in sync to “Radio Ga Ga” or singing these lyrics perfectly in unison:
I see a little silhouette of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro - magnifico
And how many people singing it know what or who a Scaramouch is?
Scaramuccia (literally "little skirmisher"), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano.
Hopefully they are familiar with Galileo and Figaro.
Figaro is the lead character in The Marriage of Figaro (Italian: Le nozze di Figaro), an opera buffa (comic opera composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Freddie once said, "I write songs for fun, for modern consumption. People can discard them like a used tissue afterwards. You listen to it, like it, discard it, then on to the next. Disposable pop, yes." Well, Freddie, the music looks like it could live for a very, very long time.
Hard to tell how much of what Freddie said he really meant and how much was tongue in check. But he said similar things about his music in many interviews. I don’t think he ever imagined that people all over the world would know his music 40 years later. I am pretty sure that in 400 years, at a football match in the Mars colony, fans will be chanting, “We are the champions, we are the champions.” And yes, I believe they will be playing football (American soccer) in 400 years.
Queen fans from 1976 might have thought the music would last. They probably never imagined that Brian and Roger would still be preforming in 2016. And I am absolutely sure no one in 1976 could have imagined that any young American pop singer could step into Freddie’s shoes and do such a credible job bringing this music and the Queen experience back to life.
And just think, what if Queen had not approved the use of “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Wayne’s World? It is an alternative reality that I do not want to comprehend.
youtu.be/thyJOnasHVE
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Brian May on Queen's Second Life with Adam Lambert
By Andrew Chin and Zoey Zha, September 18, 2016
Replacing a singer under any circumstance is always a tall order. But stepping into the shoes of arguably rock’s most charismatic frontman, Freddie Mercury? Despite near-impossible odds, Queen’s partnership with Adam Lambert has hit all the right notes. The band’s legendary guitarist Brian May gives their current singer the highest of praise, declaring, “[Lambert] has the most extraordinary voice that I’ve ever heard.”
“That says a lot because I’ve heard a lot of voices in my time,” May adds. “It’s an extraordinary instrument and he’s learned how to control it and harness it during the time that we’ve worked with him. Sometimes I just stand and watch, and my mouth drops.”
Video here
At first glance, the pairing of Queen and Adam Lambert seems sacrilegious. The London group are classic rock royalty with numerous songs still embedded in the cultural fabric from the sports stadium (‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ remain the gold standard for jock jams) to the KTV room (right now a joyous group singalong of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is happening somewhere in the world.)
“We were fortunate to be young boys when rock and roll was born,” May says. “Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis and that stuff was just in our blood from the beginning.”
“As we grew up, we had some great influences like The Shadows. Of course we loved Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Led Zeppelin. By that time we were up and running, struggling as a band for our voice to be heard.”
Video here
Of course, they managed to find an audience, racking up an incredible 18 number-one albums with an estimated 150 to 300 million records sold. In their truly astonishing discography, Queen managed to imprint their own stamp on disparate genres like metal (‘Stone Cold Crazy’), disco (‘Another One Bites the Dust’) and rockabilly (‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’).
Their status as rock gods is so cemented that May admits his most memorable live performance was not Queen’s legendary 1985 Live Aid Performance but playing the National Anthem on his guitar while standing alone on the rooftop of Buckingham Palace to open the Queen’s jubilee concert.
Video here
Their influence is so potent that Lambert actually auditioned for the 2009 season of American Idol with a rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’
That performance planted the seed in May’s mind for a potential collaboration, which was cemented when the guitarist and Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor appeared on the show to perform with Lambert and fellow contestant Kris Allen on ‘We Are the Champions.’
Video here
While the band was confident that the partnership would work, Lambert admits he originally had doubts. “I wasn’t going to turn down this once in a lifetime opportunity but I was concerned about their fans’ reaction,” he says. “I didn’t know if they would accept me singing these songs and I also hoped that I could pull this off. Now five years later, I feel like we finally did it.”
May credits the touring collaboration’s success to Lambert’s ability to be himself. “He has massive confidence and ability, but also a very nice humility,” the guitarist says.
“He goes out there and says, ‘Look, I’m not Freddie Mercury but this is what I do, this is what I would like to do with you guys and let’s celebrate!’ People immediately feel that he’s genuine, because he is. He’s not an imitation of anything else.”
Video here
Powerful pipes and a penchant for exuberant showmanship are a couple of traits that Lambert shares with Queen’s iconic original singer Freddie Mercury. May praises Lambert’s ability to shine in high-pressure situations, noting their official first gig was a 2012 joint concert with Sir Elton John at Kiev’s Independence Square, attended by what May estimates was a mere 400,000 people.
“It must have been the most terrifying thing for him to step on that stage, but you’d never have known that he was nervous,” May marvels. “He just walked out, smiled, did his stuff and was great.”
Taking a break from rehearsal for the second leg of Queen + Adam Lambert’s Summer Festival world tour that stops off at Mercedes-Benz Arena on September 26, May promises that the band is sounding their best.
Video here
“Roger (Taylor) and I play better now than we did in the old days,” he says. “We have to dig deeper to find that energy because we’re older, but we still have it. Maybe more than ever, we just want to put it out there.”
Although the Shanghai concert will be Queen’s first show on the Mainland, May is eager to see all the changes in the country that he first visited “just before the time of the Internet.”
“I came to Beijing for a total eclipse of the sun, which is something that interests me as an astronomer,” he says. “We had a fabulous time and I felt the culture was so different from my own.”
Video here
Save Me has fiercely campaigned against fox hunting and the culling of badgers.
“It’s great to be a musician and speak through your music, but you also have to live,” he says. “Astronomy is about the curiosity that we have about the universe around us, while trying to improve the way we treat animals in the world is a very big part of my life as well. In a sense, all the different parts of my life fit together in a way only I understand, but I live life the way I see.”
Sep 26, 8pm, RMB380-1,680. Mercedes-Benz Arena, see event listing.
Link: www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/post/15125/queen-adam-lambert
Queen + Adam Lambert perform at the Singapore Grand Prix 2016 Padang stage
Queen + Adam Lambert give fans the experience of a lifetime
90,000 fans rock out with music legends Queen + Adam Lambert at the Padang stage in Singapore on Saturday night
By Joanna Goh
Posted: 18 Sep 2016 12:10
ONE NIGHT ONLY: For the first time in their 40-something-year-long music careers, the two current members of British rock band Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, finally brought their music to Singapore, performing together with Adam Lambert as one of the main entertainment highlights for the F1 night race this year.
The trio is currently on an Asia tour and Singapore was their first pit stop last night, before their shows in Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Queen may be first-time visitors to our little island, but the 90,000-strong crowd was clearly no strangers to their hits and had no problem heartily singing along with the music legends, song after song, from the classic ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ to ‘Love of my Life’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, just to name a few.
The chemistry between Queen and Adam, a current member of their music tour, was undeniable. The American singer’s pitch-perfect vocals and on-stage flamboyance perfectly complemented the group’s glam-rock tunes.
There was no stopping him on that stage, and Adam, too, was clearly in his comfort zone as he strutted around—a little sultry, a little fierce at times—with much aplomb. Fans lapped it all up, roaring and screaming with approval with every gesture or pout he made.
Not forgetting their former front man Freddie Mercury, it was a kind of magic to watch the group feature the late singer in two songs (‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) using pre-recorded vocals and old video footage. They also gave a nod and shout out to a fellow and late music legend, David Bowie, with the catchier ‘Under Pressure’, a song they collaborated on together in 1981.
Link: entertainment.toggle.sg/en/hollywoodbuzz/photos/queen-adam-lambert-give-fans-the-experience-of-a-lifetime-6703492#slideshow-1
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Adamtopia CalendarOctober 3, 2016 X Factor: Next Generation (AU) premieres on Channel 7
October 20, 2016 Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres on Fox TV
Mid-late November, 2016 Rocky Horror Picture Show DVD released
The full event calendar is located here: adamtopia.com/calendar
If there is a missing event or error, please send a Personal Message to cassie
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Queen + Adam Lambert Fall Asia Tour
September 17, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, Grand Prix, Singapore First Queen concert in Singapore. This concert is part of the 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix.
Sept. 19, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, Taipei at Nangang Exhibition Hall – first ever Queen concert in Taipei
September 21, 22, and 23, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan This is the original site of Queen’s historic first concert in Japan in April 1975.
September 26, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, Mercedes Benz Arena, Shanghai, China This will be Queen’s first concert in mainland China.
September 28, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong First Queen concert in Hong Kong or China.
September 30, 2016 Queen + Adam Lambert, Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok, Thailand First Queen concert in Thailand.
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