Queen Vinyl Reissues For 2015 (including boxed set and turntable)*

I think the one thing we can ALL agree on, is that we share a passion for music and audio. We should probably focus on that. So much better to focus on similarities, rather than differences. After all, we came here because of a shared love

Also, this is a thread about the Queen boxed set. We should probably stick to that

I'll be over here if anyone wants to throw internet stones at me

 

So how bout that Queen box set huh??? Sheesh

 

Queen ‎– Greatest Hits
Label: Virgin EMI Records ‎– 0602557048414
Format: 2 × Vinyl, Compilation, Remastered
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 17 Nov 2016

 

I have hit a pressing quality issue on A Kind Of Magic.

I have recently had 3x copies of this (2x from Amazon UK, 1x from Fopp in Covent Garden) - all three have a few repeating clicks at the beginning of B1. Close inspection under an LED light show 2x small scratches a millimetre or so apart on all 3.

Matrix info is:

BF83622-01 A1 4720279 MILES ABBEY ROAD 1/2 SPEED
BF83622-0Ʌ B2 4720279 MILES ABBEY ROAD 1/2 SPEED

Obviously a bad batch but interested to hear of anyone else has noticed this problem and how far it extends?

 

Just playing my copy at the moment - no problems on what you are describing from what I can hear. Mine was purchased when the reissues came out (before the subsequent repress).

 

My Queen's haul


Queen - Live Magic

Queen - Sheer Heart Attack

Queen - Innuendo

Queen - Live Killers

 

Is that STILL available? Bought the cassette on the day of release, played it once, and never again; awful in every possible way.

 

It is long removed from the catalogue, replaced by Wembley’86 release. I remember listening to it as a kid, thought it was pretty ok back then

 

Is the current Innuendo that bad? How does it compare to original?

 

Despite generally considering this box to be one of the best music things that I've spent an above-average amount of money on, Innuendo isn't as good as most of the others.

The current version of Innuendo is still better than the original to my ears, plus it has the added advantage of having the complete versions of all the songs on it, instead of the edits that the original single LP had (can't remember them all, but 'Bijou' barely topped 90 seconds on the vinyl IIRC).

To summarize then, I don't think that a really good vinyl version of Innuendo exists.

 

It's got some tracks from Knebworth on it so it's not exactly 100 % bad.

 

Those Innuendo LP edits in full:

I'm Going Slightly Mad (1991 Vinyl Edit) 4:05
This is not a bad edit of the proper version. Some instrumental parts have been edited out, but the edit is effective.

Headlong (1991 Vinyl Edit a.k.a. Single Edit a.k.a. Greatest Hits II Edit) 4:33
This edit removes the guitar note at the end.

I Can't Live With You (1991 Vinyl Edit) 4:05
This is an effective edit of the album version, simply fading out early at 4:05.

Don't Try So Hard (1991 Vinyl Edit) 3:23
Don't Try So Hard had the last 10 seconds of the song removed.

All God's People (1991 Vinyl Edit) 3:55
All God's People fades out much earlier than the album version, losing almost 30 seconds of the song's ending.

These Are The Days Of Our Lives (1991 Vinyl Edit) 4:01
Here, the drum intro is edited out. The track starts with Freddie's vocals.

The Hitman (1991 Vinyl Edit) 3:38
This vinyl edit removes much of the instrumental parts and fades out at the end. The album version is superior, but for those who think it is too long, they'll like this edit.

Bijou (1991 Vinyl Edit) 1:17
A full two minutes of Brian's guitar performance have been cut, which is most of the song. All of Freddie's vocals are kept in place however.

 

Granted, it was a horrid idea to do cut and paste job in order to fit a 2 hour concert on a single LP. But - and this is a big "but" - Live Magic is mostly made of Queen's last live performance at Knebworth Park and what a killer performance that was. Killer live recording as well. It sure deserves an expanded release.

 

I like it - but it baffles me why they decided to change the running order of the reissue.

 

I actually quite enjoy these edits. They are mostly very well done and make for a different and more concise listening experience of Innuendo.

 

These Are The Days Of Our Lives was edited - it starts with the first line of the song and the intro is missing.
I'm Going Slightly Mad, Don't Try So Hard, All God's People were all "slightly" edited.
Bijou is missing the guitar part after the Freddie part.
The Hitman is missing about 2 minutes and starts to fade way earlier than the CD version.
The Show Must Go On has a slightly earlier fade out.
"I Can't Live With You" switched the track number on every vinyl edition with "Days Of Our Lives".

By the way: Some of the edited songs (this time unedited) have been available on the 7" vinyl singles of the album's singles:
Innuendo had Bijou
Headlong had All God's People
Slightly Mad had The Hitman
The Show Must Go On / Keep Yourself Alive (ironically this was the last Queen single to be released while Freddie was still alive and the b-side was Queen's first single)

 

I was thinking that too. I know Queen like to have a video counterpart when they do live releases, but surely Knebworth is legendary on its own even if there no video. It's Freddie's final gig with the band FGS. I would've of rather had that than the Budapest gig (or as it now known as the the rebranded 'Hungarian Rhapsody').

At Wembley he sounds tired and his voice is nearly shot on the 2nd night.

 

Your post made me think that "Live Magic" should be re-released but this time with the full Knebworth concert!
Wow that would really make a good release and we could finally have Queen's last concert in the best quality available!

 

I adore Wembley. I think the performance is tighter in Wembley and looser in Knebworth, with everything good and bad that entails in each case. Plus, in Wembley you get that wonderful Wembley echo in the live recording, which is also a must.

I do think QPL made a mistake with the "Hungarian Rhapsody" release. It should have been called "Live Magic" and featured the full Knebworth perfomance on two CDs, plus the Blu-Ray of Budapest and an extra BluRay with the Magic Years doc and maybe the best bits of the tour (such as the available Knebworth tracks on video).

It would have been a more comprehensive and definitive document of the Magic Tour and it would tackle several loose ends. With "Hungarian Rhapsody" we got the full Budapest audio, which is all very fine, but I NEVER listen to it. The audio mix is too heavy on keyboards and I much prefer to hear the Wembley recording. Now if we just had full Knebworth there...

 

This is actually ready to go and it was even stated for release a few years ago to promote a "return to Knebworth" concert with Adam Lambert. The concert was cancelled and unfortunately so were the plans to release Knebworth in full.

 

What don't you like about it?

I am listening to it right now and it sounds really good.

Queen ‎– Live Magic
Label: EMI ‎– EMC 3519, EMI ‎– 24 0675 1
Format: Gatefold
Country: UK
Released: 1986

 

I tested my copy during the weekend, it's the colored-pressing from the boxset and it sounded great. There weren't any problems at all.
Some of the colored vinyl were really diffcult to examine and when this was released, I in fact had to exchange the whole box from Amazon as some of the albums had tiny markings/scratches (on "A Night At The Opera") and "Jazz" had weird substance in the grooves (which I told about here earlier).

 

"awful in every possible way" is a ridiculous thing to say.

It was the first Queen album I bought as a kid, and it was the album that got me into Queen. Despite the edits to fit it all onto one LP, I always found it to be fun, and I always loved this version of Another One Bites The Dust and the back and forth with the audience afterwards....

 

I heard about this but not the part of Queen+Adam Lambert returning to Knebworth.
There was also a rumour going around about a Brian May solo box set and a release of the complete Highlander soundtrack but I never heard anything from these projects again.
Another new one is about a box set with unreleased songs etc. like Anthology of the Beatles. Would love to see that being released as Queen made so much great material that just wasn't released officially yet.

 

I'm in the Live? Tragic! category. I don't know what merit it holds and apart from The Cosmos Rocks, it's the only Queen-related record I've no interest in acquiring.