A Night At the Opera has sold 10, 375, 000 physical copies as of last year. CSPC: Queen Popularity Analysis - Page 61 of 63 - ChartMasters
Both #s are the total tally, so I can't say how much each album sold in its era and how many it sold later. With some albums, it's obvious they sold most of their copies after the artist "broke big" - Springsteen's first 2 albums didn't sell squat in 1975 but both are now 2X platinum, clearly due to sales that occurred after he became a megastar. I see no reason to believe "Opera" didn't sell a lot in 1975, though. As noted, it got to #4 on the charts, and it had 2 top 20 singles. So I stand by my assertion "Opera" was the band's breakout album, not "News"...
Agreed that “Opera” was their breakout album in the US. “News” took them to even another level, as did “The Game”. And then that was pretty much it for them here.
Queen/A Night At The Opera Release Date.December 2, 1975 Category: GROUP Type: Standard Certified Units: 3 Million Genre: None Previous Certification: 3x Multi-Platinum | November 14, 2002 Platinum | November 14, 2002 Gold | March 9, 1976 Queen/News of the World Release Date.November 1, 1977 Category: GROUP Type: Standard Certified Units: 4 Million Genre: None Previous Certification: 4x Multi-Platinum | November 14, 2002 Platinum | December 28, 1977 Gold | November 14, 1977
Just to remind folks - I have no actual business relationship with the School of Rock. For years, I have shot concerts on my own and sold videos to the parents, although I've since moved to running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds from the parents to shoot a concert and upload it to YouTube. With that out of the way, the School of Rock, Regal Cinemas and Fox are running a promotion. If you are a member of Regal's Crown Club loyalty program, swipe your card when you purchase a ticket and you'll be entered into a contest to win a year's worth of free lessons at your local School of Rock. This applies to both children and adults (they also have an adult Rock Band program) and this is the Performance Program, where you will learn a program of music with a goal of getting onto stage and doing two shows for the public. Here are the rules. ...and here is the Oak Park School of Rock doing Keep Yourself Alive. Again, I have no business relationship, nobody is paying me to do this, I just think this is an incredibly successful way to teach kids between the ages of 8 and 18 how to learn an instrument and get on stage and rock out. (The Adult program is a lot less successful mostly because they don't practice enough - which is why they didn't succeed when they had a band as teenagers.) I just think it would be really cool if one of my Forum friends won this for themselves, their kids, nieces, nephews or grandchildren.
Yup. I edited the post to show the image of it that Id been trying to upload. Its about 4ft high. I designed an image that I had printed so that the ANATO signed album cover could sit in the middle of it. A dear friend of mine actually got it signed and then gave it to me. I do however have a signed copy of Queen II and signed by Freddie, Brian and Roger and also some nice stuff that Brian signed for me. I have met Brian several times and interviewed him once for a website I used to have. Queen are my favourite band and one of my biggest regrets is never getting to see them live with Freddie. I was fortunate enough to meet Freddie briefly though. Here is a close up of it.
I dont really know, but a while ago somebody in an autograph shop suggested about AU$3000. How accurate that is I have no idea I cant see me ever parting with it.
So I saw this at a near sold-out VIP cinema screening tonight, and: while it's an entertaining enough film with with some good scenes (even aside from the conclusion) and a strong central performance, I can't help but generally agree with the bit in Pitchfork's otherwise doofy review that says Bo Rhap plays like "a dramatization of a Wikipedia entry, watered down and overedited. Events in the film happen in trite succession without going anywhere interesting with the story’s peaks and valleys." It just often felt a bit too much like a box-ticking exercise, with some easy hooks in the dialogue reoccurring to highlight certain themes ("I know who you really are!" "Good thoughts, good words, good deeds", etc). Oh well. Still worth checking out for interested parties, but don't pay full price if possible!
Trite sounding, but "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds" is the central tenet of Zoroastrianism (Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta) and it's nice for a belief that 99% of the audience has never heard of to get some attention. And it every bit as admirable as the Golden Rule.
I didn't mind the "good thoughts, good words, good deeds" thing as much as I minded HOW it was used in the film. I think, in the hands of a better writer, that could have been employed very dramatically. As it was, the impact was deadened by the lead-in to the conclusion, which had such on the nose writing that it really felt like a rush to the finish line. Fortunately, the rest of the movie more than made up the difference, but I think I actually winced during parts of the scene where they brought that around again...
One lighthearted moment I liked. After Freddie cuts his hair short, he jokes that Brian should do the same. Brian playfully declines. Has Brian May ever had short hair? He seems to be the last of the unapologetic long haired rock stars. Good for him.
I don't have a signed Night at the Opera, but I do have a good story about the signing session I went to. I had just come from buying a copy of the sheet music for Yes's album Relayer, and I was walking by Discount Records on Boylston St and saw Queen was going to be there for a promo meet and greet type thing. So, I went and got in line. I had tickets to their show that night, and already had A Night at the Opera (so, of course, it was home with all my LPs). So, when I worked my way through the line up to the table, all I had for them to sign was the copy of Relayer. I asked them if they'd mind, given the "no synthesizers" note on all their LPs, and everybody laughed and thought it would be awesome. So, I have a Queen autographed (all 4 members) copy of the songbook for Relayer.
If Brian had short hair, it could only have happened prior to Queen. For an interesting bit of trivia, I'm pretty sure it was Roger Taylor who was the first member of the band to clip the long locks, but he never went as far as Freddie.
I liked the movie overall, probably I'd give it a 7/10. Sure, it had a little cheesy dialogue here and there, but I think Rami's performance as Freddie was quite convincing. I enjoy Queen's music, however, I do not know all that much about them. I also like finding out that Freddie was a cat lover.
Correct! Apparently 1963, with his newly built masterpiece. Tim Staffell also posted this older pic from the Smile era in his Reddit AMA yesterday:
He cut it back a little bit around the time of The Game - Crazy Little Thing Called Love video. Not much though.
Yes, Brian had very short hair as a child and as a teen. There are picture out there that exsist. He didn't start to grow it out into a longer style until his college days. He was a sharp looking lad even with the short hair cuts. Of course, you can instantly see it is still him by his other prominent facial features. -
