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| Biography |
| In November 1986 EMI records released the entire Queen catalogue on Compact Disc - the first time an artistes complete collection had been made available simultaneously. In December Queens 15th album, and their second live album, was released. LIVE MAGIC entered the UK chart at number three. On 13th December the band's film "Live In Budapest" opened in Budapest at 9am, and proceeded to play to NINE sold out houses in that one day. Seven completely full screenings were shown each day for a week. During 1986, in the UK alone, Queen sold a staggering 1,774,991 albums. On February 3rd 1987, Freddie released a cover version of the great old Platters song "The Great Pretender'. In the video to accompany the song Freddie recreated many scenes from his own and Queen videos, and actor Peter Straker, Roger Taylor and Freddie all donned wigs and make up and "became" female backing singers. It was an expensive video. One of Freddie's all time heroines was Spanish opera diva Montserrat Caballe, and in March 1986 he met her in her home city of Barcelona. An astonishing partnership was formed when Montserrat agreed to record an album with Freddie. He penned a song about Barcelona for her, and the two began to write and record the album. Freddie and Montserrat appeared on stage together for the first time in May 1987, at the Ibiza 92 Festival, held at the famous Ku Club on the holiday island. They performed Barcelona. In August 1987 Roger advertised for, auditioned and chose musicians to form a new band, The Cross. He wanted a band he could write with and, more importantly, tour with during Queens increasingly lengthy "quiet" periods. The single "Barcelona" was released in Spain in September 1987, and 1 0,000 copies were sold in just three hours. The Spanish Olympic Committee adopted the song as the theme for the Olympic Games, being held in the city in 1992, then decided against it. which caused great anger amongst the fans. Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, an Austrian director /producer team, followed Queen all over Europe during the Magic Tour, filming them on stage, backstage, resting, playing and generally touring". They then searched the archives for footage of live shows, interviews and outtakes from videos. After that they interviewed the band, their friends, their fans and other "stars". Finally, in November 1987, a trilogy of documentary style videos was released, called The Magic Years. The trilogy received numerous awards, including the famous Silver Screen award in the USA (the biggest film and TV festival in the world), and the IMMC award at the Montreux Golden Rose TV Festival. Also during 1987 Queen were presented with a prestigious Ivor Novello award for their "Outstanding Contribution To British Music". In January l988 Queen went into the studios to start work on their next album. On January 25th,The Cross released their debut album called SHOVE IT. The Cross also embarked on their first European tour,playing club and university dates throughout the UK, and clubs in Germany. Freddie and Montserrat appeared together again on October 8th at the huge La Nit event staged in Barcelona, which was held to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic flag from Seoul. Freddie and Montserrat closed the event, held in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain, with Barcelona, The Golden Boy and How Can I Go On, tracks taken from their forthcoming album. BARCELONA, the duet album from Freddie and Montserrat was released on October 10th 1988. The launch party was a typically extravagant affair held in the Crush Bar at the Covent Garden Opera House - a fitting venue! On December 4th The Cross played a one off gig at London's Hammersmith Palais, at a party held exclusively for fan club members. Special guests on stage were Brian and John. THE MIRACLE was released on May 22nd 1989 and entered the UK chart at number one. It went on to became a massive worldwide success, reaching number one in most European countries. To promote the release, all four member of the band gathered in a Radio One studio and to be interviewed by DJ Mike Reid - a scoop for him as the band had not given a joint interview in many years. As it was the end of a decade. there were numerous "Best Of The Eighties" programmes on TV. especially in the UK. Queen were voted for, by the viewers of the Independent Television and readers of it's magazine TV Times, as The Best Band Of The Eighties. It was an accolade they were immensely pleased by, and they all appeared together on the show to collect it. In late November 1989 Queen were already back in the studios working on their next album. |
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