On the Queen + Paul Rodgers ‘Cosmos Rocks World Tour’ exclusive live downloads were made available through the Queen Online Store.

Download as many as you want and burn them onto this Limited Edition Queen + Paul Rodgers blank CDR with tour artwork to create your own live album!

Click here to order the CDR.

Click here to download live tracks.

Plant, who was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for his services to music and the entertainment industry, has topped Planet Rock’s new The Greatest Voice in Rock Top 40 ahead of Freddie Mercury and Mercury’s Queen replacement Paul Rodgers.

The only woman to make the new list is Janis Joplin.

The top 10 is:
1. Robert Plant
2. Freddie Mercury
3. Paul Rodgers
4. Ian Gillan
5. Roger Daltrey
6. David Coverdale
7. Axl Rose
8. Bruce Dickinson
9. Mick Jagger
10. Bon Scott

Voodoo | Surf’s Up Schools Out (London 07/11/08)

Cosmos Rockin’ (Manchester 05/11/08)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Newcastle 04/11/08)

A Kind Of Magic | Another One Bites The Dust (Vienna 01/11/08)

Bohemian Rhapsody (Rotterdam 07/10/08)

All available for download NOW

The last UK postage date for Christmas delivery is Friday 19th so you still have a few more days to place your order.

http://www.queenonlinestore.com

“We still feel that Freddie is around in so many ways. We refer to him so much that I feel he’s part of everything.” – Brian May

Seventeen years since their last album recorded with Freddie Mercury, Queen returned to rock us this year with The Cosmos Rocks, minus Mercury but, as the new banner proclaims, “+ Paul Rogers”. In that time, Queen’s status as arguably the best British rock band since Led Zeppelin has refused to die, with the musical We Will Rock You reminding hundreds of the power of their songs on a nightly basis. Guitarist Brian May and new frontman Paul Rodgers spoke to RC about comebacks, filling shoes and, of course, the memory of one of the world’s greatest frontmen.

Download Defying Gravity Now.

The track will be performed by Brian & Kerry at this years Royal Variety Performance, which is on BBC One on Wednesday December 17th from 19:30 – 22:00.

Set in England during the 1978 winter of discontent, cold hearts seek comfort and poor souls look for love. With a sensational score of specially commissioned music, Kneehigh bring their renowned brand of physical storytelling to this sexy tale.

When the dangerous, naughty and irresistible Don John returns home after committing murder, he sings a few unmistakable and perfectly placed lines of Bohemian Rhapsody…‘Mama, just
killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s dead, Mama, life had just begun, but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away…’

Don Jon plays in repertoire at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, from 12 December 2008 – 10 January 2009.

TV Entertainment; BBC One
Wednesday 17th December.
19:30-22:00, BBC1.

A host of celebrities and artists from the worlds of music, comedy and theatre come together for the annual highlight of the showbiz calendar, the Royal Variety Performance.

Celebrating its 80th anniversary, this year’s show will be returning to the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 11 December 2008 to be performed in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

Headlining for 2008 will be pop heart throbs Take That, cementing their place as the UK’s comeback kings, with what is promised to be a sensational performance.

Temperatures are set to soar this winter with performances to remember from the sexiest girl group around, the Pussycat Dolls, with a medley of their sassiest hits.

Ready to take a bow will be r’n‘b Umbrella diva Rihanna, and international singing sensation Leona Lewis makes her Royal debut, as does glamorous Welsh soul songstress Duffy.

Hoping to top his now legendary Singin’ In The Rain will be Britain’s Got Talent winner, 15-year-old George Sampson, with a brand new dance routine.

Housewives’ favourite and Torchwood’s suave Captain Jack, John Barrowman, will return to the stage and American music sensation Naturally 7 are set to amaze with their distinct acapella performance.

Pop veterans Cliff Richard and The Shadows will reform especially for the show as they prepare to celebrate their 50th anniversary; and performing a one-off duet will be multi Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Josh Groban and BBC Last Choir Standing victors Only Men Aloud.

From the world of theatre and dance the best of the West End will come together for one night only with Jersey Boys taking us through the rags-to-rock-to-riches tale of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

The cast of Zorro will be bringing to life the legend of the masked Spanish hero and, celebrating its 10th year in the West End, Disney’s The Lion King will dazzle us with the sights and sounds of the African Savanna.

Also set for centre stage and currently winning rave reviews is La Cage Aux Folles.

There will also be what promises to be a roof-raising live performance from legendary Queen guitarist Brian May and Kerry Ellis fresh from Broadway and the multi-award-winning Wicked.

Completing the show’s theatrical line-up is the extraordinary Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo, the ballet troupe with a difference.

The nation’s much-loved comedian Peter Kay returns to the Royal Variety Performance after a decade away with his Irish talent show-winning alter ego Geraldine McQueen.

Other top comedy at this year’s performance will come from award-winning comic Jimmy Carr, banter merchant Michael McIntyre and funny man Rhod Gilbert.

Double act Armstrong and Miller will also be performing a one-off sketch featuring characters from their beautifully observed and completely barmy BAFTA-nominated comedy show.

The Royal Variety Performance is an annual charity event in aid of the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund and will be shown on BBC One in December.

Bad Company (Prague 30/10/08)
I Want It All / Intro + Hammer To Fall (Belgrade 29/10/08)
We Believe / Tavaszi Szél Vizet Araszt (Budapest 28/10/08)
Love Of My Life / Fat Bottomed Girls / Another One Bites The Dust (Madrid 25/10/08)
Roger Solo + I’m In Love With My Car / A Kind Of Magic (Murcia 24/10/08)
Wishing Well (Moscow 16/09/08)

Click here to download now!

QUEEN: THE SINGLES COLLECTION, a project 35 years in the making is out now. In the first of four boxes of individual CD’s, facsimiles of the original vinyl singles. The tracks span more than 20 years, and are drawn from sixteen studio albums, beginning with the debut LP, Queen, in 1973, and ending in Made In Heaven in 1995.

Volume 1, the first box contains 13 CD singles, dating from the beginnings of the band’s recording career in 1970, to Don’t Stop Me Now in 1979. Box 2 will continue the story into the mid 1980s, and so on. Ultimately, the four boxes will offer every one of Queen’s singles to have made the upper reaches of the charts anywhere in the world. Naturally the set will take in all of the band’s UK singles, but it will also feature many that were only released abroad.

The Singles Collection will also include various rare non-album B-sides, including some live tracks, and some seldom-heard alternative mixes. It will trace the band through four decades, and many musical styles; every top 40 Queen single heard on the radio anywhere across the world will be found in this collection.

Few could have imagined that from such modest beginnings in 1970 when four student band members formed themselves into Queen, that by 2005 they would surpass even the Beatles’ world record for the longest time spent on the British album charts, as well as holding the record for the UK’s best selling album ever. Elsewhere around the world, in territories too numerous to list and far exceeding the 28 countries in which they toured, Queen enjoyed spectacular success; the many picture sleeves reproduced in the box set are a reminder of how the band literally conquered the world.

CD1:
1. A. Keep Yourself Alive
2. B. Son And Daughter

CD2:
1. A. Seven Seas Of Rhye
2. B. See What A Fool I’ve Been

CD3:
1. A. Killer Queen
2. A. Flick Of The Wrist

CD4:
1. A. Now I’m Here
2. B. Lily Of The Valley

CD5:
1. A. Bohemian Rhapsody
2. B. I’m In Love With My Car

CD6:
1. A. You’er My Best Friend
2. B. ’39

CD7:
1. A. Somebody To Love
2. B. White Man

CD8:
1. A. Tie Your Mother Down
2. B. You And I

CD9: Queen’s First EP
1. A. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
2. Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)
3. B. Tenement Funster
4. White Queen (As It Began)

CD10:
1. A. We Are The Champions
2. B. We Will Rock You

CD11:
1. A. Spread Your Wings
2. B. Sheer Heart Attack

CD12:
1. A. Bicycle Race
2. A. Fat Bottomed Girls

CD13:
1. A. Don’t Stop Me Now
2. B. In Only Seven Days

www.queensinglesbox.com

Others include the Police’s 1983 album Synchronicity, Stevie Wonder’s For Once in My Life and the soundtrack for the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Hall Of Fame will form part of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles which opens on 6 December.

Created in 1973, the collection now includes 826 titles.

New submissions are chosen annually by a special member committee of experts and historians drawn from all branches of the recording arts.

‘Let the Cosmos Rock’, will be screened at 39 Vue sites across the country for one night only on World Aids Day, Monday, December 1st, 2008.

Tickets for Vue cinema screenings are on sale now and can be bought from www.myvue.com/queen by calling 08712 240 240, or directly from participating cinemas. See list below.

The concert drew a record audience of 350,000 people and was captured for the big screen by award winning film-maker David Mallet. Filmed in high definition with 5.1 surround sound, the sound and visuals are of the highest quality available in cinemas today.

Queen and Paul Rodgers made a special trip to Ukraine on September 12th 2008 to play a two and a half hour free concert in Kharkov’s Freedom Square in partnership with The Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation. The band wanted to support the cause whose message “Don’t let AIDS ruin your life” has special meaning for them after lead vocalist Freddie Mercury lost his battle with the virus.

Concert director David Mallet said:
“The big screen setting is an ideal medium in which to feel a sense of participation in the Kharkov event. This was by far the biggest show of its kind ever staged. The equipment needed two Antonov 124 aircraft – the world’s biggest cargo planes – to get it into the Ukraine, and it is almost impossible to imagine the scale of it once it was built. You would never get a sense of that on television or DVD, which is why it had to be made for the biggest of screens.”

Participating Vue Cinemas :

Acton
Birmingham
Blackburn
Bristol Longwell
Bury
Camberley
Carlisle
Cheshire Oaks
Croyden PW
Cwnbran
Dagenham
Doncaster
Finchley Road
Greenwich
Hamilton
Harrow
Hartlepool
Hull
Inverness
Islington
Leeds Kirkstall
Leeds Light
Leicester
Livingston
Merthyr
Newcastle Under Lyme
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Romford
Scunthorpe
Shepherds Bush
Southport
Staines
Thanet
Thurrock
Watford
Worcester

The title of the piece is Queen Show They Have Lost None of their Majesty.

Keith Richards once said that there is no way to explain music. “If there was – he affirmed – its magic would disappear”.

And magic either is there or it is not. Partial magic would just be parody. Queen + Paul Rodgers performed last Friday night, at Velez Sarsfield stadium. Without Freddie Mercury and without John Deacon, Bryan May and Roger Taylor came back to Liniers 27 years later.

Cosmos images on the screen at the back. Rays. Explotions. On the field, a mix of expectation and fascination. On the stage, a powerful Hammer To Fall announces what’s about to begin. Then, a reminder of a distant past with Fat Bottomed Girls, full of Queen-kind of choruses, followed by Anonther One Bites The Dust, sang along by the audience. Two more classics: I Want It All and I Want To Break Free, which shows, for the first time, the line with the singer at the front, the drummer at the back and the guitarist between them.

On the side, Spike Edney on the keyboards, Jamie Moses in charge of a second guitar and Danny Miranda on the bass would add some 21st century kind of power and sound to 20th century songs.

The examination ends, Paul Rodgers passes with merit, and the band stands for their present. C-lebrity sounds with May and Rogers performing back to back on the end of the large runway that is surrounded by the audience. More from Cosmos Rock. While May pulls the strings, Rodgers adds the harmonica, right before performing, all alone with his guitar, Seagull, a song which belongs to him from the times of Bad Company.

Barely a prelude of an intimate set: “Hi to our old and new friends”, says Brian May, “For me and for Roger, being here is like a dream come true. I bring greetings from Freddie”, he says and punches, but not low, with Love Of My Life. Then comes the time for 39, with the band again coming together, and an impeccably singing Taylor, that lengthens the night at the opera with I’m In Love With My Car, after a solo for the fans. The pop hit of the 80s A Kind Of Magic is followed by one of the most rocker solos of the night in the hands of May, and dedicated to Argentina with Las palabras de amor and Say It’s Not True, with Rodger’s return to the stage and of the present into the performance, with We Believe.

Up next, the May’s soloist set opens a window to the past, when Mercury appears on the screen for the first time with image and sound.

By now, nobody is asking whether this is or isn’t Queen. If Rodgers is or isn’t. And the phrase ready Freddie? of Crazy Little Thing Called Love does not sound out of place. In the end, that must be why The Show Must Go On comes right away, preparing the tribute to the singer of Bohemian Rhapsody, a hymn that 35 thousand people sing along with him. Just as back in those times.

The encores are inaugurated with Cosmos Rock. More rocking, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions for the end, with the rigorous Argentine T-Shirts and God Save The Queen on the back.

Just as then, but different, Queen performed in Argentina. And just as then, the magic was present.

LA NACIÓN NEWSPAPER
Title: Emotion keeps them alive

The show is of Queen + Paul Rodgers. With Paul Rodgers in main vocals, Brian May in vocals and guitar, and Roger Taylor in vocals and drums. Tour musicians: Danny Miranda (bass), Philip Edney (Keyboards) and James Moses (second guitar). Last night, Velez Sarsfield Stadium. Our opinion: Very Good.

Those are tears from emotion, and they come at the end because only two and a half hours after, this woman can untangle the lump in her throat. This Queen’s fan is not alone; on the contrary, lots of the fans in the field would shed a tear. And from the stage, while the band says goodbye with the satisfaction of far exceeding duty, Brian May looks at the 40 thousand people that filled Velez with glassy eyes.

“We’re finally here… Hello to our old friends and hello to our new friends”. May’s words in a practiced Spanish come after the band has gone through the first part of a long show, planned in detail. The doubts that aroused when the guitarist and the drummer Roger Taylor decided to come back and associate the name of Queen to the singer Paul Rodgers were completely cleared last night. Because nostalgia can be an ally, but the line between good taste and the band doing covers of themselves is way too thin. In order to avoid this, the band planned a show divided into blocks, short sets with one of its members as an exclusive protagonist, and to the list of classic hits, they added songs from their new album (C-elebrity, We Believe, and Cosmos Rockin), classic hits from Rodger’s past (All Right Now, the great classic of Free) and those tricks which are necessary in a show at a Stadium.

The anxiety of a faithful and varied audience (fathers and sons, fans coming from the glorious times of the band and some under 30 years old) came to an end when the giant screen on the back lighted to show the cosmos, and an imaginary journey from out space to our planet. Now, with our feet on Earth, the band came out to the stage with a 70s classic Hammer To Fall. In this first part, and with the whole stadium serving as a chorus, some other stainless classics would shine: Another One Bites The Dust and I Want It All. Up to this point, the ones in the front, on the standing VIP section, were squeezing themselves against the fence as if they were adolescents. A worried May spoke in Spanish again: “it’s a little bit dangerous here in the front” and then “a little calma”.

Freddie Mercury had to appear on the scene and he did, after saying hello to the audience through Brian May. From the screens, the tenor voice of Mercury sang Love Of My Life, but, different from the show in 1981, there were no more lighters to join him, but thousands of cell phones and digital cameras instead. Towards the end, a second appearance of the man of impeccable moustaches would come, in order to give us Bohemian Rhapsody. From here and now, Rodgers would be in charge of ending the song.

The ex singer of Bad Company took this opportunity to demonstrate his lineage of a classic hard rock singer; the guitarist in order to reedit his amazing solos and the white-haired drummer to entertain the audience. They both showed their gifted voices in the very front of the runway that, in the centre of the stage, was inserted various meters inside the field. Then, Taylor took his sticks to hit the cords of Miranda’s double bass and play the melodies for some Queen classics, and later, to play his drummer while an assistant placed piece by piece in front on him.

Their old epic rock, the same that served to reinstall rock and roll in stadiums, would shine towards the end with songs as We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. Then, the final goodbye would come, together with the feeling of having elegantly coexisted with nostalgia and the irreplaceable figure of Freddie Mercury.

10MUSICA.COM
Title: Queen Offered A Majestic Show in Velez

Twenty seven years after their first and historic visit to Argentina, Queen did not only come back to Argentina, but also to Velez Stadium, the same that served as the shelter for those unforgettable nights in 1981.

It feels strange to name this huge band in a present time, especially because of the absence of the genius Freddie Mercury and of John Deacon, and because Queen was composed of four strong personalities, really important, highly talented when writing a song and, mostly, very different to each other. Those differences are the ones that helped them have a unique style, that was always present in them.

After some time of being soloists, Brian May and Roger Taylor decided to come back together (as they’ve already done with Smile) and so they put in motion, once again, the Queen of Rock music. For such an enterprise, they summoned Paul Rodgers, whom they knew from back in the 70s, and a contemporary of Queen with Free and Bad Company. They toured for two years and the enthusiasm led to a new album, a most praiseworthy idea with the aim of avoiding to turn into a tribute band to themselves.

On 2008 Cosmos Rocks finally appeared. Even though the critics were not perfect, and we all had some doubts while we waited for the concert in our country, when the lights of the stadium went off, and the band burst onto the stage with Hammer to Fall, many of those doubts turned more and more optimistic. Tie Your Mother Down, Fat Bottomed Girls, Another One Bites The Dust and I Want It All were a kind of uninterrupted bombing that touched even those who were the most skeptical. To discover that, in spite of the years that passed, Roger Taylor’s drums still sound as baroque and explosive as always, that Brian May can still do whatever he pleases to with his guitar, without ever loosing good taste (nor his long and curly hair) and that the band (plus a second guitar, a bass and keys) still knows how to rock, were conclusive signs that everything was in order.

Some old hits such as I Want To Break Free, A Kind Of Magic and the widely applauded 39, were inserted with some brand new songs such as C-elebrity, Sur’s up… School’s Out! and Say It’s Not True. And in both cases, it was evident that the singer Paul Rodgers was not at all an improvised or amateur. With vocals which are closer to blues music and a never unnoticeable presence at the stage, the singer earned the audience admiration, while singing the band’s classic his own way, style and without falling in the ridicule of trying to imitate Mercury. His register sounded better in the most rocker songs (particularly in Crazy Little Thing Called Love) and when singing his own songs, such as Feels Like Making Love and All Right Now.

As every band that came up during the 70s, Queen kept some of the rituals of that time, such as drums and guitar solos, and the audience applauded their giftedness. This came to the higher point when May, all alone with his acoustic guitar, gave a deeply felt version of Love Of My Life, a sublime song that, as such, still resists the pass of time.

Freddie’s soul was around during all times in Liniers neighborhood, and both technology and the screen had us watching and listening Bijou and the eternal and monumental Bohemian Rhapsody.

After two and half hours of a show that over exceeded our expectations, and that showed a good-shaped band and a staging in accordance to this legendary band, it was far more clear that the idea of coming back as Queen + Paul Rodgers is, not more and not less than an association that complement each other perfectly: while Rodgers respectfully gives his voice to a historical band, May and Taylor give the instrumental support to a vocalist still interested in expressing himself on a stage. Without the epic character that they had in 1981, but neither lost back in time and with a new album, the band did not disappoint anyone in our country. “It is a dream being here again”, said Brian May in a good spoken Spanish. The 40 thousand souls present at Velez Stadium felt exactly the same thing.

ROLLING STONE
Title: Queen: Love Of Our Lives

Velez Sarsfield Stadium was full of a varied audience of all ages, including many parents with their children. The common denominator was the expectation to know whether this new version of Queen including Paul Rodgers would rise up to the legend. After two generous hours and a half of a show that went through all the moods, rhythms and emotions, we can state that they did.

It was a real journey through time, but with focus on present time. Maybe the hardest challenge this institution of British rock is to prove – both to the audience and to themselves – that they are a music entity with a validity which is appropriate for nowadays. Both their new album, The Cosmos Rocks, as their show, are bets that, judging by what we saw and heard, have every chance to win.

Queen + Paul Rodgers perform an epic and ambitious show, a show which is full of surprises, sometimes disconcerting. After the images of a journey through cosmos that finally leads to the Earth, the band shows up – which is a sextet when live, including, besides Paul Rodgers, Brian May and Roger Taylor, three excellent musicians: Philip Edney on keyboards, Daniel Miranda on bass, and James Moses on second guitar. They open with Hammer To Fall, followed by a set of Queen classics, Tie Your Mother Down, Fat Bottomed Girls and Another One Bites The Dust. When the next songs come, the characteristics of this new formation are clear: Rodgers adapts the songs to his own style, not trying to replace Mercury. His rough throat, typical of British R&B, which is excellently preserved, reinvents the songs in a way that makes them sound more rocker, without making them sound unnatural. In order to reaffirm the classic sound of the band, there are the vocal harmonies – wonderfully performed – May’s guitar with its unmistakable violin-like sound, and Taylor’s powerful drums. The images, in the giant screen on the back of the stage and two smaller screens on the sides, reproduce what happens on the stage.

C-elebrity and Surfs Up Schools Out take part of the first dose of new songs, before May – who spoke in a primitive but understandable Spanish during the entire night – sais: “We’re finally here! For me and for Roger this is like a dream, thanks for having us here!”, and then presents Paul Rodgers, who appeared with a great acoustic song of Bad Company, Seagull.

This was the beginning of a set with more or less soloist participations, were everything happened: May singing Love Of My Life with his 12-cord guitar and the audience joining him, Taylor playing 39 with guitar, double bass and an accordion, creating a pub-like atmosphere, followed by an unusual drum solo which included his playing the double bass with his sticks, and another solo were he initially plays the bass drum and hi hat only, while an assistant progressively adds more and more components to the battery till it is complete. Later comes the excellent A Kind Of Magic, the almost kitsch Love Of My Life (dedicated to the audience), more new songs – We Believe, Say It’s Not True – and an almost heavy version of Feel Like Making Love, a song from Bad Company, while photos of Paul at those times pass in the screen. Right after, there’s a long solo from May, including songs such as Last Horizon and Bijou, with cosmic visions on the back, and even a brief apparition of Freddie on the screen.

Finally, the final set comes, with a list of hits such as Under Pressure – which they introduced saying “this song is a peace symbol” – Radio Gaga, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Show Must Go On, which, of course, has an especial impact given the circumstances. To finish, Bohemian Rhapsody has a surreal character, mixed with Freddie singing it from the screens and with the band performing it from the stage, till sometimes it is hard to differentiate reality from fantasy, present from past. It is a really well-executed effect, and without any low punches.

The encores part is enormous: Cosmos Rocks, great rock and roll from their new album, All Right Now, the extraordinary Free song, with May playing the exact same solo as the original guitar player, Paul Kosoff, We Will Rock You, and We Are The Champions, which also has turn of the screw when being performed by all of the musicians wearing the Argentine T-Shirt, including Brian with the number 10 (Maybe Diego gave it to him back in 1981?). Queen has always been a strange mixture of melodrama, opera, pastiche, kitsch, rock and roll and great songs. The tradition continues.

LA NACIÓN NEWSPAPER
Title: The Queen reigns again

Rock likes comebacks, and especially the most unexpected ones. For a band with such a charismatic figure as Freddie Mercury to decide to come back after their singer’s death, is a risk which everyone likes to stand out and also impregnate with an epic atmosphere. But Queen is not the ideal example. The thing is that this new chapter of the band that took rock in stadiums to a worldwide scale, is marked by good and common sense. Instead of running the risk of choosing someone to imitate Mercury, which would have been condemned by fans and rejected by critics, Brian May and Roger Taylor associated with another historical singer of the British scenery, Paul Rodgers. John Deacon gave up participating in the band, but he approved of using the name of the band and the three members of this new band agreed that their alliance should be called Queen + Paul Rodgers.

“It is great being back, especially in Latin America after so long. We have new material, so we’ll have a mix between Queen’s greatest hits, Paul Rodger’s classics from Free and Bad Company, and the new album. We’re very happy to be here again”. Still in Santiago de Chile, a pleasant and talkative Brian May answered the phone in order to tell us about the experience of a comeback that started in 2005, in a theatre in London, and that has already gone through two international Tours. The second one will have them performing tonight at Velez Sarsfield Stadium, the same place where they played in 1981, for three nights in a row, headed by Freddie Mercury and with a festive audience which was little used to seeing great bands performing live.

- Brian, what motivated you to come back with Queen?

- After so many years, I realized that the moment had come to do some other things that fascinated me as much as music, but that had been left out. That’s why I concentrated in finishing my doctorate in Astronomy, and doing some telescopic photography research, writing a book together with other researchers and spending some time with my family. But then a day came when the possibility of start doing, again, what we’ve done our entire lives, and we got really excited. I’m now very happy with the decision we made.

That fantastic day came on September, 2004, on Fender Stratocaster fiftieth anniversary. Rodgers sang an old hit of Free, All Right Now, and May played the role of guitar hero. Shortly after, they were both rehearsing, together with Taylor, a brief set of Queen classics.

- How did you meet Paul Rodgers?

- I’ve known Paul for a long time, and I’ve been part of the audience in some of his bands, such as Free and Bad Company, but a few years ago, when we played together on stage, we realized that there was a kind of chemistry between us. I immediately called Roger and he was completely surprised, cause he never thought we could come back, but he was really enthusiastic when he knew it was Paul Rodgers, cause he was a hero to us, and the same to Freddie.

- After the first Tour, you started recording The Cosmos Rock…

- It was something instinctive, an organic creation, without any kind of preconceptions. We had some ideas regarding songs, and we worked together trying different elements. You could say that this album is the result of a group exploration.

- It must be really hard to continue with Queen without Freddie Mercury…

- The thing is we did not continue, we stopped, in the sense that we resisted to the idea of having a replacement. At the beginning, we had the idea of joining Paul and playing some old songs, specially Freddie’s, and then we extended the challenge including some of Paul’s songs. But when we are on stage, we feel that Freddie joins us somehow.

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Cosmos Rocks
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

More details to follow.

www.recordcollectormag.com

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Cosmos Rocks
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions