Iconic. Incomparable. Irreplaceable. But never, ever boring.

Freddie Mercury’s spirit is every bit as central to the fabric of popular music today as it was during his unforgettable lifetime. The spectacular global success of the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, with global box office takings now close to one billion US dollars, was a powerful testament to Freddie’s presence as the ultimate rock frontman with Queen. But now comes a unique release to showcase the full range of his musical talents and passions, and their indelible imprint on the worlds of pop, opera and far beyond.

Set for release by Hollywood Records in North America and Mercury Records in the rest of the world on October 11 2019, the Never Boring box set brings together for the first time a specially-curated selection of Freddie Mercury’s music, visuals and written and spoken words. It is a collection to jog the memory of fans, old and new, as to why Freddie remains such a beloved figure, nearly 30 years after his death. The set reminds us that Freddie was an exceptional singer, songwriter, performer and human being whose special kind of magic is captured in this exceptional collection of his solo work.

The package is meticulously compiled and produced by Queen’s long time sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson and Joshua J Macrae who also co-produced the Bohemian Rhapsody film official soundtrack album which became one of the biggest selling albums of 2018 / 2019. The album has remained high the UK charts since its release in November 2018 and in the US became Queen’s biggest selling album in 38 years.

Taken from the very best original source material available, the full Never Boring collection contains three CDs with 32 tracks; a Blu-ray and DVD featuring 13 promo videos and interview; a 120-page 10”x10” hardback book full photos, many of them rare and unpublished, as well as thoughts and choice quotes from Freddie himself, and an introduction from Rami Malek, who earned an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation’s Bohemian Rhapsody.  Specially created insert packaging includes a double-sided poster containing an image of Freddie and an original work from synesthetic artist Jack Coulter inspired by the song ‘Mr Bad Guy’.

The three CDs include a new 12-track compilation of many of Freddie’s greatest solo performances; a newly mixed 11-track special edition of Mr Bad Guy; and the nine-track 2012 special edition of ‘Barcelona’ featuring full orchestra. The Blu-ray and DVD of Freddie’s promos and his stage performances with Montserrat Caballé include eight that have been painstakingly reassembled from the original 35mm film rushes to give them the best-ever visual and sound quality.

It will also be possible to buy and listen to the albums individually on CD, vinyl and on digital and streaming services.

Much of the music and the promo videos featured in the Never Boring collection date from the period from late 1984, when Mr Bad Guy was recorded in Munich through to Freddie’s last ever on stage performance, at a special festival on the steps of Montjuïc in Barcelona on October 8 1988. It was a festival specially staged in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain to welcome the Olympic flag to Barcelona.

“I had a lot of ideas bursting to get out,” Freddie once explained, “and there were a lot of musical territories I wanted to explore which I really couldn’t do within Queen. I wanted to cover such things as reggae rhythms and I did a couple of tracks with an orchestra.”

The set includes the recently discovered track ‘Time Waits For No One’ produced by Dave Clark which has recently taken the internet by storm and a haunting little-known track ‘Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow’ immortalised in a new animated video by award winning duo Beth David and Esteban Bravo.

For all the 2019 ‘special edition’ tracks on Never Boring and the Mr Bad Guy album, sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson have taken the very best original source material available. They went back not to previously remastered and mixed tapes, but to the original source multi-track tapes, so that they could build a new mix true to Freddie’s original versions, now taking advantage of the time, resources and technology that Freddie may not have originally had available to him in the 1980s. All offer ultimate quality, first generation vocals showing off Freddie’s incredible vocal range.

The special edition of the Barcelona album had been reworked in 2012 using similar methods, but what was missed by many at the time was that the 2012 edition replaced the previous instrumental tracks with new, live symphonic orchestration and percussion, rather than synthesisers and drum machines used on the original album.

Specially arranged by Queen orchestral arranger Stuart Morley, the 80-piece Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra now performs the symphonic score, while Rufus Taylor — the son of Queen’s Roger Taylor — plays drums on ‘The Golden Boy’ and ‘How Can I Go On’, a track that also features John Deacon’s bass guitar. The special edition of the “Barcelona” album is now waiting to be rediscovered by fans of Freddie and Montserrat. The same painstaking care in rebuilding the audio tracks has been used to bring all of Freddie’s original video promos to life again.

To recreate the new promos from Freddie’s original storyboards, eight of the promos have been totally reassembled from the original 35mm film rushes to give them the best resolution and sound quality possible. This required the team to go through all the film rushes to find those that exactly matched the footage originally chosen and used by Freddie, and then to recreate any special effects used at the time. Some of the promos have needed substantial restoration, with artists manually restoring frames that were damaged or missing.

Bonus videos include the first performance of ‘Barcelona’ by Freddie and Montserrat Caballé in front of a live audience at the Ku Klub (now Privilege Ibiza) in May 1987; the extended version of ‘The Great Pretender’, which includes backstage footage of Freddie’s very special backing singers preparing, they being Roger Taylor, Peter Straker and Freddie in drag; and a rare “Time” interview with Freddie and Dave Clark.

Roger Taylor’s contribution as a backing singer on ‘The Great Pretender’ is not the only link to Queen on Never Boring. Roger also plays percussion on ‘Love Kills’ which also features Brian May on lead guitar and John Deacon on rhythm guitar. As mentioned, John also plays bass on ‘How Can I Go On’ and Brian contributes guitar to ‘She Blows Hot and Cold’.

The entire Never Boring package reflects Freddie’s eclectic tastes and love for life. As he himself said: “Some people can take second best, but I can’t. I look upon it as defeat. If you’ve got the taste of being number one, then number two isn’t good enough.”

Rami Malek, who won best actor at all the major global award ceremonies for his performance as Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody says: “’Never Boring’ brings to your life a piece of Freddie. I hope you’re able to sit with this collection and let the music, images and excerpts of Freddie Mercury’s life inspire you, like it did me. I hope you remember that your uniqueness is a gift, and what you do with it is your gift to the world. I hope like Freddie, you’re able to smile in the eye of a storm, focus on life’s silver linings, live boldly, and most importantly, live a life which is Never Boring.”

Never Boring releases on the 11th of October, 2019.

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Queen’s iconic music video for Bohemian Rhapsody has now officially passed 1 Billion views on YouTube, making history as the first pre-1990’s video to reach one billion views on the platform.

The accompanying video for their 1975 single, Bohemian Rhapsody is generally recognised as the first ever promotional music video, kick-starting and setting the gold-standard for the genre for decades to come. Today it continues to inspire and entertain millions of fans around the world, more than forty years after it was first created.

Speaking from the band’s current sold-out North American tour, founding Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor said,

“We are honoured that Bohemian Rhapsody has just hit one billion views on YouTube. We want to thank you all and celebrate with our amazing fans all around the world by creating three new music videos to our songs, all featuring you! Whether you are a musician, singer, dancer, visual artist or you just want to have some fun. Go to www.youarethechampions.com to find out more and we’ll see you on the road somewhere.”

To celebrate this monumental achievement, a newly remastered HD version of the video has been released (above), for the first time ever and exclusively on the band’s YouTube channel. Fans can now see the video restored in all its glory, as it was originally intended.

To further honor this significant milestone, Queen — in partnership with YouTube Music, Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records  — have announced the launch of “You Are The Champions’, a unique new campaign that will give fans an exclusive chance to become a part of Queen history with a starring role in three brand new user generated videos for three of the band’s most celebrated tracks.

As part of the campaign, musicians, singers, and instrumentalists can take on Bohemian Rhapsody. Dancers will be able to give their own interpretations for “Don’t Stop Me Now” – with a special instructional video created by Polly Bennett (Rami Malik’s movement coach from the film Bohemian Rhapsody) and finally, visual artists will get the chance to design any word or phrase from the lyrics of “A Kind of Magic”.

“Bohemian Rhapsody is a sonic and cinematic masterpiece that’s one of the most enduring songs of all time,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music for YouTube. “The newly remastered video on YouTube will ensure the song continues to be rediscovered, embraced and beloved by old and new generations of music fans around the world; it’s incredible to help change the way fans experience music and provide a place for artist and fan connections worldwide.”

Celine Joshua, General Manager, Commercial, Content and Artist Strategy at Universal Music Group, said, “We are thrilled that Queen’s iconic Bohemian Rhapsody video has reached a historic one billion views on YouTube. Now, together with Queen, YouTube and Hollywood Records, we are excited to launch ‘You Are The Champions’, an innovative new user generated video campaign with Queen’s incredible fans around the world at its core. This will be the first of a series of custom initiatives we have planned in the coming months on the official Queen channel.”

As well as its status as being the first music promo video of its kind, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is regularly cited as one of the greatest songs ever recorded. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and Freddie Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history.

The song has continued to inspire a new generation of fans following the unprecedented global success of last year’s biographical film ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which tells the incredible story of the band’s career as well as the genesis of the song. The film is the highest grossing music biopic in history, having generated more than $900 million dollars at the box office, with the film winning four Oscars including Rami Malek’s triumph in the Best Actor Category for his portrayal of legendary frontman Freddie Mercury on the big screen. A feat he repeated at both the BAFTA’s and Golden Globes.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY & QUEEN FUN FACTS:
-The video was based on their Queen II album cover. It was directed by Bruce Gowers and was shot in 3 hours for a cost of £4,500 at the time at the band’s rehearsal space.
-The track, taken from their seminal ‘A Night At The Opera’ album was first released as a single on October 31, 1975.
-The video first aired in the U.K. on Top Of The Pops in November 1975
-Bohemian Rhapsody was Queen’s first Top 10 hit in the US. In the UK it went to #1 for 9 consecutive weeks, a record at the time, before returning to the top of the charts again in 1991.
-Bohemian Rhapsody is the only song in history ever to have topped the U.K. charts twice at Christmas.
-Queen have sold in-excess of 300+ million albums worldwide.
– In December, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was named as the most Googled song of 2018.
-Queen has more than 10 million subscribers on their official YouTube channel.
-The song reached the top 40 in the USA in 2019 making its third visit and one of the only songs to reach the Top 40 in three different decades.

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Universal Music Group (UMG) today announced Bohemian Rhapsody, the iconic single by British rock legends Queen, officially became the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th Century, as well as the most-streamed Classic Rock song of all time.

UMG’s teams around the world have actively promoted discovery across streaming platforms, physical reissues, merchandise and experiential programs to introduce Bohemian Rhapsody to new fans more than 40 years after it was first recorded.  Today, the original song and official video for Bohemian Rhapsody (above), taken from Queen’s seminal 1975 album A Night At The Opera, surpassed 1.6 billion streams globally across all major streaming services.

Bohemian Rhapsody is regularly cited as one of the greatest songs ever recorded. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and Freddie Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history.

The instantly recognizable anthem also has been buoyed by the success of the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, which tells the incredible story of the band’s storied career. In just five weeks on release the film has become the highest grossing music biopic in history.

Brian May, Queen’s guitarist and founding member said, “So the River of Rock Music has metamorphosed into streams! Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!”

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, said, “Bohemian Rhapsody is one the greatest songs by one of the greatest bands in history. We are so proud to represent Queen and are thrilled to see the song still inspiring new fans around the world more than four decades after its release.  My congratulations to Queen and Jim Beach on an incredible achievement that is a testament to the enduring brilliance of Queen.”

Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and John Deacon of Queen London
1973

UMG represents Queen’s iconic catalogue globally outside North America, as well as providing support to the band across global merchandise, retail licensing and brand management through Bravado, UMG’s brand-management and merchandise company.  UMG also produces and distributes audio-visual releases from Queen via the company’s Eagle Rock division, the leading producer and distributor of music programming for broadcast, DVD, Blu-Ray, TV and digital media.  These releases include Queen documentaries, concert films and their award-winning immersive virtual reality film ‘VR The Champions’. In North America, Queen’s recorded music catalogue is represented by Hollywood Records.

The Soundtrack to Bohemian Rhapsody (film) is available now on Walt Disney Co.’s Hollywood Records and UMG’s Virgin EMI.

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Australia’s enduring love of QUEEN is this week on display as QUEEN albums populate three positions in the ARIA Top 5 album, the best chart result in the world in this new chapter of the QUEEN renaissance, triggered by the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody bio-pic.

The Bohemian Rhapsody Soundtrack, released especially for the film, featuring Queen hits (alongside the original Live Aid performance from 1985 as depicted in the film) spends its second week at #2 on the ARIA chart (held off by another blockbuster soundtrack – ‘A Star Is Born’).

Queen’s 15x platinum ‘Greatest Hits’ and ‘The Ultimate Collection’ sit at #3 and #5 respectively – the highest concentration of Queen albums in the Top 5 album chart of any territory in the world.

In addition,  the song Bohemian Rhapsody (originally on the A Night At The Opera album) is poised to re-enter the ARIA Top 20 singles this week. The single, originally released in 1975, re-entered the ARIA chart in 1992 thanks to its now famous inclusion in the film ‘Wayne’s World’. Six further Queen tracks occupy the ARIA Top 100 tracks in the current Australian chart.

Queen boast a strong enduring legacy in Australia with 15 individual top 20 albums, 20 top 40 singles crowned by the 15x platinum, double diamond, 1 million plus sales enjoyed by Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’. It’s one of the top ten selling albums OF ALL TIME in Australia. In 2018, 38 years after its first release, it is in the Top 40 highest selling albums in Australia year-to-date.

Bohemian Rhapsody has enjoyed the #1 position at the Australian box office since it opened on November 1, sitting at just over $18m total box office to date. It is the film everyone is talking about as the story of QUEEN and Freddie Mercury resonates with people of all ages and generations.

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A decade in the making.

Bohemian Rhapsody the biopic film is championed by Roger Taylor (Drummer, Queen) and Brian May (Guitarist, Queen) that heralds the start up of the band, formerly known as Smile and the killer Queen himself, Freddy Mercury’s inception, influence, fame and iconic talent, covering events up to their show stopping performance of Live Aid in June 1985.

From just a bunch of Uni students that cobbled together songs and did covers, when the lead singer of Smile left the band Roger and Brian needed to find a replacement. Freddy (played by Raimi Malek) pretty much positioned himself in to the lead with a car park, one song rehearsal.

It wasn’t long until Smile, became Queen and Freddy (as we all know and love him) changed to his stage name (and also legally), from his birth name Farrokh Bulsara, having been a refugee from Zanzibar.

Strict parents, especially a traditional father who worked as a book keeper at London’s Heathrow airport, Farrokh worked as a baggage handler at the Terminal and submersed himself in to his love of music in any spare time that he had.

It was during the time of joining Smile that Farrokh met someone that would change his life and no matter what, always be at his side, from relationship to a friend that no one else in his life could compare to, Mary Austin.

It was while on tour with the band now called Queen and by this stage John Deacon, another University student had joined on bass, that Farrokh, now legally called Freddy Mercury, began to realise and struggle with (initially) his bi-sexuality.

The film is a mostly accurate portrayal with two members of the band being Executive Producers and long time band manager; Jim Beach also being on the Production team. Thee are some noticeable timeline shifts, such as when Freddy was diagnosed with AIDs (it was 1987 – two years after Live Aid).

Titled after Queen’s experimental yet signature song Bohemian Rhapsody (aka ‘Freddy’s thing’) which their record producer, Ray Foster (Mike Meyers)  refused to have aired, (deemed it was too long for radio) and when eventually released was slammed by music critics globally at the time. As we all know and was predicted by the first radio DJ at the time to play the song; Kenny Everette – it has become a rock anthem that has never and will never be matched. Ever.

The film is a total gloves off raw look in to the trials through the 1980’s as fame and influence from different avenues including the then Manager of Mercury; Paul Prenter shaped Freddy’s existence and eventual death of AIDS on the 24th of November 1991.

20th Century Fox really know how to take out a year with a bang. Last year’s finale was The Greatest Showman – this year; Bohemian Rhapsody.

We all know the songs, know the band and love Freddy.

Fan of Queen or not, there’s no denying they rocked us through the ‘70s and 80s. Doing what they did how they wanted to do it. Sometimes experimental, always a bit risque and never the same as any other rock band. Interacting with the mass sized audiences making them feel the rock and be a part of it. Stadium after stadium, album after album.

Let Queen rock you one more time in Bohemian Rhapsody. The best film this year and totally worth the ten year wait.

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