Queen Game Mexico multicolor LP

Queen: The Game LP multicolour vinyl from Mexico

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About three years ago I was contacted by a serious mexican vinyl collector about an obscure record he had in his collection. He found it in a market stall years ago there in Mexico. When he first sent me some pictures I was literaly shocked as it looked a very interesting and never heard gem. A that time he didn’t want to part with it because he knew he had an unique item. When I asked him to check some details about vinyl structure, label and matrix numbers on the run-off, I had no doubt he had an original record.

As you know there have been other reports of unique colored LP pressing from Mexico. We still don’t know if these issues were made for pleasing some Label or Music industries rep. or if they were off-the hour pressings. Also, they may have been test pressing for a possible colored issue that was never released. The fact is that they were made with original plates at that time and so very collectable.

Game Mexico multicol_01

The Mexican lp issue of The Game in standard black vinyl was already an interesting item as it was issued in a slightly different sleeve, with white background instead of the famous mirror/grey one used in USA, Japan and european issues.

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As usually the numbers on the run-off on the early 80’s mexican pressing show the date of the master cutting. In this LP we found the following matrix informations:

Side A : SLEM-972-1  7-XI-80 THG.

Side B : SLEM-972-2  7-XI-80 THG.

Game Mexico multicol_03

 

This LP was a best selling in Mexico and I’ve found other black vinyl versions from different dates. The most are from 1981 which is also the year Queen toured in Mexico, so probably many reissues were made to cover the high demand of Queen records after they visited that country.

I’m looking for a a copy of the black vinyl version with earliest matrix numbers you may have; any help would be appreciated.

 

A “Huge Thanks” to Sergio Orta for giving me the chance to own this gem.

 

 

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QueenMuseum is 20 years old!!

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Not the greatest Queen event of the year, of course, but I  just wanted to share that, with its high and low, Queenmuseum.com is now on line since 1996. First name of the page was “Queen collector page” back in april 1996. There weren’t many Queen website at that time and I wanted to connect with other Queen collectors worlwide. I virtually met hundreds of people and I’m still in contacts with many of them. I remember I first uploaded some images of rare 45 picture sleeves from my collection. At that time a scanner took about 3 minutes to get a (now very low quality) image. But that was so great!!! From then a lot of other Queen related websites have appeared and the most did much better than what I do but that passion is still alive. Collection has grown up with additions of items that were just in my dreams 20 years ago; I met and traded with a lot of Queen collectors worldwide.

So Happy Birthday QueenMuseum.com!!

Here are some screenshots from the past…. maybe someone will remember them…..

 

 

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bohrhaptape

WHEN KENNY EVERETT MET BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: Queen’s masterpiece aired for the very first time

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Happy 40th Birthday BoRhap!!!!

October 1975: Kenny Everett airs Bohemian Rhapsody on his show on Radio Capital UK. A piece of history Queen fans can now listen to for the very first time.

 

These audio fragments are taken from a tape found among items once owned by Freddie Mercury and put up for auction in January 2015 by the house sitter of Garden Lodge – who was Jim Hutton’s friend – after Freddie’s death and before Mary Austin came in.

The tape was probably compiled and edited by Kenny Everett and then sent back to Freddie. I didn’t do any adjustments.
Here’s the transcription of the audio:
_________________

It’s 6 minutes worth of absolute orgy of sound, so stand by for that it’s coming
up in about 5 minutes.
Here’s a selection of some of their older stuff from their just-got-old LP, stand by for their new one on this channel next week.

-Plays Brighton Rock/Leroy Brown-

OK. You don’t have to buy the LP now, those are all the best bits but there’s a new one around the corner and we shall bring you that first, infact we have their new single, it’s not even been pressed into wax yet, it’s on tape and it’s waiting for me to press the button which I shall do in about 5 minutes, okay…
Yes friends. Once more Capital Radio has said prrrrrrrr!!!, to the BBC and got itself
another exclusive scoop-eroonee – Yes friends, Freddie pressed it into my hot little hand
this very last night-ness, and he said “Go forth and be FAB Ken”, so Ladies and Gentlemen,
for the first time anywhere in this Universe of ours, we present at this moment of time,
the new, Queen, single!

Plays Bo Rhap

Excuse me whilst I scrape myself off the ceiling.
Queen and “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Haven’t we come a long way since Goldie and The Gingerbreads?

…Likes Queen. It’s their new single.

Plays Bo Rhap

That’s the modern version of…Beethoven.
Ooooh. Me spines turned to custard, love it!
5 minutes to 2.00, that was Queen’s new single, available in your local record store quite soon.
We’ll take a break
________________________

Many Thanks to Alessandra Rotilio and David Backhouse for their advice and help!

Enjoy!!!
check my Facebook page:

QueenMuseum.com on FB

Roger Taylor Presents “News Of The World” in Italy In 1977

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Here’s a nice transcription of a Roger Taylor interviews by italian EMI manager about the new Queen album “News of The World” in 1977. Roger went to Rome in october 1977 and gave some interview to the italian Press.

This interesting press release was sent by EMI to Italian radio and music magazines. Thanks to Roberto Pua Garcia for these pictures.

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Freddie Mercury tribute poster

Freddie Mercury Tribute Autographed Poster

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Here’s a long time sought after memorabilia. An original Freddie Mercury Tribute poster autographed by most of the artists who perfomed on april 20th 1992. There are different versions of this poster. Not all the ones I’ve seen have the same signatures on it. I think this depends on “when” they were actually signed. Yes, because some of them togheter with other memorabilia were autographed by the artists during reharsals made days before the event. Many posters were auctioned for collecting money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

Freddie Mercury tribute poster

The one you see in the photo was certainly signed some days before.  Provenance is from a former Atlantic Virgin Airlines manager who helped artists, especially from USA, to travel and get accomodation in UK at the time of the Tribute event.

The poster was given to him, framed, in the after-party, same night of the event, so this is why I’m sure it was signed before. Another interesting aspect is that I decided to change glass and get an UV-filtered one to protect signatures, and I discovered that it was not actually a paper poster as others I’ve seen in the past, but it’s on thick card!

 

One of the things I always wanted to do was to detect all the signatures which are on the poster. With the help of my friend and great Queen collector, Giancarlo Calò, here’s our results.

If there is some Rock autograph enthusiastic out there and want to double check the autographs,  is very welcomed!

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  1. Pat Badger (Extreme)
  2. Derek Smalls (Spinal Tap)
  3. Viv Campbell (Def Leppard)
  4. J. Vatson (Spinal Tap)
  5. Zucchero
  6. Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
  7. Chris Thompson (Def Leppard)
  8. Miriam Stockley (chorus)
  9. Phil Collen – (Def Leppard)
  10. Liza Minelli
  11. Mike Moran
  12.  Jason Newsted (Metallica)
  13. Brian May
  14. Axl Rose
  15. Cindy Crawford
  16. Ian Hunter
  17. Maggie Ryder (chorus)
  18. Tommy Iommi
  19. Jim Beach
  20. James Hetfield (Metallica)
  21. Roger Daltrey (The Who)
  22. David Bowie
  23. David Richards
  24. Lisa Stansfield
  25. Josh Mcrae
  26. Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
  27. Mick Ronson
  28. Duff Mckagan (Guns & Roses)
  29. Roger Taylor
  30. Paul Young
  31. Rick allen (180°)

Queen & Rolling Stone Magazine. The 20 reasons why Queen should have been put on cover 1981

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Here’s an interesting reading from a copy of the original Telegram sent by the Elektra Records, behalf of Queen. This memorabilia was found among other press stuff in the archive of the former Vice President, Bryn Bridenthal.

Sent to Rolling Stone Magazine on May 1st  1981, It lists the 20 reasons why Queen should be appear on the cover of Rolling Stones magazine. As you know, this unfortunately never happened. Enjoy!!!

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From the day before another telegram was sent from Elektra Records to Queen Management, speaking about all the effort done to be finally considered by the famous US magazine…..

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Freddie’s personal items. Auctions from 2015 Part II

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Following Part one, here’s another lot I acquired from the Freddie’s personal items auctioned in Feb 2015. My first interest, from the published photo above, was that purple folder. I suddenly thought about an early press kit. I love items from early period and the purple and gold colours immediately make me think of 1973 early promotional items.

purplefolderIt turned to be a personal promo folder containing the famous Queen Headed Paper in lilac sheet often used by the band for personal handwritten letter (see an example here) or printed for the very early 1973 press kits.

Another item you can also see in the first photo is the Barcelona LP press kit.

Personally I never came across of a copy of it… EMI or ELEKTRA USA ones are more common This is, of course, from Polydor Records.

here it is:

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The clock, an official 1980’s merchandise. Not an oustanding piece I know, but nice to see it was saved all this time. The clock was sent, as you can see from the box, by Jacky Gunn, the Official Fan Club secretary.

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Ok, le’ts go on… A sealed promotional T-shirt for One VIsion. I must admit that I never came across one… Don’t know if it was ever available for sale (???!!!)

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Another nice item put in this lot was a lapel pin, once owned, according to the vendor, by Freddie Mercury himself. I have no idea if he ever wore this pin.. so any help would be very appreciated, maybe you can check some private Freddie’s photos. As I told in the previous article, all this stuff was given by Jim Hutton to S.M. (housekeeper of Garden Lodge during the months after Freddie’s death).

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and here’s another image of the pin togheter with an early 1974 official EMI 1974 Music book which was included in this lot along with the Magic Tour Program and another 1986 magazine.

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Ok… is it enough? no…. now the magic part comes in. Unexpected surprises and the final proof for me that these items were really from Freddie himself.

You probably have noticed some cassettes in the first photo, the one published from the auction house.

Well there were a couple of those K7 really interesting….

Firts one….

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This is a Tape containing a transfer from Reel of the Somebody To Love track. Still an incomplete mix!! It misses the intro and also the bridge part, so you can clearly hear Freddie ending with the voice solo. Very interesting! One of the tape that probably were needed to play by Freddie to work on the Gospel solo which is the final and great part of the Bridge.

The videocassette contains two different edit of the famous 1985 David Wigg Interview, one of 10 min and the other of 5 min, both containing the classic production countdown at the beginning. Maybe sent to Freddie to chose which version has to be broadcasted or just for archive.

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Ok… now one of  the most thrilling moment in my collector’s life…

Another tape in the lot was included among others, unlabelled….

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Another reel transfer…. this time: Bohemian Rhapsody. The tape starts with the song as we all know it…. By the end of the song, the recording changes immediately in a Guitar playing… Probably in studio, excercises for about 1 min with some riffs. I’m quite confident this is Brian playing.

Then the most amazing (at least for me) part begins…. This tape contains the original Kenny Everett airing of Bohemian Rhapsody. Yes, the very first moment the song was put on the Radio and presented to the World…. (still excited and shivering while I write this)…

In some of this audio clips, Kenny refers to a tape so I now think that Freddie bring one of these tape transfers to Kenny (or a reel tape) to let Borhap be played on radio. The record, or test pressing was not yet available… and Kenny returned this after having recorded to him some of the aired parts. I cannot imagine Freddie recording this clips himself from the original time… but who knows…

 

Stay tuned for other informations…. still going deep on these..

Freddie’s personal items. Auctions from 2015

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In feb. 2015 some very interesting records and items once belonged to Freddie mercury have been auctioned from a UK-based auction House.

One of the lot I was interested in was presented with this photo

original (1)

This lot consisted of approx. 43 records both 12″ and 7″ from Freddie personal collection. Then given to Jim Hutton who presented them to the housekeeper of Garden Lodge who helped him to move after Freddie’s tragical death.

Hidden in this lot there were two very rare Queen collector’s gems which probably were not spotted by many bidders attending the auction both live and on line.

The first rare sleeve found in this lot was the Radio Ga Ga withdrawn picture sleeve. Finally I have an original one  in may hand. There were much debate in the last 15 years about this one. This is presented not finished with front and back laying in a same card and with folding parts for the final closed. In early 2000 a number of this have been circulated but I cannot check the quality of printing of the small details especially on the back of the sleeve.

The cat. number and the EMI details in the bottom center of the back sleeve are perfectly clear and sharp in the Freddie’s copy.

Originally this alternative sleeve appeared in the market in mid 90’s from the list of a famous UK rare record dealer: Greg Vandike. I rememeber he told me that the artwork of the sleeve was in a A3 printed card ready to be cut. Some collectors who have seen the finished closed one have told me that some printings were not so sharp. But in this one I see no problem. So we still have to investigate if a fake issue of this exists.

Here are the pictures of the front and back of the radio Ga Ga alternative withdrawn sleeve:

 

RADIO GA GA PROOF SLEEVE FREDDIE A reduced_qm

 

RADIO GA GA PROOF SLEEVE FREDDIE B reduced_qm

 

As for test pressing and acetates even test sleeves were usually sent to band members for approval. This sleeve concept was aborted and the most famous one was then chosen for its worldide release. So this is an extremely rare cover.

But that’s not all….

there was another hidden jewl inside the lot. Another rare picture sleeve, unknown to most of the collectors worldwide: the inhouse EMI promotional picture sleeve for You’re my best Friend 7″ single. I Only saw one copy of it in one of the box of records and memorabilia from the 2011 ‘Stormtroopers in Stilettos: Queen, The Early Years’  exibition.

That was from Brian May’s personal collection. Some collectors thought it was a radio home made sleeve or probably fake but it’s not. Having found one in a set of records coming from Garden Lodge and once in Freddie’s collection, it’s confirmed that this is a genuine item.

Also, quality of the paper, weight, and style are perfectly matching with the Bohemian Rhapsody UK 1975 picture sleeve. There’s also a reference printed on the back of this “Best friend” sleeve to “Delga”. Same printing you find in the “Borhap” sleeve which refers to the factory where this sleeve was printed. Probably made for inhouse EMI purpose, was almost unknown for nearly 40 years.

here are the picture of this rare single:

BEST FRIEND UK EMI IN HOUSE SLEEVE A _reduced_qm

You’re My Best Friend UK In house promo sleeve – Front -

You're My Best Friend UK In house promo sleeve - Back-

You’re My Best Friend UK In house promo sleeve – Back-

The record inside this sleeve comes with the “factory sample” sticker on the label. Matrix numbers also shown that this comes with the earliest codes in the run-off grooves with rare first mother (1) and first stamper (G), same as the white label test pressing version.

BEST FRIEND UK EMI IN HOUSE SLEEVE LABEL reduced_qm

 

 

Go To Part Two