Queen have never done things by halves. From that debut self-titled album through their whole career they've always pushed boundaries and wanted to be the best, and give the best whether it be in their music, promotional videos, or live stage shows.
Now a new official book '40 years of Queen' has just being released and I mean it when I say it, you have to have this book. Okay, Queen fans probably have a shelf full of books over the years detailing their history, discography etc, but this book is different.
It comes housed in a solid casing which means it'll still be in the same condition in 40 years time, and has a lovely foreword written by both Roger and Brian. The book starts out with that aforementioned debut album and each section is devoted to a particular album, as well as pages devoted to each individual member, as well as features on `South America 1981', `Rock In Rio' `Live Aid' `Queen At the Movies', `Queen Live' and `The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert'.
As well as that there are loads of rare photos from the very early year's right up to their final gigs in 1986, including one of Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury taken in 1980.
There is some fascination little snippets throughout e.g. On the credits on the debut album if says "and nobody played synthesiser", to the Ben & Jerry ice-cream flavoured "Bohemian Raspberry, and the witty telegram Groucho Marx sent them after the success of A Night At the Opera, and preceding A Day At The Races.`
There's interesting bits like Michael Jackson convincing them to release `Another One Bites The Dust' as a single, to Bowie insisting they remove his vocals from `Cool Cat' a day before the album was released, to their refusal to film a second video for `I Want To Break Free' for the U.S. market because the Americans found Queen a bad influence on the young.
Queen were always a step ahead of everyone else, even releasing an official live album in 1979 to beat the bootleggers, and later being the first group ever to film an entire show in 35mm.
While all this may be impressive, it's not a patch on the additional pop-up pages of the book that include some real replica memorabilia. Firstly there's a cd featuring an interview with the whole band from 1977, numerous posters from gigs from 1974 onwards, and an original press kit on the band for the U.S. market in 1973.
There's even a tour map that Brian's dad drew for the band and four handwritten letters (one for each member) for the fan club in 1975. There are Race Cards, unused Japanese Concert tickets, a ticket to the Premiere of Flash Gordon and best of all handwritten lyrics to 4 songs from The Works album (one for each member) on the original copybook notepad they were written on. As Brian says "we always go for perfection in the face of financial disaster....", and yet again they've nailed it superbly.