#simon zep | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

freddiemercurylegendabovelegends · 5 months

Text

Today, November 18th, 1975 - Queen Story!

Bristol, UK, Colston Hall (two night)

'A Night At The Opera Tour'

This article chronicles the second show in Bristol.

🔸Sounds, November 29, 1975

Queen triumphant

Report by Jonh Ingham, pictures by Kate Simon

QUEEN ARE the type of group that make a man want to abandon rock writing. They pose questions and never provide answers. They exist in their own space-time continuum, visible and audible but keeping their secrets to themselves.

On the surface they couldn't be a nicer bunch of people, but they carry English reticence to an epitome. It isn't, as Geoff Barton said two weeks ago, that they're boring, it's just that they're reserved. Or in writer parlance, they don't automatically provide colourful copy. All my instincts as a writer tell me that there is a great story in that band, but after two nights with them I'm hardly any the wiser.

Skin tight

That their insularity has a lot to do with them being one of the most amazing heavy-metal and/or rock bands in Britain - with all the signs that they'll end up monsters on the order of Zep - is fairly obvious, but just how much bearing it has on the matter is hard to say. The enigmas they might pose mightn't even have answers.

Is there any logical reason why they present an image and persona straight out of the Beatles school of interlocking chemistry?

John is reserved, almost nonchalant on stage, as if it's all in a small, personal joke. When asked how he saw himself within the framework of the band he replied, with a small smile, "I'm the bassist".

Roger is his opposite, the cheeky sidekick in a Clint Eastwood movie, and attracting a lot of cheesecake attention in America and Japan.

Freddie is an original - one of the most dynamic singers to tread the boards in quite a few years. His attraction is obvious.

Brian is perhaps the biggest enigma of all. What is this seemingly frail, gaunt astronomer doing on that stage, striding purposefully and blasting diamond-hard rock? They're all equally strong personalities - like the Beatles there's no one major focal point. Ask four fans who their dream Queen is and you'll get four different answers.

Queen have been busy lads these past few months. Having disassociated themselves from their former management and joined with John Reid, the fourth album was seen to. Reid decided that a tight schedule wouldn't cause them undue harm, and figured on two months to record before embarking on this current tour.

Only Queen are driven to better each previous album - which at this stage of the game is obviously producing some excellent results - and 'A Night At The Opera' turned into a saga - culminating in 36-hour mixing sessions in an effort to allow at least a few days for rehearsal. In the end they managed three and a half days at Elstree with four hours off to videotape the promotional film for 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Their first few dates had not been without errors and the quartet were still not feeling totally comfortable their second night in Bristol, fourth night of the tour. You'd never know it, though.

Like all other aspects of the group, the stage is sophisticated. A black scrim provides a backdrop bounded by a proscenium of lights both front and rear. At each side the p.a. rises like a mutant marriage of Mammon and Robby the Robot. Amp power is readily evident but the most extraordinary is Brian May's subtle set up: nine Vox boxes stepping back in rows of three. The only packing crate visible is holding a tray of drinks, and you may rest assured that no roadie will rush, crawl or lurk across the stage while the show is in progress unless it's to rescue Freddie's mike from the clawing crowd.

As the auditorium darkens the sound of an orchestra tuning up is heard over the p.a. The conductor taps his baton on the music stand and a slightly effete voice welcomes the audience to A Night At The Opera. The Gilbert & Sullivan portion of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' follows, a brief glimpse of Freddie is allowed, and then in a blast of flares and white smoke the blitzkrieg begins.

Roger is barely visible behind his kit, just his eyes and tousled locks. John is wearing a white suit and playing the-man-who-must-stand-still-or-it-will-all-blow-away. Brian is slightly medieval in his green and white Zandra Rhodes top, while Freddie is...

Around his ankles his satin white pants flare like wings - fleet footed Hermes. Everything north of the knee is skin tight - tighter than skin tight - with a zip-up front open to AA rating. But further south, definitely in X territory, lurks a bulge not unlike the Sunday Telegraph.

There have been sex objects and sex bombs, superstar potency and the arrogant presentation of this all-important area, but never has a man's weaponry been so flagrantly showcased. Fred could jump up on the drum stand and shake his cute arse, leap about and perform all manner of amazing acrobatics, but there it was, this rope in repose, barely leashed tumescence, the Queen's sceptre. Oh to be that hot costume, writhing across the mighty Fred!

Phallic

Freddie is not pretty in the conventional sense of the word; like Mick Jagger of '64, he is his own convention. Also like the Jagger of the time, his stage persona and action is unlike anything else. Although it borrows - like most of the group's plagiarisms - slightly from Zeppelin, in tandem with Freddie's supreme assurance and belief in himself - he always refers to himself as a star - it explodes into something that is a constant delight to watch.

He reacts to his audience almost like an over-emotional actress - Gloria Swanson, say, or perhaps Holly Woodlawn playing Bette Davis. At the climax of the second night in Bristol he paused at the top of the drum stand, looked back over the crowd and with complete, heartfelt emotion placed his delicate fingers to lips and blew a kiss. Any person who can consume themselves so completely in such a clichéd showbiz contrivance deserves to be called a star.

Freddie's real talent, though, is with his mike stand. No Rod Stewart mike stand callisthenics here, just a shortee stick that doubles as a cock, machine gun, ambiguous phallic symbol, and for a fleeting moment an imaginary guitar. He has a neat trick of standing quite still in particularly frantic moments and holding the stand vertically from his crotch up, draw a fragile finger along its length, ever closer to the taunting eyes that survey his audience.

Their show contains lots of bombs and smoke, lots of lights, lots of noise. They fulfil the function of supremely good heavy metal - i.e. you don't get a second to think about what's going on. When they do let up for a few minutes, it's only so you can focus in on the bright blue electric charge crackling between your ears.

Bulldozer

Dominating the sound is Roger's drumming, a bulldozer echo that bounces like an elastic membrane, meshing with your solar plexus so that your body pulses in synch with the thunder. Tuned into that, everything else is just supremely nice icing.

For three days rehearsal, after eight months off the road Bristol was extremely impressive. In speculative mood I quizzed people on how long they thought it would take to headline Madison Square Garden. I was thought a radical at a year and a half. John Reid smilingly assured me it would take a year.

That Queen should end up with John Reid is an entirely logical proceeding. Everything about Queen demands that the world eventually kowtows at their feet in complete acquiescence - so big that bodyguards have to accompany them at every step. Well, no - they found that an annoyance in Japan, but, you know, huge.

Such status demands a Reid or a Peter Grant, and whatever the causes for their leaving Jack Nelson and Trident, an elegant group like Queen is going to look for a man with class. Reid found the idea of managing a group interesting, and having to deal with four strong personalities a challenge. He only concerns himself with their business and ensuring that the year ahead is mapped out. In January they begin a jaunt through the Orient, Australia and America, by which time it's March and they begin preparations for the next album.

Reid's prediction of a year was proven highly credible the next evening in Cardiff. The band had still not paused from the rush up to the tour and spent most of the day relaxing and sleeping - no doubt a factor in their near recumbent profile. Also, unlike most groups, they were keeping their dissatisfaction with the show to themselves.

They stopped off at Harlech TV on the way to see a cassette of the video for 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. The general consensus was quite good for four hours, with much laughter during the operetta. Brian finds film of the group educational - the first time he saw himself was a Mike Mansfield opus for 'Keep Yourself Alive' - "It was 'All right fellows, give it everything you've got but don't move off that spot.' It was terrible." You don't like Mansfield, eh? "Oh, I hate him - we all do... I was horrified when I saw it - I couldn't believe we looked that bad. I looked very static - seeing myself has taught me a lot about stage movement. Some of the things I do are planned for effect, but it's mostly just feeling the audience and communicating that back to them."

Arriving at the motel - several miles out of town - Freddie immediately fell asleep, John held court of a sort, joined later by Brian, while Roger went jogging, a daily event when touring. Tuning in to rock via Bill Haley and Tommy Steele, he became a drummer because he was better at it than guitar. All through school he was in bands; he only went to dental school out of "middle class conditioning, and it was a good way to stay in London without having to work". His mother thought it a bit strange when he opted for a career as a rock star, but she doesn't worry too much now.

The concert starts in much the same manner as the previous night, but there are signs that tonight is work, with posing an afterthought. The endings to most of their songs are magnificent and majestic, especially 'Flick Of The Wrist' and the rapid harmonies of 'Bad Boy Leroy Brown'

➡️ keep reading on http://jonh-ingham.blogspot.com/2007/02/queen-riot-at-opera.html?m=1

#freddie mercury #queen band #london #zanzibar #legend #queen #brian may #john deacon #freddiebulsara #roger taylor #1975 #queen invite you to a night at the opera #a night at tbe opera album #a night at the opera tour #bristol

66 notes · View notes

princeoftheuniverse · 2 months

Note

What's your unpopular Led Zeppelin opinion?

Thank you for this ask!

1) Led Zeppelin II is their best album. Every single song is a banger (I mean I guess that’s true for all their albums, but IV is so overplayed)

2) Idk if this is an unpopular opinion or not because they agree with me- but Kashmir is their best song not Stairway

3) They are a folk band with electric guitars. I swear if you made Simon and Garfunkel do the same songs in their style you wouldn’t question the lyrics being folk music (obviously not all their songs, but I’d love to hear a S&G cover of the lemon song)

4) That being said, they are the og “filk” music band (this is a music genre from big bang theory, filk is folk music with a sci-fi theme. Basically rock music for nerds)

5) If you don’t like CODA you can suck my dick. I have seen too many people complain that it’s bad and doesn’t sound like Zep. Shut the actual fuck up.

#led zeppelin #rock n roll #robert plant #jimmy page #john paul jones #john bonham #classic rock

37 notes · View notes

thequibblah · 18 days

Note

Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals. 💌

omg!! far be it from me to pick a favourite so here’s the one I’ve been listening to when I haven’t had on Beyoncé:

-“it’s going to take some time,” the carpenters

-“mrs. robinson,” simon & garfunkel

-“child of vision,” supertramp

-“graceland,” paul simon

-“dancing days,” led zep

#ugh check back in in two months i want to be asked this all the time #kay elle cee #ask me #music disk horse

4 notes · View notes

rsbry-beret · 9 months

Note

zep for the fandom game?

an oldie but a goodie 😌

fav male character: simon <3

fav female character: bruh ngl it’s abigail

least fav character: i eventually came around but for much of the show i did. not like max much lol WAIT BETTER ANSWER danny michael davis

prettiest character: emily

funniest character: zoey or tobin

fav episode: s1e7, because it’s got don’t speak

fav romantic ship: coder bfs lol

fav friendship: tobin and abigail came out of left field so i love it. also zoey and joan but i know people ship them and i also love that

fav family dynamic: the entire clarke family vibe makes me cry thanks

worst ship: leif and zoey. sorry guys. no

#rsbry’s jam #zep #zoeys playlist #zoeys extraordinary playlist #ask game #rsbry’s asks

8 notes · View notes

sweetdreamsjeff · 4 months

Text

Jeff Buckley: Grace (Legacy Edition) (Columbia)

Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, October 2004

Remastered version of the original 1994 album with second CD of outtakes/rarities and DVD of Grace vids and footage of Buckley in Bearsville, New York.

AS GRUNGE lay flailing in the rain of Seattle, the last thing anyone expected was a bona fide prodigy appearing, messiah-like, to save the day for passionate melodic intensity.

But that’s precisely what Jeff Buckley did ten years ago. The fact that his legacy has been a regrettable line of mewling Brit impostors (Coldplay, Keane and their kind) should not count against him.

On first hearing Grace’s title track, time stopped as one drank in the miracle of its beauty – a kind of unbearable ecstasy that recurred throughout his modest body of work, not least on the sorely under-appreciated Sketches for My Sweetheart, the Drunk.

Posturing and affected as Jeff could be, music oozed from his every pore. The sweet pain of ‘Grace’ and ‘Last Goodbye’ remains, in these soulless times, an aural elixir for all true rock romantics.

Ten years on and remastered, Grace sounds more swoopingly lyrical and breathlessly eclectic than ever. ‘Lilac Wine’ is soppy and the take on Britten’s ‘Corpus Christi Carol’ mannered, but the soaring assurance of the rest – Zep echoes, Asiatic strings, Leonard Cohen cover and all – belies the album’s short gestation.

Eclectic isn’t the half of the Legacy Edition’s second CD. Here we have Buckley the chameleon, having a stab at Hank Williams, Nina Simone, Alex Chilton – even the MC5’s ‘Kick Out the Jams’. It all sort of works too, complementing two versions of ‘Dream Brother’ and one of ‘Eternal Life’ – as well as ‘Forget Her’, a sorrowful near-classic and this set’s ‘You Know You’re Right’.

Finally we have a DVD featuring the four Grace videos, a new clip for ‘Forget Her’, and a doc on the making of the album – complete with footage of Buckley and band working on it at Bearsville’s Studio A.

"I’m an easily distracted person," Jeff admits as he wanders Bearsville’s back roads in Ernie Fritz’s footage. "So this is great."

It was great. And it produced some of the most thrilling music of our time.*

Buckley’s mum, Mary Guibert, on Grace ten years on

UNCUT: How long has this Legacy edition been in the works?

MG: The hardest part was locating all the material. Because besides the famous Bearsville sessions, there were additional sessions held in New York. There were many, many takes of some songs, and there were some songs where there was only one take. Most of it I listened to as early as 1998, so it’s really been six years in the making, in terms of knowing it was there and choosing not to release it. The idea of including ‘Forget Her’ and using ‘Alligator Wine’ and some of the other things that Jeff wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for an album.

Why was ‘Forget Her’ replaced on Grace?

Well, that song came to him at a time when he was breaking up from a very important relationship [with Rebecca Moore]. He ended up not wanting to sing it every night of his life. I think he thought it would be a song that he would grow to hate.

Because it was too painful?

Yeah... and because it was no longer true. In fact he and Rebecca reunited later. It took a while to kind of figure out that maybe the two of them had some more growing up to do. Plus the fact that Jeff was about to embark on a life that would tear apart any relationship. He felt that they were too young to embark on a life commitment at that time, and he didn’t want to hold her back. But then we had a meeting with [Sony chief] Don Ienner in January and I said, I think this is really the time to release the track. I mean, it was all over the internet anyway.

With the remastering of Grace, do you hear the album differently?

Oh, absolutely. When we took the two-inch master and played it in the studio with George Marino, we heard a very different album. They used a lot more compression back in the early ‘90s, and it homogenised the sound. There are strings on the album that you couldn’t really hear on the original mastered version.

Is it fair to say that Jeff had a good relationship with Andy Wallace? It seemed like Andy was an almost paternal figure for Jeff.

Quite, quite. He was the perfect person for that moment, because Jeff was all over the place. It was significant that Andy came back in to the picture after the Sweetheart sessions with Tom Verlaine didn’t quite work out. I can remember Jeff’s manager saying, ‘Are you sure you want Andy back in? Don’t you want the album to be free of the artificial patina of production?’ And Jeff said, ‘Don’t worry, I got a pair of Size 12 Doc Martens and I’ll stamp on his wrists if I don’t like what he’s doing!’

#jeff buckley #jeffbuckley #barney hoskyns #2004 #Jeff Buckley: Grace (Legacy Edition) (Columbia)

4 notes · View notes

ofstormsandwolves · 2 years

Text

i’m finally watched zep season 2 so get ready for a ‘zoey’s extraordinary birthday’ fic with 100% more joan and infinitely more zoey x joan. simon and max who??

#ofstorms and chatter #zoey x joan #writing update

2 notes · View notes

aspiestvmusings · 2 years

Text

ZEP thoughts

So... I find it entertaining to read several takes on ZEP. And though the “love triangle” as it was in s1 is sort over done & over, the two teams kinda still exist. Or rather... fans, who prefer Zoey with either of these characters exists. And another interesting thing I’ve notices is how most of Team Max wants Simon to get therapy & be happy & have storylines that focus on his character..so we’d get to know more about him (most Max fans do not dislike Simon’s character), many Team Simon fans dislike Max’s character. And I find the reasons WHY hilarious.

First: I am not a Skylar fan. I mean... just like with every cast member of this show (except “Joan”, “Mitch” & “Maggie”) I had never conciously heard his name or seen his work before. And though I admit he has one of the best voices (vocally) on the show, I cannot be called his fan. I like the character he plays on this show.

Second: I’ve expained in my past posts why I was Team Max. There was only one reason really why I could never support Team Simon. And that was the fact that the writers had Simon be in a relationship when his “emotional affair” with Zoey started. And the fact that it only got more serious after he had broken up, that didnt change...to me...how/when it started.

Third: I am a, so for me the “hotness level” of either character means nothing.

Third: It’d funny to me that he number one thing that fans, who dislike Max’s character bring up about why he’s a not likable character & should not be Zoey’s choice is that he chose to profess his love for her via the flash mob. Somehow the majority thinks that such a public display of affection is not Zoey’s style. But... isnt she her fathers daughter? Wasn’t her dads motto “bigger moments, bigger memories”? Didn’t she only complain about Max actually telling her via the song that he loves her, and never ever mentioned that she was upset about the way he chose to do it? Didnt she call it unexpected & amazing? Cause despite being a “closed off personality” she has also a “wild & messy side”, and we’ve seen how she’s uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations with strangers, but she is comfortable with things around people, whe knows. I think that a lot of the things we learned about Zoey in S1 tell us that our first impression about her is not correct...and that our assumption that this kind of big flashmob love confession is not her style, is not the whole truth. Cause yeah..it is 100% Max’s style, but maybe he knows her better than we do, so he knows she’d appreciate the “bigger moments/memories” theme?

Fourth: The second funny argument that fans, who dislike Max bring up is that he is not letting Zoey deal with her grief & pushes her into a relationship with alll his words & actions? While that may seem so... and be so... that he is the person, who pushes for Max/Zoey, then most of season 1 was all about Zoey avoiding dealing with the fact her dad is dying, denying it’s happening, displacing her grief emotions into everything else (taking on more work responsibilities, focusing on decising between two men in her life...)? Wasn’t she herself spending most of S1 pushing Simon into liking her? Wasn’t she rushing into a relationship with him instead of focusing on her dad & grieving? And letting Simon grieve, too? So I find it funny that fans claim she had not time for romance, when she herself chose to focus on it...instead of what she should have been focusing on all last season.

Fifth: It’s also a bit funny how it’s the same with S2. This time Zoey pulled the same move she pulled on Simon in 1x10 on Max. And they mutually decided to give it a try. She made the first move. And theY both thought she was ready (even if deep inside they probably did know that she wasn’t...)...despite just losing her dad, and the grief. But this time Max might have made a few moves (the shield ring, talking to his best friend about his new business plan), but he did not push her into a relationship. This was again Zoey’s attempt to avoid dealing with her grief & finding distractions...doing everything she could to run away from her grief. She was making the same mistake Simon did (he proposed to Jessica after his dad died, Zoey decided to start a relationship with Max after her dad died). And as they admitted in 2x03...they both probably knew deep down that she wasn’t ready, even if they both “thought” she was...

#ZOEYS PLAYLIST #ZOEYS EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST #ZEP #Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist #Zoey Clarke #Clarkeman #Max Richman #Zoey x Max #Zoey/Max #Max x Zoey #Max/Zoey #Zax #Zomax #TEXT POST #REBLOG #team magma #ZEP S2 #SEASON 2 #ZEP SEASON 2

6 notes · View notes