Queen: Studio Collection

Product Information

Queen - Originally released in July 1973. Produced at Trident Studios for Neptune Production. B2 was recorded at De Lane Lea Studios. All titles published by Feldman/Trident Music. ...and nobody played synthesizer. Lyrics on inner sleeve, published by Queen Music Ltd. / EMI Music Publishing Ltd. - Purple vinyl.

Decide your budget:No matter if you're after an old favourite, a remastered reissue, a limited edition picture disc or a massive 16-disc vinyl box set, setting your budget in advance will help you to not overspend. If you can squirrel away a bit of money before the sales, that's going to help too. I've started putting some cash aside for Cyber Monday - not a lot, but even a couple of pounds or dollars could help secure you a great deal. The inclusion of Innuendo and Made in Heaven as a 2LP was a great decision, and we finally have both of them complete on vinyl. Includes ’The Miracle Sessions’, containing over an hour of unreleased studio recordings including six previously unheard songs – plus intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of the band at work (and play) in the studioThe sixth album, ‘News of The World’, features a robot image gatefold sleeve, with a reproduction of the original inner sleeve (minus the di-cut hole which has been replaced with an image of the robot’s face). The album is pressed on opaque green vinyl, similar to the 1978 French release. One further ingredient in the mix was David Richards, who had worked with Queen since his billing as assistant engineer on Live Killers. After further credits on A Kind of Magic and Live Magic, Richards stepped up to co-produce The Miracle, praised by May for his “whizz kid” technical prowess. The Cut: Of course, with the vinyl process, everything depends on the final stage – the physical cut – one continuous modulated spiral groove on each side, carrying all the sound information which will eventually reach our ears.

The set contains Queen’s 15 studio albums, spread across 18 180-gram coloured discs. The colours are in keeping with the theme of each album, some of which bear similarities to the colours of some of the early european pressings. The reproduction artwork, for the most part, remains faithful to the original UK album releases with 1 or 2 minor revisions as noted below. The records themselves are encased in high quality poly-lined inner sleeves.Interviews with Roger, Brian and John on the set of the ‘Breakthru’ film shoot in June 1989, by Gavin Taylor. With the development of polyvinylchloride, microgroove cutting technology and different speeds (16,33&1/3, 45) made possible a choice of formats for vinyl replay. Featuring a plethora of fascinating insights into a hugely pivotal moment in Queen’s storied history, this is The Miracle fans have been waiting for.

QUEEN Greatest Hits III’, rarely available on vinyl, features their latter-day songs, the band members’ solo hits and the band’s collaborations with other artists including Elton John, Montserrat Caballé, George Michael and Wyclef Jean. Upon initial release, Innuendo and Made in Heaven were edited to fit a single LP. Here, however, each album is presented in full across 2 discs totalling 4 sides. Innuendo is pressed on pale blue and purple disks, with Made in Heaven being pressed on dark blue and semi-clear vinyl and including reproductions of the 3 original posters depicting Freddie Mercury with each of the remaining band members. Tantalising enough that this hour-plus disc offers the first official airing of such near-mythical songs as ‘Dog With A Bone’, ‘I Guess We’re Falling Out’, ‘You Know You Belong To Me’, and the poignant ‘Face It Alone’, released as a single in October. Add to that, the trove of sunken treasure spanning from original takes and demos to rough cuts that signpost the album The Miracle would become. With the band arriving at the studio with scarce mapped-out material these sessions found Queen at their most inspired and impulsive, and that atmosphere is mirrored in not just the music but the familial exchanges that punctuate it. As Freddie said: “I think it’s the closest we’ve ever been in terms of actually writing together.” They used the 2011 remasters. They explained they wanted to do it all analogue but they claimed that the tapes were pretty worn out, which is a pretty fair excuse. HOWEVER, they still could have used DSD files like the Rolling Stones Mono Box or a lot of MOFI titles. The 2011 remasters are good, but are heavily compressed. A DSD transfer would have been amazing and would have even better sounding.The hugely prolific sessions for The Miracle began in December 1987 and stretched out to March 1989. It was to be one of the most consequential periods in Queen’s history. Fifteen months previously, on August 9, 1986, Queen’s mighty Europe Magic Tour had ended on a high, before an estimated audience of more than 160,000 at Knebworth Park in Britain. As the band left the stage that night – toasting the flagship show of their biggest tour to date – they could hardly have foreseen that Knebworth marked a line in the sand. This would be Queen’s final live show with Freddie and the first in a chain of pivotal moments that would lead towards a lengthy separation for the band.

The cut was performed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road using the half-speed process using a Neumann VMS80 lathe boasting cutter-head amplifiers fitted with custom designed RIAA filters. There’s a more detailed chat with Showell, elsewhere in Part 2. A Kind Of Magic - Originally released in June 1986. Recorded mainly at The Townhouse Studios, London, Musicland Studios, Munich and Mountain Studios, Montreux. X1 recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Gatefold sleeve with lyric/picture inner sleeve, published by Queen Music Ltd. / EMI Music Publishing Ltd. - Orange vinyl. Joan Armatrading appears courtesy of A&M Records. Some songs on this album appear in different form in the film "Highlander".Just as revealing – and sure to be prized by the Queen hardcore – are the spoken exchanges between the four members at the Townhouse, Olympic and Mountain Studios, giving listeners a unique snapshot of their friendship and working dynamic. All the LPs come with printed inner sleeves as well as polylined protective inner sleeves. The LPs themselves are also in individual cellophane covers. The “single” self explanatory 7″ 45 rpm (12″ singles came later, actually invented in Jamaica to allow extended dub mixes to be presented uninterrupted)