From Queenpedia.com
With 1990 being one of the busiest years for Roger and The Cross, 1991 proved to be anticlimactic, if not notable for various reasons. By this point, Queen had completed the Innuendo album, and Roger did his part to promote it, though a lot of the responsibility fell on Brian's shoulders, and he spent much of the year making the rounds. In their frontman's absence, The Cross did as they had done on Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know and jumped into the recording studios to work on their own material, reportedly working on upwards of 20 song ideas. Sessions began in February 1991 at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, renowned for its eclectic world music recordings; however, with Roger becoming a father in March (to a son named Rufus Tiger), the sessions switched back and forth between Real World and the more centralized location of Roundhouse Studios, nearer to Roger's home in Surrey. Roger wasn't quite as involved with the sessions this time, writing only two complete songs (The Also Rans and the Innuendo outtake New Dark Ages) and cowriting Bad Attitude, which had started life the previous year as 'Tear It Up'; instrumentally, he left everything to the others, providing vocals. (The album remains the only one of Roger's related solo projects to not feature any instrumental input from him.) The others more than picked up the slack, with Spike Edney dominating in every aspect, writing or cowriting seven of the ten tracks; Clayton Moss's Ain't Put Nothin' Down was the only other track on the album to not feature any involvement from Spike. Just prior to the sessions, the search began for a new record company to represent them, considering Parlophone had been less than supportive with Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know, and had outright refused to finance a tour that was certain to lose money. Because of the band's popularity in Germany, Electrola Records expressed an interest, and the band were promptly signed; however, Blue Rock wouldn't feature a full-scale promotional tour, but the band would appear as the opening act to Magnum. The album was released in September 1991, four days after Freddie's 45th birthday, with the most obvious single, New Dark Ages, appearing a fortnight earlier. Predictably, both album and single failed to ignite the German charts, but it performed well enough to spark rumors of a possible UK release, planned for November 1991. A second single, Life Changes, appeared in October, but it was withdrawn the following month upon Freddie's death; this also dashed any hopes for a UK release. After the release of the album, Roger’s attention returned to Queen, and it seemed that, with the death of Freddie, The Cross became a temporarily defunct band. It's likely that Roger had every intention of recording a fourth album, but, considering the lack of enthusiasm showed by any record company, he decided to sever all ties with his former band mates and focus instead on his solo career. At the time, it seemed like an impulsive decision, but one which would allow him to concentrate on his own material again for the first time in nearly a decade. Tracklists
Credits
Charts
Information supplied by Fedepeti, 24 August 2004 Singles
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