From Queenpedia.com
Sir Didymus (Talk | contribs) |
Sir Didymus (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | In 1995, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon returned to Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, to work on finishing the tracks they had begun with Freddie during the early part of 1991. The resulting album, 'Made In Heaven', was the final chapter in the band's legacy with Freddie, and featured polished versions of songs they had never managed to finish before - some came from as far back as the 'Hot Space' sessions in 1982, and two tracks were carefully reworked and almost unrecognisable versions of songs Freddie originally recorded for his 'Mr Bad Guy' solo album. Another, 'Heaven For Everyone', started life as a song by Roger's solo project The Cross, on which Freddie had sung a guest vocal - and Queen's reworked version became the first single from the 'Made In Heaven' project. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Unfortunately, Freddie's absence meant that filming videos for any single release from the album was somewhat difficult, until someone within the Queen camp came up with a near perfect solution. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Brian: "I can't actually remember where the idea came from originally, but it emerged that the BFI were very short of funds to enable some of their young directors to get started. We thought this would solve many problems with one stroke. We'll give them some money, they can figure out the most deserving cause to give it to and they can make whatever videos they like for the music." | ||
| + | |||
| + | This was an unusual situation for Queen to be in - for the first time they were completely hands off, allowing the young directors and the BFI to decide how to represent their music. The result was eight very different short films which used songs from the 'Made In Heaven' album as their starting point and soundtrack, and could be shown the world over to promote the album. | ||
| + | |||
In order by their positioning on the 'Made In Heaven' album, the first of these accompanied the anthemic gospel-tinged 'Let Me Live'. Entitled 'Return Trip', the film depicted a young couple on the verge of breaking up, who have become unable to communicate with one another. Directed by Bernard Rudden, two versions have been released - one on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, and another alternate edit on the 'Greatest Hits III' vhs, as it was also used to promote the 'Let Me Live' single, a top ten hit in 1996. | In order by their positioning on the 'Made In Heaven' album, the first of these accompanied the anthemic gospel-tinged 'Let Me Live'. Entitled 'Return Trip', the film depicted a young couple on the verge of breaking up, who have become unable to communicate with one another. Directed by Bernard Rudden, two versions have been released - one on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, and another alternate edit on the 'Greatest Hits III' vhs, as it was also used to promote the 'Let Me Live' single, a top ten hit in 1996. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To accompany 'Mother Love', a moving ballad which was the last recording worked on by Freddie before his death, director Jim Gillespie made an intriguing science fiction piece which works surprisingly well with the Queen song it uses as its soundtrack, and with which it shares its name. In this piece, the soul survivor of space cruiser Gagarin engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with an alien adversary in deepest space, whilst reminiscing about the life he left behind on earth. As with the other films made for this project, it is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 'My Life Has Been Saved' was the inspiration for Nichola Bruce's 'O', which celebrates the circular form. Using time as its principle theme, the piece is among the more unusual made for the project, and is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Richard Heslop directed 'I Was Born To Love You' - a celebration of love in all its forms. This too is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, and uses an edited version of the song compared to the standard cd album cut. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 'Heaven For Everyone' was represented by Simon Pummell's 'Evolution', which looks at the hopes and fears of the world at large, and features the performance artist Stelarc. Using the single edit of the song, it is, once again, available on the 'Made In Heaven' dvd and vhs. However, an alternative clip was used in most places to promote the 'Heaven For Everyone' single, which reached number three in the UK singles charts. Directed by David Mallet, this video mixed archive Queen footage with clips from what is arguably the world's first fantasy film, 'A Trip To The Moon', made in 1902. It is a slightly re-edited version of this promo which was chosen to appear on the 'Greatest Flix III' vhs in 1999. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Simon Pummell also directed 'Heart-Ache', the short film which used 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' as its soundtrack, and is Brian May's favourite of all the films produced by this project. In this piece, a man choses to demonstrate his affection for his lover by getting a tattoo, but is fated to lose all. This piece was featured on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, but for much of the tv promotion when the song was released as a single in early 1996, Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher were called upon to create a collage of Queen clips from the archives, and it is this promo which features on 'Greatest Flix III'. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 'You Don't Fool Me' was directed by Mark Szaszy, and as well as featuring on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, was also included on 'Greatest Flix III' (with slightly different editing) and was employed to promote the song when it became the fifth and final single from the 'Made In Heaven' album in January of 1997. This piece takes the song's title and uses it as the basis for a contemporary tale of androgyny in Western society. To accompany the Dancing Divaz Club Mix of the song (a bit hit in clubs across Europe and one reason why the song became a single in the first place), an extended version of this film was released as a promo only, but so far remains unavailable on any official release. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lastly, the second single from the 'Made In Heaven' album, the breathtaking ballad 'A Winter's Tale', was entrusted to Chris Rodley. The result was 'Outside-In' - a short film which draws an eerie parrallell with the last months of Freddie Mercury - in which a man's last fevered dreams become a wash of colours and textures, bringing a sense of intoxication and delirium before he finally surrenders to his fate. This piece, a highlight of the project, is included on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, but was not used to promote the single released to the lucrative Christmas market in December 1995. Instead, Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher created a collage of images of Montreux, Switzerland which was used instead in two forms - one with added CGI effects recreating Freddie's handwritten lyrics to the song onscreen, and one without. Oddly, the song was left off 'Greatest Hits III' in 1999 despite it's top five placing in the UK singles charts, so the Torpedo Twins video was not included on 'Greatest Flix III', and remains unavailable on any official release. | ||
Revision as of 16:41, 14 May 2007
In 1995, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon returned to Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, to work on finishing the tracks they had begun with Freddie during the early part of 1991. The resulting album, 'Made In Heaven', was the final chapter in the band's legacy with Freddie, and featured polished versions of songs they had never managed to finish before - some came from as far back as the 'Hot Space' sessions in 1982, and two tracks were carefully reworked and almost unrecognisable versions of songs Freddie originally recorded for his 'Mr Bad Guy' solo album. Another, 'Heaven For Everyone', started life as a song by Roger's solo project The Cross, on which Freddie had sung a guest vocal - and Queen's reworked version became the first single from the 'Made In Heaven' project.
Unfortunately, Freddie's absence meant that filming videos for any single release from the album was somewhat difficult, until someone within the Queen camp came up with a near perfect solution.
Brian: "I can't actually remember where the idea came from originally, but it emerged that the BFI were very short of funds to enable some of their young directors to get started. We thought this would solve many problems with one stroke. We'll give them some money, they can figure out the most deserving cause to give it to and they can make whatever videos they like for the music."
This was an unusual situation for Queen to be in - for the first time they were completely hands off, allowing the young directors and the BFI to decide how to represent their music. The result was eight very different short films which used songs from the 'Made In Heaven' album as their starting point and soundtrack, and could be shown the world over to promote the album.
In order by their positioning on the 'Made In Heaven' album, the first of these accompanied the anthemic gospel-tinged 'Let Me Live'. Entitled 'Return Trip', the film depicted a young couple on the verge of breaking up, who have become unable to communicate with one another. Directed by Bernard Rudden, two versions have been released - one on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, and another alternate edit on the 'Greatest Hits III' vhs, as it was also used to promote the 'Let Me Live' single, a top ten hit in 1996.
To accompany 'Mother Love', a moving ballad which was the last recording worked on by Freddie before his death, director Jim Gillespie made an intriguing science fiction piece which works surprisingly well with the Queen song it uses as its soundtrack, and with which it shares its name. In this piece, the soul survivor of space cruiser Gagarin engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with an alien adversary in deepest space, whilst reminiscing about the life he left behind on earth. As with the other films made for this project, it is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs.
'My Life Has Been Saved' was the inspiration for Nichola Bruce's 'O', which celebrates the circular form. Using time as its principle theme, the piece is among the more unusual made for the project, and is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs.
Richard Heslop directed 'I Was Born To Love You' - a celebration of love in all its forms. This too is available on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, and uses an edited version of the song compared to the standard cd album cut.
'Heaven For Everyone' was represented by Simon Pummell's 'Evolution', which looks at the hopes and fears of the world at large, and features the performance artist Stelarc. Using the single edit of the song, it is, once again, available on the 'Made In Heaven' dvd and vhs. However, an alternative clip was used in most places to promote the 'Heaven For Everyone' single, which reached number three in the UK singles charts. Directed by David Mallet, this video mixed archive Queen footage with clips from what is arguably the world's first fantasy film, 'A Trip To The Moon', made in 1902. It is a slightly re-edited version of this promo which was chosen to appear on the 'Greatest Flix III' vhs in 1999.
Simon Pummell also directed 'Heart-Ache', the short film which used 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' as its soundtrack, and is Brian May's favourite of all the films produced by this project. In this piece, a man choses to demonstrate his affection for his lover by getting a tattoo, but is fated to lose all. This piece was featured on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, but for much of the tv promotion when the song was released as a single in early 1996, Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher were called upon to create a collage of Queen clips from the archives, and it is this promo which features on 'Greatest Flix III'.
'You Don't Fool Me' was directed by Mark Szaszy, and as well as featuring on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, was also included on 'Greatest Flix III' (with slightly different editing) and was employed to promote the song when it became the fifth and final single from the 'Made In Heaven' album in January of 1997. This piece takes the song's title and uses it as the basis for a contemporary tale of androgyny in Western society. To accompany the Dancing Divaz Club Mix of the song (a bit hit in clubs across Europe and one reason why the song became a single in the first place), an extended version of this film was released as a promo only, but so far remains unavailable on any official release.
Lastly, the second single from the 'Made In Heaven' album, the breathtaking ballad 'A Winter's Tale', was entrusted to Chris Rodley. The result was 'Outside-In' - a short film which draws an eerie parrallell with the last months of Freddie Mercury - in which a man's last fevered dreams become a wash of colours and textures, bringing a sense of intoxication and delirium before he finally surrenders to his fate. This piece, a highlight of the project, is included on the 'Made In Heaven: The Films' dvd and vhs, but was not used to promote the single released to the lucrative Christmas market in December 1995. Instead, Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher created a collage of images of Montreux, Switzerland which was used instead in two forms - one with added CGI effects recreating Freddie's handwritten lyrics to the song onscreen, and one without. Oddly, the song was left off 'Greatest Hits III' in 1999 despite it's top five placing in the UK singles charts, so the Torpedo Twins video was not included on 'Greatest Flix III', and remains unavailable on any official release.