Queen + Paul Rodgers |
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Queen + Paul Rodgers was a collaboration between Brian May & Roger Taylor of Queen and Paul Rodgers (formerly of Bad Company, Free, The Firm and The Law). Guitarist Brian May had previously performed with Paul Rodgers on several occasions, including a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
It was made clear that Paul Rodgers would not be replacing Queen's former lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, he would simply be "featured with" former Queen members. Former Queen bassist John Deacon declined to participate in the collaboration due to his retirement at the end of the 1990s. The group's three principal members Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers were supplemented on tour by Queen's former touring keyboard player Spike Edney, rhythm guitarist Jamie Moses, and bassist Danny Miranda who had previously worked with Blue Öyster Cult.
Paul Rodgers announced in May 2009 that the Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration had come to an end, saying "It was never meant to be a permanent arrangement". He did, however, leave open the possibility for future collaborations.[1]
Beginnings (2004)
The origins of the collaboration came when Brian May played at the Fender Strat Pack concert in 2004. As he had done so many times before (but beforehand nothing really happened as far as Queen were concerned), he joined Paul Rodgers for a rendition of Free's classic, "All Right Now". After this Brian spoke of a chemistry between the two of them. Following this, Brian invited Paul to play with Queen at their induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame where they played "We Will Rock You", "We Are The Champions" and "All Right Now". Again citing a new excitement with Rodgers, the three announced their world tour in 2005.
Return of the Champions Tour (2005-2006)
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The group's first public performance was at a concert in South Africa in March 2005 in support of Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS awareness campaign. The tour began properly with a concert at the Brixton Academy venue in London, with tickets sold primarily to members of the official Queen fan club. An arena tour of Europe followed in the spring of 2005, with dates at venues such as Wembley Pavilion, Cardiff International Arena and Le Zenith in France. Four outdoor stadium dates were scheduled for the first time in Portugal at Estadio do Restelo (Att: 30.000), at Rhein-Energie Stadion in Cologne, Germany (Att:27.500), Gelredome in Arnhem, the Netherlands (Att:25.000) and at Hyde Park in the UK (Att:65.000) in the summer of 2005. The Estadio do Restelo concert took place on the 2 July 2005. The Queen + Paul Rodgers concert was planned to be one of the stages for Live 8 but only a message was sent before "'39". Two songs were dedicated to Live 8 – "Say It's Not True", a song by Roger Taylor for Nelson Mandela's fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and was introduced by Roger in Lisbon: "This is a song from Nelson Mandela and for HIV/AIDS Africa, especially today on Live 8 day. This is a song to Lisbon." After this song Brian May dedicated "'39" to Bob Geldof and introduced the song "Olá Lisboa! I would like to make a salute to all our comrades and friends who are doing such a wonderful job and trying that children through out the world are no longer hungry, let's make a big noise for Bob Geldof and Live 8". The Hyde Park concert took place on the 15 July 2005. The band and management gave away thousands of free tickets to emergency services people for helping in the aftermath of the July 7th London bombings which caused the concert to be postponed by a week. British comedian Peter Kay, who had also appeared during the encore at their Manchester gig in May of that year, warmed the crowd up, with the band Razorlight serving as the support act. The concert was attended by some 65,000 people and Queen + Paul Rodgers performed for over 2 hours.  In addition to well known favourites and hits, there were a number of occasional 'surprise' additions to the setlist, including: "I Was Born to Love You" (Japan only), "Imagine" (John Lennon cover, Hyde Park only), "Teo Torriatte" (Japan only), "Too Much Love Will Kill You" (feat. Katie Melua, South Africa only), '"Long Away" (selected shows only), "Tavaszi Szel" (Budapest only) and "Let There Be Drums" (Sandy Nelson cover performed at most gigs). "Sunshine of Your Love" was played in Newcastle as testament to the Cream reunion gig in London going on at the same time (3 May). Brian May was present at that show the night before, which possibly inspired him to do it (2 May). The band also added "Dragon Attack" to a number of shows on the 2006 North American tour. Queen + Paul Rodgers followed the European tour with a series of performances in the fall of 2005, in such diverse locations as Aruba, Japan and the United States of America. Slash, former lead guitarist of the band Guns N' Roses and currently of Velvet Revolver, joined the band onstage for "Can't Get Enough" during their show at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, the second of their two-show trial run in North America (22 October 2005). In the winter/spring of 2006, Queen + Paul Rodgers played a 23-date tour of North America. The tour started at the American Airlines Arena in Miami (first Florida date since 1978, first USA shows since 1982) and ended with a sold-out performance in Vancouver, Canada (where they also, among other surprises that occurred during the show, covered the Jimi Hendrix song "Red House" – the only performance of this song on the tour). The Cosmos Rocks (2006-2008)
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