Questions answered on this page:
When "We Will Rock You" was first released back in 1984, the North American
version was only 60 minutes long and the UK version was 90 minutes long. In
1992 the full 90 minute version was released on video tape (but not laserdisc)
in North America by a different company. The original US LaserDisc is only 60
minutes long, but there is a later US release and a Japanese LaserDisc release
of the full 90 minutes. Now there is a third version -- one on DVD. The DVD
releases and the 90 minute US laserdisc have "Jailhouse Rock" as an extra
track.
The Queen Phenomenon is a one hour documentary video that was shown
on Television world-wide, while the Champions of the World video is a
two hour documentary available for home purchase. Most of the footage
in the Phenomenon video is in the Champions video, but there *is* some
material that is not duplicated. Both videos contain part of Freddie's
last interview, and comments from Brian and Roger about the band's last
recording sessions prior to Freddie's death.
While there were differences reported in the Queen Phenomenon showings
in different countries, that was due to the insertion of commercials.
The original was made for the UK and was shown without commercials. In
most other countries when it was shown (and possibly later in the UK)
bits were cut to allow the insertion of whatever quantity of commercials
was necessary for the particular channel it was shown on.
A highlight of these videos for me was that my husband and I appeared
briefly in one or two of the convention shots. :-)
VH-1 used to run this Queen documentary from time to time, though it hasn't been
on for a while now. It is an edited version of the 3 hour "Magic Years" trilogy of
videos.
Queen Productions has said that the "Champions of the World" video is taking the
place of the Magic Years video. They had mentioned earlier that when they did
the last video they might change the name since the name "Magic Years" went along
with the Magic Tour.
- Where can I get the Highlander Soundtrack?
Despite the fact that the trailer to the _Highlander_ movie lists a
soundtrack, one was never released. Most of the songs from the movie were
reworked into a "proper songs" (as Brian said in one interview) and appear
with a few other songs on the album _A Kind of Magic_.
There are abundant rumors of a few 'test pressings' of the soundtrack that
got released, but word of these is always second or third hand. There is
absolutely *no* evidence that such a thing exists. Indeed, the fact that
it has never been bootlegged seems evidence to the contrary.
There is a CD of the orchestral music from the movie, but it doesn't
include Queen's music.
- Is there a complete version of "New York, New York" by Queen?
There is no known recording of a complete version of "New York, New York".
During the question and answer session at the OIQFC convention in 1995, Spike
Edney said that he was there for the recording of this song and that a complete
version had not been made. More recently, in the Winter 1995 OIQFC magazine,
Brian May seems to say that there wasn't a complete version of the song
recorded. The only bootlegs that have this song have the clip recorded directly
from the Highlander movie, complete with bits of dialog.
- What are the differences between the US and European versions of the first movie?
The European version of Highlander has several extra scenes that total about
eight minutes. The most important scene is set in the WWII era and features
Connor and Rachel (his secretary). A Nazi shoots Connor and she discovers
that he is immortal.
A detailed description of the differences written by a long-ago member of
QMS whose name was unfortunately not kept with this information is here
- Did Queen do any music for Highlander II or Highlander III?
No. In Highlander II, they did use "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "A Kind of Magic"
from the first Highlander movie, though.
Flash Gordon and Highlander are the only movies in which Queen has had a
part in the soundtrack. However, many individual Queen songs have appeared
in movies (ie, One Vision in Iron Eagle, We Are The Champions in Revenge of
The Nerds, etc. etc.). A file in archives called ART_rc.video lists many
of the movies containing Queen songs.
When purchasing video tapes, through Goldmine magazine or through friends,
it's important to make sure that they are the proper format for your country.
"VHS" is the size of the tape, NOT the format it was recorded in! There are
three video standards PAL, NTSC, and SECAM. They all use VHS tapes.
The United States, Canada and Japan use NTSC. The United Kingdom, Germany,
and some other European countries use PAL. The videos released in the UK
are not compatible with the US system and vice-versa--they will not play.
It is possible to have tapes converted, but it is not inexpensive.
Contrary to what many people seem to think, laser discs recorded in a
different standard will not work, either!
DVDs are sometimes "regionally encoded" and sometimes not. If you are in Region 1,
for example, unless you have a region-free DVD player (most aren't region free) you
won't be able to play DVDs that are labeled with a different region. There are 6
DVD regions.
If you have any comments or additions, please contact me at
unicorn@mayniac.com
.
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