It's already been reported that Queen are moving their back catalogue rights from longtime home EMI to Universal Music Group - but a confirmation of those plans revealed some more info about what the move entails.
A Reuters report today confirmed that the move (which only applies outside America - Disney's Hollywood Records still controls the rights to the Queen catalogue in the U.S.) has taken place, and also mentioned that Universal, through the Island label, will remaster and reissue the Queen discography for the band's 40th anniversary.
The first five albums - Queen (1973), Queen II (1974), Sheer Heart Attack (1974), A Night at the Opera (1975) and A Day at the Races (1976) - will comprise the first wave of reissues in March. According to the report, "additional content" will be included on each set. (The catalogue was reissued in the States by Hollywood in 1991 with B-sides and new remixes as bonus tracks. A 30th anniversary CD/DVD edition of A Night at the Opera was released in 2005.)
How does the news of Queen reissues meet you? What would you like to see on these new reissues? Sound off below.
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Joe, Mike,
I am Sergio, from Brazil.
This is just to say that you website is everything I was looking for. I love expanded and remastered versions and I also am a DVD-AUDIO and SACD addict.
Thanks for your good job!
I hope they're good, and I hope if they are they're made available to Hollywood to issue in the USA.
Ok, Queen is my favorite band of all time and the Hollywood remasters came up pretty short in my opinion. Modern remixes? Who needs them when there are many vault tracks left to hear? Besides the obvious (all B-sides, 12" mixes, single edits, etc..) I would love to hear some demos from each record. It is popular knowledge that there are demo versions of each song performed by the songwriter before the lead vocals were(in most cases) passsed on to Freddie. Plus the "fast" a Kind of Magic in the Highlander credits, New York New York from the same film, and many unreleased live shows from each era. Queen have done a great job in the DVD department, now it's time to take care of each album properly. Surround mixes(the albums done already are great) would be a great bonus!
If only Queen will get off Hollywood Records, that was a bad move on their part.
It's great that the reissues are coming, the CD's were terrible ( The crown Jewels set was a little better)
There are releasing albums in 3 batches this year - each with a second disc consisting of roughly 5-6 tracks. In almost all cases, they will not include the tracks release on the '91 remasters.
There will be some remixes, out-takes and live tracks.
My question is why is a second disc needed when most Queen albums barely go over 40 minutes. With the typical Queen album, it could of been packaged on 1 CD.
My answer? Money grab! [So far the prices on Amazon have been outrageous.]
ebraiter? The usual reason for the two-disc format is so that purists can listen to the original album - as intended - without having to stop it before "bonus tracks" occur. That way, you can add the disc to a changer and not have to worry about hearing anything but the original album. If you WANT the bonus tracks, they're on a different disc. Collectors - who are the type of people who will buy these special editions - want it this way.
I would like to hear some Live Vintage Queen going back earlier than Live Killers