Over their career Queen achieved worldwide conquest with
their songs being sung uniformly by crowds of millions all over the world. But
this ‘Queen mania’ didn’t just sprout and come into fruition overnight. It
wasn’t until the band’s first tour of Japan in 1975 when they first encountered
what it felt like to be rock stars and from then on, their popularity just went
from strength to strength and spread all over the world.
The second volume in
the Torpedo Twins’ three-part documentary about one of the greatest bands the
world has ever known, Magic Years Volume
2 is a closer exploration into the worldwide popularity of Queen. Opening
with a charming little chat with Ringo Starr and Barbra Bach, this doco is a
fantastic collage of Queen moments made up of footage from live concerts, TV
appearances, as well as interviews with the band and its colleagues plus heaps
of fans and other musicians and celebrities. I just wish to quickly remind
people that I don’t think you can actually get The Magic Years series on DVD, we had it on tape and it was
transferred to disc for my birthday so I apologise if I’m teasing you in a way
with reviewing this classic Queen doco that remains relatively unattainable.
Sorry.
Over their career Queen achieved worldwide conquest with their songs
being sung uniformly by crowds of millions all over the world. But this ‘Queen
mania’ didn’t just sprout and come into fruition overnight. It wasn’t until the
band’s first tour of Japan in 1975 when they first encountered what it felt
like to be rock stars and from then on, their popularity just went from
strength to strength and spread all over the world.
The band’s immaculate
popularity is so perfectly illustrated through this fusion of footage from
concerts all over the world and interviews with diehard fans. The concert
footage includes snippets from their first tour of Japan in 1975, where the
band first encountered ‘Queen mania’, through to a free concert in London in
1976 where they first achieved popularity at home as well as beautiful moments
from North America in 1977 where We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions
became the band’s defining anthems and France in 1979, Brazil in 1981, and
Sydney Australia in 1985, which just made me tear up because the thought of me
wasn’t even conceived yet. It’s probably my one true letdown in life that I
will never get to see Queen live. This footage often focuses on Freddie’s
famous audience interaction and it’s beautiful to see people in Argentina able
to sing along to the songs in perfect unison. The fusion of concert footage
with interviews by use of the split screen is a great little trick that just
hammers home to the popularity of the band. We then have these classic moments
in rock where we see footage of the parties after the concerts: dwarves serving
drinks, topless barmaids, and mud wrestling. It’s pretty rock ‘n roll.
Featuring interview contributions from Ringo Starr, Barbra Bach, Richard
Branson, Gary Numan, Dave Clark, Roger Daltrey, Rod Stewart, Elton John, John
Entwhistle, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, David Bowie, Mel Smith, and Phil
Collins, Queen: Magic Years Volume 2
is a fun and interesting little doco that just reaffirms my love for the band
and so beautifully illustrates just how loved they were all over the world.
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