Originally published by L.S. Media. September 5th 2011.
If the mid seventies can be defined as the golden period of producing records of quality by Queen, then the period after their foray into the world of disco and their first adventure into creating music for a major film can surely defined as the re-birth of a legend. From the time that The Works came out till the untimely passing of charismatic vocalist Freddie Mercury, the band never put a foot wrong in the studio and brought out album after stunning album with songs that captured the imagination, courted controversy and broke the fans hearts when it was over.
The final five studio albums by Queen to get the 40th Anniversary Re-Mastered treatment, and in time for what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday, are released this month and each one holds a distinctive feel over the 11 year period they were released.
With the hindsight of time it is easy to see The Works as the turning point for the bands fortunes after the critically savaged Hot Space and the generally poor showing of Flash. Time was taken to recuperate and in late 1983 the band was ready to dominate the charts and affections of their fans once more and in The Works, they did just that. With four singles taken from the album and one of the great anthems making an appearance in the form of the eponymous Radio Ga Ga, there could be no stopping Queen!
If The Works was a defining moment in the re-birth of Britain’s great acts then it was a renaissance period for drummer Roger Taylor as he would come out from the shadows once more and either collaborate with Brian May on the decimal busting Machines (or back to Humans) or stand proud with his own creation of Radio Ga-Ga which earned the band a number two hit and plaudits for their much loved video.
True to the bands words, they indeed did give the public the works and whether it’s from the storming Hammer to Fall, the surreal I Want to Break Free with its controversial video that saw them demonised in parts of America for daring to dress up as female characters from the British Soap Opera Coronation Street or the stunning simplicity and devastatingly beautiful Is This the World We Created?, there wasn’t a song on the album that could be considered weak or unworthy to appear.
Any affection the band had garnered during this period would stall briefly as the musicians made the decision to play Sun City in Bophuthatswana during the apartheid era with the press rounding on them for having dared. It would take a concert at Wembley Stadium for a famine that devastated a continent for years to come to bring the band back but by this time the renaissance was well underway.
The Works could stand alone as one of the albums of the 1980’s. Tremendous in its performance, beautiful in its delivery, it set the standard for future releases of which there were going to be too few of.
Ian D. Hall