It was Convention time again...

On Friday, May 11th 2001 I arrived in Prestatyn.
It was great to meet my friends Anne (USA), Yael (Isreael) and Nico (Germany) again, which have been with me at the last Convention.
Additionally I made two new friends: Andrea and Philipp from Germany. Both recognized me because of my "Risiko" TV Quiz  with "Queen" and came over to me to say "hello". Jay from Holland also arrived a little later on, so our group was complete by now.
After having had some great pasta (cooked by Anne) we went to the Karaoke, which was replaced by the Queen disco later on.
The night ended at 1 am - rather early but that was just the arrival day.

On Saturday we were woken up by beautiful sunshine and after a good brekfast  most of us decided to have a look at the Queen market place. Many rarities were being offered again. It was nice to meet some well known faces there, as Ralf or Juan (hi there!) and having had a little chat with them.
Afterwards we went into the ballroom, where Brian´s acousitic gig for VH1 from 1998 and the Queen induction into the Hall of Fame  from 2001 were shown.
I already knew both recordings but it was great having seen them again.
Then Andrea and I decided to go to the beach, which was really wonderful!
You would never imagine that you were indeed at a Queen Convention in the UK with such a beautiful weather at the beach!

Jim Hutton was also at the Convention and some people did have the chance to ask him some questions.

Jacky Smith and Jim Hutton

The Queen auction took place afterwards and here are some of the articles, which were being auctioned:

Freddie Mercury statue replica, signed by Brian & Roger..........................................................................................330 pounds
Framed letter by John (from fanclub magazine, spring 1999)......................................................................................240 pounds
Brian´s shirt, signed...................................................................................................................................................350 pounds
Queen tourposter (live in Trenton, USA,  1975), from Brian´s personal collection, signed by Roger, Brian and John.....300 pounds
Signed F.M. collection press-pack, signed by Roger, Brian and John..........................................................................250 pounds
Smile logo, drawn by Tim Staffell and signed..............................................................................................................160 pounds
Two of Roger´s used drumnsticks, signed...................................................................................................................250 pounds
Brian´s wedding menu, signed....................................................................................................................................220 pounds

The first real highlight for me took place, when we could finally see "Furia" (with English subtitles).
Unfortunately just around 50 people out of the 2000 people, who attended the Convention, decided to watch it.
Brian´s music really fitted perfectly into the movie. The story was not easy to understand but it had a great spirit of freedom as main topic.
If you should ever get the chance to see that movie - "don´t think about it - do it!"
Then it was already time for the Queen cover live band "QE II".

Finally it was time for the big themed Queen disco party - and it was so much fun again.

Starfleet costume

Radio Ga Ga
__
Having fun.....

Having even more fun...

The party went on until around 2 am and then we partied on in our chalet until 4 am with a few more drinks,
where actually our motto of the Convention was born : "Bierfrevel"  -try to treat your beer in the way it wants to be treated (hi Yael).
We had lots of fun anyway.

www.brianmayworld.com proudly presents this photo
"Wear your T-shirt with stlye"
 

The next day started with beautiful sunshine again, that´s why we decided to go to the beach again. Andrea and I had a real long and beautiful walk at the seaside.

at the beach

After we returned from the beach we went into the ballroom, where the Queen archivist Greg Brooks played some wonderful unreleased new versions of Queen songs like "Nevermore", "White Queen" (both from the BBC sessions), "The invisible man "(Roger on vocals), and one awsome brandnew Queen song from 1988 called "Face it" (a very sad song with great vocals by Freddie and an  awsome guitar solo by Brian). I hope I remebered all the song titles correctly.

Some other information from Greg Brooks:

- ALL 15 BCC tracks will be in the Queen box
- - 1st Queen box expected to be released at end of 2002. The format is yet unknown
- - "Man Made Paradise":  there is a Queen version, will be in the box, the demo's for Freddie solo album are not very different though, that's why the track did not appear in the Freddie box.
- - DVD's or CD-ROM *will* be used in the box, format unknown yet, some interactive thing it will be.
- - Greg is almost sure that after the Queen boxes, a LIVE box will be released
- - Michael Jackson tracks: Greg is positive that the tracks will eventually appear on a CD in some form, there is 1 track in the Queen archives: VICTORY, but they aren't allowed yet to release it! the track has all the queen boys singing backing vocals!
- - Greg's idea about the box format: 3 boxes, each having 3-6 CD's. THIS IS
GREG'S OPINION, NO DISCUSION HAS BEEN MADE YET with 2 DVD's
included, the amount could be up to 8 CD's per box.
- - a selection of tracks will be released in the box as instrumentals, like
with the Freddie box
- - The Queen archive has 4000 tapes!!! 3/4 is safety copies or
work-copies though
- - MOTHER LOVE, numerous versions with Roger and Brian singing exist
- - alternate versions of "These are the Days of Our Lives" exist, but all
slightly diff though
- - Fast WWRY, no other version than the BBC version exists
- - After the Queen boxes, Greg will almost surely be asked to log the archived tapes of Roger and Brian, if any boxes of these guys will be made is still unsure...
 

The next highlight, which was featured right afterwards, was Mr Jamie "Cool" Moses with his Guitar Masterclass in the ballroom.
Jamie is really such a nice and funny guy and he also told some interesting stories.

Jamie Moses

Then the talent competition took place, followed by Roger´s question and answer session.

The evening started with the "Who wants to be a millioanire" Queen quiz "Gimme the prize". It was really good fun to watch and to guess the answers along.

The live band this evening was MayBe, supported by the previous winner´s of  talent competions of the last Conventions.
Then the Queen disco started again, and we all had so much fun again.
Unfortunately one of the seven deadly sins in this world ever took place as "Resurrection" wasn´t played at all during the Queen discos on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Convention. What a shame...and we better hope it will be played again next year! :-)

We went to bed again at around 4am and after a short night and a good brekfast in the morning we already packed our suitcases  and said "good-bye" to each other ...hopefully until next year!
 

It was fun meeting  many of you and having such a good time with you.
Thanks to (in alphabetical order):  Andrea, Anne, Jay, Nico, Philipp, Ralf, Tessa, Yael and more!
 

the report and all photos are (c) by Oliver Tamminga

thanks to Freddie van ter Beek for the transcription of what Greg Brooks mentioned exactly
(I didn´t have the time to write everything down)