Brian talks about releasing old concerts

I would take this not with a grain but with a whole mine of salt. For what it's worth, I did contact Greg about these tracks and he told me there's nothing in the archives with the song titles Roger's Untidy Bottom listed, but as we've learned that's only the gospel according to Greg Brooks, not the official final word. That being said, someone with the name of Roger's Untidy Bottom and the fact that this fellow just appeared out of the ether one day spouting off all this info with no credentials whatsoever should raise flags.

On top of that, if the band thought that crap like Don't Try Suicide and Coming Soon were good enough for The Game – never mind including two singles that were, by that point, at least six months old, and not to mention 10 tracks on the album at a paltry 35 minutes – but the whole other "album" that Roger's Untidy Bottom insists exists wasn't good, how good can those alleged unreleased songs really be then?

It may be the case that there's another 40 minutes of material that didn't end up on "The Game". We know that from the Magic sessions there's "Love Makin' Love", and there was another one that appeared relatively recently but I can't remember the name of it. There's also the tracks that were almost finished that didn't make "The Miracle" like "I guess we're falling out", and if you were to piece together all of these things that haven't been released, including "Self-Made Man" which has a rather nice middle 8 from Freddie, you could end up with ten or twelve tracks. 

The point is though that none of these songs were very good, the vocals from Freddie are demo quality at best, and while "Falling Out" might be able to be salvaged and made into something, as might "Love Making Love", I just can't see them turning out as quality tracks and to me they'd be nothing more than a curiosity. They might be interesting from a historical perspective as it is now, but even at the time they were made, these songs would never be hits. 

If Queen released an Anthology type thing as the Beatles did 25 years ago, or the Freddie solo boxed set from 20 years ago, I could see the logic in putting out raw forms of the songs, and maybe even having some of them finished for the sake of a companion EP, or something, but I'm happy to accept that the days of Queen releasing chart busting material with unheard Freddie vocals on it, are over. That might sound bleak to some here, but Freddie has now been gone for 30 years and I think what they're willing to release has been released already. The Queen Forever album probably finished off what was salvageable, and the boxed set of News of The World gave us a couple of nice tracks, which were lovely to hear, but that's kind of the end of it. It might have been interesting if Dave Clark had asked Brian and Roger to make a Queen version of Time for the release in 2019. 

I haven't bought a new Queen product in a very long time anyway. I'd thought about buying NOTW boxed set and some of the live albums released in the early 2010s but it just never seemed to grab my attention. I'm maybe just growing out of the whole thing. 

I'd hoped for this year to be a big Queen year, that they'd put together some releases, and it may still happen but it feels like they're not going to bother. I'll hold my breath until December and see what comes up. I'm happy enough with the back catalogue on iTunes for now. 

I would absolutely take a double-disc edition of each album with a bonus disc of alternate takes and demos (where applicable) of each song in addition to unreleased tracks (save single mixes and extended mixes and B-sides for the first disc, or leave them for a singles compilation entirely). If they’re gonna get crazy, throw in a disc or two of a full concert, and a DVD/5.1 mix with bonus videos. Kinda like what Jethro Tull has been doing.

Phew, what started off as a simple ask turned into a huge pie-in-the-sky idea...

I think there's barely enough runtime on The Game as it is, let alone enough to make a double album. If that were the case there'd be at least 1 more track on the album. Maybe - if Roger were referring to anything at all - he thought Flash would be part of The Game.

Anyone want to invent a running order for Flash The Game (Everybody Flash The Game) :-) ?

Maybe Roger was referring to the songs he wrote on his album Fun In Space, Perhaps he was hoping to record them with Queen.

The Game is 10 tracks, 3 of which had already been singles by the time it came out. It's only 35 minutes long (each SIDE of Greatest Hits in almost 30 mins), and the first album since SHA to eschew a gatefold sleeve.

...all of which makes it feel very...rushed. others may use the word spontaneous!

We know that Flash album was going on at a similar time, and that Brian did a lot of pulling together of fragments to assemble that, which would have diluted his ability to contribute either songs or playing to any further tracks.

So, while I acknowledge that RT said they had enough material for a double, I just don't believe it. AOBTD would have a non album B side, there'd probably be another vocal track on the Flash album, or Made In Heaven wouldn't have needed to pad out YDFM into a "song"...
It was just press release nonsense then, as it pretty much was when they said the same for The Miracle later on.

Not only that, but the double album idea had been floated around in a press release for Jazz – it said something like "the band had enough ideas for a double album, but they pared it back". It was on Queenzone somewhere; I'll have to search for it.

I certainly think it would be better for QPL to release stuff while Brian and Roger are around to oversee it, but if they don't want to, then there's not really much anyone can do about it.

of course. but as it was Brian that I'm referring to, it makes the concept of "looking back" a little more pressing. sure, Roger would be be a great contributor to any reworkings, but (I believe that) it's Brian who has the complete mental blueprints for what Queen "should" sound like. when Brian's gone, anything remotely interesting that remains unfinished will remain unfinished for eternity.
of course, QPL/Record Companies will cash in at this point, but we'd be buying nothing more than curiosity-appeasing detritus.

I don't really think he's the control freak that you seem to be implying. He likes the intricacies of the recordings, which is probably why he did the ANATO doc. Roger just probably couldn't be arsed, and would rather just let Brian get on with it. As far as I think anyone is aware, John retired because he found it difficult to carry on in the band without Freddie. That doesn't mean he resents Brian in any way. Of course, all we can do is speculate. Unless anyone has been in a studio with him, we don't really have any idea, but I can't recall lots of people saying Brian is particularly difficult to work with.

Brian May was on BBC 5's show again for under 10 minutes. It doesn't look like we're close to hearing that very early recording Brian mentioned a while back.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tp3k

28m26s: the hosts welcome Brian to the show, and Brian talks about Panic Attack 2021

34m05s: Brian talks about Back to the Light: "we've been repolishing it, remastering it, digging out all the little bits that perhaps got lost over the years"; expecting a summer release

35m16s: any update on the very old concert Brian mentioned last time? Brian: "We're at nowhere with it. I think I got into trouble by talking about it."