David Richards piano on Under Pressure?

Back when he was alive, he used to tell the story a lot. He also said it when interviewed by a Belfast radio station back in 2006 IIRC. Queen records had several instances of uncredited guests, such as Giuseppe Solera playing saxophones on 'Action This Day', Roy Baker playing stylophone at the end of 'Seven Seas of Rhye', Reinhold Mack adding synth overdubs to 'Rock It'.

'Under Pressure', and its parent album for that matter, had no performance credits, so it wasn't specified who played what at all, leaving it all wide open.

'It was late in the studio and everyone had left except David Bowie and me. He wanted to add some piano to the track and was upstairs trying to find something. After a while he came down to the control room and said ''you have a go''. I said but who will do the recording? Bowie said ''I'll do the recording and you go upstairs and play the piano''. I panicked at the idea of leaving Bowie in the control room but went up. I played the 2 notes on the piano and David said ''that's exactly what I was looking for.'' David Richards


It's quite an embellishment if untrue, which would be contrary to Richard's reputation.

Okay, this suggests that David (Richards) played the 'bell-like' G-D chords that appear alongside the bass riff at the start of the song, not the piano in the main body of the song.
Also, do you have a link to this interview?

Thanks. I did look on the QZ archive, and saw that David (Richards) put out some distressing posts during his illness, regarding not having financial support from Queen in his last few years, despite having played on the record and initially agreeing not to receive any money from the sale of UP. This surely must confirm that he was indeed the pianist on the track, and if so, a shame not to have been credited by the band and Bowie.

This is from the booklet in the 2017 David Bowie box set "A New Career in a New Town (1977 - 1982)"

Also no BVs for Brian or Freddie?

It may not be featured in the final mix, but saxophone can be heard clearly on raw multitrack mixes. Just check my signature.

Also, I guess Brian was kind of uncomfortable with Bowie, given the stories, how he didn't get to sing in the song (discarded vocals in the multitrack too), and more importantly, it's so strange there's no guitar solo or any prominent guitar moment in the whole song.

It is buried on the original mix 2:42 & few bars later.
Interesting is that there is not guitar solo. The only time Brian did solo was on radio improvision over the original song. Very similar solo was done on rh mix.

i possibly (mis)understood that track 6 of the multitrack was David Richards?

okay, so if what you state is accurate, how much of this (the info file that was with the 24-track) is accurate?

01 Piano double-strikes. (Headphone leak of alternate vocals, including harmonized ‘Do you care?’ line before the bridge.)
02 Bass-drum mic.
03 Snare mic.
04 Room mic for drums. Guitar prominent in headphone / monitor leak.
05 Room mic for drums. Guitar prominent in headphone / monitor leak (louder).
06 Piano track played by David Richards.
07 Red Special.
08 Red Special 2.
09 Bass guitar.
10 Pseudo-trumpet fanfares (Headphone leak of alternate vocals.) Ends with heavy bass piano strike.
11 Synth double-strikes.(Headphone leak of backing tracks.) Ends with heavy bass piano strike.
12 Handclaps and finger-clicks; Roger audibly keeping time. Fred at 2:10: “Need a clap there.”
13 Twelve-string guitar.
14 Twelve-string guitar 2.
15 Bowie backing vocals: WOOO! AHHH! (Twelve-string headphone leak.) Bowie double-tracked vocals: “Cos love’s such a . . .”
16 Room audio cuts out at 2:12. From thereon, synth bee-bops. Massive burp at end. “Right.”
17 Alternate lead vocals.
18 Fred ad-lib ‘“Let me out!” + People on streets refrain x 2. (Headphone leak of alternate vocals.) Fred’s ascending falsetto at 2 minutes. Roger’s lead vocal from 2:50 onward. Under Pressure refrain. Ends with finger clicking.
19 Synth double-strikes.(Headphone leak of lead vocals.) People on Streets refrain.
20 Familiar lead vocals (sans Bowie’s final part, which appears in track 15, and is doubled with Rog’s lead on track 18 in the mixed piece).
21 Hammond organ from 1:40 onwards. (Headphone leak of lead vocals.)
22 Lead vocals—snippets; not full parts. Hammond organ from 1:40 onwards.
23 Lead vocals—snippets; not full parts (alternate). At 3:19: Fred “It’s coming now.” Bowie: “Hey?”

The multitrack I have doesn't have any additional track information file whatsoever. Just has Track 1, Track 2 and so on. With the album version mix chucked in there for reference.

All I can say is, use your ears to judge for yourself... Do bear in mind some of the bleed comes from adjacent tracks on the 24-track, not just headphones.

Track 16 - yes, it is more of a room mic capturing the initial live take. But that "bee-boop" part sounds nothing like a synth to me, more like a distorted piano part.
Track 6 - again, that's the main piano part. But was it really played by Dave Richards as the description claims?? I'm sorry, I very much doubt the accuracy of that information. Cannot find anything to verify if that really is David Richards' part (could be anyone).

Point is, I wouldn't exactly trust an information file like that on a multitrack... It isn't necessarily a credible source from a facts/historical POV, unless you have track sheets and studio notes to support it. Which we don't in this case. So best thing is, use your ears and go figure.

agreed. but additionally, one person's "ears" do not equate to a definitive answer either. the opinion of a listener is just that.
the only way anyone will know absolutely - and without question - is if someone who was there at the time confirms who played what - and where.

based on who we have of the original 7 who we know were present for some (if not all) of the sessions:

Bowie - no possibility of confirmation now, for obvious reasons
Deacon - ain't going to come out of retirement to comment, and (likely) knows nothing definite anyway.
Mack - probably not present. but may know exactly who/what was played on the individual 24 tracks
May - an unreliable memory of some straightforward events, so can't imagine he has anything reliable to add.
Mercury - no possibility of confirmation now, for obvious reasons
Richards - no possibility of confirmation now, for obvious reasons
Taylor - a much better memory that the Dr, but does he have anything first-hand to add?

I did find a quote Roger Taylor, where he suggested that Bowie played the piano (from the Queensongs.info website Quotes section):

Roger: I think the process was we were all drunk in the studio, and just for fun we were playing all sorts of old songs - I remember a couple of Cream songs - and whatever came into our heads, and I think David said, “look, hang on a minute, why don't we write our own?” I think he started on piano. We got this backing track down, and we got the riff and we got the bass thing together [...] (Absolute Radio, 17 August 2011)

Or at least that was when they tracked the song. The piano part from the live take appears to have been re-recorded afterwards - you'll hear the original piano part bleed into the drum ambience tracks (track 4-5) and on track 16. The original part repeated the intro chords at the very end (where the fingersnaps come in).

I did find a similar David Richards radio interview to the one mentioned upthread on YouTube. Around the 17:26 mark he starts talking about when he did his part, which was after everyone had left... Bowie was at the desk, directing him to play "blink, blonk" (he didn't say specifically if it's two notes, though).
That could refer to the intro chords or that distorted/distant piano part I was talking about.