Full Greg Brooks Interview Podcast & Transcript - 19/05/2021

Thank you !

I feel "strained" when I read or hear from that guy. 

I can't say much about Greg. Only that I offered him an image of a poster of a 1974 concert for the book he is preparing that I am 99% sure that he does not have and he did not show much interest.

Indeed, he's called me an imbecile via email. Perhaps I should forward it onto QPL...?

I really don't know why Greg Brooks and the band feel the need to be so secretive about what is and isn't in the 'vault' (if there is indeed a physical vault). At the end of the day, there is now so much unreleased material slipped out onto the Internet, a few unfinished Miracle tracks that we've all heard by now, and some other things that you'd think they'd have just gotten around to release official, better quality versions.

Put it in context, this is only a rock band. They had a huge career and were important in the history of rock. Had they stopped after "A Day At The Races" they'd still have been important, and their whole career has been influential on many rock bands and other acts that came after them. I think we know now that they're never going to release a chart busting album again, there isn't going to be a release that either affects what they did between 1970 and 1995, or affects their income significantly enough to improve their quality of life or that of their children's children's children.

I can understand wanting to protect your legacy as artists (and by being overprotective and rehashing the hits LPs etc again, they're actually spoiling it), but that legacy is really already made and I go back to the point about so much stuff appearing on bootlegs....

This stuff about the archive and the vault, it's getting quite boring. I'd have thought that by now they'd have released more of the important 1970s concerts and maybe even given us things like Hangman, all the versions of Keep Yourself Alive, I'd have at leat expected Hyde Park and Knebworth to have been released by now.

I'm starting to wonder if perhaps the vault is just not very interesting. Maybe someone blundered and they've lost a load of stuff, and they don't want to admit it. Tapes could have been incorrectly stored, things could have been pilfered, all that kind of thing, Brian could have pressed delete, Roger could have taped over the only existing copy of an important concert trying to catch some Formula 1 that he missed on tour in 1994 (joke) but you get the idea.

Maybe they should just admit that there's not going to be anything else, and that the record company just want easy selling products.

Sorry if there's a specific thread for the I Want It All book but I didn't find it so I'll post it here...

This is my regular free delivery online bookstore and the book is already up for preorder, coming out on 28 Oct: www.bookdepository.com/Queen-I-Want-It-All-Greg-Brooks/9781913172510

Oh good! That's the exact information I was looking for lol. And I've got a 10% coupon so it's even less. Guess I'm placing my order 👍

(Got it for £40.30!)

😅 Oh well, I was gonna buy it sooner or later so I thought might as well now while I have a coupon. Costs about the same as All The Songs on that store but I skipped that one since I already had your book 😁 Also, since there doesn't seem to be any other significant release for the 50th anyway...

Likely the Miracle box set that never came out. It’s the attention to detail like that that makes me quiver in anticipation for this likely highly factual book…

EDIT: I should say that in Greg’s defense he likely wrote that blurb for himself (as authors are asked to do by their publisher) before knowing that the box set wouldn’t be released. Or maybe the book will contain images of a box set that will never see the light of day.

I honestly wonder why something like this hasn’t been also made interactive. Like a website or an e-book. Seems like it could be something that would benefit from a more immersive experience.

Ah well, asking for something like that would add another 20 years to the publishing date…

I will buy it off E-bay when it drops to a fiver.

Thank god this post didn't age well.

I'm not sure about that logic. Wasn't the FM box illustrated with single sleeves from Brian's collection, i.e he hoarded Freddie stuff too.

That doesn't prove he'd have work in progress versions of Freddie songs, of course, but I wouldn't rule it out - besides, once an acetate is being pressed, they've recorded it as a group, so anybody might want to take a copy home to review.