Adam “deserves the chance to record a Queen song” - RT

I'd be surprised if that was the case. There probably have been instances, but I can't recall Brian saying anything in particular about Roger's songs, and vice versa. I would certainly find it hard to believe there's anything such as petty rivalry going on, or Brian not liking the Adam song just because Roger wrote it. The fact that they can only come up with one song between them in the ten or so years AL has been onboard, perhaps speaks volumes about any potential future output.

Even more than in 1986? Could they really sell out Wembley two nights in a row with this lineup?

IF that sells out it will amount to 200 000 vs 144 000 attendance at Wembley. But then we have 250 000 at Rio.

Of course, the measure of "popularity" is not just live show attendance, I know. It is stil arguable that they ARE more popular now, including the sales, the movie etc.

I didn't say that, it comes from an quote answering my post. However I agree that they are popular over the last 4 years, they also had increasing popularity before the movie.

The movie explode their popularity. So there is no need to destroy it. Better solo albums, archive or Made in Heaven album.

If they can write half a new album, that's enough.

QAL has played a couple of Adam tracks live (Ghost Town and Two Fux - the first one sounded excellent with Queen!). Then there's Love Kills, which wasn't a Queen song before and they've played with Adam. Just record them in the studio.

Considering both Brian and Roger have been working on their solo careers lately, take a solo song from each and give it the Queen treatment. Roger didn't mind giving Say It's Not True to QPR and sharing the vocals, even though he'd been singing it on his own for years.

They could also record a cover or two - they've played a few covers during their recent tours and they seemed to work well. Again, it's just a matter of playing in the studio a song they've already rehearsed before.

That's a full album with inputs from all three guys, some familiar stuff to lure more conservative ears and some new stuff for those who want it, not demanding more than some 5 new tracks. I believe writing 5 new songs shouldn't be too challenging to three experienced and talented musicians, and out of those five, they should be able to make at least one or two count.

Even on Cosmos Rocks you can dig a couple of very good tracks that could've even done well on the charts if there'd been a better marketing effort. And one can't deny the QAL marketing is much better than QPR. In my country (Brazil), QPR played in a venue for a little more than 10k people in Rio in 2008, and many people I know weren't even aware that Queen was active, let alone that they were coming to Brazil. 7 years later, QAL played on Rock in Rio for more than 10x more people on the venue and hell knows how many more watching the live broadcast on TV, and there was quite some buzz on the media.

EDIT: I know for many of us marketing, charts etc aren't important, and we'd really be delighted to get some ANATO-quality new songs. But as others have pointed out before, if a hypothetical new album flops, it could hurt their live collab, both by decreasing interest in attending the gig, as many people would fear they'd hear bad or unknown songs, and by hurting their egos and making them feel it just doesn't work anymore. So yeah, sales and public reception matter.

i really don't think Brian and Roger would be interested in having to credit five non-Queen writers for a single Queen song: Adam Lambert, Sterling Fox, Max Martin, Tobias Erik Karlsson & Ali Payami.
Throw in a Queen (rework/rewrite) and we're suddenly (with 7-writers) into Katy Perry (Never Really Over) territory.
(Hard to work out how a mediocre pop song clearly lifted from Dagny needed 9 writers (10 including Dagny).

I'm not into modern pop music either. It seems if you can cut and paste on a computer and program a bit of a MIDI background then you have a pop song. Take this Elton John / Dua Lipa thing as a prime example of what modern pop music has become:

youtu.be/tswzRsyxL3c

world of difference between one/two occasional additional writers and (as in the case of the song referred to above) 9 writers. to paraphrase:
Better to remain silent and be thought to be a dried up songwriter than to record a new song and to remove all doubt

and there - in a nutshell - we have it. as I've said before (countless times) - there's nothing to be made from recording new material, tours make money, licensing of old music makes money. for a new track to become established and worthwhile from licensing, and residuals could take 15-20 years - they'll be long-gone by then and so, it's easy to see why they don't bother: too much effort required for too little return.
new tracks are (comparatively) financially worthless.

That's where I disagree with you. Most bands, if not all, do release stuff for money. Only money can explain re-releasing GH a hundred times. But that doesn't mean everything they do is for profit.

If I suddenly woke up sitting on a pile of royalties from some old piece of code I wrote for some old company I worked for, I'd feel more comfortable doing things just for fun. I think artists like Queen, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones etc are on this level. They've made much more than they can spend in whatever time they have left to live. They don't need to keep travelling around the world anymore. They do it because it's what they do, it's what they like.

Does anyone believe re-releasing Back To The Light was another attempt to get rich? How much money do the Kerry Ellis collabs make, and how does it compare to a couple of QAL concerts? Or maybe the Outsider album + tour? I'm sure Rog's album + tickets sales are petty cash next in comparison with QAL to the point where he definitely didn't have to bother. All things taken into account, such as their (Bri/Rog) personal time, it'd be cheaper to just stay home in cozy socks cooking up ideas for a Bohemian Rhapsody Episode 2 script or signing copies of the next GH re-release.

I don't know what Roger does when he's not touring with Queen, but Brian does a boatload of stuff and I doubt any of them has a significant return if compared to what he makes nowadays by doing nothing and just being the guy who wrote We Will Rock You. Maybe the guitar factory pays relatively well, but does he need it? However, selling stereo photography books? Collaborating with little known artists and playing tiny venues? Lobbying for animal welfare laws? Not to mention all the time he spends on Instagram seeing fan art and stereo pics from other people. It does seem pretty clear he's become that retired guy who won in life and nowadays just does whatever comes to mind to keep his mind active and makes him feel good about himself. I'm sure by now the QAL tours are more about having fun and perhaps feeding his ego by showing he can still gather thousands of people to watch him play.

If they release proper studio album under the Queen + AL banner, my guess is that it'd be part to fulfill them as artists, part an ego thing - proving to the world, especially the nasty press who never tolerated them back in the day that Queen still works after all this time - and, if there's any financial motivation, I bet it'd be to generate more buzz about the following tour, as people'd be curious to hear new songs on stage (assuming, of course, the album is successful).

but i said new tracks. Greatest Hits compilations will always sell - esp as each new generation "cottons on" to a band. think about it in context of what QPL are actually doing, first there was WWRY, next the American Idol thing, more recently -the Bo Rhap movie. Each of these "events" brings about opportunities for whatever QPL's marketing Div think will sell. They constantly re-choose GH - because, having already seemed to have (wrongly or not) labelled themselves a singles band, this is the ONLY major seller they have at their disposal. I honestly believe they're just not "in it" for love - as much as we'd want to believe it. Tours make the most money - so what do they do? they tour.
if it were all genuinely for the love of the artform (which long-ago-and-frozen-to-death) it once was, then there'd be some new material.

Unless, of course Brian has encountered a 25-year writer's block, which would explain it - or just (plain and simple) doesn't want to write anything new? Either way, touring and GH make money - which coincidentally (or not) are the two things this band seem to do with any kind of frequency.

Somewhere in LA a fat geezer is smoking a cigarette with his feet up on an 8 foot wide oak desk. He picks up the phone and dials.....
Fat Bloke - "Hello"
"Hello.......(Christ, get off!)"
FB - "Is that you Brian?"
Brian May - "Yes - whose this?"
FB - "The bloke that's charged with getting your music out to the masses, Brian."
BM - "Oh? What music?"
FB - "Well, interestingly, I heard the other day that you and Roger are working on some new material together."
BM - "Roger who?"
FB - "Taylor of course....."
BM - "The guy from Duran Duran?"
FB - "No, the drummer in Queen"
BM - "Isn't his name Rufus or something? You sure you don't mean Daltrey. He's a great singer you know."
FB - "I know he is. In fact, that was part of the reason for the call actually."
BM - "What, Roger Daltrey? (I said, get off - clean up that fucking basement, it's raining again......"
FB - "No you moron. Roger Taylor who wrote Radio GaGa and had green hair in Saarbrucken"
BM - "Oh, him....... New material? Nope - he just comes out on our karaoke tours and is a solo artist of some repute. In fact, did you see that LP cover of his? It's going to win the Turner prize you know."
FB - "No it's not, its fucking dreadful. We told him, but he insisted that Freddie would have loooved it."
BM - "Freddie....? Starr? Didn't he eat hamsters?"
FB - "No. Good lord. Mercury."
BM - "Wow - what a planet that is. It's both the smallest planet in our solar system and the closest to the sun. It can be seen from Earth near the horizon at dawn or dusk and can easily be mistaken for a distant star. Not much larger than Earth’s moon, Mercury completes its orbit in about 88 Earth days"
FB - "Fascinating, I'm sure...... Can we get back to talking about new music. I really think that you guys have a chance now in the current climate; Queen songs are STILL massive - you have a shop on Carnaby Street knocking out crap t-shirts and teddy bears. The singer you're using now has a good fanbase and, combined, along with the woke crowd going big time for anything wierd, you'll shift millions"
BM - "(Kerry - last time. Take that old harlequin leotard off and sort the basement out!")
FB - "Who have you got there with you Brian?"
BM - "Err.......no one"
FB - "What leotard?"
BM - "No idea what you're on about."
FB - "Ok.......so, new material?"
BM - "There isn't any - I'm channeling Jimmy Page mate - teasing lots but delivering absolutely bugger all. It keeps the prols guessing and makes me seem very mysterious (....now you've ripped the sodding thing; I can see your breakfast; stand up for Christ's sake......) and marketing is all about dangling the carrot"
FB - "It's really not Brian.......I'll let you get back to it."
BM - "Great talking to you........"

If that's Brian's opinion, then he's perfectly entitled to it. Adam is technically a very good singer, and no one can really argue that he isn't. Whether he's the "best in the world" is entirely subjective.

Personally I don't think either Brian or Roger have it in them to write a decent song these days, looking at recent output.