Brian May - Another World Revisited - Album Launch
An otherworldly evening beneath the stars, on Earth Day, to usher in the latest 'Gold' series reissue from Brian May.
Following last year's 'Back to the light', his 1998 solo album 'Another World' has now benefited from similar sonic embellishment and expanded musical content. The two disc deluxe version includes alternate takes, B-sides, live tracks and cover versions, whose stars were aligned to the original concept for the album to be dubbed 'Heroes' and populated entirely by songs from artists that had influenced May, as a fledgling musician, including Holly, Twitty, The Shads, Elvis, Hendrix, Rocky Horror and more. As it transpired that idea was ejected into deep space, in favour of the album that was finally released on terra firma as 'Another World'.
The event was conducted in the apt and impressive confines of the Planetarium at the Greenwich Royal Observatory, with Brian and host Simon Lupton front and centre for what proved to be a profound and engaging evening. The insightful Q&A was interspersed by the screening of new videos for 'On my way up', 'Another world' and 'Otro lugar' plus a short film about Brian and Simon's excellent adventure to the Canaries, which included a pilgrimage to the wizened Garoé tree that adorns the cover of the album.
Brian’s trusted technician Pete Malandrone was on-hand to ensure that the event went without a hitch and was also on Instagram duty, live-streaming the event via Brian’s iPhone. You can watch the raw footage here, with a finessed version to follow soon.
Other highlights:
Preview of a new cosmic collaboration with Graham Gouldman on ‘Floating in Heaven’ a new song about the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.
A touching tour of the Northern Hemisphere night sky, narrated using a script that Brian had written in his childhood, with the distant dream that it would one-day be used to soundtrack a planetarium show.
A celestial playback of 'Made in heaven' accompanied by stellar imagery rendered by Europe's first digital laser planetarium projector. This combined elements of the original 'Queen Heaven' show that debuted at the planetarium in Munich in 2001, and new content incorporated by the team at Greenwich and sound curated by original producer Justin Shirley-Smith.
A widescreen slide-show of a selection of the 300 pieces selected for the latest publication "Another World: The Bri-Art Collection", sound-tracked by Brian’s cover of ‘Maybe baby’, one of the best-loved songs by Buddy Holly, one of his major musical influences, when he was growing-up.
Q&A nuggets:
He was never 100% comfortable combining the roles of frontman/lead singer and guitarist on his solo tours and is most happy to be performing with a band "The guitar is once again my voice"
The Brian May Gold series of reissues is most definitely an ongoing project with many more releases in the pipeline.
The most likely next album to be revisited should be 'The Starfleet Project', which featured Eddie Van Halen and yielded much more music and alternative takes than released on the original album.
There's also a wealth of past collaborations: soundtracks (incl. Spiderman and Pinocchio!) and other guest appearances under consideration. He didn't provide any details, but there are some great ones in the archives that deserve a wider audience, such as: 'I can read books' (Judie Tzuke), 'A shift in the wind' (Chris Thompson), 'Cassandra' (Steve Hackett).
He's also contemplating the possibility of another solo rock album and perhaps also something more classically-oriented. However, the forthcoming Queen + Adam Lambert 'Rhapsody' tour is going to keep him busy for some time, with the first show in Dublin on 27th May 2022.