Sunday, December 9, 2018

Queen Keep Yourself Alive 1973 Promo Video Facts




Queen Keep Yourself Alive 1973


Above Video Recorded August 9 1973 Brewer Street London


Info from Queenpedia


Queen's first true foray into the promotional video may have been with Bohemian Rhapsody, a piece originally made for broadcast on the world-famous Top Of The Pops television programme that has since become a landmark music video, but there were earlier attempts at promotional footage featuring the band 'performing' to a playback tape of their single at the time.



The first of these came in August 1973, a month after the UK release of the Keep Yourself Alive single. The song had previously been featured on BBC Television's Old Grey Whistle Test, but the makers of the show did not know the identity of the group behind the white label disc that was played. Instead they chose to accompany the piece with a piece of animation from within the BBC Archives.



When Queen's management moved the band into Shepperton Studios in London, to work on new material they chose to make a promotional film for the American and European markets. And so, on the 9th August the band mimed their way through both 'Keep Yourself Alive' and potential second single Liar, for the first time on camera. This performance, however, was a disaster for all concerned, and director Mike Mansfield was discarded to film a new darker lit version. 


It is this footage, directed by Queen and Barry Sheffield, which features on the Greatest Video Hits 1 DVD. The original version of Liar was, however, released on the Box Of Flix double pack VHS in 1991.



Above video recorded October 1st 1973 St Johns Wood Studios 


No comments:

Post a Comment