April 25th : Update – Tickets for the two Queen + Adam Lambert concerts at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo on July 11th & 12th have both SOLD OUT. Brian May has hinted at the possibility of a third date being added to the bill.

Despite the sudden cancellation of the Sonisphere Concert and with Queen set to headline with singer Adam Lambert at Knebworth, Queen have announced they are to go ahead with not just one but two Queen UK concert appearances this summer.

Queen and Lambert will perform at 2 concerts at London’s HMV Hammersmith Apollo over two nights, July 11/12 2012. Queen also promised to endeavour to give priority booking to all fans who had held tickets for their Knebworth Sonisphere concert.

Queens Hammersmith Tickets will go on sale this week. Tickets for Queens HMV Hammersmith Appollo concerts will be sold first to Queen fan club members, Queen online subscribers and Sonisphere Knebworth ticket holders and then on general sale.

A bit of Queen Hammersmith History

HMV Hammersmith Appollo was originally known as the Hammersmith Odeon. The Hammersmith Odeon venue was the scene of 4 sold out Queen concerts in late November/early December 1975 (at the height of the Bohemian Rhapsody release). Hammersmith Odeon was also the venue for a special Christmas Eve show and again in December 1979 when they played the opening night of a series of UNICEF concerts for the people of Kampuchea.

Amongst Queen fans, the Hammersmith Odeon shows continue to be regarded as some of Queen’s most exceptional concerts.

Queen HMV Hammersmith Appollo Concert Tickets

Tickets for Queen + Adam Lambert concerts at HMV Hammersmith Apollo on Wednesday July 11 and Thursday July 12 will first be available on a 24-hour pre-sale to Queen Online subscribers, Queen Fan Club members and Sonisphere ticket holders from 9am on Tuesday April 17.

General Hammersmith sales start Wednesday 18th April at 9am at www.hmvapollo.com and through Ticketmaster. Caller lines: HMV Tickets 08432 221 0100 / Ticketmaster 08448 444 748.

Tickets are priced at £65.00, £70.00 and £75.00 plus £6 booking fee on all prices.

For tickets by post an additional charge will apply.

Queen were due to play Knebworth at the Sonisphere festival but the Sonisphere festival has been cancelled.

The sonisphere organisers said “It is with very heavy hearts and much regret that we announce the cancellation of Sonisphere Knebworth 2012. Putting the festival together in what is proving to be a very challenging year … unfortunately circumstances have dictated that we would be unable to run the festival to a standard that both the artists and that Sonisphere’s audience would rightly expect.”

Ticket holders will automatically receive a full refund direct from their ticket agents.

What Queen will do next is unknown – Queen fans were anticipating a return to the location of the very last Queen concert with Freddie – would they do a full Queen concert with Adam Lambert at Knebworth?

Lets wait and see….

I recently found out that the Queen Character Test on my website had stopped working.  So after spending a few hours reprogramming it this evening, I am delighted to say that the Queen Character test is now back up and running.

Try the Queen Character test yourself at http://queen.shanemcdonald.org/queen-character.html

Feel free to comment and say which Queen member you are and if you feel it reflects who you are !!

Don’t forget to Follow me on Twitter @shanesqueensite !

QUEEN with Adam Lambert are set to rock Sonisphere 2012 at Knebworth, the location of the last Queen concert with Freddie Mercury at the helm.

25 years after the legendary Freddie Mercury rocked at Knebworth in August 1986, Queen with Adam Lambert are returning to Knebworth, this time headlining the second day at Sonisphere 2012. Adam Lambert is an American Idol participant who performed “We are the Champions” with Brian May and Roger Taylor in May 2009 and rumors have been mentioned and tweeted ever since, that a collaboration would take place between Lambert and Queen – today is the day that this is true.

The 2012 Queen performance will take place at Knebworth Park, Stevenage, on Saturday July 7.

In 1986, the Wembley shows were supposed to be the final concerts of the ‘Kind of Magic’ tour, but due to demand an extra date at Knebworth was set up. Not everyone was sure that it would sell out, management asked the band ‘are you sure it will sell’ …. Queen went on to draw a record crowd of over 120,000, their biggest ever UK concert audience.

Now Queen fans get to see Queen perform at Knebworth!!

Tickets on sale to the general public from 9am on Thursday 23rd February from www.sonispherefestivals.com ; Phone 0844 871 8803 . Concert tickets are priced at £145 for a weekend concert ticket (3 and 4-day camping tickets also available), with a limited number of day concert tickets available for £75.

Sonisphere Knebworth takes place July 6th – 8th at Knebworth House.
Visit www.sonispherefestivals.com for full details.

On Shanes Queen Site I have being running a poll to find your favourite Queen song. this poll has been running since 2005 and this years results are in.

There are few surprises in that Bohemian Rhapsody is the Number 1 song again this year with Somebody to Love and Don’t Stop me now in 2nd and 3rd place. The poll was conduced from Jan 1st 2011 to Dec 31st 2011 with 200 Queen songs in the list.

The full result of the Top 25 Queen Songs Poll are as follows;

I will be making a slight change to the Top Queen Song voting system this year which will run from Feb – Nov 2012 and a final vote in December 2012.

My Jazzy version of “Don’t Stop me Now” as part of the Talenthouse Remix contest is now online and I would appreciate your support.

Don’t Stop me now is on the JAZZ album so therefore I decided to stay with that theme, Jazz, and record a remix as if Freddie had arrived at a Jazz club, and there was no piano, and he had to play Don’t stop me Now on Hammond Organ. Please vote for my entry!

Please click here to vote now

In the lap of the gods (revisited)

On November 24th, 1991 Freddie Mercury left his mortal remains to enter straight into legend, leaving a huge sense of emptiness inside his fans’ hearts all over the World. But, as for the Phoenix that often represented him throughout his flamboyant artistic carreer, from his death’s tragedy a new creative blossom has flowered and enlightened a whole new generation of musicians. Four between the most notorious italian underground bands – all of which unified by the same creative spirit – have decided to team up and join forces on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary from Mercury’s passing to pay homage to an unbelievable artist in the way he would have liked most: through the Music.

Innershine, The Lotus, P-TSD and ZAP, four between the most notorious italian underground bands – all of which unified by the same creative spirit – have decided to team up and join forces on the occasion of the 20th  Anniversary from Mercury’s passing to pay homage to an unbelievable artist in the way he would have liked most: through the Music.

The song is available only for free download at  www.zap-on-line.com

Sacha Baron Cohen (best known for playing Ali-G) is set to play the role of Freddie Mercury in a movie about Queen. This is not rumour, as the rock band’s guitarist Brian May confirmed this to the BBC’s HardTalk programme.

Brian May said “We have Sacha Baron Cohen, which will probably be a shock to a lot of people, but he’s been talking with us for a long time”.

The film will have the screenplay penned by Frost/Nixon’s Peter Morgan and ‘Queen the film’, and will mainly focus on the period leading up to Live Aid in 1985. This Queen movie has started development and the working title is “Mercury”. Brian May and Roger Taylor will oversee music which will be featured in the movie.

Funnily enough Peter Morgans previous work include the Oscar-nominated film called “The Queen”.

If you want to see the interview with Brian May, the HARDtalk interview will be broadcast on BBC World News on Thursday 23 September and the BBC News Channel on Friday 24 September.

Gregg M has compiled a live Queen medley/mash-up to celebrate the life and loss of Freddie Mercury.

This Queen Mash-up is titled ’23 songs in 9 minutes’, it was seen as a fun way to remember or discover songs from the Queen repertoire interpreted by an acoustic duet. The full Queen Mashup video is available below.

The History of the “23 Queen songs in 9 minutes” Mashup

The Video – 23 Queen Songs in 9 Minutes

The new Queen book, “Queen Unseen” by Queen Roadie, Peter Hince, has hit the shops… but over the past few weeks I have had 2 copies of “Queen Unseen” to be won on Shane’s Queen Site.

The winners were selected over the past 24 hours – in the interest of fairness I asked a 3rd party to select a short list of 3 and the final winners were selected from this list.

I am delighted to announce that the Winners of the copies of the book are…..

Donna Standridge and Ryan Cregan

Congratulations and thank you to all who took part. I will be in touch by email with the winners in the coming week.

The Queen Unseen book covers all the areas that were relevant in Queen’s working life, during Peter Hince’s time as Queen’s longest serving roadie and head of their crew. There’s lots of new material and surprises for Queen fans and it is a book to interest anybody who likes stories of rock and roll life in the 1970s & 1980s. Many Thanks to the Author Peter Hince and John Blake Publishing for organising the copies for this competition.

A review of this book will be on Shanes Queen Site in the coming weeks.

Follow @shanesqueensite on Twitter