QUEEN's 'Absolute Greatest' Ships More Than 250,000 In U.K. First Week

November 23, 2009

QUEEN's "Absolute Greatest", released by EMI Records, entered the album charts at 3 yesterday, having shipped in excess of 250,000 units in the first week of sales.

After Brian May and Roger Taylor's triumphant appearance on the QUEEN-themed "X Factor" (U.K. reality-TV talent competition) the weekend before release, on Friday, November 20 there were ten QUEEN tracks in the top 200 singles chart.

Not to be missed by QUEEN fans old and new, their now legendary Christmas show, performed on Christmas Eve 1975 at the Hammersmith Odeon, is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC2 at 11.35 on Friday, November 27.

The fruit of more than four years detective work to find missing video footage and even the original multi-track audio tapes which were thought to have been wiped, this new 50-minute version of the show features a fantastic new sound mix produced by QUEEN engineers Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson, and Joshua J Macrae.

Christmas Eve 1975 crowned a glorious year for QUEEN with a special concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon. On the final night of their triumphant U.K. tour, the show was simulcast live on BBC2's "The Old Grey Whistle Test" and BBC Radio 1. It has subsequently become a legendary event in QUEEN's history, featuring stunning renditions of early hits "Killer Queen", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Liar" and "Now I'm Here" alongside Brian May's epic guitar showcase "Brighton Rock", a rip-roaring version of the then new "Bohemian Rhapsody", and the crowd pleasing "Rock 'n' Roll Medley".

Freddie, Brian, Roger and John set the place alight in their incredible stage outfits and long hair. "It's been really like a party here tonight," said Brian at the time. In a twist of fate, Brian and Freddie's parents met for the first time at this show. Although they had lived a couple of streets away from one another for over a decade, somehow they had never actually encountered one another before this evening.

This legendary show, now widely regarded by fans as one of QUEEN's finest, is finally on our screens at last.

This week also sees a celebration of Freddie Mercury with the unveiling tomorrow (Tuesday, November 24) of a memorial in his honour in Feltham High Street, Middlesex. The U.K.'s first permanent memorial to Freddie, the installation by the London Borough of Hounslow is in recognition of one of the borough's most famous residents who at the age of 17 moved with his family to Gladstone Avenue in 1964. The ceremony will be attended by Freddie's mother Jer Bulsara, his sister Kash Cooke, and Brian May.

Freddie passed away on November 24, 1991.

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