Forums > Sharing The Music - Announce > BBC Session 6 MASTER COPY

After a break of some three years, Queen returned to Maida to record their final session for the BBC. This time four tracks from the recently released News Of The World LP were reworked. The album received it's UK release on this day on October 28th 1977, the BBC airing provided additional publicity.

The session was produced by Jeff Griffin and engineered by Mike Robinson, and was broadcast two weeks later, on November 14th. The recordings provide an enthralling listening experience: John Deacon's "Spread Your Wings" is bursting with energy with Freddie obviously revelling in singing this expansive song. This recording is very similar to the Live Killers version of two years later.

An unusual aspect of Session 6 is the inclusion of a narrative passage, which precedes "We Will Rock You". Immediately after an explosion, and just prior to the opening chords, a female voice cuts in briefly with an extract of a reading from Siddartha, by Herman Hesse. How did this come about? At that time, only master tapes survived from BBC sessions, while the actual tapes used to compose them were recorded over later.

When Queen assembled in the control room for a playback, they discovered remnants of a Radio 4 programme on their tape. The band incorporated a segment of this unusual material into their own work. The broadcast version began in News Of The World fashion, then breaks for the Siddartha interlude.

"It's Late" contains a unique improvised section absent from the album version. There are many similarities with "Get Down, Make Love" (from the same album), which is largely due to a custom-made tape delay machine, which the band took with them into the studio. Since no commercially available device existed to supply the desired length of delay, the band had to come up with their own.

"My Melancholy Blues", from this session, is just stunning. Brian accompanies Freddie on guitar, which does not occur on the LP cut, and the result is superior to the album mix, and that's saying something