Fun in space

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Fun in space
Studio album by Roger Taylor

Publication
(s)

April 6, 1981

Label (s) EMI / Parlophone / Electra

Format (s)

LP, cassette; CD (1996)

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

10

running time

40:12

occupation

production

Roger Taylor

Studio (s)

Mountain Studios (Montreux)

chronology
- Fun in space Strange Frontier
(1984)
Single releases
March 30, 1981 Future Management (B-side: Laugh or Cry )
May 15, 1981: Australia, Japan, Canada, USA Let's Get Crazy (B-Side: Laugh or Cry )
June 29, 1981: Great Britain My Country (B-Side: Fun in Space )

Fun in Space is a 1981 album by Roger Taylor . This LP is the first solo album by a member of the British band Queen .

The album

Roger Taylor, Queen's drummer, recorded Fun in Space at Mountain Studios in Montreux , then owned by the band. All the songs on the album were written by him. He sang every song and played all the instruments himself; additional keyboards were recorded by David Richards , Queen's longtime co-producer. Fun in Space was released in April 1981, four months after Queen's Flash-Gordon soundtrack or immediately after her first Latin American tour.

The stylistic spectrum of the album ranges from ballads with acoustic guitar ( Laugh or Cry , also Magic Is Loose ), harder, fast rock songs (e.g. Let's Get Crazy ) and New Wave allusions to extended ones dominated by synthesizers and drums Pieces (like the final theme song).

The front of the cover shows an alien reading a magazine with Roger Taylor on the cover. The roles are reversed on the back of the album: Here Taylor is reading an issue of the horror comics magazine Creepy , the title page of which shows the extraterrestrial being. The design of the album cover was created by Hipgnosis , a designer group that had designed numerous record sleeves, for example by Pink Floyd , especially in the 1970s . The photos are u. a. by musician and photographer Peter Christopherson . The model of the alien was made by Tim Staffell , who, like Taylor, was formerly a member of Queen's predecessor group Smile .

Taylor's closing words in his short accompanying commentary on the album - "PPS 157 synthesizers." - are a nod to Queen's "no synthesizers" credo in the 1970s and the contrasting essential role of the instrument on this album.

The two songs Laugh or Cry and Let's Get Crazy were also played live in 1988 as part of Taylor's first tour with his band The Cross . In the late 1990s, the off-tape track Interlude in Constantinople served as the concert intro on Taylor's Electric Fire tour.

In 1996 the album Fun in Space - digitally remastered - was released on CD.

The album was produced , written and arranged by Roger Taylor . The sound engineer was David Richards. As an additional sound engineer André Jauchet was at the recording of the song Airheads involved.

Track list

page Track Song title author length
1 1 No violins Taylor 4:33
2 Laugh or Cry Taylor 3:06
3 Future Management Taylor 3:03
4th Let's get crazy Taylor 3:40
5 My Country I & II Taylor 6:48
2 6th Good Times Are Now Taylor 3:28
7th Magic is Loose Taylor 3:30
8th Interlude in Constantinople Taylor 2:04
9 Airheads Taylor 3:38
10 Fun in space Taylor 6:22

Reception in the media

Future Management (single):

Sounds (Great Britain), 1981: “It's a reggaeish song which is bearable enough. A laudable attempt to step out of the shadow of the toothy one. "

NME (Great Britain), 1981: “Roger does a Rundgren and plays everything apart from Scrabble . A plodding regatta de blanc that drags rather than just lays back. "

Fun in Space (album):

Record Mirror (UK), 1981: “This is Son of Flash Gordon , it has similar comic book style characteristics. Listening to this is the most fun you'll have apart from playing Space Invaders . "

Melody Maker (Great Britain), 1981: “Revelling in bombastic arrogance, so redolent of Queen. A rich man's self-indulgence run riot over two sides of an album. "

All Music Guide (USA), by Geoff Orens: “Queen drummer Roger Taylor's first solo album is a fairly strong set of up-tempo rockers and well-written ballads featuring Taylor's rough voice and effective croon. [...] more guitar-based and less bombastic than the work of his cohorts in that band. That's not to say Taylor doesn't get over-dramatic. On 'Future Management' and 'Magic Is Loose,' Taylor's vocals are quite over the top. However, 'No Violins' and 'Let's Get Crazy' balance things out with some fairly straightforward rock numbers that show the influence of 1950s rock & roll . Surprisingly, Taylor [...] shows himself quite adept at writing slower pieces on the lovely 'Laugh or Cry.' The interesting sci-fi ballad 'Fun Is Space' is a striking and beautiful mix of classic rock and futuristic keyboard backdrops. The true highlight of the album though is the marvelous 'My Country Parts 1 & 2.' A powerful anthem of disillusionment with politics and war, the middle of the song picks up in intensity with some fine drumming from Taylor. "

My Country (Single):

Melody Maker (Great Britain), 1981: “Queen aren't my favorite band, but there is no doubting their drummer's multi-instrumental and vocal prowess. A worthy bit of barrier breaking, but hardly top 40 material. "

Chart placements

Fun in Space is Taylor's most successful solo album in the charts . In the British charts it reached number 18; in Germany it came in 42nd place. The first single, Future Management , was ranked 49th in the British charts. The second single in Great Britain was a heavily shortened (3:40 minutes) version of My Country , which did not make it into the charts.

Great Britain Netherlands Germany United States
album Fun in space 18th 24 42 121
single Future Management 49 - - nv

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Illustration of the title page: Creepy , No. 119 ( Memento of the original dated November 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (from Mad-Monsters). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mad-monsters.com
  2. Season: "I made a model for an album cover for the Hipgnosis design team. It was of a little alien head with glowing eyes. I didn't know what it was for, but it turned out - and I didn't discover this until years later - to be the front cover for Roger's 'Fun In Space' album! I had no idea. That was peculiar. ”Quoted from John S. Stuart, Andy Davis: Queen before Queen. The 1960s recordings - Part 3: Smile. In: Record Collector , January 1996, pp. 84–90, here p. 90. (See QueenCuttings )
  3. "All influences - conscious, subconscious and unconscious. PS Hello listeners. I hope you enjoy and have fun with this, my very own, album. I like it. If you don't, sod you! PPS 157 synthesizers. "(Taylor's liner notes on the album)
  4. a b c d e cit. N. Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , pp. 144 f.
  5. Geoff Orens: Roger Taylor - Fun in Space. Review . In: All Music Guide .
  6. a b UK Top 40 Hit Database everyhit.com; Andrew Young: Queen International Album Chart Positions .
  7. a b charts surfer .
  8. ^ A b Andrew Young: Queen International Singles Chart Positions .
  9. ^ A b Andrew Young: Queen International Album Chart Positions .