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The Studio Experience Memorabilia (page 1) >> |
'The Studio Experience' is an exhibition housed
in the Casino Barrière de Montreux, the original home of
Mountain Studios, and is presented by the Mercury Phoenix Trust
and the casino's charitable foundation. The casino is located on
Rue de Theatre, Montreux, Switzerland, and can be seen on Google
maps here and on streetview here. It is a short walk from the Freddie
Mercury Statue on the banks of Lake Geneva.
The exhibition was opened by Brian and Roger on 2 December 2013
(World AIDS Day) and opened to the public on 3 December. The
exhibition is free, with donations requested for the Mercury
Phoenix Trust. The exhibition was curated by archivist Greg
Brooks, and designed by Marmalade London, the team behind the
'Stormtroopers In Stilettos' exhibition.
More information can be found at the exhibition's website, http://www.mercuryphoenixtrust.com/studioexperience/.
I visited the exhibition several times in September 2014, 2015
and 2016, and the descriptions and photographs below are all from
those visits. Photographs of the various memorabilia cabinets
have their own pages here and here.
I have also uploaded three videos to Youtube as follows:
1. A tour of the exhibition (length 9:39)
2. A vocal version of 'Mother Love' (length
2:50) recorded at the mixing desk, with photographs of Freddie's
statue
3. An instrumental version of 'Mother Love'
(length 4:46) also recorded at the mixing desk, with photographs
of the exhibition
Sadly, while I recorded various elements of 'Made In Heaven',
none of these came out in sufficient quality to upload.
The casino has two floors, and the Queen Studio
Experience is based on the upper floor, which is at street level
from the Rue de Theatre. Within the casino, by the entrance to
the exhibition, there are a number of Queen related items, the
main one being two Freddie Lions, which were originally displayed
in Cape Town in 2013. There is also a 'Flash Gordon' themed
pinball machine, a restaurant menu, with most dishes named after
Queen and Freddie songs, a timeline showing Queen's history, and
a video display, which includes an interview with Justin Shirley-Smith about the history of the studios and the
exhibition. Outside the casino, on the left hand side of the
building, is the Freddie Tribute wall, which features fan writing
and artwork, around the original entrance to the studio.
Once inside, the exhibition includes 8 display cabinets around
the edge of the room, featuring memorabilia from throughout the
band's career, with the emphasis on the albums recorded in
Montreux. Six of the cabinets are for 'Jazz', 'Live Killers' and
'Hot Space', 'A Kind Of Magic' and 'The Miracle', 'Innuendo',
'Made In Heaven' and live releases.
The remaining two cabinets have varied; originally, they featured
memorabilia for the albums not recorded in Montreux, one for
'Queen', 'Queen II', 'Sheer Heart Attack' and 'A Night At The
Opera', while the second featured 'A Day At The Races', 'News Of
The World', 'The Game', 'Flash Gordon' and 'The Works'. When I
visited in 2015, they had been replaced, with one for 'Bohemian
Rhapsody', and one for the 'A Night At The Opera' tour, to mark
their 40th anniversary. In 2016 they had been replaced again,
with memorabilia to mark Freddie's 70th birthday, which included
various album and single early artwork designs.
Each cabinet features albums, singles and videos from around the
world, promotional items, tour programmes, backstage passes,
clothing, and awards, the majority coming from the Brian May
Archive. There are two additional smaller cabinets, which feature
handwritten lyrics to 'One Vision', and photographs of Freddie's
home in Montreux.
Alongside many of the cabinets, there are small monitors with
headphones which play the promo videos for 'Bohemian Rhapsody',
'Love Of My Life (live version)', 'One Vision (extended
version)', 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' and 'A Winter's Tale',
plus clips from 'Highlander'. In one corner, there is another
room featuring a Queen Cinema, which features an 18 minute film
about the studios and Freddie's illness, using interviews from
other documentaries, mostly from 'Days Of Our Lives'.
In the centre of the room, there are four cabinets with
mannequins modelling stage costumes, namely Brian from 1974-5 and
Freddie from 1974-1975, 1977-8, and 1984-5. In 2015, Freddie's
1984/5 costume had been moved to outside the exhbition's
entrance, and replaced by a cabinet showcasing 'The Studio
Collection' boxed set of coloured vinyls.
At the back of the room, behind a glass partition, is a
recreation of a Queen recording studio, which features Roger's
Ludwig drum kit, which he used at numerous shows including Live
Aid, a Brian May Guild guitar and VOX AC30 amplifier, John's
'Music Man' Stingray bass guitar, and Freddie's Shure SM85
microphone.
The final feature is a recreation of the control room, which
includes a plaque marking the spot where Freddie sang his last
vocals, for 'Mother Love', a miniature statue of Freddie,
handwritten lyrics to 'Mother Love' and 'A Winter's Tale', tape
machines, and other equipment. The main attraction is a mixing
desk, which allows you to play four tracks. The first two tracks,
'Made In Heaven' and 'Mother Love', featuring introductions from
Roger and Brian respectively, play elements from the original
tapes, and allow you to change the relative volume of each
element of the song, using ten different mixers. The third track
is 'Bicycle Race', with an introduction by Brian, which is played
in surround sound, with the original promo video and the
'Greatest Video Hits' promo video shown side by side on two
monitors in front of the desk. The final track is 'The Invisible
Man', with an introduction by Roger, which is also played in
surround sound, and features the original promo video on one
screen, and out-takes from the promo video on the other.
The main room plays a selection of Queen tracks, which fade out
when the control room mixing desk is in use. Due to the lighting
in the room, some of the photographs are quite blurry or have
reflections, so I apologise for the quality.
The outside of the casino, and the Freddie Lions....
.....Montreux Studios timeline and 'Live Magic' photograph, which stand outside the exhibition.....
.....the main room of the exhibition.....
.....the main room of the exhibition.....
.....the main room of the exhibition.....
(the entrance and exit is behind the rope on the right, while the
control room is down the corridor alongside)
.....Brian and Freddie's stage costumes from the 1974-5 tours.....
.....Freddie's stage costumes from the 1977-8
and 1984-5 tours.....
(Freddie's 1984-5 costume was replaced by a display for 'The
Studio Collection' in 2015)
.....the studio display, featuring Roger's 'Live Aid' drum kit and other instruments.....
.....the control room and plaque.....
.....a replica of the Freddie statue, and various studio equipment....
.....the Freddie Tribute Wall and an exhibition
leaflet
(the leaflets were available in Japanese, Spanish and Italian,
and translated the various texts in the exhibition)
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