Stop The Press! Queen Announce Five-Disc ‘News Of The World’ Box Set

As if it needed spelling out: in 1977, Queen were the champions. They came to rock you. While much of the music press was getting in a lather over punk and predicting the death of classic rock (wrongly, as it would turn out), the real headlines were these: Queen had a new album out. They’d penned two juggernaut songs – alongside a host of other genre-hopping tracks – and, in News Of The World, they were poised to break America.

Forty years after Queen truly elevated themselves to arena-filling live act, News Of The World is set to reappear in a 40th-anniversary box set edition spanning one LP, three CDs and a DVD, and featuring previously unheard recordings that will rock you all over again.

Due for release on 17 November, the original News Of The World album is bolstered with a whole CD of previously unheard takes from the recording sessions, making up an alternative Raw Sessions version of the album. Among the surprises on this disc are a recording of Brian May’s ‘All Dead, All Dead’, sung by Freddie Mercury and only ever heard by the band’s closest confidants; an unedited version of ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, with its intro and ending fully intact; and another unreleased full-length recording in the shape of one of the album’s indisputable classic cuts, ‘We Are The Champions’.

With a host of other differences between the Raw Sessions and the released News Of The World album versions, this disc marks one of the first times that Queen’s archives have been opened to such an extent – and it reveals plenty more jewels in the band’s crown.

One of the most stylistically varied albums in Queen’s wide-ranging body of work, News Of The World itself appears in the box set as both the 2011 CD remaster and also a band new Pure Analogue LP cut, taken direct from the unmastered analogue tapes and housed in a replica of the original 1977 artwork. A third CD offers further rarities, among them a seven-song BBC radio session, instrumental backing tracks and live recordings, while a 60-page booklet and a DVD of the unreleased Queen: The American Dream documentary take further in-depth looks behind the scenes of a phenomenal year in Queen’s truly regal history. Tracking the band both on tour and in the recording studio, Queen: The American Dream in particular captures the group as they were poised to take over the US – and further stake their claim as one of the world’s greatest rock bands.

Punk may have gone overground in 1977, but never mind the bollocks… here’s Queen’s News Of The World, bigger and better than ever.

Queen’s News Of The World: 40th Anniversary Edition box set is due for release on 17 November. A limited edition print is available for orders placed through uDiscover and Queen’s online store. Scroll down for the full tracklist and order the box set here.

The full News Of The World: 40th Anniversary Edition tracklist is:

LP: Original News Of The World album: new Pure Analogue cut
Side One
‘We Will Rock You’
‘We Are The Champions’
‘Sheer Heart Attack’
‘All Dead, All Dead’
‘Spread Your Wings’
‘Fight From The Inside’

Side Two
‘Get Down, Make Love’
‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’
‘Who Needs You’
‘It’s Late’
‘My Melancholy Blues’

CD1: News Of The World: original album (Bob Ludwig 2011 master)
‘We Will Rock You’
‘We Are The Champions’
‘Sheer Heart Attack’
‘All Dead, All Dead’
‘Spread Your Wings’
‘Fight From The Inside’
‘Get Down, Make Love’
‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’
‘Who Needs You’
‘It’s Late’
‘My Melancholy Blues’

CD2: News Of The World: Raw Sessions
‘We Will Rock You’ (alternative version) 2:29
‘We Are The Champions’ (alternative version) 4:33
‘Sheer Heart Attack’ (original rough mix)
‘All Dead, All Dead’ (original rough mix)
‘Spread Your Wings’ (alternative take)
‘Fight From The Inside’ (demo vocal version)
‘Get Down, Make Love’ (early take)
‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’ (live in the USA, 1977)
‘Who Needs You’ (acoustic take)
‘It’s Late’ (alternative version)
‘My Melancholy Blues’ (original rough mix) 3:36

CD3: News Of The World: bonus tracks
‘Feelings Feelings’ (Take 10, July 1977)
‘We Will Rock You’ (BBC session)
‘We Will Rock You (Fast)’ (BBC session)
‘Spread Your Wings’ (BBC session)
‘It’s Late’ (BBC session)
‘My Melancholy Blues’ (BBC session)
‘We Will Rock You’ (backing track)
‘We Are The Champions’ (backing track)
‘Spread Your Wings’ (instrumental)
‘Fight From The Inside’ (instrumental)
‘Get Down, Make Love’ (instrumental)
‘It’s Late’ (US radio edit, 1978)
‘Sheer Heart Attack’ (Live in Paris, 1979)
‘We Will Rock You’ (Live in Tokyo, 1982)
‘My Melancholy Blues’ (Live in Houston, 1977)
‘Get Down, Make Love’ (live in Montreal, 1981)
‘Spread Your Wings’ (live in Europe, 1979)
‘We Will Rock You’ (live at the MK Bowl, 1982)
‘We Are The Champions’ (live at the MK Bowl, 1982)

DVD: Queen: The American Dream

Format: UK English