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                                       * *
 Screaming in Digital                  * *                  Volume 08 - 91Dec16
 The Queensryche NetDigest              *                Edited by Dan Birchall
 birchall@pilot.njin.net                *                  birchall@njin.bitnet

===============================================================================
  FTP Resource Site: glia.biostr.washington.edu, directory /pub/queensryche
===============================================================================
                
                Table of Contents

                Screaming in Digital    (Editor's notes)

                Neue Regel              (What's new)

                Speak                   (Reader letters)

                Roads to Madness        (Touring info)

                I Will Remember         (History)

                Gonna get Close to You  (Ryche Spottings)

                The Whisper             (Oddness)

                Spreading the Disease   (Resources / Rarities)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Screaming in Digital                                            (Editor's Note)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        I got an early start on this issue - there was more than enough info
for volume 7, so I spilled some over into this one.  This one has some useful
stuff in it... 
        ** LAST CHANCE! **  If your account is going away over winter break
and you haven't told me yet, let me know when it's dying, and when it'll be
back {if it will be the same account}...  In case your account changes and
you forget who I am, I'll be posting an ad to all the pertinent newsgroups
around the second week of January.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neue Regel                                                         (What's new)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Monday, December 9th (after v7 went out, if you're wondering), Fox TV
broadcast the 1991 Billboard awards show.  In addition to being voted top
album-rock single of the year for "Silent Lucidity", Queensryche also got
voted in the top 3 album-rock bands of the year.  At the show, they performed
"Another Rainy Night" live and were received quite warmly.  Alas, Geoff stuck
to the standard thank-people format of acceptance speeches, and his only
remark was made in thanking their management and label for marketing the album
"like it should have been done in the first place."  (Perhaps he wasn't happy
with the initial marketing effort?  Stores here _still_ have the promo stuff
up for Empire)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speak                                                          (Reader Letters)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        I'd like to get some feedback from you folks on a question that's been
bugging me.  All of us view "Silent Lucidity" as a bit of a departure from the
established Queensryche 'sound', primarily due to its being an acoustic ballad
sort of song.  However, having recently acquired the Holland "Empire" CD 
single (see Spreading...) which includes a very haunting cover of the ancient
folk song "Scarborough Fair," recorded about the same time as "Rage for Order,"
I've begun to wonder why the group waited four years to release a 'quiet song.'
The cover of "Scarborough Fair" demonstrates, at least to me, that by 1986 they
were quite capable of doing a song like "Silent Lucidity."  Any ideas?

jlwoodal@eos.ncsu.edu writes,
        "phils@phrog.att.com speaks of the crowd reaction to Warrior Soul, but
I remember when Queensryche opened for Def Leppard back during the Mindcrime
tour.  (Yes, I took off 30 minutes into Leppard's set.)  People were walking
around, talking, buying t-shirts, and barely reacting between songs.  Hardly
booing Queensryche off the stage, but a shitty response nonetheless.  Tate, 
when they were done, left the stage with his middle finger raised saying,
"Good night, Charlotte, and fuck you!"  
        "Of course, 2 years later, they played to about 10,000 Queensryche
freaks (hardly the 23,000 of the Def Leppard concert) and received a much nicer
and more enthusiastic response.  So remember this when Warrior Soul comes
headlining your town someday.  (probably not, however.)" (Jeff)
  
sv0o+@andrew.cmu.edu writes,
        "Greg from rutgers had a cool idea to poll readers to see when they 
first heard of the band. For me, it was the advertisement in the CBS record
club magazine when Mindcrime was released.  (I know, I was a real slave to
popular music then.)" (Sean)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roads to Madness                                                 (Touring Info)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dwb4025@rigel.tamu.edu writes,
        "Once the show started, I was in euphoria.  It was incredibly loud,
definitely the loudest I've been to.  Warrior Soul opened the show and were
almost booed off the stage.  The lead singer just kept commenting on political
topics - anti-George Bush statements, and about how he was trying to keep guys 
like him down.  Most of the crowd used the opportunity to get a coke.
        "When Queensryche took the stage, the best show I'd ever seen began.
They opened with "Best I Can" and followed it with several other tracks off
Empire and a few older songs, then Operation: Mindcrime.  This was the best
part of the show in my opinion, and the reason I had driven to see it.  They
did three other songs after Mindcrime, and then for the last encore, "Silent
"Silent Lucidity."
        "All together the show lasted about 3 hours... They took the stage at
9 and it ended around midnight...  Oh.. for the list of Geoff's comments about
Mary's death.. He said, "Death by plastic vibrating toys? I don't think so! 
You sound like a sick individual.  Maybe we should hang out," to which the
crowd roared." (Dave) 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I Will Remember                                                       (History)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
        In this issue, I present the remainder of the history of the band so
far.  Thanks to Jeffrey for getting this from the old digest, and to Mark Lent
for sending it in to the old digest.  I have updated the ending to it, so for
those of you who have it from the old digest, this is more up to date.  The
complete history will be available as a document from the FTP site also.

Spring and summer of 1987 the band members kept busy writing "Operation: 
Mindcrime".  Fall of 1987 Queensryche signed with Q-Prime management and started
recording at Liberty Studios in Pennsylvania and Le Studio in Montreal, with
final mixing at Wisselord Studio Holland, with Peter Collins doing a masterful
job of producing.  Operation: Mindcrime was released in late spring of 1988.
This album is considered the most brilliant concept album of all times.  
"Operation: Mindcrime" is musically adventurous and lyrically intelligent.
Geoff's vocals are awesome, the production is unique, the songwriting and
musicianship are incredible.

Fall of 1988 Queensryche started touring the states with Def Leppard, then 
England with Metallica, with headlining shows in Japan and California.  The
video Video: Mindcrime was released in September of 1989 and has gone double
platinum.  

Queensryche spent the summer and fall of 1989 writing "Empire" and started 
recording in the spring of 1990 at the Vancouver studios with Peter Collins 
again producing.  "Empire" had a release date of September 4th.  "Empire" is
definitely Queensryche, but it's different, it has an underlying theme, but
not to the extent of Mindcrime.  The 11 songs on "Empire" are the most 
accessible Queensryche has written.  The songs are deep and very emotional.
Queensryche demonstrated their flexibility with "Empire," and were rewarded
with sales of 500,000 copies in one week, and immense public exposure, 
culminating in winning the Viewer's Choice award at MTV's Video Music Awards.

The "Building Empires" tour ran from late 1990 to early 1992, covering the US 
and Europe, each show highlighted by a complete, live performance of the
"Operation: Mindcrime" concept album.  Footage from the tour was used to
produce a live CD and video of the performance, titled "Operation: Livecrime."
In early November of 1991, the two were released in a box set which also
included a special booklet containing pictures and the libretto to the concept
album.  As their tour drew to a close, there was much speculation as to how
long a break the band would take before releasing another album, and at least
one band member was quoted as saying that another release would be out by the
end of 1992.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gonna Get Close to You                                        (Ryche Spottings)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dwb4025@rigel.tamu.edu writes,
        "You will never believe the weekend i had.. I had unfortunately
missed Queensryche when the Building Empires tour came through Texas, and
decided that i had to take things into my own hands if I wanted to see my
favorite band... So, i ordered tickets for the December 7th show in 
Albuquerque, NM and decided i'd drive to see them... My friend and I left
College Station, TX at 8:45 am and drove the 840 miles to Albuquerque,
arriving at 11 pm CST... I had decided before the trip began that I wanted
to stake out the hotels in the area and try to meet Scott, Eddie, Michael,
Geoff, and Chris before the show, but never really expected to have my dreams
come true.
        "Well, after several hours spent at the wrong hotels, we found the
right one, and found out from some other fans who were there that Chris and
Scott had come out about a half hour earlier.  Chris had left, and Scott had 
gone to the mall across the street.  Scott came back 20 minutes later, and I
was actually talking to one of my idols.  He was the coolest guy I've ever met
(celebrities, i mean), and talked to us for about 25 minutes.  He seemed very
interested in us and amazed that we had driven 840 miles to see them.  He said,
"I mean, I know we're a good band, but over 800 miles?"
        "Of course, we got autographs.. i had brought all the stuff i had from
the fan club with me just in case i got the opportunity. Scott was the nicest
guy.. he felt sorry for us having driven so far, and, to our surprise, gave us
back stage passes!  We met Geoff, Eddie, and Michael as they left the hotel and
got on the bus, and then it was off to the show.  We waited in line in 30
degree weather for 2 hours.  (We had general admission seats, and wanted to be
able to see.)  
        "The time finally came when we had to decide whether or not to use the
backstage passes before the show and lose the chance at good seats, or just get
good seats and keep the passes as souvenirs.  Well, when we picked up the
passes, we were amazed to see 2 reserved floor seat tickets - 16th row!  Scott
had been the coolest guy and given us floor seats and passes.
        "So, we went backstage, after arguing with some security guys that 
didn't know what was going on, and got to talk to the guys again.  I finally
got to meet Chris, and when he saw my Texas A&M shirt, he mentioned it, and I
told them how far we'd come for the show.  Michael grinned and said he didn't
believe us.  Scott said he was glad to see we made it back and said for us to
have a safe drive after the show.  
        "It was the most magic, incredible weekend of my life.  If any of you
have a chance, do talk to the guys.  They are great to their fans!" (Dave)
                {Something like that happened to me once... unfortunately, I
                woke up. -sh}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Whisper                                                           (Oddness)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

uicd@marist.bitnet writes,
        "In response to the several statements about the hospital sounds during
the opening of _Operation: Mindcrime_, you are ALL correct (unless, of course,
the movie titles are incorrect). Movie, record, t.v., radio, etc. companies 
either own in whole or share in part Sound Libraries.
        "Whenever a t.v. show needs some effects (special or otherwise) they 
will try to use the sounds in the libraries they have access to before creating
or comissioning new ones. It is not uncommon to hear similiar effects on many
records (especially if they are from the same record company), shows, etc.  In
fact, many entertainment companies have sound libraries with thousands upon
thousands of sounds." (Dero, editor of the "update" newsletter)
                {Somewhere out there, there's probably a commercially available
                "sound effects" album (LP, tape, or CD, my family has a couple
                LP's from when my dad was in radio), containing that sound
                clip.  -sh}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spreading the Disease                                    (Resources / Rarities)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        I have successfully gotten the CD single of "Empire" with "Scarborough
Fair" (awesome!) from one of the CD mail-order places (the only one with an
e-mail address, CD's We Bee, which I reached via spikep@tau-ceti.isc-br.com)
and have decided that the concept of a "metal" band singing a "folk" song is
an unusual one, but works very well in this case.

        Beginning with this issue, I'm going to include information on what
videos are getting airtime in here, for all you people who have VCRs and might
want to record them off the tube.

cuz@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu writes,
        "As far as videos from Mindcrime go, I know "Headbangers' Ball" showed
Eyes of a Stranger, I Don't Believe in Love, Revolution Calling, Speak,
Breaking the Silence, and possibly Operation: Mindcrime or Spreading the 
Disease.  As far as videos from Livecrime, I've seen videos on "Headbangers'
Ball" for The Mission and Anarchy X/Revolution Calling.  They might have shown
more, as I can't keep up with MTV at college that much." (Brandon)
 
David.Spencer@samba.acs.unc.edu writes, 
        "I doubt that anything off LiveCrime is being used in regular MTV
rotation, as that would be unusually clueful of them.  However, I have seen
several QR cuts on "Headbangers' Ball," including "Queen of the Reich."  From
LiveCrime, I've seen at least "Anarchy-X/Revolution Calling," among others.
They censored out 'bullshit they keep selling me on TV...' with not just a
beep or a silence, but the sound of the instruments dubbed over it.  Bleah.
It really loses the effect." (David)
                {Television might be the best thing that's ever happened to
                rock music, but they have a tendency to be really stupid about
                censoring - ABC's "In Concert" show censors by putting a rather
                audible beep across all tracks, even the instrumentals. -sh}

mugglestd@willow.ulowell.edu writes,
        "I went through my collection yesterday to see if I had any interesting
QR stuff, and lo and behold, there were a couple unusual items.
        "The first was the PROMOTIONAL cassette single with "Revolution 
Calling" and "Operation Mindcrime."  It's a white sleeve (just like any normal 
cassette) with neat black graphics and lyrics to the two songs.  The number is 
EMI 4XPRO04052.
        "The second was the EP, on EMI, vinyl and still sealed.  Too bad that 
the day I saw this on the 206 label for $3.99 I didn't buy it.  I know that the 
vinyl is out of print, but the 206 would have been better!!
        "Next, I found the "Breaking the Silence" promotional 12" single.  Neat
black and white graphics, lyrics.  SPRO04048.
        "And the last QR thing I own that is interesting is the Promotional 
12" of "Revolution Calling."  This is a full color sleeve, and looks real good.
The back has tour dates ("on tour with Def Leppard") and the Worcester Centrum,
my "local" arena, is spelled Wooster.  Funny.  SPRO04141.
        "Anyway, none of this is for sale or anything, I just thought that 
someone might like to hear about it." (David)
                {Ya bum, ya get our hopes up, and then it's not for sale. -sh}

===============================================================================
        Have a nice break, you lucky people that don't have "real world" jobs.
*grin*  And those of you in the west, enjoy the show.

                                        -Shag