When The Magic Tour wrapped up in 1986, members of Queen took a short break, some of which was utilized to pursue other projects. Freddie Mercury would work with Montserrat Caballé to create the opera album, Barcelona. Meanwhile, Roger Taylor would return to the studio with the intensions of recording his third solo studio album.
Though he completed most of the work himself, Taylor opted to recruit a band in the long run, forming The Cross. To achieve this, he put an advertisement out in national newspapers, looking for people to audition. In his ad, he hinted at being a famous rock star, but didn't outright tell anyone who they were auditioning for.
Roger would put the lineup in place of Spike Edney on keyboards, Clayton Moss on guitars, Peter Noone on bass, and Josh Macrae on drums. Taylor would serve as lead singer, and rhythm guitarist. Additionally, the Queen drummer would enlist the aid of Queen, utilizing Brian May on guitars, Freddie Mercury on vocals, and John Deacon on bass.
Upon its release in 1988, Shove It failed to impress. It peaked low on the UK charts at 58, and by the following weak disappeared completely. In the US, it wouldn't even chart.
Playing through it, this shocked me. Frankly, I don't see how any Queen fan could hate this. Mainly, because it sounds like a heavy rock Queen album. This is all the more present by the distinct sound and contributions of the other members of the band.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just bias. Maybe in my mind none of the members can do no wrong, musically. This might have been true if it weren't for the fact that I flat out said that Taylor's second solo outing, Strange Frontier didn't impress me. So, no, I don't think I was listening to Shove It with any type of filter that was swaying my opinion.
I enjoyed Shove It from start to finish, and put every single track on my shuffle list. It's one of those rare moments where even though their next album came out in the 90's, I'm kind of intrigued enough to track it down.
The Cross would go on to release two more albums, 1990's Mad, Bad And Dangerous To Know, and 1993's Blue Rock. None of them performed very well, and frankly, Taylor's involvement in his own band throughout these recording sessions were noted as sparse. This was mainly because of his obligations to Queen, and the promotion of their album, The Miracle, and subsequent death of Freddie Mercury. Purportedly,
Blue Rock was considered so bad that EMI didn't even want to release it, but ultimately relented to do so in Germany, where The Cross's popularity was the highest. Taylor disbanded the group in 1993 after their final tour date, and has since then continued to work with the faux iteration of Queen, as well as release additional studio albums.
We're not done there. Before we can call it a day, we have to get back to the business at hand from yesterday. There was a contest going on between the goth boys and girls known as The Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The Cure's Faith and The Head On The Door were facing off against the Banshees' A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, and Through The Looking Glass, respectively. After much deliberating, yeah, it really didn't take me but a few seconds, we have our finalists.
Up for the grand first prize of...well, nothing...are the Banshees' A Kiss In The Dream House, and The Cure's The Head On The Door. Both were awesome albums in my book, and ones which repeatedly came to mind in retrospective consideration. But, only one can win the whole shebang, and that winner is...
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS July 28, 1984 |
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