THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN

'''The Good, The Bad & The Queen''' is the debut album by an unnamed alternative rock band, released in January 2007.^[1][2] The album debuted at #2 in the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold in the United Kingdom within days of its release despite a small degree of media recognition and airplay (see 2007 in British music).^[3] In the United States, the album entered the Billboard 200 at #49.
The project is a collaboration between Damon Albarn (Blur and Gorillaz),
Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti), qualifying the yet unnamed band as a supergroup under the current definition.
Although ''The Good, The Bad and the Queen'' was initially reported as a solo album by Albarn with Danger Mouse producing, NME revealed in late July 2006 that the solo project had been switched to a new group formed by Albarn.^[4]
''The Good, the Bad and the Queen'' is in one sense a concept album, as its songs are all themed around modern life in London.^[5] It was described by Damon Albarn as "a song cycle that's also a mystery play about London" in an interview with the magazine ''Mojo''.

Contents

Album history

Future plans

Track listing

Bonus DVD

Singles

Other releases

Musicians

Release details

References

External links

Album history

The band, which formed in 2006, released their first single, "Herculean" on October 30, 2006. The single followed the band's appearance at the BBC's Electric Proms season at the redeveloped Roundhouse in Camden on October 26, in which they performed the entire album. Three warm-up gigs in East Prawle at the Pig's Nose Inn,^[6] Ilfracombes Marlboro Club and The Exeter Cavern Club preceded their gig on the BBC's ''Electric Proms'', where the album was performed in order with two other songs inserted, "Intermission Jam" and "Mr. Whippy"; the latter was a B-side for "Herculean". The band performed four tracks from the album at Abbey Road Studios on December 13, 2006, during a recording session for Live From Abbey Road.
The track listing was originally unveiled and commented upon by Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon in an interview in the November 2006 issue of ''UNCUT''.^[7]. The second major gig of the band's career took place on 12 December 2006, at Wilton's Music Hall in East London. It was watched by 300 specially selected fans, as the launch gig of MySpace's The List. The band released their first Top 20 single, "Kingdom of Doom", a week prior to the release of the album.^[8] In April, "Green Fields" was released as the third single from the album and debuted at #51 in its first week.^[9]
On April 4, 2007, ''The Good, the Bad and the Queen'' became the first EMI album to be made available for download in the new DRM-free, high quality MP3 format (320 kbit/s).^[10] It was also the first EMI record to be released DRM-free on iTunes.

Future plans

Damon Albarn talked to NME in early March 2007 and discussed the band's future plans, which include a recording session in early September intended to produce a release not long after that: "We're going to do another whole recording session in early September. It will be totally different, more funky. We'll try to get it out in early autumn." Damon Albarn: "I'll Work With Graham", Elan, Priya, , , NME,

Track listing

All songs written by Damon Albarn.
#"History Song" - 3:05
#"'80s Life" - 3:28
#"Northern Whale" - 3:54
#"Kingdom of Doom" - 2:42
#"Herculean" - 3:59
#"Behind the Sun" - 2:38
#"The Bunting Song" - 3:47
#"Nature Springs" - 3:10
#"A Soldier's Tale" - 2:30
#"Three Changes" - 4:15
#"Green Fields" - 2:26
#"The Good, the Bad and the Queen" - 7:00

Bonus DVD

#"Nature Springs" (live at the Tabernacle)^[11]
#"The Bunting Song" (live at the Tabernacle)
#"The Good, The Bad And The Queen" (live at the Tabernacle)
#"A Soldier's Tale" (rehearsal footage)
#"The Good, The Bad and The Queen" (interview)

Singles

Other releases

Musicians

★ Damon Albarn - Lead Vocals & Keyboards

★ Paul Simonon - Bass and Backing Vocals

★ Simon Tong - Guitar

★ Tony Allen - Drums

★ Danger Mouse - Percussion (4), Synths (5,12)

★ James Dring - Programming

★ Choir (5) - Harry Christophers, Julia Doyle, Grace Davidson, Kirsty Hopkin, Charlotte Mobbs, Andrew Olleson, Ian Aitkenhead, David Clegg, Christopher Royall, Adrian Lowe, Ben Rayfield, Mark Dobell, Simon Berridge, James Holliday, Julian Empett, Sam Evans

★ Violins - Antonia Pagulatos (5,6,8,9,10,12), Gillon Cameron (6,10), Sally Jackson (5,8,9,12), Alice Pratley (5,8,9,12)

★ Violas - Emma Owens (6,10), Stella Page (5,6,8,9,10,12), Amanda Drummond (5,8,9,12)

★ Cello - Izzi Dunn (5,6,8,9,10,12)

★ Double Basses - Al Mobbs (5,6,8,9,10,12), Emma Smith (6,10)

Release details

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
Japan	January 17, 2007	Toshiba-EMI	CD	TOCP-66649
United Kingdom	January 22, 2007	Parlophone, Honest Jon's	LP	0946 3 73067 1 0
			CD	0946 3 73067 2 7
			CD / DVD	0946 3 81945 2 1
United States	January 23, 2007	Parlophone, Honest Jon's, Virgin Records	CD	0946 3 73067 2 7
	April 24, 2007		CD / DVD	0946 3 81950 2 3

References

1. It's all a bit of a blur for Damon
2. The band with no name
3. Album Goes Gold in UK
4. Damon Albarn forms new band
5. Damon Albarn starts new band
6. Pig's Nose Inn
7. ''UNCUT'' (Nov. 2006, pages 86-88)
8. Damon Albarn's new band announce new single
9. The Good, The Bad And The Queen announce new single
10. EMI press release
11. Amazon.co.uk: The Good the Bad and the Queen CD+DVD

External links

★ The Good, the Bad and the Queen - official website.

★ goodbadqueen.net

★ The Good, the Bad and the Queen at MySpace.