Queen Aid

When it comes to taking on logic-defying challenges, Queen have never fought shy: think Hyde Park, Latin America, Live Aid. All these years later, Queen are still living adventurously. Here's the case in point: just weeks ahead of the start of the band's 2008 Queen + Paul Rodgers' The Cosmos Rocks tour the band were approached to help Ukraine's Elena Franchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation reach out to the youth of the country with the message 'Don't Let Aids Ruin Your Life'. In a country facing the highest rising rate of infection throughout Europe, it is a message which cannot wait. For Queen + Paul Rodgers - already well prepared for a tour opening with two nights at Moscow's SCO arena, it would mean some drastic rethinking. The venue on offer was Kharkov, Ukraine's, historic Freedom Square, a place so big that during World War II it was used to land planes. For the band and crew it meant "Everyone had to run very fast, very suddenly, but then most of the great and worthwhile things in your life are a little dangerous." Despite the seeming impossibility of it, Queen + Paul Rodgers made it to Freedom Square for the night of September 12, 2008. Over 350,000 Ukrainians came to see them play and more than 10 million homes watched the show live on television. In all, more than 20 million took part in what the band recall as "an unforgettable experience…one of those rare things in life you know you will never forget. A meeting in Music, but also a coming together to fight a common enemy…"

A Kind of Magic is the twelfth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 3 June 1986 by EMI Records in the UK and by Capitol Records in the US. It was their first studio album to be recorded digitally, and is based on the soundtrack to the film Highlander, the first in a series directed by Russell Mulcahy. A Kind of Magic was Queen's first album to be released since they had been acclaimed for their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. It was an immediate hit in the UK, going straight to number one and selling 100,000 copies in its first week. It remained in the UK charts for 63 weeks, selling about six million copies worldwide.

This is the second creative project bringing together conductor Teodor Currentzis and director Peter Sellars (the first being the operatic double-bill of Iolanta and Perséphone staged in Madrid in 2012), and also the first collective production of three opera companies — the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Spanish Teatro Real and the English National Opera. The action is set in Central America. Spanish colonialists are at war with the native Mayan people. In the face of the armed forces the locals appear armed with bows and arrows, but they are mere children. Blood runs like a river. The Mayans resort to trickery – in order to infiltrate the enemy, the daughter of the Mayan chief becomes a concubine to the commander of the Spanish army. The plan brings her unexpected happiness (she falls in love with the commander and has children with him) but also tragedy (the Spanish colonialists continue the massacre of the Mayans). With nowhere to turn for help, the only hope is that the great Mayan gods will descend from the sky to the earth at the critical moment…

NOW Music is proud to present the newest edition to our ‘Yearbook’ family: NOW – Yearbook 1985, the 6th addition to our Yearbook 80s series and 7th addition including NOW – Yearbook 1979. This Special Edition CD is housed in ‘hard-back-book’ packaging, including a 28-page booklet featuring a summary of the year, a track-by-track guide, a quiz, and original singles artwork.

The Greatest Xmas Songs is an excellent collection of the most beautiful Christmas songs of all time. From the '60s you'll find classics from The Pointer Sisters, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley on the record. During the '70s and '80s, some iconic Christmas hits were released by Chris Rea, Mud, Band Aid, Paul McCartney, and Queen, among others. Includes the festive Xmas hits from Queen, Coldplay, U2, José Feliciano, Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Pretenders, Chris Rea, Band Aid, Mud, Kylie Minogue, Justin Bieber & Mariah Carey, John & Yoko, Spice Girls, Rod Stewart, Elvis Presley, Slade, and many more songs.