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The Good, The Bad And The Queen (UK)
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July 27, 20:00
The Good, the Bad and the Queen is a debut album by an unnamed alternative rock band released in January 2007. 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). 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).
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.
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. 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.
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 entirety of the album. Three warm-up gigs in East Prawle at the Pig's Nose Inn, 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 track listing was originally unveiled and commented upon by Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon in an interview in the November 2006 issue of UNCUT. The second major gig of the band's career took place on 12th December 2006, at Wilton's Music Hall in East London. they are a reyt band! It was witnessed 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. In April, "Green Fields" was released as the third single from the album and debuted at #51 in its first week.
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 kbps). It will also be the first EMI record to be released DRM-free on iTunes.
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." More info
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