Outsider Roger Taylor

• 1Tides03:42
• 2I Know, I Know, I Know03:51
• 3More Kicks (Long Day’s Journey Into Night… Life)04:56
• 4Absolutely Anything05:04
• 5Gangsters Are Running This World04:04
• 6We're All Just Trying To Get By02:52
• 7Gangsters Are Running This World (Purple Version)02:37
• 8Isolation03:24
• 9The Clapping Song02:55
• 10Outsider03:41
• 11Foreign Sand (English Mix)03:01
• 12Journey's End07:00
• Total Runtime47:07

Info for Outsider

Roger Taylor has had plenty of free time recently to reflect on his long, rich, extraordinary journey through life and music. With Queen + Adam Lambert's blockbuster Rhapsody European tour postponed until 2022 by the Covid-19 pandemic, Roger has made good use of his lengthy lay-off. Fired up with creative inspiration, he spent much of lockdown writing and recording new material. Before long, he found himself with his first solo album in eight years, Outsider.

Roger's world-class skills as a composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist served him well during the enforced isolation of the last 18 months. In a tradition dating back to his very first solo album, Fun in Space from 1981, he wrote, produced, sang and performed all the songs on Outsider himself, with just a little help from long-time friends and collaborators. Building on more than half a century in music, Roger conceived Outsider as a kind of mature late-career statement, its prevailing mood autumnal and bittersweet. “Autumnal is a very good word for it,” he says. “It's slightly nostalgic and wistful, and quite adult, a bit more grown-up than my last couple of albums.”

Outsider offers up a sumptuous widescreen tapestry of ruminative, exquisitely arranged pieces that cast a philosophical eye over human fragility and our brief time on Earth. Composed in Cornwall during the first lockdown in 2020, the album's opening track Tides is a mournfully beautiful meditation on mortality set against the vast canvas of cosmic time and the immutable cycles of the ocean, Mother Nature's very own rhythm section.

“Tides just completely came out of a feeling,” Roger explains. “My house is by the sea, and the tides come in and go out, you can set your watch by them, you can rely on them in a way that they can almost be a friend. It's about the inevitability of our short term here, our sure passing.”

But Outsider is far from a gloomy album. Indeed, it balances world-weary melancholy with optimism, compassion and glimpses of brighter tomorrows ahead. Another lockdown-inspired track, the introspective 2020 single release Isolation, concludes with the cautious hope that the scars of solitude and anxiety will soon heal when normal human interaction returns again. Meanwhile, the elegant lead single We're All Just Trying To Get By, with guest vocalist KT Tunstall adding voluptuous harmonies alongside Roger, celebrates that most basic of human impulses: survival.

“It's the simplest statement really,” Roger explains. “It's what every life force on Earth is doing: just trying to get by and proliferate and exist. That's all we are trying to do, from plants to animals to humans, trying to survive. Also, of course, we are in the middle of a bloody pandemic... I mean, you've got to say even the Coronavirus is just trying to get by too!”

Even the album's cinematic, uplifting title track reminds us that alienated underdogs can rise up to wrestle triumph from the jaws of defeat. “Outsider is about bullying and not being in the in-crowd,” Roger explains. “It's kind of harking back to school, but we've all had that in some part of our lives. Everyone's an outsider at some point, they feel excluded or picked on.”

Outsider may find Roger in mellower mode than usual, but his fondness for sensual pleasures and hard-rock hedonism are still part of the package. Soaked in bluesy regret, the gorgeous I Know I Know I Know is a husky-voiced, soul-baring confessional from the viewpoint of a remorseful lover who has made one too many hurtful mistakes. “It's a bluesy apology for some very human wrongdoing,” Roger says. “Is it autobiographical? I think you should make your own mind.”

By contrast, the narrator of the hard-riffing, raunchy blues-rock stomper More Kicks feels no shame about celebrating his wild youth and insatiable appetites. “That's a bluesy non-apology,” Roger laughs. The loudest number on Outsider speeds up into a stampeding crescendo with Roger in his element, pounding away behind the drum kit like a man possessed. “Oh yeah, I can still clobber away,” he grins. “But I like to think I clobber with more subtlety these days. Maybe not quite as much power but more technique.”

Roger's albums have never shied away from political statements.

Outsider continues this tradition with the airy, polished, deceptively catchy protest song Gangsters Are Running This World and its punchy funk-rock sister track Gangsters (Purple). The scathing lyric is aimed squarely at authoritarian leaders across the globe, from Putin to Lukashenko to Bolsonaro.

“In Queen we always tried to be apolitical,” Roger nods. “But when you have the freedom to express yourself as a single person, you can say what the hell you like, which I've always tried to do. So many gangsters are running countries these days.”

The most delightfully unexpected wild card on Outsider is The Clapping Song, best known for its original 1965 Top Ten US smash version by Shirley Ellis, as well as its hit 1982 UK remake by the Belle Stars. This bright, brassy, funky banger is a fond flashback to Roger's teenage pop tastes. “I loved the original by Shirley Ellis,” he says. “It's just so joyful and simple. It's got a swing to it, and I've tried to recreate that swing using an ancient drum kit. It was just a real pleasure to do that song, it's like a playground nursery rhyme for kids.”

Outsider also revisits and reworks a handful of tracks from Roger's extensive solo canon. The lush, heartfelt romantic ballad Absolutely Anything first surfaced on the soundtrack to the 2015 sci-fi rom-com of the same name, starring Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale, which was written and directed by the late Monty Python legend Terry Jones. Another archive cut, Foreign Sand, is a unity anthem co-written by Japanese rocker Yoshiki. The original was a Top 30 UK hit in 1994, but Roger's new “English Mix” strips the song down to a raw acoustic ballad, his grainy vocal clothed only in luminous, delicate, finger-picking guitar.

“I just think people needed to hear the real kernel of the song,” Roger explains. “I felt the original was bit over-arranged and over-orchestrated. I like that John Lennon thing of stripping things down so you hear the kernel of an idea instead of dressing it up too much.”

Outsider concludes as it began, reflecting ruefully on the majesty of the cosmos and the finite span of human life on Journey's End. First released four years ago as a stand-alone single and mini-movie, this immersive seven-minute epic serves as the perfect finale for Taylor's most ambitious album to date, with its sombre emotional shadings and sumptuous symphonic feel.

“It has a quite whimsical, rather fatalistic atmosphere,” Roger says. “It’s basically about thoughts of mortality. It is a sort of acceptance of the fact that this is a journey, and that journey will come to an end. It's a very musical piece with a sense of finality about it, but a sort of optimistic finality.”

Launching Outsider in grand style, Roger and his band are playing a 14-date tour of the UK, beginning at the Newcastle O2 on October 2. Promising a set-list of solo career tracks old and new, plus some crowd-pleasing Queen classics, this is great news for the rock-starved masses as we finally emerge from lockdown hibernation.

“I want everybody to enjoy it,” Roger insists. “I doubt I will be doing this much longer but I'm still able to do it, so I really embrace it. Will I be playing Queen songs too? Absolutely! I can't stand people who don't embrace a lot of the stuff they are loved for. Come on, admit who you are!”

Roger Taylor may be in autumnal mood on Outsider, but he is not going gently into that good night. This long, rich, extraordinary musical journey is not over yet.

Roger Taylor

Produced by Roger Taylor & Joshua J Macrae

Roger Taylor
Although best known for his powerhouse role in Queen, Roger Taylor is anything but a drummer confined to his kit. With rock n’roll in his veins all through his schooldays, he has always been a highly active, vocal member of Queen. He famously wrote Queen’s landmark hits Radio Ga Ga and A Kind Of Magic, and was also the first to make a solo album, 1981’s Fun In Space. To date he has released 5 solo albums, which, aside from his work with Queen, further highlighted Taylor as an musician and writer with a strong sense of identity, a wide musical perspective, and - not least of all - a man not without a sense of irony. Just consider, for instance, the lyrics to I’m In Love With My Car, his B side to Bohemian Rhapsody, and a firm audience favourite in the Queen live set.

Taylor’s active approach has not been confined to his music: when media mogul Rupert Murdoch made attempts to buy Manchester United football club, Taylor funded the club supporters in their attempts to block the sale, and historically helped them succeed.

His history in one of rock’s most famous bands begins in the late 60’s, the time when he first teamed up with Brian May, and later John Deacon and Freddie Mercury, to form Queen. But before that...

Roger Taylor was born in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, on July 26th 1949, Roger became fascinated with music in the early 50s, when his family moved to Cornwall. He learned his first instrument, the ukulele, at a tender age, and enjoyed a brief taste of things to come in a pre-teen skiffle band whose collective talent survived just two public performances, both apparently excruciating!

His music took on a different direction in 1960, when he became a rather reluctant member of the Truro Cathedral Choir -- a prerequisite of his scholarship. He taught himself the guitar around this time, but by the following year had moved over to drums.

By 1966 Roger had not only progressed to drumming in Cornwall's most popular band, the Reaction, but had also become their lead singer, with his drum kit placed -- where else? -- in the principal position, at the front of the stage. That year, the Reaction won a hotly- contested local talent contest and, according to newspaper reports, were duly "mobbed by young girls".

While maintaining his keen interest in music, Roger decided to study dentistry, and in 1967 moved to London to enrol at the London Hospital Medical College. He later studied biology, obtaining a BSc in the subject.

In 1968 Roger formed another group, Smile, with Middlesex guitar ace Brian May. Smile played sporadically over the next few years and even issued a single in the United States. By 1971, Roger had long abandoned any desire to become a dentist or a biologist, and with new additions to the line-up John Deacon and Freddie Mercury, Smile became known as Queen.

The Queen legend often refers to how Taylor and Mercury were particularly close, and spent many hours on the town together seeing bands who at that time were their heroes: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Who, all of whom influenced them and helped shape the musical destiny of Queen.

Roger began writing songs for Queen from day one, and each of the band's fifteen studio albums included at least one of his compositions. History notes that all four members of Queen wrote No.1 singles: Taylor dutifully provided his with Radio Ga Ga , A Kind Of Magic and These Are The Days Of Our Lives amongst his.

1977 was the landmark year in which Queen released We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You. Roger bought a Ferrari, and became the first member of Queen to launch a solo career with the release of the single I Wanna Testify.

His solo album Fun In Space followed in 1981, and was succeeded by 1984's rock-based Strange Frontier. Both LPs reached the Top 30. In 1987 Roger formed his own band The Cross, in which after more than 20 years he finally resumed the role of lead singer. The Cross released three distinctive albums and toured extensively in the UK and Europe.

After the tragic death of Freddie Mercury, Roger returned to his solo career with 1994's Happiness?, an album on which he explored the theme of "dealing with life and looking for happiness". The success of the album prompted further tours of the UK and Italy. Then came perhaps his most potent album, Electric Fire, which clearly showed Taylor as an acute observational songwriter. Rich in contemporary reflections on life, the album was full of attention-grabbing songs tackling thought-provoking and sometimes challenging issues — national obsolescence, domestic violence, and poverty, among them. One track, People On Streets, was inspired by visits Roger made to India and the inequalities he witnessed in the fortunes of that country's vast population. Never shy to express himself, several super- rich and powerful world figures get name checked in the song.

That the Queen musical We Will Rock You came into being could be seen as something of a surprise taking into account Roger’s openly expressed view that “musicals are completely foreign to me. It’s a genre I don’t particularly like.” But after working closely with Brian and writer Ben Elton on shaping the musical, Taylor found himself deeply entrenched in developing the show, breaking the rules of musical theatre and taking on the role – along with Brian - as musical supervisor, not only for the first production in London, but for each of the subsequent productions throughout the world. To date, local productions of the show have reached 8 further countries.

At the same time as setting up We Will Rock You, Roger and Brian played a central part in the formation of the Nelson Mandela 46664 charity, performing at the first two South Africa concerts, and providing several new songs to the 46664 album which saw them collaborate with the likes of Bono, Anastacia, Dave Stewart and Beyonce. Roger penned two new songs for the project, Say It’s Not True, a song about finding out you’re HIV positive, and Invincible Hope, based on the writings of Nelson Mandela and actually featuring the voice of Mandela reading phases from his autobiography.

In 2005, after an accidental encounter with former Free singer Paul Rodgers, Roger and Brian felt the time was right to put Queen back on the road. Billed as Queen + Paul Rodgers, Roger and Brian tested the water with a handpicked set of European dates. Such was the momentum built up over the six week European tour, a US tour was booked to follow, which saw Roger and Brian return to the USA to play for the first time in more than 20 years. The impact of the return to the road was summed up in a review of is closing night in Vancouver: “the night that arena rock officially made its comeback”.

Roger returned to his solo career in late 2009 with the release of the single The Unblinking Eye. A new solo album emerged in 2013, the critically acclaimed Fun On Earth, plus a comprehensive box set called The Lot which covered all his solo material and work with The Cross.

Roger also oversees and produces The Queen Extravaganza, the official Queen Tribute act. The Queen Extravaganza is a spectacular touring concert show designed to take the music and live experience of Queen and bring it to generations of fans.

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