QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS To Release New Album, Launch World Tour

With a new album in the pipeline the first new studio album to carry the QUEEN name since the Freddie Mercury sessions QUEEN is heading back on the road for a four-month tour, once again in the company of musician/singer/songwriter Paul Rodgers who joined the band for the highly successful 2005/2006 world tour, the European leg of which ended with the band's spectacular London Hyde Park open air concert before going on to play the U.S. and Japan.

In all, the band's tour was attended by more than a million people.

Together Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers have recorded their first album's worth of material, jointly written and produced. With the title yet to be disclosed, the album is being readied for release September 1, two weeks ahead of the start of the tour.

The QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS 28-date arena tour will take in 14 countries in just seven weeks, and take the band to Northern Eurasia, Central and Southern Europe, and the UK, and is expected to wind up at the end of the year with the band's highly anticipated return to South America, the setting of some of its most historic tours in the early '80s.

QUEEN's historic Latin America dates set new world records for the numbers of the audiences it attracted. At the 1985 Rock in Rio concert the band played to an unheard of audience of 300,000 and was watched on television by nearly 200 million people throughout the South American continent.

The 2008 tour kicks off mid-September in Russia with two dates at Moscow's SCO Olympic Arena, moves on into Poland for a massive free concert at the historic Gdansk Shipyard, and then follows a path through Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands before arriving in the UK early October for 6 dates including London's 02 Arena on October 13.

The UK dates see the band additionally play Nottingham, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham with a final UK date at Liverpool Arena on October 18 before continuing on to Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Czech Republic and Austria for seven further dates.

Tracks on the new QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS album will include "Say It's Not True" (see video below),previously released at the end of last year by QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS as a special World Aids Day download for Nelson Mandela's 46664 HIV AIDS charity , plus a "first" for a QUEEN album a cover version. The remaining tracks are all newly written by May, Taylor and Rodgers during the late 2007/early 2008 recording sessions.

One of these tracks, "C-lebrity", will receive a sneak preview when the band make a by-demand return to the UK's ITV "Al Murray's Happy Hour" for the final show on April 4.

QUEEN's last studio album was "Made In Heaven", released in November 1995 and containing the last recordings with Freddie. The LP became the band's biggest selling studio album, with world sales in excess of 20 million.

QUEEN's "Greatest Hits 1" album has achieved the distinction of being the UK's biggest selling album of all time, having sold a staggering 5,407,587 copies in Britain alone (source: VH1/The Official UK Charts Company. November 2006).

Paul Rodgers' voice is one of rock's platinum assets and as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter as front man of FREE and BAD COMPANY and as a solo artist he has written, produced and recorded some of radios biggest hits.

Between them, QUEEN and Paul Rodgers have released more than 50 albums during their long careers and sold in excess of a staggering 300 million records.

Tickets for all UK dates will go on sale at venue box offices and usual ticket agents from Saturday April 5.

QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS tour dates:

Sep. 16 - Moscow, Russia - SCO Olympic Arena
Sep. 17 - Moscow, Russia - SCO Olympic Arena
Sep. 20 - Gdansk, Poland - Shipyard
Sep. 21 - Berlin, Germany - Velodrom
Sep. 23 - Antwerp, Belgium - Sportspaleis
Sep. 24 - Paris, France - Bercy
Sep. 26 - Rome, Italy - Palalottomatica
Sep. 28 - Verona, Italy - Arena
Sep. 29 - Zurich, Switzerland - Hallenstadion
Oct. 01 - Munich, Germany - Olympiahalle
Oct. 02 - Mannheim, Germany - SAP Arena
Oct. 04 - Hannover, Germany - TUI Arena
Oct. 05 - Hamburg, Germany - Color Line Arena
Oct. 07 - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Ahoy
Oct. 10 - Nottingham, England - Arena
Oct. 11 - Glasgow, Scotland - SE&CC
Oct. 13 - London, England - 02
Oct. 14 - Cardiff, England - Arena
Oct. 16 - Birmingham, England - NIA
Oct. 18 - Liverpool, England - Arena
Oct. 22 - Barcelona, Spain - Palau Sant Jordi
Oct. 24 - Murcia, Spain - Estadio Municipal
Oct. 25 - Madrid, Spain - Palacio de Deportes
Oct. 28 - Budapest, Hungary - Sportarena
Oct. 29 - Belgrade, Serbia - Arena
Oct. 31 - Prague, Czech Republic - 02 Arena
Nov. 01 - Vienna, Austria - Stadthalle