Vol. 1 — Autumn 1975

The inaugural issue contains short introductions of each member, pictures from their 1975 Japanese tour earlier that spring, and information on upcoming releases and tour plans. There's also several sections that would become regular features of the Japanese fan club magazines, such as lyrics and prior magazine interviews translated into Japanese, a letters section, sheet music, and a penpal section. An announcement section notes that fan club members up to #3761 will need new membership cards, which means that's how many members the QFCJ boasted prior to its dissolution.

The hotly-anticipated A Night at the Opera was to be released in November, and this issue contains an article on the recording process as well as a track listing (complete with Engrish titles like "Sea Side Lendezvous" and "The flophet's Song"). There is also a note that while the band was in talks to tour Japan again in 1976, they were pushing for February, which was an inopportune time due to Japanese school exams occurring that month. The tour was ultimately pushed back to March.

Regarding merchandise, there was a giveaway of 100 of the flexidiscs that came with an October 1975 issue of Music Life magazine. Stickers, t-shirts, bags, a poster, a photobook, and a 1976 "Queen On Stage" calendar are all listed as available. Included near this section is this want ad:

WANTED: Please send a tour pamphlet to this unfortunate child who couldn't attend any of the concerts back in spring due to a school trip. As a thank you, I'll give you a Queen Live LP!!

This early live LP was probably a copy of Sheetkeeckers, but also could've been A Beautiful Album or Queen Live in Kove, both of which are worth orders of magnitude more than any tour pamphlet today.



The Four Members of Queen are Unusually Friendly and Nice — Ikuzo Orita of Warner Pioneer Records

A Peek into the Recording of the New Album

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