Strange Frontier

  • 1. Strange Frontier
  • 2. Beautiful Dreams
  • 3. Man On Fire
  • 4. Racing in the Street
  • 5. Masters of War
  • 6. Killing Time
  • 7. Abandon Fire
  • 8. Young Love
  • 9. It's An Illusion
  • 10. I Cry For You (Love, Hope and Confusion)

‘Strange Frontier’ was recorded during 1983 and into 1984, also at Mountain Studios, Switzerland, and at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, with co-producers David Richards and Mack.

Roger went into the sessions with a good selection of tracks to record, so many in fact that certain songs would never see the light of day – until now. Once again, Roger took on the duties of playing various instruments for this album, with the majority of tracks written, arranged and played on by him. Again, some of the keyboard parts were played by David Richards, who also co-wrote two of the ten songs, namely ‘Abandonfire’ and ‘I Cry For You’.

This project included guest musicians on two of the tracks. Roger’s friend and fellow musician, Rick Parfitt from Status Quo, co-wrote ‘It’s An Illusion’ with Roger, as well as playing guitar, and John Deacon played bass. And a certain Mr Mercury contributed backing vocals on ‘Killing Time’.

Roger also took the opportunity to record a couple of songs by two of his musical influences Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, covering both ‘Racing In The Streets’ and ‘Masters Of War’ respectively.

‘Strange Frontier’ was released in the UK in June 1984, with ‘Man On Fire’ single released three weeks earlier. Roger made a promotional video, with director Tim Pope.

Roger conceived the album cover, with photographs taken by George Hurrell and the Totem Pole illustration by Ian Wright.

The album reached number 30 in the UK charts and was followed by another UK single with the title track, ‘Strange Frontier’. A promotional video based on the James Dean movie ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ accompanied this single too, this time with director George Bloom, and was shot in Malibu, California. A 7″ remix edit of ‘I Cry For You’ by John Deacon and Mack, was included on the ‘B’ side. The 12″ vinyl single contained the non-album track ‘Two Sharp Pencils (Get Bad)’ with Roger taking on the unlikely role of a black rap singer. Also on the 12″ was an extended version of ‘I Cry For You’ also remixed by John Deacon and Mack. In Portugal only, ‘Beautiful Dreams’ was released as a single.

“The nuclear threat seemed real and looming at that time, and as the father of young children I felt it as a terrible threat to the future. Maybe not so much now but real at the time. It seemed as if we were at some kind of awful crossroads. Now I kind of like sort of gardening!”