Star Fleet Project

Star Fleet Project is a solo project of Brian May, Queen's guitarist, and a mini-album of the same name. Released as the work of Brian May + Friends, the album features May, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer (then of REO Speedwagon), Phil Chen (session bassist who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart), and Fred Mandel (keyboard player for Alice Cooper and additional keyboard player on Queen's Hot Space Tour and The Works). "[T]he result is high-octane instrumentals, instantly , and not unlike Flash with added fretboard pyrotechnics". The tapes were not intended to be released and received minimal mixing. "Star Fleet Project was called a 'mini-album' by [May] because he thought it... too short to be a proper album, but too long to be even an EP single". The EP was re-released along with a collection of other session recordings and alternate takes titled Star Fleet Sessions on 14 July 2023. Production The idea for the album came from May's son Jimmy, a fan of Star Fleet, the English title of Japanese sci-fi puppet TV show X-Bomber. The show, which aired on Saturday mornings, "was compulsive regular viewing for [May] and his 4-year-old son Jimmy... inspiring [May]'s attachment to its title song". "It was my little boy who really got me keen on it. He said, 'Daddy, Daddy, get up, it's time for Star Fleet!' I had to rush out of bed and tumble downstairs and we used to watch it. I was very keen on the music and a couple of verses at the end, and I thought, 'One day I should do something because it would be great.' And I could hear it buzzing around in my head the way I wanted to do it." "[M]y little boy had been watching this science fiction series and I always thought that the theme tune for it would be a great vehicle for all-out guitar playing". "And [Jim] said, 'Daddy, you should play that!', and I thought, 'Actually, that's a rather good piece of music! "If [composer] Paul [Bliss] hadn't written a very catchy song as the theme tune for that kid's TV science fiction drama series, things would have been different," said May. "The signature tune began to stick in my head, and I could hear my own arrangement of the tune developing in my mind. But how to record it?" There was a seven-month period between when May watched the show with his son and the mini-LP's recording. "We were all in a little bit of downtime in our own projects.