From Queenpedia.com

The third UK single from The Game album was the Freddie-penned Play The Game, which saw a strong change of direction for the band - as it was their first released track to feature a synthesiser (after their early albums proudly stated they lacked them). Many fans were shocked by the change of style, though Queen were gaining more fans than they were losing with their new direction, and upon its release a month later the album immediately topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The video itself, directed by Brian Grant and later released on both the Greatest Flix VHS and Greatest Video Hits 1 DVD, also came under fire from fans, due to Freddie's new look - short cropped hair and 'gay-clone' mustache. Fans mailed disposable razors and bottles of black nail polish to the band's offices, and wrote letters pleading Freddie to get rid of his new look, but it was to stay with him for the next six years.

Aside from the controversy, the promo was a simple performance video, shot at Trillion Studios, in London, but made somewhat unusual by the use of blue-screen to create a wall of multicoloured flames behind the small stage Queen were playing on. Freddie dances around smoothly, until the brief 'heavy' section of the song, where he jumps onto Roger's drum kit before snatching Brian's guitar and throwing it across the stage at the guitarist. Naturally, Brian did not use the Red Special in this video! And, not for the first time in a Queen video, the shoot required copious amounts of Vaseline...!

Credits

Version	Name	Artist	Recorded	Format	Length	Director	Filming Location
Standard Version	Play The Game	Queen	May 1980	Video	3.32	Brian Grant	Trillion Studios, London

Availability

• Standard Version - Greatest Flix VHS, Queen Collection - 15 Of The Best VHS, Box Of Flix VHS, Classic Queen VHS, Greatest Hits VHS, Greatest Video Hits 1 DVD