Queen live performances
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Queen live performances refers to the concerts given by the rock group Queen over the course of the entertainers' career.
Queen amassed an impressively diverse catalogue of songs and made use of massive sound systems, huge lighting rigs, an arsenal of pyrotechnics, and many extravagant costumes to help enrich their shows into entertaining, theatrical events. As both lead vocalist and frontman, Freddie Mercury was able to immerse himself in the audiences adulation and thrived off their excitement - an ability for which many artists, such as Bob Geldof, David Bowie, George Michael, Kurt Cobain (in his suicide note), and Robbie Williams to name just a fraction, have expressed great admiration. Queen wrote a number of songs with the specific goal of audience participation, like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions", and composed some songs, like "Radio Ga Ga", to inspire actions like synchronised hand-clapping. This resulted in their memorable appearance at Live Aid where the 75,000 strong crowd at Wembley Stadium sang at a deafening volume and clapped their hands above their heads in perfect unison. Their performance at Live Aid was voted by a large selection of musicians and critics to be the greatest live show of all time[1] and Queen are considered by many to be one of the greatest live bands ever.[2]
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[edit] 1970s
Although embryonic Queen played numerous gigs in and around London in the early seventies - evidence suggests that their first performance was on 27 June 1970 at Truro in England - the bands first major step toward becoming a recognised live act came by way of them being support act to Mott The Hoople on their UK tour. Despite being young and inexperienced, Queen's performances were quite impressive and they consistently received an enthusiastic reception from the audiences and so Mott The Hoople invited them to be support act on their upcoming US tour. Here the band were able to hone their on-stage presentations in front of large crowds, try out different songs and arrangements, and gain valuable experience with state-of-the-art light/sound systems. The friendly relationship between Mott the Hoople and Queen still remains strong to this day. Interestingly, the Hoople song "All The Young Dudes", actually written by David Bowie, includes a line that mentions Mercury whereas, alternatively, the Queen song "Now I'm Here" has a line that mentions Hoople.
Queen played a total of approximately 700 live performances over their career with roughly two-thirds being held in the seventies. Starting from their first shows, Freddie Mercury dressed in a very flamboyant, thespian manner and acted with great camp and extravagance while dry ice and banks of colourful lights were used with considerable effect. During the concerts, it was typical for both Brian May and Roger Taylor to have impromptu, instrumental interludes and Mercury to engage in a crowd 'shout-a-long' whereas it was traditional for Taylor to sing one song. John Deacon did not sing at all and May only ever sang backup vocals. Other recognisable trademarks were Mercury's microphone, which featured only the upper part of the stand with no base (which allegedly first came about while Mercury was with his school band "The Hectics" where the top of his stand accidentally broke off), a grand piano, and May's hand-built electric guitar aka the Red Special. The lengthy guitar solo by May show-cased his unique skill and creativity at using a multiple-delay effect which thereby gave rise to a layered, orchestral atmosphere. Interestingly, only on very rare occasions did Queen allow a non-member to perform, or even appear, on stage with them, the most notable being a key-boardist during the eighties. A semi-informal medley of 50's rock 'n roll songs was also a staple inclusion and usually formed the back-bone of an encore. The bands logo, which was designed by Mercury shortly before the release of the first album and is made up of their star signs, was usually displayed on the front of Taylor's bass drum on their early tours. It is also worthwhile highlighting that some stage costumes worn by Mercury and May, on their earliest tours and some future tours, were created by the well-known fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.
Once they began as headliners, with the release of the Queen and Queen II albums, the band essentially followed the traditional 'album-tour' cycle for all the seventies. The concert duration and set-list for each Queen show evolved significantly from their very earliest performances - shows would eventually exceed two hours. Most songs that Queen released on their substantial catalogue of studio albums were, at sometime or other, performed live. The tours in the seventies are nowadays recalled via the stand-out performances that were captured on film e.g. Rainbow (1974), Hammersmith Odeon (1975), Hyde Park (1976), Earls Court (1977), Houston (1977), and the Hammersmith Odeon (1979) although none have been officially released. Footage from other shows do exist, especially from Japan in 1975/1976 and Europe in 1978/1979, but most is of inferior quality when compared to the aforementioned recordings e.g. poor camera angles, inadequate lighting, unbalanced sound mixing. However it must be remembered that filming of rock concerts was still in its formative stages and most rock acts placed little importance on how well their shows could be captured on film. Also it perhaps should be pointed out that many of their early promotional videos featured the band performing the song in an on-stage setting.
The Sheer Heart Attack Tour of 1974 was particularly remembered for the fanatical excitement Queen encountered, in Japan especially, and this was the first time where the UK national anthem, "God Save The Queen", was used as the concert finale. This tour was also the first instance where the band employed pyrotechnics (during "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited"), making them one of the earliest experimenters with the "new" live effects. A substantial number of shows had to be cancelled due to May, and sometimes Mercury, having health problems. One talking point amongst fans was the regular inclusion of a song called Hangman into most sets because no studio recording has ever been unearthed. For light humour and novelty, Deacon would play a single note on a triangle, Mercury would sip champagne, and May would play a handful of chords on a ukulele. To many fans, the highlight of these shows was the song "Liar" which often clocked in at over 7 minutes and would be perpetually demanded by the audience. Mercury would frantically shake a tambourine during "Keep Yourself Alive" and, more often than not, ended up throwing it into the crowd.
The Night At The Opera Tour of 1975/76 coincided with "Bohemian Rhapsody" dominating the singles charts and the band would perform sections of it on three occasions during the course of a typical show. The operatic section with the band waiting in the wings would be used as a concert opener, followed by the hard rock section, which would typically lead into "Ogre Battle". The opening two verses and the closing ballad would be played later in the show as part of a piano-based medley with "Killer Queen", "March of the Black Queen", and sometimes "You're My Best Friend". This arrangement allowed the band to avoid the logistical nightmare of performing the entire song live, as they could simply allow the operatic section to roll from tape (a technique they would use later on) and not have to try and sing it. It was perhaps fitting that, given his passionate efforts in promoting the Bohemian Rhapsody single on the radio, concerts opened with a recorded introduction by Kenny Everett followed by the operatic section. Most of the so-called Christmas Eve gig was broadcast on the Old Grey Whistle Test - a television music show on BBC 2.
The Day At The Races Tour of early to middle 1977 first saw acoustic or 'unplugged' renditions of songs (e.g. "'39") in the set and they have remained there ever since although in different guises. The band would open their shows with Tie Your Mother Down which would subsequently become a standard number on other tours - either as an opening or closing song. Moreover, the band adopted what would become their lasting way of playing Bohemian Rhapsody on this tour: performing the first two verses onstage, leaving and allowing the operatic section to be played over the PA system, and returning onstage for the hard rock part to play through to the end. Interestingly, the USA leg was a double-billing with Thin Lizzy and their performances were, perhaps unsurprisingly, noticeably heavier. On this tour Queen first began to experiment with moving and tilting lighting rigs which required some degree of, unseen, mechanical wizardry.
The News Of The World Tour in late 1977 in the Us and early 1978 in Europe had the first performances of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" which had been largely inspired by their substantial live reputation. Though the two songs were used as the first encore during this tour and followed by the staple Rock 'n Roll medley, they would end virtually every Queen concert from then onwards. The up-tempo version of "We Will Rock You", which was never officially released on a studio album, would be the opening song for this tour and many other tours to come. Also, as a possible response to the current punk explosion, Mercury would regularly become manical and destructive on stage when the band performed "Sheer Heart Attack" which, obviously, was placed near the end of their shows. To make way for the new material, most songs from the first two Queen albums were omitted from the play list.
On the exhausting Jazz Tour in late 1978 for the US and early 1979 for Europe and Japan, most European dates were recorded and then later spliced together to give the Live Killers double-album. When introducing the song Death On Two Legs, Mercury often swore profusely about the bands previous managers which therefore had to be dubbed over on the album. This tour saw Mercury start to wear full leather/vinyl outfits instead of glam-inspired leotards and, in keeping with a theme of their latest singles Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls, a group of topless women riding bicycles sometimes appeared on stage. To some observers, there seemed to be a 'sex theme' deliberately integrated into the shows and this tour first saw the now infamous Brian-Brian chant from the audience. Another unexpected feature of many shows was the requests for the seemingly inconspicuous song Mustapha by numerous members of the crowd. If the band did not play the song in full, it was likely that Mercury would simply perform the first few lines as an a-cappella opening to "Bohemian Rhapsody".
The small-scale Crazy Tour in late 1979, which was only preceded by a big-selling single and not an album, saw Mercury with short hair and it was the first time that Mercury played the acoustic guitar (i.e. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love) and May played piano (i.e. "Save Me") on stage. The band would typically drop "Brighton Rock" from the shows on this, and future, tours so that the guitar solo by May effectively became a stand-alone performance. In some concerts, Mercury would appear on stage near the closing of the show sitting on the shoulders of Superman or Darth Vader but this would lead to some minor legality problems. Because of the many small venues used on this tour, the roadies often encountered problems when constructing the band's stages and so the stages, and sometimes the venues themselves, had to be altered substantially. One noteworthy show on this particular tour was their Boxing Day gig at the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea in London which was also filmed.
As a point of interest, Lisa Marie Presley stated that the first rock concert she attended was by Queen in Los Angeles in the late seventies. After the show, she gave Mercury a scarf that belonged to her late father[3]. Also, Jim Kerr from Simple Minds, first saw Queen when they opened for Mott The Hoople on their 1974 tour. Many years later, at the launch party of the Innuendo album, he stated that Queen "...blew Hoople off the stage!".
[edit] 1980s
At the start on the eighties, Queen had reached a high point in their world-wide popularity as this would be only time that Queen would top both the US singles and albums charts. This popularity partially inspired the 1981 simultaneous release of the Greatest Hits album, the Greatest Flix video, and the Greatest Pix book. The video included live recordings of "Love Of My Life" and the fast version of "We Will Rock You" while the re-release on DVD included a few songs from the Rainbow show.
The Game Tour in 1980 coincided with Queen being at their most popular with massive sales of their latest album both inside and outside of the United States. One surprise, however, to many concert-goers was the prominent moustache that Mercury had grown which resulted in some diehard fans throwing razors and shaving cream cans onto the stage. Also Mercury's stage costumes appeared to be more causal and less flamboyant (e.g. T-shirts and sports shoes) than in the earlier tours. Moreover the band, and Mercury in particular, would emphasise the funk/dance sound when performing the songs Another One Bites The Dust and Dragon Attack although their loyal hard-rock fans were rather indifferent. It is noted that a small selection of material from the Flash Gordon album was also included in the play list.
The Gluttons for Punishment Tour in 1981 heralded in a largely untapped frontier for live rock music. In this case, Queen embarked on a short, yet frantic, tour of South American that included a number of dates at some of the worlds biggest football stadiums. No major rock band had ever seriously toured this area of the globe. Queens album sales in South America had been astonishing from quite early on in the bands career which provided the main inspiration for the tour. Overall Queen played to well over half a milion people in the space of just 13 concerts. As a point of note, the football star Diego Maradona appeared on stage with the band in Argentina. Some of the shows were filmed and the two Canadian gigs at Montreal were filmed and released as the We Will Rock You video, and DVD at a later date, but sometimes referred to as just Live In Concert.
The Hot Space Tour in 1982 came on the heels of an interesting, yet controversial, studio album. A highlight of the tour was a massive, open-air concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl near London - the show was released as the Queen On Fire CD and DVD several years later. To many concert-goers ears, the band's sound as well as Mercury's vocal performances now had a distinctive soul/funk tone. It is worth noting that this was the tour that Queen started employing the services of another musician, a keyboardist, on stage. Hence keyboards would become a prominent feature of Queen's live sound from this point onwards although the piano, played by Mercury, was still retained. With the exception of "Under Pressure", no material from this album would be played on future tours. The band performed two songs live, namely "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" along with "Under Pressure", on Saturday Night Live as well. Also one of the Japan gigs was filmed although it did not receive an international release.
Queen were to partake in two music festivals (in 1984 and 1986) at Montreux in Switzerland where they lip-synched (i.e. mimed on-stage to the recorded songs) a small selection of their latest material. This surprised many onlookers as the band had often spoken out strongly against this style of performance. The concerts were filmed and then broadcasted to many millions of people throughout Europe and can be found on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD. To their fans particularly, it seemed obvious that the band, as well as some members of the audience, were dis-orientated and somewhat confused during these faked performances.
The performances at Sun City in South Africa in 1984 were to land the band in hot water. Many well-known acts, both before and after Queen, have played at the luxurious holiday resort in the desert and were not subsequently criticised for it. However the international deploration of apartheid would reach a high-point shortly after the band performed. Many action groups, including a group of musicians called Artists United Against Apartheid, publicly condemned Queen (and some other acts) for their performances at the exclusive resort. To try and calm the waters, Queen officially released a statement saying how much they despised racism and that they had absolutely no wish to promote racial prejudice.
The Works Tour in 1984/1985 was one of Queens largest tours and included the huge Rock in Rio festival in Brazil (which was released as the Live in Rio video but has not been released on DVD to date) but this tour was also the first time that Queen did not perform in North America. The lack of US dates seems quite surprising given that Mercury had started living in New York around this time, the album was partially recorded in Los Angeles, and Queen had changed their US label from Elektra to Capitol. One persistent rumour was that there would be too much strain on Mercury's voice on a full-scale US tour. In fact, it is fair to say that both media reports and recordings of some concerts did show that Mercury would sometimes have vocal difficulties. Usually Mercury wore scant leotards reminiscent of his seventies attire but, in keeping with its unconventional video, on a number of occasions he would make a cameo appearance dressed, or partly dressed, in drag when "I Want To Break Free" was being performed - although this sometimes received a rather mixed reception. Audiences also reproduced the synchronised hand-clapping routine that appeared in the Radio Ga Ga video during the choruses of this song. Moreover it was during this tour that the band began to resurrect some of the material from their first three albums into the setlist as part of a 'flash-back' medley. Again one of the Japan shows was filmed, and titled Final Live in Japan, but was not released internationally.
The performance at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985 was, arguably, Queens greatest single live performance. Their set lasted 21 minutes and comprised "Bohemian Rhapsody" (part), "Radio Ga Ga", crowd singalong, "Hammer To Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" (part), and "We Are The Champions". Mercury and May returned later on to perform a version of "Is This The World We Created?" As the band would later admit, the audience reaction to Queen's condensed segment was quite astonishing and their performance would be remembered for decades to come. Ironically the band were only luke warm about performing when they were first approached by Geldof. Fans had to wait patiently for almost twenty years before the concert became publicly available on the official Live Aid DVD. The appreciation they received after their performance led to them writing, collectively, the song One Vision which was then released as a single.
The Magic Tour in 1986 was to be Queen's last tour. On this occasion the tour did not extend beyond Europe and included two back-to-back shows at Wembley Stadium in London (where INXS were the supporting act) as well as one concert at Budapest in Hungary. One striking image of Mercury from the Wembley show would be regularly used for promotional purposes (e.g. the Tribute Concert posters, the memorial statue at Montreux, the cover of the Greatest Hits III album, the Musical billboards). Throughout the tour, Mercury would regularly make an impromptu statement on stage that denounced the rumour that Queen were about to split up. As "God Save The Queen" played over the PA system at the end of each show, Mercury would come on stage wearing a cloak and a replica of the crown jewels. After this tour, Queen were credited as being one of the first rock acts to employ the over-sized screen (or Jumbotron) at live concerts. Many of the shows were recorded and a heavily edited album, titled Live Magic, was released shortly afterwards. Similarly the Budapest concert was released as the Live In Budapest video (but has not been released on DVD to date) and one of the Wembley concerts would be released as the Live At Wembley album/CD and video/DVD many years later. For the record, the final show of the tour was held on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England (with Status Quo as support act) and drew an estimated 150,000 in attendance.
Shortly after the completion of the Magic Tour, a three-video rockumentary was released called The Magic Years which had footage from various live shows. Following on from this, a compilation of entirely live material was released by way of the Rare Live - A Concert Through Time and Space video. However neither of these have been re-released on DVD to date. The last albums to be released while Mercury was still alive were The Miracle (1989), Innuendo (1991), and Greatest Hits II (1991) and no tours were made. According to the Mercury and Me book,[4] Mercury was supposedly diagnosed HIV positive in the year following the Magic Tour (i.e. 1987) which may explain why they stopped touring so abruptly. However Taylor did form a band called The Cross, that went on to release three studio albums, who performed a number of live concerts with Taylor adopting the role of lead vocalist and not drummer. No live recordings were ever released although some bootlegs do exist.
[edit] 1990s
After the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991, the next "Queen" performance was at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April 1992 at Wembley Stadium. The three remaining members and a host of special guests staged a lengthy and emotional show billed as the Concert For AIDS Awareness (as well as Concert for Life) that was televised world-wide. Due to various complications, the video, and then DVD, of the concert would be released quite sometime afterwards. One track from the concert appeared on the Greatest Hits III album, namely "Somebody To Love", and it should also be mentioned here that some tracks have been released by the artists (i.e. their particular performance) under their own name e.g. George Michael, Lisa Stansfield.
May recorded two studio albums in the nineties as well as forming his own band, called The Brian May Band which included Spike Edney, that went on tour after their releases. The bands first live performances were supporting Guns 'n Roses in 1993 on some legs of their world tour and the group also performed a version of the classic Queen track "Tie Your Mother Down", with a guest appearance by Slash, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This version was released as the B-side of a single shortly thereafter. The band then made a small headlining world tour and one show from London was subsequently released on both CD and DVD - Live At The Brixton Academy.
Made In Heaven, released in 1995, was the last studio album by the band. However the final occasion where all remaining members of Queen performed on stage was in January 1997 at Paris in France for the world premiere of Bejart Ballet For Life. Joining the surviving trio were Spike Edney on keyboards/backing-vocals and Elton John who sang lead vocals. They only performed one song, namely "The Show Must Go On" which was one of the two songs they had performed together at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, and this was the last reported appearance of John Deacon on stage. The song also appears on the Greatest Hits III album.
As a footnote, May and Taylor (billed under the Queen name) performed a handful of songs in 2002 at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in London. A memorable moment occurred when May opened the show by playing "God Save The Queen" on the roof of Buckingham Palace with the accompaniment of Taylor and an orchestra down on the main stage. May also featured as a backing musician for some of the other artists e.g. Cliff Richard, Joe Cocker while Phil Collins played drums on "Radio Ga Ga". The concert was released as Party at the Palace on both CD and DVD.
[edit] Queen + Paul Rodgers
In 2005, Queen returned to the musical world with the introduction of Paul Rodgers (previously in Free, Bad Company, The Firm, and The Law) as the "featured guest" of the May and Taylor pairing. The inspiration for working together stemmed from Queen's induction into the UK Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 where they asked Rodgers to sing lead vocals. Thus Rodgers stepped in as the front-man and lead vocalist, although May and Taylor would assume lead vocals duties on some songs, for multiple legs of a world tour during 2005 and 2006 respectively. The European concerts were noted as being some of the longest ever played by Queen, clocking in at significantly more than two hours, but by the time the band reached the North American tour, the concert length had shrunken down to a more manageable two hours. The setlist was largely based upon a "greatest hits" format for both Queen and Rodgers material but did include a new composition called "Say It's Not True". However the band encountered some negative comments[citation needed] because of their general omission of songs from the early studio albums (something May had previously hinted that the band would be doing) and for only playing a handful of Mercury songs on any given night. Despite the expected challenges the band faced in winning over a skeptical fan base, the tours were both a critical[citation needed] and box-office success.
One of the many highlights of these shows was, of course, their rendition of the classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" track. Here the band, minus Rodgers, would perform the opening ballad as a 'retrospective' duet along with the relevant footage of Mercury from the 1986 Wembley Stadium show. In keeping with tradition, the band would then leave the stage during the operatic section while a moving video tribute to Mercury (and, to a lesser extent, John Deacon) played on the big screen. Rodgers would then take on the lead vocals for the hard rock section and finally perform the closing lines as a personalised duet with the taped Mercury. The song would reach an emotional zenith as Rodgers stopped singing, the band stopped playing, and the crowd would sing the final line of the closing ballad while the on-screen Mercury took one last bow for his audience.
The band released a recording of the show at Sheffield in England (called Return of the Champions) on both CD and DVD along with the show in Japan (called Super Live In Japan) on DVD only. The band performed at the Nelson Mandela 46664 concert in South Africa, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and they also played an outdoor concert at Hyde Park in London which was postponed one week due to the July 7th London bombings.
[edit] Queen's line-up (live)
| Queen (1970 - 1971) |
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|---|---|
| Queen (1971 - 1981) |
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| Queen (1982-86) |
With |
| Queen + (1992 - 1997) |
With
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| Queen + (1999 - 2004) |
With
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| Queen + Paul Rodgers (2005 - Present) |
And With |
[edit] See also
- Concerts for the People of Kampuchea
- Rock in Rio
- Live Aid
- The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
- Party at the Palace
- 46664 Concerts
[edit] Notes
- ^ BBC. Queen win greatest live gig poll. Retrieved on 2006-07-12.
- ^ DigitalDreamDoor. 100 Greatest Live Artists. Retrieved on 2006-03-24.
- ^ Ken Sharp. lisapresley.com.
- ^ Jim Hutton and Tim Waspshott. Mercury and Me. Bloomsbury, 1994. ISBN 0-7475-1922-6
[edit] External link
- Queen Concerts - information about concerts and live recordings
| Queen |
| John Deacon | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | Roger Taylor History | Live performances | Songs |
| Discography |
|---|
| Studio albums: Queen | Queen II | Sheer Heart Attack | A Night at the Opera | A Day at the Races | News of the World | Jazz | The Game | Flash Gordon | Hot Space | The Works | A Kind of Magic | The Miracle | Innuendo | Made in Heaven |
| Live albums: Live Killers | Live Magic | Live at Wembley '86 | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions |
| Compilation albums: Greatest Hits | At the Beeb | Greatest Hits II | Classic Queen | Queen Rocks | Greatest Hits III | Stone Cold Classics |
| DVDs: We Will Rock You | The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert | Greatest Video Hits 1 | Live at Wembley Stadium | Greatest Video Hits 2 | We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions | Super Live in Japan |
| Related Articles |
| Ibex | Larry Lurex | Smile | The Cross | Queen + Paul Rodgers | We Will Rock You Musical |
