Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl

Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl
Live album by Queen
Released	25 October 2004 (Europe) 9 November 2004 (US)
Recorded	5 June 1982 in Milton Keynes
Genre	Rock
Length	101:58
Label	Parlophone (Europe) Hollywood (US)
Producer	Brian May, Roger Taylor, Justin Shirley-Smith
Queen chronology
At the Beeb (1995) Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl (2004) Queen Rock Montreal (2007)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
BBC	(Positive) [1]
Allmusic	[2]

Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl is a double compact disc live album by English band Queen released on 25 October 2004 in Europe and on 9 November 2004 in the US.

It was recorded live at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, on 5 June 1982 during the Hot Space Tour. A DVD was also released with the concert and bonus material, such as band interviews and tour highlights.

In 2005, the album was also released as an LP, like every Queen album.

In the UK the CD made #20 and DVD #1 in the album and DVD chart respectively. In the US, neither the album nor the DVD charted.

Notes

During the show, lead guitarist Brian May had problems with his homemade Red Special guitar. During both the fast version of "We Will Rock You" and "Dragon Attack", two guitar strings broke and he had to change to his Birch Red Special backup for most of "Action This Day" and for the entire second half of "Dragon Attack" and the entire duration of "Now I'm Here (Reprise)".

Before playing "Love of My Life", May played a snippet of the intro to "Las Palabras de Amor" calling it "a little fiddle around".

During May's guitar solo, the lead on his guitar disconnected and May's guitar solo stopped for 20 seconds (the full 20 seconds can be found on the DVD but the album version of the performance contains only 3 seconds). A roadie helped May to get his guitar working again.

Drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon performed impromptu solos during "Dragon Attack" and before "Under Pressure," respectively when May switched guitars during "Dragon Attack" and was getting his guitar fixed following his solo. Taylor had stopped doing drum solos (he last performed one in November 1981) this was the only time he did a drum solo post-1981 with the original lineup of Queen. The next drum solo did not occur until the Queen + Paul Rodgers Return of the Champions Tour in 2005.

During "Fat Bottomed Girls", Freddie Mercury's voice briefly slipped into an off-key falsetto during the lyric "in this locality" (the error could be heard on the original BBC TV, Channel 4, MTV, and radio broadcasts of the Milton Keynes show) but the error was fixed for the release of the CD and DVD.

During the first verse of "Fat Bottomed Girls", instead of saying the original line "you made a bad boy out of me", Mercury said "you made an asshole out of me" instead.

Mercury performed without his trademark bottomless microphone stand for "The Hero" (shown on the Live in Japan bonus footage on DVD), "We Will Rock You (Fast)" and "Now I'm Here". This allowed Mercury to more freely scale and walk along the raised wings on either side of the stage. Although it is noticeable that he is using a cordless microphone which were becoming available at the time and appears to be relatively larger than a standard microphone.

Due to censorship laws the Hong Kong & China release of the CD removed "Get Down, Make Love" or "Fat Bottomed Girls"

Track listing

Disc 1

1. "Flash" (May) – 1:54
2. "The Hero" (May) – 1:44
3. "We Will Rock You" (Fast) (May) – 3:17
4. "Action This Day" (Taylor) – 4:52
5. "Play the Game" (Mercury) – 4:30
6. "Staying Power" (Mercury) – 4:03
7. "Somebody to Love" (Mercury) – 7:53
8. "Now I'm Here" (May) – 6:18
9. "Dragon Attack" (May) – 4:16
10. "Now I'm Here" (Reprise) (May) – 2:21
11. "Love of My Life" (Mercury) – 4:22
12. "Save Me" (May) – 4:00
13. "Back Chat" (Deacon) – 5:00

Disc 2

1. "Get Down, Make Love" (Mercury) (not included on the China or Hong Kong release) – 3:39
2. "Guitar Solo " (May) – 6:22
3. "Under Pressure" (Queen/Bowie) – 3:47
4. "Fat Bottomed Girls" (May) (not included on the China or Hong Kong release) - 5:25
5. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (Mercury) – 4:15
6. "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Mercury) – 5:38
7. "Tie Your Mother Down" (May) – 4:09
8. "Another One Bites the Dust" (Deacon) – 3:49
9. "Sheer Heart Attack" (Taylor) – 3:25
10. "We Will Rock You" (May) – 2:08
11. "We Are the Champions" (Mercury) – 3:28
12. "God Save the Queen" (Trad. arr. May) – 1:24

DVD bonus material

• MK Bowl backstage interview
• Freddie Mercury interview
• Brian May and Roger Taylor interviews
• Songs from concert at Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria on 12 May 1982
  1. Another One Bites the Dust
  2. We Will Rock You
  3. We Are the Champions
  4. God Save the Queen
• Songs from concert at Seibu Lions Stadium, Tokorozawa, Japan on 3 November 1982
  1. Flash / The Hero
  2. Now I'm Here
  3. Impromptu
  4. Put Out the Fire
  5. Dragon Attack
  6. Now I'm Here (Reprise)
  7. Calling All Girls
  8. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)
• Photo gallery (Calling All Girls)

Personnel

• Freddie Mercury - lead vocals, piano, acoustic guitar on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
• Brian May - guitars, vocals, piano on "Save Me"
• Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, vocals, lead vocals on verses of "Action This Day", co-lead vocal on "Sheer Heart Attack"
• John Deacon - bass guitar, rhythm guitar on "Staying Power", additional backing vocals on "Somebody to Love" and "Back Chat"
• Morgan Fisher - keyboards, piano
• Justin Shirley-Smith - mix producer
• Kris Fredriksson - pro tools hd
• Reinhold Mack - recording engineer
• Mick McKenna - second recording engineer
• Kevin Metcalfe - mastering
• Richard Gray - artwork
• Denis O'Regan - photography

Charts and certifications

References

External links

• Official YouTube videos: "Guitar Solo" (Live at the Bowl), Queen + Paul Rodgers - "Guitar Solo"
• Queen official website: Discography: On Fire Live At The Bowl (includes no lyrics)
• Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl at the Internet Movie Database
• Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl at AllMovie