The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was an open-air concert held on Easter Monday, April 20 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium, televised live worldwide to an estimated audience of one billion viewers. The concert was a tribute to the life of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, with all proceeds going to AIDS research. The show marked bassist John Deacon's final concert with Queen (save one live appearance with Brian May, Roger Taylor and Elton John in 1997). The profits from the concert were used to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust AIDS charity organisation.

History

Following Freddie Mercury's death on November 24, 1991 from AIDS, the remaining members of Queen (John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor) came together with Queen Manager Jim Beach to organize an open air concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury, as well as raise money for AIDS research, and spread awareness about this disease.

In February 1992, at the annual BRIT Awards ceremony, Brian May and Roger Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, all 72,000 tickets sold out in just two hours, even though no performers were announced apart from remaining members of Queen.

Concert

The concert began with short sets from bands that were influenced by the music of Queen, including Metallica, Extreme (playing a Queen medley), Def Leppard (who brought Brian May onstage for a faithful version of "Now I'm Here"), and Guns N' Roses. Between bands, several video clips honouring Freddie were shown, while the roadies changed the stage for the following act's performance.

The second half of the concert featured the three remaining Queen members John Deacon (on bass), Brian May (on guitar) and Roger Taylor (on drums), along with guest singers and guitarists, including Elton John, Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), David Bowie, Mick Ronson (of Spiders from Mars), James Hetfield (of Metallica), George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose and Slash (of Guns N' Roses), Liza Minnelli, and others. When the concert aired on MTV, dubbed "A Concert For Life", U2 dedicated a live performance via satellite from Washington of "Until the End of the World" to Freddie.

Home releases

The concert was originally released in VHS form (usually in two tape releases worldwide), but due to time limitations, the last two songs by Extreme, the first two by Def Leppard, and the only Spinal Tap number were left off (along with Robert Plant's "Innuendo") in the original release. The US release also omitted Bob Geldof's performance of "Too Late God" and Zucchero's performance of "Las Palabras De Amor."

In April 2002, for the 10th anniversary of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the concert was released on DVD and entered the UK charts at number 1. The DVD release garnered strong criticism, however, because the whole first half was not included. "Innuendo" was also not included on the DVD, at the request of Robert Plant, explaining that his voice was in very poor condition and he could not remember the words and consequently could not sing the song correctly at the time. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen, losing a large amount of the original picture.

Performances

Without Queen

*Metallica - "Enter Sandman", "Sad But True", "Nothing Else Matters"
*Extreme - Queen Medley, "Love of My Life" (Gary Cherone & Nuno Bettencourt), "More Than Words" (Gary Cherone & Nuno Bettencourt)
*Def Leppard - "Now I'm Here" (w/Brian May), "Animal", "Let's Get Rocked"
*Bob Geldof - "Too Late God"
*Spinal Tap -" The Majesty of Rock"
*U2 - "Until the End of the World" - played via satellite from the U.S.
*Guns N' Roses - "Paradise City", "Only Women Bleed" (intro), "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
*Elizabeth Taylor - AIDS Prevention Speech

With Queen

*Queen + Joe Elliott/Slash - "Tie Your Mother Down"
*Queen + Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi - "Heaven and Hell" (intro), "Pinball Wizard" (intro), "I Want It All"
*Queen + Zucchero - "Las Palabras de Amor"
*Queen + Gary Cherone (with Tony Iommi) - "Hammer to Fall"
*Queen + James Hetfield (with Tony Iommi) - "Stone Cold Crazy "
*Queen + Robert Plant - "Innuendo" (with excerpts from "Kashmir"), Thank You (intro), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
*Brian May with Spike Edney - "Too Much Love Will Kill You"
*Queen + Paul Young - "Radio Ga Ga"
*Queen + Seal - "Who Wants to Live Forever"
*Queen + Lisa Stansfield - "I Want to Break Free"
*Queen + David Bowie/Annie Lennox - "Under Pressure"
*Queen + Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen - "All The Young Dudes"
*Queen + David Bowie/Mick Ronson - "Heroes"/"The Lord's Prayer"
*Queen + George Michael - "'39"
*Queen + George Michael/Lisa Stansfield - "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
*Queen + George Michael - "Somebody to Love"
*Queen + Elton John/Axl Rose - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
*Queen + Elton John (with Tony Iommi) - "The Show Must Go On"
*Queen + Axl Rose - "We Will Rock You"
*Queen + Liza Minnelli/Cast - "We Are the Champions"

Backing musicians

Queen were backed by the following musicians:
* Spike Edney - keyboards, piano, backing vocals
* Mike Moran - piano on "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Somebody to Love"
* Josh Macrae - percussion in some Queen tracks
* Chris Thompson - backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "I Want It All", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Heroes", additional percussion
* Maggie Ryder - backing vocals
* Miriam Stockley - backing vocals
* The London Community Gospel Choir - backing vocals on "Somebody to Love" and "We Are the Champions"

Reviews

* [http://queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Queen_-_04-26-1992_-_The_Times_-_Freddie_Mercury_Tribute The Times, 26 April 1992]
* [http://queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Queen_-_05-23-1993_-_Freddie_Tribute_Concert_Video_-_The_Denver_Post The Denver Post, 23 May 1993 (VHS review)]

External links

*imdb title|id=0103999|title=Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
* [http://www.ultimatequeen.co.uk/Videos/fmtributedvd.htm Transcript of the DVD edition]