Queen live performances

The English rock band Queen is noted for live performances with an energetic atmosphere. A diverse catalogue of songs, massive sound systems, huge lighting rigs, an arsenal of pyrotechnics and many extravagant costumes helped turn shows into entertaining, theatrical events. As both lead vocalist and front man, Freddie Mercury was able to immerse himself in the audience's adulation and thrived on 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 have expressed great admiration.Fact|date=October 2007

Queen wrote a number of songs, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," for example, with the specific goal of audience participation. Songs such as "Radio Ga Ga" came to inspire actions like synchronised hand-clapping (this particular hand-clapping routine, originating from the song's video, was actually the invention of the video's director, David Mallet). This contributed to Queen's 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. Queen's performance at Live Aid was voted by a large selection of musicians and critics to be the greatest live show of all time. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4420308.stm|title=Queen win greatest live gig poll|author=BBC|accessdate=2006-07-12]

1970s

Queen played approximately 700 live performances during their career with roughly two-thirds during the seventies. Their early performances were essentially hard rock, often heavy metal, but the band later developed a more pop rock sound as the years went by. Many of their future trademarks first appeared in these early shows although some could be traced back to the members' previous bands and artistic outlets (e.g., Smile, Ibex and Wreckage).

Freddie Mercury dressed in an overtly 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-along' whereas it was traditional for Taylor to sing one song. John Deacon did not sing at all and May only 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 band "Wreckage" where the bottom of his stand accidentally broke off), a grand piano, and May's hand-built electric guitar, the Red Special, with his inimitable curly guitar-lead. The lengthy guitar solo by May showcased his unique skills and creativity at using a multiple-delay effect which gave rise to a layered, orchestral atmosphere. 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 keyboardist during the eighties. A semi-informal medley of 50's rock 'n roll songs (especially "Big Spender" and "Jailhouse Rock") was also a staple and usually formed the backbone of an encore. The band's logo, which was designed by Mercury shortly before the release of the first album is made up of their star signs and was usually displayed on the front of Taylor's bass drum during their early tours. Some stage costumes worn by Mercury and May on their earliest tours and a few subsequent tours were created by fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

The concert duration and set-list for each Queen show evolved significantly during its career, eventually leading to shows that exceeded two hours. Queen performed most of the songs released on their catalogue of studio albums during live performances. Queen is remembered for stand-out performances during tours in the seventies which were captured on film. Examples include shows in: Rainbow Theatre (1974), Hammersmith Odeon (1975), Hyde Park (1976), Earls Court (1977), Houston (1977), and the Hammersmith Odeon (1979). None of these recordings have officially been released. Footage from other seventies shows exist, especially from Japan in 1975/1976 and Europe in 1978/1979, but most of this footage is of inferior quality compared to the aforementioned recordings, due to poor camera angles, inadequate lighting and unbalanced sound mixing. 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. In addition, like many acts at the time, most of its early promotional videos featured the band performing the song on-stage as a quasi-live rendition, which could not capture Queen's full live experience .

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. [cite web|url=http://www.lisapresley.com/news/interviews/pop_ent.htm|title=lisapresley.com|author=Ken Sharp]

Queen - Queen II

With the release of the Queen and Queen II albums, Queen began live performing in earnest, essentially following the traditional 'album-tour' cycle throughout the seventies. The embryonic Queen played numerous gigs in and around London in the early seventies, but evidenceFact|date=October 2007 suggests that its first performance was on 27 June 1970 at Truro in England, while still billed as "Smile". The band's first major step toward becoming a recognized live act came when Queen was a support act to Mott the Hoople on its UK tour. Despite being young and inexperienced, Queen's performances were quite impressive, and they consistently received an enthusiastic reception from audiences. This led to Mott the Hoople's inviting Queen to be its support act for Hoople's US tour. Here, the band was able to hone its on-stage presentations in front of large crowds, try out different songs and arrangements, and gain valuable experience with state-of-the-art light and sound systems. The friendly relationship between Mott the Hoople and Queen still remains strong to this day. The Queen song "Now I'm Here" has a line that mentions Hoople.

Jim Kerr from Simple Minds first saw Queen when they opened for Mott the Hoople during the 1974 UK tour. At the launch party of the "Innuendo" album, Kerr stated that Queen "blew Hoople off the stage!". Similarly, Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi saw Queen open for Hoople three times in New York in 1974, and stated that they were "absolutely fantastic", and that he "never forgot" the performances. On this same US tour, a show in Pennsylvania also featured a then-relatively unknown Aerosmith, which was at a similar stage as Queen in its lengthy career.

heer Heart Attack

The Sheer Heart Attack Tour of 1974 was particularly memorable for the fanatical excitement Queen encountered, especially in Japan, despite a substantial number of shows getting cancelled due to health problems of Brian May and Freddie Mercury. Mercury was so impressed by the band's experiences on the Japanese leg that he would sometimes wear a kimono on stage during the encores at shows in other countries. The Australian shows, however, were not so well received. This was the first time where the UK national anthem, "God Save the Queen", was used as the concert finale, and this tour also marked the first instance where the band employed pyrotechnics (during "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited"), making Queen one of the earliest bands to experiment with this "new" live effect. The regular inclusion of a song called "Hangman" into sets of this time became a talking point among fans, 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. The song "Liar", which often clocked in at over 8 minutes, was a highlight for many fans, and was perpetually demanded by the audience. During "Keep Yourself Alive," Mercury would frantically shake a tambourine, and, more often than not, throw it into the crowd. On December 20, 1974, Queen was filmed while performing at the Rainbow Theatre in London. This show appears in the 1992 box-set called "Box of Tricks", and clearly represents Queen's blend of stand-out lead vocals, powerful rhythm-section and backing harmonies, and the rich guitar tone that is characteristic of the band's textured live sound. These qualities are especially evident in renditions of Liar and Stone Cold Crazy.

A Night at the Opera

The Night at the Opera Tour of 1975/76 coincided with "Bohemian Rhapsody" dominating the singles charts, and the band performed sections of it on three occasions during the course of a typical show. It was perhaps fitting that, given his passionate efforts in promoting the Bohemian Rhapsody single on the radio, the concert opened with a recorded introduction by Kenny Everett followed by the operatic section, during which the band waited in the wings. This was 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 rhapsody live, and they could simply allow the operatic section to roll from tape. Most of the so-called Christmas Eve gig was broadcast on the Old Grey Whistle Test – a television music show on BBC 2. At the end of many shows, Mercury tossed roses and/or carnations into the audience.

A Day at the Races

The Day at the Races Tour of 1977 incorporated the first acoustic, or 'unplugged' renditions of songs (e.g. "'39"). Shortly before the album came out, the band played a handful of UK concerts, at which several tracks were played before being officially released. This was followed by a free show at Hyde Park in London that coincided with the anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix. On the tour proper, the band opened their shows with "Tie Your Mother Down", which became a standard opening or closing song on subsequent tours. The band also adopted what would become the standard arrangement for Bohemian Rhapsody on this tour: performing the first two verses on stage, then exiting and allowing the operatic section to be played over the PA system, and finally returning to the stage to play the hard rock section through the end. At this time, Queen first began to experiment with moving and tilting lighting rigs, which required some degree of unseen, mechanical wizardry. The USA leg was double-billed with Thin Lizzy, and their performances were, perhaps unsurprisingly, noticeably heavier. This was also the first US tour that Queen performed at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some of Mercury's leotards were inspired by the stage costumes of the legendary ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. A filming of this show at Earls Court in London remains a favourite of many long-term fans. This was the final tour during which the band played the encore staple "Rock 'n Roll Medley" in its original form, although individual songs from it (most frequently "Jailhouse Rock") continued to appear in later tours.

News of the World

Queen began the News of the World Tour in the U.S. in late 1977, and in Europe in early 1978. This show featured the first performances of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," whose compositions had been largely inspired by Queen's substantial live reputation. The two songs were used as the first encore during this tour and followed by "Sheer Heart Attack" and a "Jailhouse Rock" cover. Later, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" ended virtually every Queen concert. The up-tempo version of "We Will Rock You," which was never officially released on a studio album, was the opening song for this tour and many tours to come. Possibly as a response to the punk explosion, Mercury regularly became maniacal and destructive during the performance of "Sheer Heart Attack" near the end of the show. It was on this tour that "I'm in Love with My Car," featuring Taylor on lead vocals, was initially introduced to the setlist. This was also the first time in which "Love of My Life" was performed live, as a reworked acoustic version, and it became a highlight of the show almost instantly. The fans often took control of the lead vocals of this song, while Mercury conducted the audience as a choir. To make way for the new material, most songs from the first two Queen albums were omitted.

Jazz

On the exhausting Jazz Tour in late 1978 for the US and early 1979 through Europe and Japan, most European dates were recorded and then later spliced together to make up the Live Killers double-album. When introducing the song "Death on Two Legs", Mercury often swore profusely about the bands previous managers which had to be dubbed over on the album. This tour saw Mercury start to wear full leather/vinyl outfits instead of glam-inspired leotards (which drew a public jibe from Rob Halford of Judas Priest) 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. On this tour, Mercury would sing only the opening few bars a cappella as on the album version, but the band would perform the song in full on the next few tours. On the Japanese shows, the band played "Teo Torriatte" with May playing piano.

Crazy Tour

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) on stage. The band would typically drop "Brighton Rock" from the shows on this, and future, tours so that the guitar solo by May (which had its genesis in "Son and Daughter") 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 although this would lead to some minor legality problems. Because of the many small venues used on this tour, the road crew 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.

1980s

The eighties were to be later acknowledged as the decade dominated by 'pop' music (with heavy use of synthesisers) and the subsequent arrival of the MTV generation and Queen, along with many other bands of their generation, were not immune to these new influences. Hence their live sound would take on a more pop-orientated flavour which alienated a number of their long-term fans and critics alike. In 1980 Queen had reached a high point in their world-wide popularity as this would be the 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 "Now I'm Here" from the Rainbow show. Although various members of the band released solo material in the eighties, there is no reported instances of this non-Queen material being performed in a Queen concert.

The Game

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 casual and less flamboyant (e.g. T-shirts and sport 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 many of 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 America that included a number of dates at some of the world's biggest football stadiums. No major rock band had ever seriously toured this area of the globe. Queen's album sales in South America had been quite high from quite early on in the bands career which provided the main inspiration for the tour. Overall Queen played to approximately half a million people in the space of just 13 concerts with the show at São Paulo in Brazil setting the world record for the biggest paying audience at 131,000 people. As a point of note, 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.

Hot Space

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. Almost no material from this album would be played on future tours -- "Staying Power" saw some play early in the next tour, and only "Under Pressure" would become a lasting addition to the setlist. 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. However some live footage from this Japan show, as well as some footage from an Austrian gig, does appear in the special features section of the Queen on Fire release. The 'Hot Space Tour' was to be Queen's last tour of America.

The Works

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 globally released on DVD to date) where they appeared on stage at 2 a.m. in the morning. However 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 (e.g. covering the Wembley Arena show) and bootleg 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 , but was not released internationally. Rick Parfitt from Status Quo also appeared on-stage with the band during one of their London gigs and Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet appeared on-stage with the band during their one and only New Zealand concert.

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.

Live Aid

The performance at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985 was, arguably, Queen's 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 lukewarm 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.

A Kind of Magic

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 and Status Quo were the supporting acts) 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, [Jim Hutton and Tim Waspshott. "Mercury and Me." Bloomsbury, 1994. ISBN 0-7475-1922-6] 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.

1990s

Queen did not perform any concerts in the nineties with their original lineup. After the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991, the next performance was at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April 1992 at Wembley Stadium. The three remaining members (in one of the very, very few concerts they played together after Mercury's death) 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 Cozy Powell and 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 an abbreviated 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, and "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)", which appeared on the "Queen Rocks" compilation album in 1997, was the final song to feature John Deacon. 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.

Also in 2002, May and Taylor (as Queen) performed at the Queen's Day Celebration in Amsterdam before a crowd of 100,000 fans. The show featured American vocalist Patti Russo as a guest vocalist performing lead on the songs "Another One Bites the Dust", "Under Pressure", and "The Show Must Go On". The performance was captured on the cd/dvd "We Will Rock You: Queen's Day".

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 Music 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 two new compositions one called "Say It's Not True" written by Roger Taylor for the 46664 campaign and another called "Take Love" written by Paul Rodgers for the Queen + Paul Rodgers project. "Say It's Not True was performed at most of the European shows, Japanese shows and a handful of American shows. "Take Love" was performed only at American shows. However the band encountered some negative comments 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 largely both a critical 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.

Queen's line-up (live)

ee also

*Queen bootlegs
*Concerts for the People of Kampuchea
*Rock in Rio
*Live Aid
*The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
*Party at the Palace
*46664 Concerts

References

Further reading

* Greg Brooks, Chris Charlesworth. "Queen Live: A Concert Documentary". London: Omnibus Press, 1995. ISBN 0711948143

External links

* [http://www.queenconcerts.com Queen Concerts] - information about concerts and live recordings
* [http://www.queenlive.ca Queenlive.ca] - information about concerts and live recordings
* [http://qliverecordings.tripod.com/intro.html Queen - Live Recordings] - about concerts, amateur and professional live recordings, TV shows, early studio recordings, etc.