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]
1970s
Although Queen played numerous gigs in and around London in the early seventies, 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, try out different songs and arrangements, and gain valuable experience with state-of-the-art light/sound systems and playing in front of large crowds. 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.
On stage, Freddie Mercury usually dressed in a very flamboyant, thespian manner and acted with great camp and extravagence while dry ice and banks of colourful lights were used with considerable affect. 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 recogniseable trademarks were Mercury's bottomless microphone stand and grand piano as well as 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. A semi-informal medley of 50's 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 catelogue 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 (1976), Houston (1977), and the Hammersmith Odeon (1979) although none have been officially released. Footage from other shows does 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. It perhaps should be pointed out that many of their early promotional videos featured the band performing the song in an on-stage setting e.g. the Fat Bottomed Girls video.
The Sheer Heart Attack Tour and Night At The Opera Tour of 1974 and 1975/6 were particularly remembered for the fanatical excitement Queen encountered, in Japan especially, and this was the first instance where the UK national anthem, "God Save The Queen", was used as the concert finale. 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 and May would play a handful of chords on a ukulele. Most of the so-called Christmas Eve gig was broadcast on the Old Grey Whistle Test - a television music show on BBC 2. 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. 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.
The Day At The Races Tour of 1976 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. Moreover this tour first saw the operatic part of "Bohemian Rhapsody" being played over the PA system while the band deliberately left the stage - the band maintained this routine throughout their career. Interestingly, the USA leg was a double-billing with Thin Lizzy and their performances were, perhaps unsurprisingly, noticeably heavier. The News Of The World Tour in 1977 had the first performances of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" which had been largely inspired by their substantial live reputation. Hereafter these two songs would end all Queen concerts. 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. 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.
Most European dates of the Jazz Tour in 1978 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 album, 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. The Crazy Tour in 1979, which was only preceeded 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. 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.
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, he stated that Queen "...blew Hoople off the stage!".
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. 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 approximately 700,000 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 refered 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 to them. 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 prominant feature of Queen's live sound from this point onwards although the piano, played by Mercury, was still retained. The band performed two songs live, namely "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "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 Montreaux in Switzerland where they lip-synched (i.e. mimed on-stage to the recorded songs) a small selection of their latest material. This surpised 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 II 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 condemed 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 Electra 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. In keeping with its unconventional video, on a number of occasions Mercury would come on stage dressed, or partly dressed, in drag when "I Want To Break Free" was being performed - although this sometimes received a rather mixed reception. Again one of the Japan shows was filmed 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 publically 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. 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. Throughout the tour, Mercury would regularly make an impromptu statement on stage that denounced the widespread rumour that Queen were about to split up. Subsequent to 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 editted 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 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.
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 there 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 David Letterman Show. 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 subseqently 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 ocassion where all remaining members of Queen performed on stage was in January 1997 at Paris in France. 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.
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 |
See also
References
- ^ BBC. "Queen win greatest live gig poll". Retrieved 2006-07-12.
- ^ DigitalDreamDoor. "100 Greatest Live Artists". Retrieved 2006-03-24.
- ^ Ken Sharp. "lisapresley.com".
- ^ Jim Hutton and Tim Waspshott. Mercury and Me. Bloomsbury, 1994. ISBN 0-7475-1922-6
External link
- Queen Concerts - information about concerts and live recordings