Queen: The Complete Works (137 page)

The tour itself was an extension of the two promotional concerts Roger gave in 1998, with eight new songs and a smattering of latterday Queen hits (‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘A Kind Of Magic’, ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Radio Ga Ga’), though the most surprising inclusions were ‘Strange Frontier’, last performed with The Cross in 1990, and ‘Interlude In Constantinople’, used as a suitably atmospheric taped introduction to each concert. The only song in the set list that came from Happiness? was the title track, an encore performance again before ‘Radio Ga Ga’ concluded the show.

Dubbed The Free Radicals, the band differed only slightly from the 1994/95 personnel: Jason Falloon and Michael Crossley were still on hand, while Steve Barnacle, Mike Exelby and Keith Prior were recruited on bass, guitars and drums respectively. The most exciting addition was Treana Morris, who had made her debut on ‘Surrender’, and would later join The Wire Daisies. She would duet superbly with Roger on ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Surrender’ as well as providing backing vocals throughout. As on the previous tour, Roger stood front and centre, occasionally slapping a tambourine (during ‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘A Kind Of Magic’ and ‘Surrender’), though he played no guitar on this tour. His drumming was also minimal, confined to the introduction and finale of ‘We Will Rock You’, the intros of ‘Pressure On’ and ‘Under Pressure’, and the solo and conclusion of ‘London Town, C’mon Down’.

The most striking concert by far was Wolverhampton, where various band members had intimated to fans before the show that it would “definitely be memorable.” It was certainly that: Brian May strolled on stage just before ‘Under Pressure’, which had been moved back as an encore number, staying through ‘Rock And Roll’ and concluding with ‘Radio Ga Ga’. After this, Roger’s last ever date as a solo artist was on 3 April 1999 at the Astoria Theatre in London, where he performed to 2000 people, perhaps the largest audience of the tour.

OTHER EVENTS

A CONCERT FOR LIFE: FREDDIE MERCURY

TRIBUTE CONCERT FOR AIDS AWARENESS

20 APRIL 1992

Musicians, second part only:
John Deacon
(bass guitar)
, Brian May
(guitar, vocals, lead vocal and keyboards on ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’, acoustic guitar on ‘Thank You’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, and ‘’39’)
, Roger Taylor
(drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’)
, Spike Edney
(keyboards, vocals)
, Slash
(guitar on ‘Tie Your Mother Down’)
, Tony Iommi
(guitar)
, Mike Moran
(keyboards on ‘Somebody To Love’)
, Joshua J Macrae
(percussion on ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’)
, Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley, Chris Thompson and Peter Straker
(backing vocals)
, The London Community Gospel Choir
(chorus vocals on ‘Somebody To Love’)
, Mick Ronson
(guitar on ‘All The Young Dudes’)

Repertoire, first part:
Metallica: ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Sad But True’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’; Extreme: Queen Medley (’Bohemian Rhapsody’ / ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ / ‘I Want To Break Free’ / ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ / ‘Bicycle Race’ / ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ / ‘We Will Rock You’ / ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ / ‘Radio Ga Ga’ / ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’), ‘Love Of My Life’, ‘More Than Words’; Def Leppard: ‘Animal’, ‘Let’s Get Rocked’, ‘Now I’m Here’ (with Brian); Bob Geldof: ‘Too Late God’; Spinal Tap: ‘Majesties Of Rock’; U2
(via satellite)
: ‘Till The End Of The World’; Guns n’Roses: ‘Paradise City’, ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’; Mango Groove: ‘Special Star’.

Repertoire, 2nd part:
‘Tie Your Mother Down’
(vocals: Joe Elliot)
, ‘Pinball Wizard’
(intro)
, ‘I Want It All’
(vocals: Roger Daltrey)
, ‘Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)’
(vocals: Zucchero)
, ‘Hammer To Fall’
(vocals: Gary Cherone)
, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’
(vocals: James Hetfield)
, ‘Innuendo’
(vocals: Robert Plant)
, ‘Thank You’
(intro) (vocals: Robert Plant)
, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’
(vocals: Robert Plant)
, ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’, ‘Radio Ga Ga’
(vocals: Paul Young)
, ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’
(vocals: Seal)
, ‘I Want To Break Free’
(vocals: Lisa Stansfield)
, ‘Under Pressure’
(vocals: David Bowie and Annie Lennox)
, ‘All The Young Dudes’
(vocals: Ian Hunter)
, ‘“Heroes”’
(vocals: David Bowie)
, ‘’39’
(vocals: George Michael)
, ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’
(vocals: George Michael and Lisa Stansfield)
, ‘Somebody To Love’
(vocals: George Michael)
, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
(vocals: Elton John and Axl Rose)
, ‘The Show Must Go On’
(vocals: Elton John)
, ‘We Will Rock You’
(vocals: Axl Rose)
, ‘We Are The Champions’
(vocals: Liza Minnelli)
, ‘God Save The Queen’

The day after Freddie Mercury lost his battle against AIDS, Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon held a meeting with Jim Beach to discuss plans for a tribute event. Many ideas were suggested, though nothing concrete was decided at the time; there were other matters to attend to first. The week after Freddie’s death, a visibly distraught Roger and Brian appeared on ITV’s
TV-AM
to talk about their friend’s brave fight. “We are thinking of doing something next year, some kind of event in his name, that will be positive and raise a lot of money [for AIDS],” Roger said.

In February 1992, Roger and Brian attended a ceremony at the Hammersmith Odeon to accept a British Music Industry Rock and Pop Award (’Brit’ Award) for ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, voted the best single of 1991. Both gave short speeches, with Brian speaking warmly of Freddie and Roger then mentioning there would be “a concert that would be a tribute to Freddie’s life at Wembley Stadium on April the 20th.” Shortly afterwards, offers to take part came in from many of rock’s finest vocalists – from Roger Daltrey, Joe Elliot, Robert Plant, David Bowie and Elton John to Seal, George Michael, Gary Cherone and James Hetfield. Also touted were Madonna and Eric Clapton, though both had prior obligations and were unable to attend.

Rehearsals for the show began in the middle of March in Shepherd’s Bush, with Brian, Roger and eventually John deciding which songs to perform themselves and which to delegate to others. (The bassist, who had been hit the hardest by Freddie’s death, was hesitant to partake at first, and Neil Murray deputized on bass for a good portion of the rehearsals in case John decided against performing.) In addition to the guest vocalists, the band was augmented for the occasion by Spike Edney on keyboards, Tony Iommi on guitar, and a handful of backing vocalists. The rehearsals moved to Bray Studios in April, amid fears that the poor weather would cause the event to be cancelled. Thankfully, the weather cleared up and the show went ahead as planned.

On 20 April, Brian, Roger and John strode out onto the stage of Wembley Stadium to a deafening roar from the audience. “We are here today to celebrate
the life and work and dreams of one Freddie Mercury,” announced Brian. “We’re gonna give him the biggest send-off in history!” The first half of the show was devoted to other artists performing their own hits. Highlights included a Queen medley from Extreme, Brian joining Def Leppard on ‘Now I’m Here’, spoof metal band Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean) performing ‘Majesties Of Rock’ and paring their set from twenty-five songs to one (“Because Freddie would have wanted it that way”), Bob Geldof performing a song he announced as having been co-written with Freddie (’Too Late God’), and a concluding speech about safe sex from Elizabeth Taylor.

Video footage of Freddie performing the intro to ‘Somebody To Love’ from Milton Keynes in 1982 linked the two halves, and after he bellowed “Are you ready, brothers and sisters?!” the opening strains of ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ echoed through the stadium as Brian, Roger and John – plus supporting musicians – provided a lengthy intro to one of the band’s best-loved songs. The intro was apparently unintentional; Joe Elliot, who was providing lead vocals, was delayed in making the stage, forcing Brian to sing the first verse. Roger Daltrey then performed ‘I Want It All’, Zucchero followed with the first ever live airing of ‘Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)’, Gary Cherone hammed things up for ‘Hammer To Fall’ and James Hetfield came out to sing ‘Stone Cold Crazy’; the last two were perhaps the weakest performances thus far. Robert Plant had the opportunity to redeem things with the mighty ‘Innuendo’ but botched the lyrics terribly; thankfully, his take on ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ went far better, with a brief snatch of Led Zeppelin’s 1969 track ‘Thank You’ as an introduction.

Brian then came out front for a highly emotional reading of ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’, soon to be released as the first single from his debut solo album, and Paul Young’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ vied with the aforementioned Cherone and Hetfield renditions as the weakest performance of the night. Lisa Stansfield performed ‘I Want To Break Free’, David Bowie duetted with Annie Lennox on a moving rendition of ‘Under Pressure’, then introduced former Mott the Hoople vocalist Ian Hunter and former Bowie alumnus Mick Ronson for a glam reunion on ‘All The Young Dudes’. The song, complete with inaudible saxophone from Bowie and camped-up vocals from Hunter, was an obvious highlight but paled in comparison to the following number, an anthemic rendition of Bowie’s 1977 ‘“Heroes”’ which must remain the song’s definitive live performance. The song was cut short when Bowie dropped to one knee to awkwardly deliver the Lord’s Prayer, which caught everyone off guard – especially the ever-diplomatic Brian, who remarked, “I remember thinking it would have been nice if he’d warned me about that.”

After this, George Michael’s ‘’39’ marked the song’s first live performance since 1979, while his gorgeous duet with Lisa Stansfield on ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ was followed by a soulful solo rendition of ‘Somebody To Love’ – easily the highlight of the night. (Michael’s performance was so strong it started rumours that Brian, Roger, and John would perform with him as Queen.) Elton John then croaked his way through ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (with Axl Rose joining in for the rock section) and ‘The Show Must Go On’, which Elton introduced as his personal favourite from
Innuendo
, a fact reinforced by the song’s inclusion in his 1992 solo set. Axl then came back for ‘We Will Rock You’ and Liza Minelli offered a camped-up reading of ‘We Are The Champions’ that Freddie would have loved.

All in all, the concert raised £12 million for the Terence Higgins Trust. Some fans criticised the Live Aid-derived ‘global jukebox’ style of the event; most would have preferred a more intimate tribute with Freddie’s vocalist friends, like Billy Squier or Montserrat Caballé, performing the songs. More suitable tributes would be performed later, but the Concert for Life remains unrivalled for its combination of sincerity and a star-studded line-up.

BÉJART BALLET LAUSANNE

17 JANUARY 1997

Musicians:
John Deacon
(bass guitar)
, Brian May
(guitar, vocals)
, Roger Taylor
(drums, vocals)
, Elton John
(vocals)
, Spike Edney
(keyboards)

Repertoire:
‘The Show Must Go On’

1997 saw the Paris premiere of a ballet, directed and choreographed by Maurice Béjart, by the name of
Le Presbytère n’a rien perdu de son charme ni le jardin de son éclat
– ‘The presbytery lost nothing of its charm nor the garden its gleam’, a line from Gaston Leroux’s
The Haunted Armchair
.

The ballet was inspired by the life of Freddie Mercury and the music of Queen; the full repertoire comprised ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’, ‘Time’, ‘Let Me Live’,
‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Heaven For Everyone’, ‘I Was Born To Love You’, ‘Cosi fan tutte’, ‘A Kind Of Magic’, ‘Thamos’, ‘Get Down, Make Love’, ‘Concerto pour piano’, ‘Seaside Rendezvous’, ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘Musique funèbre maçonnique’, ‘Radio Ga Ga’, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, ‘Interlude’, ‘The Millionaire Waltz’, ‘Love Of My Life’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘It’s A Beautiful Day
(reprise)
’. It was also a powerful work about AIDS, not only as a tribute to Freddie but to Béjart’s former principal dancer Jorge Donn, who had died of the disease almost a year after Freddie.

In hindsight, it seems obvious that a Queen performance would be forthcoming, but it was certainly a surprise at the time. In the press release, it was revealed that Brian, Roger and John would close the show with ‘The Show Must Go On’, Elton John providing lead vocals. It would become the final time that John appeared in public with Brian and Roger; though the performance inspired Brian to write ‘No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)’, which featured John on bass, John himself decided that Queen without Freddie wasn’t a possibility and therefore retired from the music industry for good.

The performance was a definite show-stopper, an emotional reading of Freddie’s swan song that was later included on both
Greatest Hits III
and
Greatest Flix III
.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTION

11 NOVEMBER 2004

Musicians:
Brian May
(guitar)
, Roger Taylor
(drums)
, Paul Rodgers
(vocals)
, Spike Edney
(keyboards)
, Jamie Moses
(guitar)
, Pino Palladino
(bass guitar)
, Treana Morris
(backing vocals)
, Polyphonic Spree (backing vocals, ‘All Right Now’)

Repertoire:
‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘All Right Now’

This was the event that initiated the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour. Queen were being inducted into the UK Hall Of Fame and were asked to close the event in person. Not feeling up to the task of singing vocals, Brian and Roger asked Paul Rodgers to help them out (as a token of their appreciation, they agreed to perform one of Paul’s songs); he did so dutifully, despite messing up a few of the words on both ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’. The assembled band blazed through these and Paul’s own ‘All Right Now’, and the vibe afterwards was a positive one. Brian addressed the situation the next day on his website, remarking that a collaboration with Paul in the future would not be out of the question. A month later, dates for the first Queen tour in nearly twenty years were announced.