by Georg Purvis
QUEEN II UK TOUR
1 MARCH TO 2 APRIL 1974
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals)
Repertoire: ‘Procession’, ‘Father To Son’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Great King Rat’, ‘Hangman’, ‘Son And Daughter’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Liar’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ / ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’ / ‘Stupid Cupid’ / ‘Be Bop A Lula’ / ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (reprise), ‘Big Spender’, ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’
Itinerary:
March 1: Winter Gardens, Blackpool
March 2: Friars, Aylesbury
March 3: Guildhall, Plymouth
March 4: Festival Hall, Paignton
March 8: Locarno, Sunderland
March 9: Corn Exchange, Cambridge
March 10: Greyhound, Croydon
March 12: Roundhouse, Dagenham
March 14: Town Hall, Cheltenham
March 15: University, Glasgow
March 16: University, Stirling
March 19: Winter Gardens, Cleethorpes
March 20: University, Manchester
March 22: Civic Centre, Canvey Island
March 23: Links Pavilion, Cromer
March 24: Woods Leisure Centre, Colchester
March 26: Palace Lido, Douglas, Isle of Man
March 28: University, Aberystwyth
March 29: The Gardens, Penzance
March 30: Century Ballroom, Taunton
March 31: Rainbow Theatre, London
April 2: Barbarella’s, Birmingham (postponed from 17 March)
Queen’s second major tour of the UK was already planned by the time ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ was released as their second single, but the track’s unexpected success helped make this tour their first sell-out. However, the first night in Blackpool got off to an inauspicious start when the van carrying their lighting rig was delayed, resulting in a late start.
The tour saw little change from the previous set list, though ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ and ‘Doing All Right’ were added, with Freddie perched at the piano for the first time. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Medley now appeared as an encore, with ‘Big Spender’ and ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’ becoming the second and final encore; ‘Liar’ concluded the regular set. Nutz supported the band on this tour, and were well liked by Queen; when it became clear that Nutz’s management hadn’t booked proper hotels, instead having them stay in dingy bungalows, Freddie exchanged words with their manager and offered to let the band stay with Queen when space permitted.
It’s rare that a flash of inspiration can be pinpointed to a specific time or place, but while the band were tuning up before their show in Plymouth, they overheard the audience singing ‘God Save The Queen’. Appreciating the gesture, the band would later record a version of the national anthem during sessions for Sheer Heart Attack, a track used to conclude almost every subsequent live performance.
The tour had been well received up to this point, though press coverage was minimal. Unfortunately, the press was present for the show in Stirling, reporting that “When Queen failed to return to the stage after three encores, fights started. Two members of Queen’s road crew were injured and taken to hospital. Sunday night’s gig at Barbarella’s, Birmingham, had to be cancelled for Queen were without sufficient crew and also had to answer police inquiries at Stirling.” That show was rescheduled to become the final night of the tour on 2 April. In light of the stress and aggravation, and the tedium of assembling and disassembling the lighting rig night after night, the lighting crew announced that they no longer wished to service the band any more. Trident duly arranged a replacement – James Dann – who would work for the band for many years.
Further aggravation came in Manchester when the band’s van was broken into while Queen were on stage; thieves stole John Deacon’s suitcase, which contained many personal items, including photos taken in Australia. Perhaps in an attempt to relieve pent-up frustration, the band started living the rock star lifestyle by having post-show parties back in the hotel which would carry on until all hours of the morning. Following their show on the Isle of Man, the band received word that Queen II had reached No. 7 in the UK, with their debut album finally reaching the charts as well, entering at No. 47. The band’s elation resulted in the demolition of a hotel room, which would subsequently become a further part of their tradition.
The band were convinced they’d be unable to sell out the prestigious Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park; promoter Mel Bush assured them otherwise, confident in Queen’s drawing power. He turned out to be correct when tickets for the show sold out within a week. The show wasn’t without incident, however: during ‘Liar’, Brian broke a string and had to jump to his back-up guitar, a Fender Stratocaster. The tour ended on 2 April with the rescheduled Birmingham concert, but not without incident: Roger had bet Dave Lloyd (the lead singer of Nutz) a bottle of champagne that he wouldn’t strip naked and streak across the stage. Lloyd and members of the road crew surprised the band during ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’ by accepting Roger’s challenge.
MOTT THE HOOPLE US TOUR
16 APRIL TO 12 MAY 1974
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals)
Repertoire: ‘Procession’, ‘Father To Son’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Doing All Right’, ‘Son And Daughter’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’, ‘Liar’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ / ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’ / ‘Stupid Cupid’ / ‘Be Bop A Lula’ / ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (reprise), ‘Big Spender’, ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’, ‘Great King Rat’, ‘Hangman’, ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’
Itinerary:
April 16: Regis College, Denver, Colorado
April 17: Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Missouri
April 18: Keil Auditorium, St Louis, Missouri
April 19: Fairgrounds Appliance Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
April 20: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee
April 21: St Bernard Civic Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana
April 26: Orpheum Theater, Boston, Massachusetts (rescheduled from 27 April)
April 27: Palace Theater, Providence, Rhode Island
April 28: Exposition Hall, Portland, Maine
May 1: Farm Arena, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
May 2: Agricultural Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania
May 3: King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
May 4: Palace Theater, Waterbury, Connecticut
May 7-12: Uris Theater, New York, New York
After the 1973 tour in support of Mott the Hoople, Queen were asked back for a North American tour in the spring of 1974. Realizing the potential of a breakthrough there, the band promptly agreed – it was too good an opportunity to pass up. An eight-week tour was booked throughout mid-April and early June, covering most of the larger markets of the country (especially New England, where ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ had received considerable promotion). As befits the dynamic between opening act and the main draw, Mott the Hoople received most of the press, and any reports that Queen got were mostly negative. John Rockwell wrote of the first night at Uris Theater, “Queen, another British band, opened the bill. This was its first New York performance, and the group made a mixed impression. It was enjoyable enough to listen to, particularly Brian May’s virtuostic guitar playing. But Freddie Mercury, the lead singer, is addicted to the toothy, unconvincing posturings, and the other three members just stand about limply, unable to provide much visual relief.”
Still, the tour gave the band not only their first glimpse of America, but showed them the ropes of being a touring band. Brian would recall to contactmusic.com in 2011, “That was when we learned how to be rock stars. Just as you thought the day was over, one of Mott would burst into your room, loaded with bottles and whatever else,
and off you’d go again. It was very, very full-on and very, very exciting.” Roger concurred: “Mott were perfect for us. They had an open-minded, very rock ‘n’ roll, insane audience. They were liberated, colourful – not the normal rock crowd... The shows got bigger, but it was rough. [Freddie] wouldn’t get out of the van some nights. He and Brian had black and white fingernails and literally wore dresses, but the tough audiences in Liverpool and Glasgow and Newcastle loved us.”
The set list was largely the same as it had been during the UK tour, with ‘Hangman’, ‘Great King Rat’ and ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ performed only occasionally and ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ becoming the penultimate number of the main set. The tour progressed without incident until Harrisburg, where Aerosmith and Queen were both booked as support. When arguments broke out between the members of the two bands as to who should go on first, Brian and Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry finally got fed up with the quarrelling, becoming extremely ‘relaxed’ over a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“We were so drunk we could hardly walk by the time the argument finished,” Brian recalled to Jacky Smith in As It Began. “When we finally went on [an agreement was made that a local Harrisburg act would go on first, followed by Queen, then Aerosmith], I remember, through a haze, whacking the first chord and realizing that, among the echo, I couldn’t hear a thing. I played the whole show from memory, and decided to compensate by giving it lots of action. Everyone thought it was wonderful! So I decided two things for the future: one, I would always ‘give it action’; and two, I would never drink more than a pint before a show. I have since stuck by both of those resolutions.”
When the touring entourage arrived in New York on 6 May, Queen felt they had finally made it. Unfortunately, their triumph would be cut short: in New Orleans on 26 April, Brian had complained of pain, and worse was to come when the band moved on to Boston after six nights at New York’s Uris Theater. “The first morning I woke up in the Parker House in Boston, I felt like my whole body was made of lead,” Brian explained. “I tried to eat a grapefruit, which someone had said would make me feel better, then I dragged myself to the bathroom mirror, and saw that I was a deep shade of yellow.” Freddie agreed, saying, “When he turned yellow, we thought he had food poisoning.”
Brian had contracted hepatitis, which was aggravated by the injections given to the band prior to their Australian show earlier in the year, and inoculations were administered to everyone who had come into contact with Brian. Queen backed out of the 18 remaining dates, being hastily replaced by Kansas, which disappointed a large portion of the audience in Detroit: with no announcement being made and Kansas opening the show, the audience started booing and hissing during their set, prompting one of the members to seethe into the mic, “Queen’s not here, so shut the fuck up!”
With his confidence in tatters, Brian was ordered to take six weeks of bed rest while his bandmates took advantage of the forced hiatus and, out of desperation, started work on their make-it-or-break-it album.
SHEER HEART ATTACK UK & EUROPEAN TOUR
30 OCTOBER TO 13 DECEMBER 1974
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, triangle on ‘Killer Queen’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, banjo on ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals)
Repertoire: ‘Procession’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘Father To Son’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Flick Of The Wrist’, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ / ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ / ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, ‘Son And Daughter’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, ‘Liar’, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited’, ‘Big Spender’, ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘God Save The Queen’
Itinerary:
October 30: Palace, Manchester
October 31: Victoria Hall, Hanley
November 1: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
November 2: University, Leeds
November 3: Theatre, Coventry
November 5: City Hall, Sheffield
November 6: St George’s Hall, Bradford
November 7: City Hall, Newcastle
November 8: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
November 9: University, Lancaster
November 10: Guildhall, Preston
November 12: Colston Hall, Bristol
November 13: Bournemouth, Winter Gardens
November 14: Gaumont, Southampton
November 15: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
November 16: Town Hall, Birmingham
November 18: New Theatre, Oxford
November 19/20: Rainbow Theatre, London
November 23: Koncerthus, Gothenburg, Sweden
November 25: Helsingin Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland
November 27: Olympen, Lund, Sweden
December 2: Brienner Theatre, Munich, Germany
December 4: Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
December 5: Musikhalle, Hamburg, Germany
December 6: Sartory Saal, Cologne, Germany
December 7: venue unknown, Singen, Germany
December 8: Congre Gebouw, Hague, Holland
December 10: 140 Theatre, Brussels, Belgium
December 13: Palacio de los Deportes, Barcelona, Spain
Adversity typically yields inspired results: Queen’s third single, ‘Killer Queen’, was high in the charts by the time of their second UK tour of 1974, and its companion album, Sheer Heart Attack, was finalized for a November release. With Brian restored to health, Queen put the events of the year behind them and were ready to start afresh: their Sheer Heart Attack tour would not only take in the usual territories of England and North America, but it also marked the first time the band would undertake tours of Europe and Japan. The tour started in October 1974 and extended until May 1975; except for the occasional break, this time stretch was largely uninterrupted and would become Queen’s longest tour to date.
The UK and European tour commenced on 30 October in Manchester and saw a completely restructured set list: incorporating a considerable amount of material from the Sheer Heart Attack album, this tour also saw the genesis of the medley. Though it would be fine-tuned over the years to include contemporary tracks that worked well together, the first medley consisted of ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ (appearing for the first time on this tour) and ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’. Strangely, another tradition – the Rock ‘n’ Roll Medley – was dropped during this tour: the first encore would commence with ‘Big Spender’, leading into ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’, while the show would end proper with ‘Jailhouse Rock’, a re-recording of ‘God Save The Queen’ being played on the PA as the band left the stage.
The band took to the stage with renewed vigour, and it’s no surprise that these shows have been regarded as their most exciting and consistent. The fans certainly thought so at the time: riots were starting to become common, breaking out on three different occasions in the early part of the tour. “Chaos hit Queen on the second night of their first headlining tour at Liverpool Empire, when fans rushed the stage,” Melody Maker reported. “And at Leeds University, as bouncers were hauling away fans, lead singer Freddie Mercury stopped the show and managed to calm the audience.” One bouncer noticed a sixteen-year-old girl on the verge of being crushed, and grabbed her in time and gave her a new seat on top of John’s amp.
NME’s Tony Stewart hinted at the Liverpudlian frenzy: “Encountering 3,000 Liverpool looners going completely bonkers over a band is an occurence which does rather unbalance and astound this writer. Frankly, I hadn’t expected it. Whether they deserve this acclaim is, of course, a different matter entirely; however, after seeing the Liverpool gig, I think they do. Musically, the band pull off an act that is both enjoyable and entertaining, shifting through apparent disparaties in style that encompass white heat energy rock, vaudeville knees-up, melodic sophistication and hi
gh camp ... Not unexpectedly, stage presence played quite an important part in the act (though it was never used to disguise musical inadequacies. I must confess the sight of Mercury hurling his all across the stage proved to be a visual bonus to complement the exciting dynamics of their numbers ... The gig could have been better I’m sure, but it was still a hotsie.”
Also in Leeds, Roger’s on-stage monitor failed and, despite several attempts to signal his roadie, the problem was not resolved. Backstage, the drummer threw a temper tantrum and kicked an immobile object, causing considerable pain in his ankle and leading all to believe he had broken it. He was taken to Leeds Infirmary for X-rays, and it turned out – much to everyone’s relief – he had only bruised it. The third riot, in Glasgow, was the most memorable: Freddie attempted to calm the crowd, but ventured a bit too close to the fracas and was dragged into the audience by his scarf. Security came to the rescue, and he promptly discarded the offending item for the remainder of the show, dismissing the incident as a “rather undignified affair.” Despite the riots, Brian was especially complimentary of the tour, recalling to Record Mirror that December, “The tour was amazing, we can’t believe it. People said we wouldn’t sell out at this time of year because there were so many other tours around, but we were turning more away towards the end. The audience at the Apollo in Glasgow was amazing. In fact most of the gigs in the north were staggering, places like Bradford and Sheffield. They knew all the songs, even the words on the new album before it was out.”
The tour progressed steadily through the UK before concluding on 19 and 20 November at the Rainbow, a return to the coveted venue just eight months after their first appearance there. This time, with an expanded set list, it was decided that both nights would be recorded and filmed for possible use as the band’s first live album and film, though the end result was vetoed. (In 1992, the concert was heavily edited and overdubbed for inclusion on the Box Of Tricks collection, though it is currently out of print.) Following the show, an end of tour party was held at the Swiss Cottage Holiday Inn in London, during which the band were presented with a brass plaque to commemorate a sell-out tour. Brian was a little more critical of their hometown shows: “We didn’t enjoy the first Rainbow gig, though we’d had a hard day and we started changing things on stage, and there were the lights for the video to set up,” he told Record Mirror, also indicating that the show had been filmed. “It was like Bertram Mills’ Circus – there were so many things going on, we didn’t feel too easy. London is very inhibited, you feel as though you’re in a theatre, and since people seem to be tightening up on bouncers, you don’t feel as though you can run around. We’d like to see a more subtle attitude from bouncers. It’s not our wish that they should be heavy. The presence of bouncers probably provokes more violence anyway.” Not that Roger helped keep things peaceful: frustrated with the impeding film crew, at the conclusion of ‘Jailhouse Rock’ on the second night, he trashed his drum kit.