Queen: The Complete Works
Page 81
With only four concerts left, a tipsy John shoved his right hand through a plate-glass window at the after-show party; despite 19 stitches and a bulky bandage, he was still able to perform the remaining shows with no cancellations or rescheduling necessary. On 22 December, the final date of the 1977 US tour and only three days before Christmas, the band decided to treat the audience to something special: during the acoustic segment, Freddie told the audience, “We’ve kind of cooked up something in the dressing room we’ve never ever done before.” Brian and Freddie then performed an acoustic rendition of ‘White Christmas’, truly a one-off as the band would never perform any other holiday songs live; even ‘Thank God It’s Christmas’ wouldn’t be attempted.
To add to the festive mood, 5000 balloons were released into the audience, though the real surprise came at the conclusion of the night. For the second encore, the band’s bodyguard, dressed as Father Christmas, walked onto the stage with a huge sack slung round his shoulder, out of which jumped Freddie to lead the band through ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’. Also joining the band on stage were the director of EMI as a gingerbread man, John Reid as an elf, three professional dancers, and members of the road crew as an assortment of festive characters, including reindeer, clowns and walking Christmas trees – a suitable way to end one of Queen’s most successful years.
1978
NEWS OF THE WORLD EUROPEAN & UK TOUR
12 APRIL TO 13 MAY 1978
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, fretless bass on ‘’39’ and ‘My Melancholy Blues’, triangle on ‘Killer Queen’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, lead vocals on I’m In Love With My Car’, bass drum and tambourine on ‘39’)
Repertoire: ‘We Will Rock You’ (slow/fast), ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to......’ / ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ / ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ / ‘Get Down, Make Love’ / ‘The Millionaire Waltz’ / ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘Spread Your Wings’, ‘It’s Late’, ‘Liar’, ‘Love Of My Life’, ‘’39’, ‘My Melancholy Blues’, ‘White Man’, ‘Instrumental Inferno’, ‘The Prophets Song’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Big Spender’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’
Itinerary:
April 12: Ice Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden
April 13: Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark
April 14: Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg, Germany
April 16/17: Forêt Nationale, Brussels, Belgium
April 19/20: Ahoy Hall, Rotterdam, Holland
April 21: Forêt Nationale, Brussels, Belgium
April 23/24: Pavillion de Paris, Paris, France
April 26: Westfallenhalle, Dortmund, Germany
April 28: Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany
April 30: Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland
May 2: Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
May 3: Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
May 6/7: New Bingley Hall, Stafford
May 11-13: Empire Pool, London
The band flew home to their families on 24 December 1977 and, after such an exhausting year, had a few months to themselves. Indeed, Queen would perform no concerts until 12 April, their longest break from touring since their formation. When they did finally take to the stage again in Stockholm, the set list hadn’t changed since the North American tour, though both ‘Spread Your Wings’ and ‘It’s Late’ were a permanent part of the set list and the order was shuffled only marginally, depending on the night.
In Copenhagen, the band’s massive lighting rig was unable to be used at the Falkoner Theatre, so they had to make do with only the basic lights. A similar situation would arise in Hamburg the following night, but the rig was back to its full glory for the remainder of the tour. In Brussels, before the band arrived, EMI had arranged for an unorthodox promotional method: a mock-up of the robot from the News Of The World sleeve was constructed and driven around the city before both shows on 16 and 17 April. At the next stop in Rotterdam, EMI welcomed the band by arranging for a small aeroplane to fly round the band’s hotel with a banner reading “EMI Welcomes Queen.” While it may have been well intentioned, the stunt made local fans aware of the band’s location, resulting in droves of over-zealous fans descending on the hotel in question.
A third date was added in Brussels on 21 April, with the band returning to the Forêt Nationale since it was the largest concert hall in the city and the first two shows had sold out so quickly that the promoters needed to meet the demand. However, Queen’s biggest coup would come two days later, when they made their debut in France. That country hadn’t initially been receptive to the band, but when ‘We Are The Champions’ was released there the previous year, it (coupled with its flip, ‘We Will Rock You’) stayed at the top spot for a mighty 24 weeks in all. It was this boost of confidence that made the Parisian concerts so memorable, and the band would return on several occasions thereafter, though not as frequently as they would to Germany and Belgium.
The tour wound its way through Germany, Switzerland, Austria (for the first time, to a rapturous response) and back through Germany again before the last five concerts of the tour, which took place in Stafford and London. These would be the band’s only British shows of the year, and they wouldn’t return to their home field until November 1979. During the first night’s performance in Bingley of ‘Love Of My Life’, Freddie stopped singing and let the vociferous audience take over, inaugurating a tradition that would stay in place for the remainder of Queen’s live career. The last three shows in London were reportedly recorded for a potential live release, but the material went unused. A shame, considering ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ was brought out of mothballs, and the band finally decided to switch around the encores, beginning the tradition of ending shows with ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’.
JAZZ NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
28 OCTOBER TO 20 DECEMBER 1978
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, fretless bass on ‘’39’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, maracas, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’, lead vocals on ‘I’m In Love With My Car’)
Repertoire: ‘We Will Rock You’ (fast), ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘If You Can’t Beat Them’, ‘Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to......’ / ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘Bicycle Race’ / ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ / ‘Get Down, Make Love’ / ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Spread Your Wings’, ‘Dreamers Ball’, ‘Love Of My Life’, ‘’39’, ‘It’s Late’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, ‘Fun It’ (intro) / ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Big Spender’
Itinerary:
October 28: Convention Center, Dallas, Texas
October 29: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee
October 31: Civic Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana
November 3: Sportorium, Miami, Florida
November 4: Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida
November 6: Capitol Center, Washington, D.C.
November 7: New Haven Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut
November 9/10: Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan
November 11: Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, Michigan
November 13: Boston Gardens, Boston, Massachusetts
November 14: Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
November 16/17: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
November 19: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, Long Island
, New York
November 20: The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 22: Nashville Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
November 23: Checkerdome, St Louis, Missouri
November 25: Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland, Ohio
November 26: Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio
November 28: War Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York
November 30: Central Canadian Exhibition Center, Ottawa, Ontario
December 1: The Forum, Montreal, Quebec
December 3/4: Maple Leaf Garden, Toronto, Ontario
December 6: Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wisconsin
December 7: Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois
December 8: Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri
December 12: Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, Washington
December 13: Portland Coliseum, Portland, Oregon
December 14: PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia
December 16: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
December 18-20: Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles, California
So far, 1978 had been a year of relative inactivity for Queen, with large gaps of well-deserved relaxation and necessary tax exile. Toward the fourth quarter, the band exploded into activity, beginning a North American campaign in support of their Jazz album, which would be issued midway through the tour. The band flew to Dallas in late October to commence rehearsals for the upcoming tour, their first since May, but certainly not the longest North American tour they had undertaken.
The band incorporated several new songs from the yet-to-be-released album (‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Bicycle Race’, ‘If You Can’t Beat Them’, ‘Dreamers Ball’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’), but by this point in their career their popularity had increased to the point that they had to cater to the average singles-buyer instead of their die-hard fans; gone were the quirkier songs of yesteryear, as well as anything from Queen II (though fans were heard to shout for ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘Flick Of The Wrist’, and even ‘Jesus’) and instead was a fast-paced rock show, with Freddie taking the words of ‘Let Me Entertain You’ to heart, turning a concert into a spectacle. Thanks to an impressive new lighting rig, nicknamed the Pizza Oven because of the intense heat it gave off, weighing five tons and consisting of 600 lights, and a tightly structured set, the audience undeniably walked away impressed. Freddie continued his businesslike approach to performing, concluding shows either with “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you!” or “Thank you for your time and your money!”, though his banter and audience interaction had become more suggestive and lewd over the year. He would affectionately call fans “a bunch of motherfuckers”, though the press often didn’t get off as lightly; while in America the band were treated with critical confusion, back home Freddie made it perfectly clear what he thought of the press, referring to them as “fucking wankers” who “eat shit in the bath”. Gone were the days of the vocalist dramatically sneering, “The nasty Queenies are back – what do you think of that?”
The band became a more confident unit, too, with the already-tight rhythm section of Roger and John becoming so connected to one another that they would freely bounce off one another’s groove, which allowed Brian the freedom to experiment musically without worrying about the rhythm tapering off. The band would often stretch songs out well beyond their breaking point, and both Brian and Freddie would extemporise on guitar and vocals during their respective showcases. The set may have lost some of the idosyncratic songs that defined the band’s earlier repertoire, but Freddie became more of a natural entertainer, and the band played off of that in exciting ways.
The tour opened in Dallas on 28 October, and introduced not only the new lighting rig, but also a smaller stage – a precursor of what is now known as the B-stage – that was lowered from above, with a bare-bones drum set and three stools; the band would perform ‘Dreamers Ball’, ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘’39’ in this intimate setting, though the concept wouldn’t stick around past the following year’s Japanese tour. Roger also insisted on not only a short drum solo during ‘Brighton Rock’, but also a timpani showcase directly afterward, an indulgence that would be represented on Live Killers the following year, and would remain a staple until 1981.
The set remained fairly static, with only ‘Jailhouse Rock’ inserted as an encore number in Memphis in honour of Elvis Presley, who had died the previous August. During this tour, Queen’s excesses became legendary: during their concert in New Orleans on Halloween, Freddie was in a particularly licentious mood, quipping before ‘Love Of My Life’ that he was going to go backstage for a rest, “Maybe get a blow-job.” Elsewhere, ‘Spread Your Wings’ was routinely introduced as ‘Spread Your Legs’, and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ was dedicated to girls – and guys, on the rare occasion – with prodigious posteriors. The debauchery only intensified in New York, when the band hit upon a good idea. The poster of sixty-five nude female cyclists had been withheld from the US issue of Jazz due to a public outcry from enraged parents and feminist groups. Having dutifully removed the poster, Roger and members of the road crew scoured local strip clubs to offer the real thing to the audience: as Freddie gleefully howled “Get on your bikes and ride!” during ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, five well-endowed strippers came on stage astride their bicycles.
1979
JAZZ EUROPEAN TOUR
17 JANUARY TO 1 MARCH 1979
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, fretless bass on ‘’39’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, maracas, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’, lead vocals on ‘I’m In Love With My Car’)
Repertoire: ‘We Will Rock You’ (fast), ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘If You Can’t Beat Them’, ‘Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to......’ / ‘Killer Queen’ /‘Bicycle Race’ / ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ / ‘Get Down, Make Love’ / ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, ‘Spread Your Wings’, ‘Dreamers Ball’, ‘Love Of My Life’, ‘’39’, ‘It’s Late’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, ‘Mustapha’ (intro), ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Big Spender’
Itinerary:
January 17: Ernst Merckhalle, Hamburg, Germany January 18: Ostee Hall, Kiel, Germany January 20: Stadthalle, Bremen, Germany
January 21: Westfallenhalle, Dortmund, Germany
January 23: Messesportspalace, Hanover, Germany
January 24: Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany
January 26/27: Forêt Nationale, Brussels, Belgium
January 29/30: Ahoy Hall, Rotterdam, Holland
February 1: Sportshalle, Cologne, Germany
February 2: Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
February 4: Hallenstadium, Zurich, Switzerland
February 6: Dom Sportova, Zagreb, Yugoslavia
February 7: Tivoli Halle, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
February 10/11: Basketball Halle, Munich, Germany
February 13: Sporthalle Boeblingen, Stuttgart, Germany
February 15: Saalandhalle, Saarbrücken, Germany
February 17: Palais de Sport, Lyon, France
February 19-21: Palacio de Deportef, Barcelona, Spain
February 23: Pabellon del Real Madrid, Madrid, Spain
February 25: Les Arenas, Potiers, France
February 27-March 1: Pavillion de Paris, Paris, France
After the last North American show on 20 December 1978, the band took four weeks off to spend time with their ever-growing families, finally flying to Hamburg in the middle of January to commence the European leg of the Jazz tour.
Surprisingly, Freddie’s voice was well rested this time around, though it was still susceptible to the inevitable strains of nightly use, being more
or less shot by the time the tour made its way to Japan in April. Nevertheless, the European shows – unofficially called the Live Killers tour – made up one of Queen’s more varied itineraries: not only did they play in the usual Dutch, German and French cities, they also played dates in Spain (their only previous concert there having taken place in Barcelona in December 1974) as well as their making their live debut in Yugoslavia. The set also varied a bit more, with ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ integrated fully into the set, and the vocal introduction of ‘Mustapha’ also being used as a lead-in to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. That song was often demanded by the audience, and while the band wouldn’t perform it in full until later in the year, its reception was so positive that the band opted to release the song as a European-only single. Freddie clearly held some affection for ‘Fun It’, singing a good portion of the song as an intro to ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, though it wouldn’t be performed as a song in its own right.
This leg of the tour saw the introduction of what Freddie called the Royal Family: specifically, fans who journeyed from England to witness the band on their European tour. While this started off harmlessly enough, Freddie would often refer to the fans sarcastically or downright viciously, undoubtedly less than pleased at seeing the same faces peering up at him night after night.
The band had decided to record their first live album during these European shows (Brian even stated at the Belgian show on 26 January, “I think I should tell you an interesting fact. We’re thinking of making a live album, and this is the first night we’ve ever recorded for a live album, so I hope you make a nice little noise, as you are”), with several also being filmed for promotional use on local television channels. Most of the shows, as dictates Murphy’s law, weren’t flawless, and, because the band wanted to avoid overdubs on the eventual release, a collection of songs from various shows was assembled, with most culled from German dates. The lack of specific credits on the Live Killers album has inevitably led to speculation as to where each song was recorded and on which date; the most convincing suppositions are contained on Bob Wegner’s website, which is credited at the end of this book and deserves to be a book of its own.