by Georg Purvis
April 14/15: Apollo Stadium, Adelaide
April 17/18: Horden Pavilion, Sydney
April 19/20: Festival Hall, Melbourne
April 22: Festival Hall, Brisbane
Upon leaving the stage at the Sunbury Festival in February 1974, Freddie reportedly sneered at the audience, “The next time we visit Australia, we’ll be one of the biggest bands in the world.” With ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and A Night At The Opera both in the upper reaches of the charts at the time, Freddie’s seemingly arrogant outburst proved to be correct when they returned to Australia two years later. As with the other legs of the A Night At The Opera tour, the set list remained unchanged, though there were occasional recitals of ‘Hangman’, ‘Father To Son’, ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’. The tour was completely sold out and Australian audiences were more receptive to Queen this time around, which pleased the band immensely; as it happened, however, they wouldn’t return for nearly a decade.
SUMMER UK TOUR
1 TO 18 SEPTEMBER 1976
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, triangle on ‘Killer Queen’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, banjo on ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, acoustic guitar on ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’)
Repertoire: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (taped intro), ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘Sweet Lady’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Flick Of The Wrist’, ‘You’re My Best Friend’ / ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ / ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ / ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (reprise) / ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Son And Daughter’ (reprise), ‘’39’, ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘The Prophets Song’, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, ‘Doing All Right’, ‘Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Liar’, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Big Spender’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘God Save The Queen’
Itinerary:
September 1/2: Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh
September 10: Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
September 18: Hyde Park, London
After Queen returned home from their lengthy A Night At The Opera world tour, they deliberately allowed themselves a rest from both live and studio work. In July, they started work on A Day At The Races but quickly realized that work was taking longer than anticipated, meaning that an extensive tour during the remainder of the year would be impossible.
Four shows in September were offered as a reasonable substitute: the first two dates, on 1 and 2 September (originally planned for 20 and 21 August, according to Melody Maker), were held in Edinburgh as part of the Scottish Festival of Popular Music, and Queen appeared on the bill alongside Elton John, John Miles, Rainbow and comedian Billy Connolly. The third date at Cardiff Castle was also a multi-billed festival, with Queen headlining and Manfred Mann, Andy Fairweather-Low and Frankie Miller’s Full House appearing as support. The fourth and final date, eight days after the Cardiff appearance (which, in turn, had been eight days after the Scottish dates), was a free concert in Hyde Park held on the sixth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death. This was designed as a homecoming for Queen, as well as a token of appreciation (hence no admission charge) to their British fans for their support. Queen’s support comprised Steve Hillage, Kiki Dee and Supercharge.
What was most surprising about these concerts was that Queen still hadn’t finished A Day At The Races, with the four dates falling right in the middle of recording sessions. Towards the end of August, the band halted sessions and commenced rehearsals, though the set still mirrored the repertoire they had performed on the A Night At The Opera tour. There were a few new additions: ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘You Take My Breath Away’ were added, with the latter appearing during an acoustic segment that also included the previously unperformed ‘’39’ and ‘You’re My Best Friend’. These concerts would be among the few occasions when Queen introduced new, unreleased material into a live show.
During the Hyde Park concert a set list shake-up occurred: due to time constraints, ‘Doing All Right’, ‘Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and all songs including ‘Now I’m Here’ and beyond were not performed. The band had been allowed an hour to perform by the local police and, when their set over-ran by twenty minutes, the band were threatened with jail if they attempted to return to the stage. Freddie in particular had little desire to be hauled away in a white leotard, so duly complied. Bob Harris, who compered the event, had the unenviable task of informing the crowd of 150,000 to 200,000 people that, despite their cries of “We want Queen!”, the band’s set was over.
Record Mirror wrote of Queen’s Edinburgh gigs, “After four months rehearsing new material, [they] bounced back into concert with an explosive one-and-a-half hour set at the Playhouse, which earned them a standing ovation. They oozed class, and seemed to be having a ball on stage after their lay-off. They were visually stunning, the lighting effects synchronizing with the sounds, and their musicianship was impressive.” NME, meanwhile, ripped the band to shreds: “Basically, it’s rubbish, a theatrical synthesis of the grossest lumps of regimented noise the sometime power trio can contrive. As they thunder away, Mercury emerges from the wings once more, looking like a frog in a balletic white skintight catsuit, and magesterially conjures up giant flashes that erupt deafeningly out of the stage. The audience do likewise from their serried seats.” Record Mirror was more (reluctantly) positive of their Hyde Park gig, drawing attention to the synchronicity of the band’s deliberate performance on the sixth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death (even calling Brian a “silver winged angel”): “Queen aren’t Hendrix, they’re Queen. Or, to put it another way, they’re Freddie Mercury. He’s an overt poser, a slick precision-like and ultimately professional entertainer who has found his way into that small gang of people we call stars. His performance before 50,000 people in Hyde Park on Saturday was proof that he could stand beside Jagger, Bowie and a handful of Americans.”
The show had an effect on both Queen’s fans and the band themselves, with Brian later recalling, “I think that Hyde Park was one of the most significant gigs in our career. There was a great affection because we’d kind of made it in a lot of countries by that time, but England was still, you know, we weren’t really sure if we were really acceptable here. So it was a wonderful feeling to come back and see that crowd and get that response.”
1977
QUEEN LIZZY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR:
13 JANUARY TO 18 MARCH 1977
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, triangle on ‘Killer Queen’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, banjo on ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, acoustic guitar on ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’) Repertoire: ‘Intro’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘The Millionaire Waltz’ / ‘You’re My Best Friend’ / ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, ‘Sweet Lady’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘’39’, ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘White Man’, ‘The Prophets Song’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Liar’, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Big Spender’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, ‘Stupid Cupid’, ‘Be Bop A Lula’
Itinerary:
January 13: Auditorium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
January 14: Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wisconsin
January 15: Gardens, Columbus, Ohio
January 16: Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
January 18: Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
January 20: Civic Center, Saginaw, Michigan
January 21: Elliot Hall of Music, Louisville, Kentucky
January 22: Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, Michigan
January 23: Rich
field Coliseum, Cleveland, Ohio
January 25: Central Canadian Exhibition Center, Ottawa, Ontario
January 26: The Forum, Montreal, Quebec
January 28: Stadium, Chicago, Illinois
January 30: St John’s Arena, Toledo, Ohio
February 1: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
February 3: Civic Center, Springfield, Illinois
February 4: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
February 5: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
February 6: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, New York
February 8: War Memorial Auditorium, Syracuse, New York
February 9: Boston Gardens, Boston, Massachusetts
February 10: Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
February 11: Civic Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 19: Sportatorium, Miami, Florida
February 20: Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida
February 21: Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia
February 22: Auditorium, Birmingham, Alabama
February 24: Keil Auditorium, St Louis, Missouri
February 25: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma
February 26: Moody Coliseum, Dallas, Texas
February 27: Sam Houston Arena, Houston, Texas
March 1: Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona
March 3/4: The Forum, Los Angeles, California
March 5: Sports Arena, San Diego, California
March 6: Winterland, San Francisco, California
March 11: PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia
March 12: Paramount, Portland, Oregon
March 13: Arena, Seattle, Washington
March 16/17: Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, Alberta
March 18: Northlands Arena, Edmonton, Alberta
When A Day At The Races was finally completed in November 1976, the band made the radical decision to not tour the album right away. Even so, 1977 would prove one of their busiest years.
The band flew to Boston in the first week of January to commence ten days of rehearsals for a major American tour. The set list was significantly restructured to accommodate new material. ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ was dropped, as was the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ taped intro; in its stead was the guitar intro of A Day At The Races, while the now-departed opener would be performed in its entirety later in the set. In addition, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘The Millionaire Waltz’ and ‘White Man’ were all added to the set. The mid-set medley also saw a shake-up, with ‘Killer Queen’ becoming the opening number, followed by ‘The Millionaire Waltz’, ‘You’re My Best Friend’ and ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’. Less frequent performances of ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, ‘Stupid Cupid’ and ‘Be Bop A Lula’ occasionally peppered the sets, depending on the band’s collective mood and the audience reception.
What was most significant about this tour was the support act. Queen soon discovered that Thin Lizzy, fronted by Phil Lynott, had every intention of upstaging them, though the reviews were usually in Queen’s favour. A rivalry was cooked up in the press, but Lizzy’s guitarist, Scott Gorham, maintained it was a friendly rivalry: “A lot of bands get paranoid about not letting the support act upstage them, and to keep you down they won’t give you a soundcheck, etc. But we didn’t get any of that from Queen. They said right away, ‘Here’s the PA. Now you’ll need soundchecks and lights, and what else?’ Together we had the attitude that we would set out as a British attack to conquer America. Of course we were two very different bands. Lizzy was a sort of punk band with street cred, whereas Queen were very polished and sophisticated, so you see there was no competitiveness on that score.” Appropriately, considering that 1977 marked Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, the tour was called the Queen Lizzy (geddit?) North American tour, though this wouldn’t happen until later: Cheap Trick and Head East were the support acts for the first few dates.
Unfortunately, Queen were touring during one of the coldest winters North America had ever encountered. Following the Chicago show, the band were due to perform at Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio on 29 January, but the tankers transporting fuel to heat the arena were stranded with frozen diesel tanks. Ever the consummate professionals, Queen offered to play regardless, but officials decided to cancel the show. Two other dates – in Sacramento and Fresno, on 8 and 9 March respectively – were cancelled, reportedly due to problems with Freddie’s voice.
This tour saw Queen playing to larger audiences, though the transfer from concert halls to arenas and stadia wouldn’t come into full effect until later in the year. The band did get to perform at the legendary Madison Square Garden during this tour, the first – and certainly not the last – time they would appear there. Not every night was a massive success, though: due to the frigid temperatures, audiences were often a little more riled up than usual; in Chicago, they were downright irate. During ‘The Millionaire Waltz’, a dozen eggs were thrown on stage, resulting in Brian slipping and injuring his tailbone. The band stopped mid-performance and left the stage, conferring to continue regardless of the disruption, and came back on fifteen minutes later. Freddie angrily admonished the audience (“Listen, you motherfuckers, we don’t have to play for you if we don’t want to! But for the other 99% of you who want to see the show, we’ll continue.”) and the band picked up where they left off. Brian was in considerable pain, though, and the only encore of the night was ‘Now I’m Here’.
As usual, reviews of the tour were mixed, and while the audience reaction was always wild, critical notices weren’t. A reviewer in Dallas missed the point entirely: “Considering that Queen is one of the most popular shows around – and you certainly couldn’t argue with the enthusiasm of the crowd at Moody Coliseum last Friday – it seemed odd that the best this third-generation rock band could come up with was an array of rock cliches from the first generation ... [This] could be easily forgiven, of course, if the performers indicated it was all in fun like, say, Kiss does. On the contrary, Queen not only took themselves dead seriously, but appeared to mock the crowd for doing likewise.” The Montreal Gazette was downright savage. “Queen’s sound was even more offensive because the group has been hyped as something more dynamic. One sensed that the only way their ‘music’ is to be performed night after night is by sheer memorization. The changes of tempo are so quick – and so facile. There was nothing there but mundane technique, the kind that can be rehearsed and repeated ad nauseum ... Queen is propelled by the sound of its own success. Thus there is flashing, blinking lighting, phoney smoke and all the easily purchased gimmicks one comes to expect from a ‘glitter rock’ ensemble ... Audiences are baited to be carried away by the clockwork energy of performance which is why it hard matters whether Queen turns it on or not.”
The New York Times was complimentary, if reluctantly: “If commerciality is your criterion, it’s hard to complain; Queen has sold a lot of records. But live, the group rocks out in a more direct manner, and the virtue of on-the-spot wizardry to recommend them. Within the not always congenial context of this kind of artsified progressive rock, Queen gives a good show, slick and solidly crafted.” Boston’s The Tech also had kind words: “Queen showed a sell out crowd at the Boston Garden Wednesday night that their concerts can be as amusing and elegant as their studio work. From the first rush of fog to ‘God Save The Queen’, their show was an impressive combination of technical wizardry and wryly sophisticated theatrics.”
Typically, the West Coast was the most impressed with Queen’s show, with the LA Times raving, “The band’s lavishly-designed, strikingly executed show confirmed its place at the forefront of the third wave of the English rock groups. Queen has more power than the Electric Light Orchestra, more accessibility than Genesis, more range than Bad Company ... Queen has the basic rock stylebook down so pat that it has even picked up some of the pretentiousness and excesses of other bands. But none of the familiar patterns has kept the band from asserting its own identity. The group may lean on various pr
oven styles, but it always gives the music a distinctive touch.” In Seattle, the reviewer was positively overjoyed with the show: “It was majestic. It was regal, full of pomp and circumstance. And it was gaudy, mad and make-believe. Which is as it should have been, for last night at the Arena a capacity audience was in the court of Queen, the delightfully clever but slightly barmy British rock group. The group is known for its high energy, wall-of-sound, full-force performances and last night it delivered. It was a lot like other Queen shows here but stronger, more forceful than before. It was full tilt rock ‘n’ roll, ninety minutes of intense, draining, hard-driving music.”
Queen were so taken with the reception that they would return to the States for a second full-length tour in November, this time with a completely different show.
A DAY AT THE RACES EUROPEAN TOUR
8 TO 19 MAY 1977
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar, triangle on ‘Killer Queen’), Brian May (guitar, vocals, banjo on ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, acoustic guitar on ‘’39’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals, bass drum and tambourine on ‘’39’)
Repertoire: ‘Intro’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘Killer Queen’ / ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ / ‘The Millionaire Waltz’ / ‘You’re My Best Friend’ / ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, ‘Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to......’, ‘Sweet Lady’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘’39’, ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘White Man’, ‘The Prophets Song’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited’, ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Liar’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, ‘Stupid Cupid’, ‘Be Bop A Lula’, ‘Doing All Right’
Itinerary:
May 8: Ice Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden
May 10: Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden
May 12: Broendby Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
