by Georg Purvis
May 13: Congresscentrum, Hamburg, Germany
May 14: Jahrunderhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
May 16: Philipshalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
May 17: Ahoy Hall, Rotterdam, Holland
May 19: Sporthalle, Basle, Switzerland
Queen hadn’t toured Europe since December 1974, and a lot had changed in the intervening two-and-a-half years. In order to ensure decent ticket sales, the band scheduled a brief tour through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland and Switzerland, performing eight shows in eight cities over a two-week period. The set list remained largely unchanged except for the addition of ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ to the medley, though John Deacon had reported in the spring issue of the annual fan club magazine that “We hope to include material from our forthcoming album, if we have time to rehearse it well enough before we hit the road.” It’s unlikely that he was referring to ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ and ‘Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to......’, both performed for the first time on these dates, so that begs the question: did the band record any material during the two-month break between dates in North America and Europe?
The band were relieved when tickets for the eight shows sold out reasonably quickly, with the penultimate show in Rotterdam (their second ever appearance in Holland) selling out within an hour of going on sale. Following the show, the band appeared at an EMI reception held aboard a boat in which Queen were rewarded with 38 silver, gold and platinum discs for record sales in the country. The tour concluded in Basle on 19 May, and the band had only a brief period in which to relax before moving on to a tour of their home country.
A DAY AT THE RACES UK TOUR
23 MAY TO 7 JUNE 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’, ‘I’m A Man’, ‘Mannish Boy’, ‘Lucille’, ‘Procession’
Itinerary:
May 23/24: Hippodrome, Bristol
May 26/27: Gaumont, Southampton
May 29: Bingley Hall, Stafford
May 30/31: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
June 2/3: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
June 6/7: Earl’s Court Arena, London
The set list for Queen’s first tour in the UK since September 1976 hadn’t changed from the European leg, though ‘I’m A Man’, ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘Lucille’ all made rare appearances; the Queen II track ‘Procession’ replaced the A Day At The Races guitar intro as the opening music played on the PA system for the two Earl’s Court Arena shows. In Greg Brooks’ Queen Live: A Concert Documentary, he states that ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ was performed during the Liverpool concerts in June, but this is improbable, given that Paul McCartney and Denny Laine wouldn’t even write the song until August.
This tour saw Queen, and especially Freddie, at their most regal, obviously taking pride in being back on home turf after travelling to all corners of the world. The two final dates at Earl’s Court Arena were treated as the band’s true homecoming: Led Zeppelin had sold out five nights there two years earlier, and it was seen at the time as the place for a band to play. They pulled out all the stops for the last night of their UK tour, with a brand new lighting rig in the shape of a crown – an appropriate gesture, considering it was Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee that year. Realizing the significance, the band recorded and filmed both shows with the intention of releasing the result as their first live album and video, but the idea was dropped, ostensibly so that Queen could work on News Of The World instead.
This marked the height of Queen’s total disconnect from the press. With punk and New Wave displacing the old wave, one-time supporters of Queen suddenly became detractors, and took every opportunity to rake the band over the coals. At least Record Mirror’s review of the Southampton show was positive: “As stage super egos go, [Freddie’s] must be one of the largest – but why not? He’s got a great voice and he’s one of the very best rock pianists around ... After kicking off with ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, Queen trod a little uncertainly at first with some dangerous lapses in the show’s pace and mood. Happily, about two-thirds of the way through the two hour show they went into ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and suddenly everything clicked. From then on the atmosphere was electric. The concert had crossed that invisible barrier that separates the good from the great and became the kind of evening no one would forget for a long time.” The Earl’s Court review, too, from the same magazine was positive: “Mercury, his face one minute angelic and sweet, the next evil and dark, spits the lyrics [to ‘Stone Cold Crazy’] out at you. Dry ice billows over the stage floor as they move into overdrive for ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ and the place is filled with May’s guitar work as he displays his supersonic style. Mercury moves to the front of the stage tossing red and white carnations out to the tentacles of hands that plead for them and him. Then with one more almighty flash, the stage is left empty – they’ve gone! More, more, more, more and hand clapping gathers momentum, screams and shouts echo around the gigantic hall as they step back on to the stage. Launching into ‘Liar’, May, his face streaming sweat, pushes out a guitar solo that many a person would be envious of.”
Not all was rosy, though. Melody Maker was especially vicious of the band’s performance at the Bristol Hippodrome: “On the evidence of this gig, at least, there was little to suggest that [the band] still tackled their set with any serious degree of commitment or genuine enthusiasm, with the result that their much-vaunted effects seemed wholly excessive, and their music hollow and wimpish. A case of innumerable layers of gloss and veneer wrapped around a band doing little more than going through the motions, an experience that’s about as entertaining as a knee in the groin.” The Times was dismissive of Earl’s Court: “I had hoped to fly in the face of fashion and give last night’s concert an enthusiastic notice. It turned out to be one of those events that justify the emergence of the new wave bands, the triumph of technology over music. Queen have long been accused of being mere technicians and certainly their exploitation of a phenomenal barrage of equipment was quite breathtaking ... But, as befits our national condition, everything was over inflated. The lighting, although magnificently timed and controlled, began to take over the music; the barrage of smoke bombs, Freddie Mercury’s costume changes, including one that must have been a Shirley Bassey reject, and his cavorting round the stage, all seemed imposed on the songs to make them more entertaining ... Through all the noise, which for this hall was reasonably good, and all the superficial excitement, I felt there was a coldness on stage, not to the performance, but to the music itself, as if this was just another way to fill an evening.”
While their critical appreciation was at an all-time low, the fans couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. In Stafford, the band were stunned to hear the audience singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ in the interim between the regular set and the encore. Written by Rodgers and Hammerstein and from the 1945 musical Carousel, the song was adapted by fans of the Liverpool Football Club in the early 1960s, and was immediately synonymous with staunch loyalty. “The audience was responding hugely, and they were singing along with everything we did,” an emotional Bria
n later recalled. “I remember talking to Freddie about it, and I said, ‘Obviously, we can no longer fight this. This has to be something which is part of our show and we have to embrace it,’ the fact that people want to participate – and, in fact, everything becomes a two-way process now. And we sort of looked at each other and went, ‘Hmm. How interesting’.” The two responded to this by writing the ultimate audience participation anthems: ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’.
‘WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS’ VIDEO SHOOT
6 OCTOBER 1977
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, tambourine), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals)
Repertoire: ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘White Man’, ‘The Prophets Song’, ‘Liar’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (intro), ‘Now I’m Here’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’
Following the video shoot for ‘We Are The Champions’, which marked the first time that the fan club was asked to participate in a Queen promo, the band came back on stage to perform a short, impromptu set as a token of their gratitude. The brief ten-song set was unique in that it didn’t follow the structure of previous or subsequent set lists. The band essentially presented their most popular concert favourites, with a rare encore of ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’, which hadn’t been performed during the A Day At The Races tours – and, indeed, would never be performed again.
NEWS OF THE WORLD NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
11 NOVEMBER TO 22 DECEMBER 1977
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’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Doing All Right’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’, ‘White Christmas’
Itinerary:
November 11: Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, Maine
November 12: Boston Gardens, Boston, Massachusetts
November 13: Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts
November 15: Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
November 16: Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut
November 18/19: Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
November 21: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
November 23/24: The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 25: Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia
November 27: Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland, Ohio
November 29: Capitol Center, Washington, D.C.
December 1/2: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
December 4: University Arena, Dayton, Ohio
December 5: Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois
December 8: The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia
December 10: Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas
December 12: The Summit, Houston, Texas
December 15: Aladdin Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
December 16: Sports Arena, San Diego, California
December 17: County Coliseum, Oakland, California
December 20/21: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California
December 22: Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles, California
Following the completion of News Of The World in September 1977, the band took a short break to work on other projects and then embarked on their second full tour of the USA that year, though it would only span a little over five weeks – relatively small in comparison to their previous American tours.
Late in October, the band started rehearsals with a completely revised set list. Gone was ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ as the opener (instead becoming the final performance before the encores), while ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Ogre Battle’ and ‘Sweet Lady’ were all dropped permanently. Instead, the band added an exciting new rendition of ‘We Will Rock You’, restructured from the stripped back original into a blazing rock performance, opened the shows, while other News Of The World tracks – ‘Get Down, Make Love’, ‘Spread Your Wings’, ‘It’s Late’, ‘My Melancholy Blues’, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ – were sprinkled liberally throughout the set, offering a good representation of the new stylistic changes on their latest release.
The medley, too, benefited from a minor shake-up, with Roger’s ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ added, marking the first time that Roger provided lead vocals on his own composition, and would become a live favourite for the next four years. While Brian and Roger would continue to sing their own compositions on Jazz and The Game, Roger would be the only member of the band to get a solo vocal spot in the live shows. Lucky for Brian, then, that his solo came in the form of a nightly guitar showcase, which showed no signs of exiting the set at any time. Strangely, ‘Brighton Rock’ would become the second performance of the night, and only then would it be performed almost exactly as it was on Sheer Heart Attack. Brian’s solo would come later in the show, following ‘White Man’, and would make extensive use of the band’s massive lights set-up.
Unusually, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ did not conclude the shows; instead, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’ would be the final songs, remaining so until May 1978, though the band would occasionally change the order around on subsequent tours.
After rehearsals concluded, the band flew to New Haven, Connecticut, taking over the Metro Coliseum for final preparations. Their equipment list by now totalled a massive 60 tons, with a specially modified lighting rig resembling a crown that had been premiered at Earl’s Court Arena in June. The stage had expanded to include three catwalks and two raised platforms flanking the main stage, a layout the band would use to good effect not only on this tour but on subsequent tours as well.
The band’s image had started to change drastically by this point. Freddie hadn’t quite yet abandoned the skintight suits, though leather was starting to make its way into his wardrobe; he would generally enter the stage wearing black-and-white diamond-patterned tights beneath an oversized, black leather jacket. The transformation from tights to leather would take place by the time of the Jazz tour the following year. Roger and Brian’s look hardly changed, with both preferring comfortable clothing as opposed to Freddie’s flashier threads. John, too, had abandoned the overalls he had worn on the previous tour for a more subdued appearance, though his hair had changed dramatically: some time before the News Of The World sessions started in July, he had chosen to crop his hair severely, causing both band and crew to refer to him as The Birdman (of Alcatraz).
The tour started on 11 November in Portland, Maine and was notable for the first of two known performances of Brian’s ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’, with Freddie on vocals; the song would be performed again the following night before being retired permanently. One of the other new additions was far more successful and stuck around for many years: Freddie’s A Night At The Opera masterpiece, ‘Love Of My Life’, was premiered at this show as well, and was performed differently from the album version. Brian and Freddie would be perched on stools front and centre, with Brian on an acoustic guitar and Freddie singing lead vocals; at this stage, it hadn�
�t yet become common for the fans to take over the singing of this song.
Following Portland, the tour wound its way through north-eastern America, though Queen were travelling in style this time around: they had been able to afford their own private jet, which was agreed to with some slight resistance since commercial flights were considered to be a far safer alternative. The band flew to Norfolk, Virginia after their performance at The Spectrum in Philadelphia on 24 November to attend a showing of artist Frank Kelly Freas, who had painted the reworking of the News Of The World album sleeve.
The following week saw their first appearance of the tour at Madison Square Garden, and it proved to be a momentous performance. When he bounded on stage for the first encore of ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’, Freddie donned a jacket and hat with New York Yankees logos, much to the wild applause of the audience. That baseball team had just won the World Series and had adopted ‘We Are The Champions’ as their team song; Freddie’s gesture was all too appropriate, and the band’s first encore was suitably extended to allow for more audience participation.
Because the tour dates were taking place in late November and early December, the climate was unpredictable in the northern states, many concerts coming close to cancellation as a result. One interesting example occurred at the University Of Dayton in Ohio on 4 December. University officials deemed the weather too dangerous and duly cancelled, but the band insisted on performing anyway. The band went on to play to 2000 appreciative fans, just 800 short of capacity.
On 8 December 8, the BBC’s ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris arrived in Texas (while the band were in Atlanta) with a film crew to cover Queen’s two shows in the Lonestar State: one at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth on 10 December, another the following evening at The Summit in Houston. The resulting footage was intended for a documentary that was apparently never completed; while the Houston show was filmed and would later be shown at Fan Club conventions over the years, the closest any of the material came to official release would be on the 1989 Rare Live video collection. The performance at The Summit has often been regarded as not only Queen’s finest show of the tour, but of their entire career. Though that judgment doesn’t take into account a multitude of guitar problems, the band were definitely on top form that night, and it remains a shame that the show has yet to be officially released.
