Queen: The Complete Works (105 page)

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 Brian 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.

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