Artist | Queen + Paul Rodgers |
---|---|
Date | 14.04.2005 |
Venue | Olympiahalle |
City | Munich |
Country | Germany |
Setlist | 01. Intro: It's A Beautiful Day Ross Robertson / DJ Koma 2005 techno mix [tape] 02. Intro: Lose Yourself [tape - Eminem] 03. Intro: Reachin' Out (Paul on vocals + Spike keyboards only) 04. Tie Your Mother Down (Paul on vocals) 05. I Want To Break Free (Paul on vocals) 06. Fat Bottomed Girls (Paul on vocals) 07. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Paul on vocals + guitar) 08. Say It's Not True (Roger on vocals) 09. '39 (Brian on vocals & guitar) 10. Love Of My Life (Brian on vocals & guitar) 11. Hammer To Fall slow/fast (Brian and Roger on vocals) 12. Let There Be Drums 13. I'm In Love With My Car (Roger on vocals and drums!) 14. Guitar solo 15. Last Horizon 16. These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Roger on vocals) 17. Radio Ga Ga (Roger and Paul on vocals) 18. Can't Get Enough (Paul on vocals) 19. A Kind Of Magic (Paul on vocals) 20. I Want It All (Paul on vocals) 21. Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie and Paul on vocals) 22. The Show Must Go On (Paul on vocals) 23. All Right Now (Paul on vocals) 24. We Will Rock You (Paul on vocals) 25. We Are The Champions (Paul on vocals) 26. God Save The Queen |
Support band | none or unknown |
Attendance | 10000 |
Audio recording | Length: 115:47 Quality: VG+ [a very enjoyable recording] No download link available |
Video - information | Two audience recordings - one is complete, the other one covers the first half of the concert. Also some bad-quality videos from photo camera exist. |
Bits and pieces | During Let There Be Drums Roger dropped one of his drumsticks (by mistake) and kept drumming with his left hand only for a while :-) For the very first time Roger's bass drum logo was the new 2005 tour crest (it was later also used in Stockholm). |
Line-up | Paul Rodgers (lead vocals, acoustic guitar) Brian May (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, lead/backing vocals) Roger Taylor (drums, congas, lead/backing vocals) Jamie Moses (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) Danny Miranda (bass guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) Spike Edney (keyboards, backing vocals) |
Brian May, Roger Taylor and Mercury's successor Paul Rodgers commemorate the good old rock era
The Show Must Go On – Freddie Mercury recorded this song, but never came to celebrate it with a live performance. Almost 14 years after his death from Aids, another singer, Paul Rodgers, whom Mercury himself knew and according to guitarist Brian May rated very much, was making up for this. The former singer of the bands Free and Bad Company did his new job very well in the sold-out Olympiahalle in Munich on Thursday night. It was loud, it rocked, crashed and clattered – it was a Queen-quake that could only be produced by May's amazing guitar sound, Roger Taylor's thundering drums and the indestructible song catalogue of this band.
May delivered the slogan before the tour that people should simply come for enjoyment's sake. From the first beats of 'Tie Your Mother Down' onwards, the two active members of the original Queen line-up, with Paul Rodgers and the valiant backing musicians on bass, rhythm guitar and keyboards, allowed no doubt that this night was devoted to all those who still want it all: 'Fat Bottomed Girls', 'This Thing Called Love' (sic), 'A Kind Of Magic' , and - with video recordings of Mercury –'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Forming the encore of the two-hour-long show were 'We Will Rock You', 'We Are The Champions' and Rodger's indestructible rock classic 'All Right Now'.
At the start May affirmed that without the wondrous meeting of the three at a British show last September there would have been no Queen tour nineteen years after the last with Mercury. All these years May and Taylor had not, at best, excluded the possibility of a Queen comeback, but had found neither George Michael nor the young whippersnapper Robbie Williams suitable to occupy the place of Freddie.
And Rodgers does not try to imitate Mercury at all. True, he twirls the microphone stand around, but in everything he appears and sounds somewhat more earthy and bluesy. On 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love' May and Taylor well and truly paid tribute to Bad Company. 'All Right Now' became the climax, at which Rodgers confidently called on May, before the solo, to "Take the people higher".
Taylor and May also presented solos to the audience in which age-wise a good mixture of all Champions from youth to senior citizens was represented. Taylor sang a relatively new composition in honour of Nelson Mandela and his fight against Aids: 'Say It Isn't So' (sic). May related how he still had to keep pinching himself to be sure that he was really standing on the stage at a Queen concert: "You have kept the Queen spirit alive for 19 years – thank you!" Then he played acoustic guitar in the quietest part of the concert to 'Love Of My Life' as a 'song for Freddie'. Then he led on to a version of 'Hammer To Fall' which was restrained at first, before the band joined in with full force. 'Waiting for the hammer to fall', the lyrics state – in the concert a special tribute to the loyal audience was made from those words.
There followed an excellent drum solo from Taylor to the classic instrumental 'Wiped Out' before May performed an unbelievable guitar solo. In Taylor's 'Days of Our Lifes' (sic) Mercury was again on the video screen. 'I Want To Break Free' and 'Radio Gaga' were also part of the performance. Queen's music has an everlasting magic, even if it cannot ever again be sung by Freddie Mercury. Music also has to be played in order to live on, and to that idea May and Taylor, who, after the sale of 150 million discs are now really financially independent, appear to have devoted themselves. A Queen concert with both of them plus Rodgers is - and remains - a perfect rock show. What is missing is a few new songs from the three of them – whether under the name of Queen or whatever.