A Day At The Races

A Day At The Races Tour (13.01.1977 - 06.10.1977)

The 'We Are The Champions video shoot' impromptu concert is included here too because the guys still used the ADATR equipment. Some noticeable changes respect the previous tour - John for the first time used two different basses in the set, Brian replaced the six string acoustic by a twelve string one and kept using twelve string guitars until his first solo tour.

Percussion
Roger's Ludwig kit consisted of 20", 18", 16", 15", 14", 13", 12", 10", 8", 6" tom toms, 26" Bass Drum, 14" x 7" metal snare drums, 22", 18" and 8" Paiste Cymbals, 22", 20" and two 18" Zildjian cymbals and a 60" Paiste gong. Ludwig & New Era cowbells were also part of the kit. During '39 Roger played a Ludwig 26" bass drum.
Again a Ludwig tambourine was used for '39, a New Era one for Liar and Keep Yourself Alive and a Ludwig triangle for Killer Queen. The bass drum logo was still the same - white crest on a black background.

Bass guitars
John began the American tour with his usual Fender Precision '68 model, but during the first dates Peter Hince bought for him a Music Man Stingray which John now used as his main. During '39 he played a Fender Precision fretless.

Guitars / banjo

Acoustic strings: 12-string Ovation Pacemaker during '39 (amplified via piezoelectric pickup) and George Formby ukelele-banjo for a short while in Leroy Brown (amplified with a vocal mic). Electric guitars: Red Special was the main one and both the John Birch replica and the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe were back-ups. An Eventide harmoniser was used for some songs, controlled by the sound engineer.

Piano
Freddie stopped using the Bechstein so he just played what he was given. At Earls Court and the WATC video shoot afterparty he used a Steinway. Soon this brand name would get even more familiar.

Vocals
Shure mics for everyone (1 for John, 2 for each one of the others). Freddie's voice was fed through an Eventide harmoniser sometimes, for instance, during the slow part of Millionaire Waltz.