I just saw this for the first time. I did a search but couldn't come up with anything. The package reads Queen Final Live In Japan in Yoyogi National Stadium May 11, 1985. Does "Final Live" mean the very last concert of the whole tour, or the last concert given in Japan of this same tour? How many concerts were in this tour? The reason I am asking is Freddie looks dazed, sick, tired, or strung out; and none of them looks as though they were having a good time. John, however, is quite active - moving forwards and backwards on the stage and bouncing up and down a lot.
The copyright reads 1992, so was this released seven years after the event? The camera work is not the greatest. Even so, the stage lighting is characteristically gorgeous, stunning. At times there is so much smoke going on and flowing forward, it looks like a waterfall. Oh, dear, I can't see Freddie. He can still navigate down the stairs without being able to see them. Shafts of light going through the smoke are beautiful.
Geez, could Brian's shiny white leggings/trousers be any tighter? He has a few costume changes and ends up being in a sleeveless shirt that reads, "I Love (heart)" something, but I can't read the last word. Anyone know? I know Brian is tall. He really has long thighs. With a sleeveless shirt on, he looks like a skinny beanpole as slender as a white clarinet. Brian does not play Brighton Rock. Did he not play his signature song through the whole tour? I thought that was always done, as well as giving Freddie a rest.
Freddie is extremely hoarse. It is almost painful to watch/hear him. He is unable to sustain extended notes both high and low, and where the high notes come in, he drops them down off an on, down an octave (if octave is the right term.) Sometimes he talks-sings like Willie Nelson has increasingly done as he got older. This is not all bad as it gives old familiar songs a different take. And Freddie, being the professional that he is, knows how to compensate. Roger's voice is heard a lot more than usual - hitting all of those high notes Freddie couldn't reach.
It must be frustrating for a performer to be in a country that adores you, and you are giving it all you got, but it is not your best.
By the fourth song, Freddie is a dripping sweaty mess.
I was surprised when he did his be-bop solo as it has so many high notes, but it came off quite nicely as it has more sounds than power needed. On the jacket this song is not listed, and I can't find my Magic Tour Wembley dvd to see what it was called. Wembley was the first time I had heard it, and I assumed it was new to that tour and not done on others. I know on Live In Budapest, he starts to do it but aborts it soon as he intuits the audience is not going to like it, and he says something like, "Oh, that's enough of that nonsense."
It's the first time I heard It's A Hard LIfe in concert. Being slow and soft, it came out pretty well, although Freddie couldn't sustain the high notes and clipped them short. I always have to laugh when I watch the video production of IAHL with Freddie in that crazy, tight, red lobster outfit with the eyes and the feathers. Yes, it would be a hard life and a tricky situation running around in an outfit like that.
In Now I'm Here, Freddie climbs up some scaffolding and hangs and swings from it. It made me very nervous.
Up to this time, Freddie did not say any f**k words, and I thought perhaps he was being extra polite in Japan, but he did manage to throw in a, "Blow it out your asshole," which seemed inappropriate, even for Freddie, considering the venue.
In Is This The World We Created, Brian and Freddie are sitting on stools on stage, and Freddie doesn't seem to come in, so Brian does the intro again. Freddie does a lot of right-arm gesturing-about which seems a bit strange for such a soft and reflective song. At the end Brian hands off his guitar to a stageh
carboengine wrote: I just saw this for the first time. I did a search but couldn't come up with anything. The package reads Queen Final Live In Japan in Yoyogi National Stadium May 11, 1985. Does "Final Live" mean the very last concert of the whole tour, or the last concert given in Japan of this same tour? How many concerts were in this tour?
There were two shows after that one (but not in Tokyo), there were many shows (48?) on The Works Tour. It was re-released few times - release of 1992 is one of them, to my poor knowledge of Japan releases.
I loved your review carboengine! I also have this DVD but I didn't notice half of those details, I'll have to give it another go. At what point did he make that "blow it..." comment by the way? The reason I don't watch this one much is mainly because of the audio. It sounds very stifled and tinny to me..but maybe that's just my TV speakers. I think the Japanese stages of the tours were invariably near the end hence Freddie's somewhat ragged vocals, it was a similar story in '79 (check out Don't Stop Me Now) and '82 (Bohemian Rhapsody).
Regarding the fake breasts, I think they were worn at all the performances of IWTBF during the Works tour as there's an amusing anecdote about them getting checked at customs on the Magic Years documentary!
Great observation!I also noticed that every Japan tour from 1979 and on Freddie is in horrible voice.I have never heard him sharp in any of those shows.Is it the fact that its late in tour?there is a break usually between legs and he usually only needs a couple days for a rebound.anyone else have a clue as to why he had these issues in Japan?
Yes, but the previous perfomance, may 9th, was one of - if not - the best of Freddie during the Works Tour... absolutely great, hittig the high notes as you can hear in the final part of IT's a Hard Life...or in the beginning of STL, but two days later he was , well.. as the dvd shows...
all I can say about that video is that AUDIO SUCKS!...
Keyboards louder than guitars... electric drums or whatever roger is playing: sucks!!... and bass guitar sounds higher than Freddie´s voice...
sucks!... Osaka is better.
As someone else said the gig before that was much better, prehaps the best gig from the works tour with a IAHL being as someone else said very impressive, as well as the entrance to STL, also now I'm here is great, as is the second verse of Bo rhap.
stateside fan wrote: Great observation!I also noticed that every Japan tour from 1979 and on Freddie is in horrible voice.I have never heard him sharp in any of those shows.Is it the fact that its late in tour?there is a break usually between legs and he usually only needs a couple days for a rebound.anyone else have a clue as to why he had these issues in Japan?
Great review, Carboengine! I agree with every word you said.
Brian did play his Brighton Rock solo, but it was cut from the video. That's when Freddie had the time to change costumes. As has already been pointed out, the show from two days before (May 9, at the Budokan) was a much better one for Freddie. A bootleg of that show is really worth finding - particularly the newest version, on the Wardour label.