una999 10.02.2008 14:30 |
Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour. |
thunderbolt 31742 10.02.2008 15:35 |
Great setlists, though. Arguably the best they ever had. I actually think the Magic Tour was one of their weaker ones. |
Jazz 78 10.02.2008 15:41 |
Couldn't agree more! VERY sloppy tour all around! Looked and played great a year later. They went out on top and in fine form! |
ANAGRAMER 10.02.2008 16:24 |
una999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.Without a shadow of a doubt you are right! One good thing about that tour tho was the lightin rig - what a cracker! |
Holly2003 10.02.2008 16:26 |
I was at a couple of Works shows and they were excellent -- VERY heavy. If anyone has heard Stone Cold Crazy live you will know what I mean. Shows were in Dublin, so I had to cross over to the dark side for a bit... |
eiddref 10.02.2008 16:52 |
Saw them in Melbourne and was well pleased. Listening to the tape of the show 20 years later I was quite impressed. Freddie's voice in Killer Queen and Somebody to Love much lighter and crisper than Magic Tour. Seems as though Freddie yelled through much of 1986! |
onevsion 11.02.2008 07:10 |
eiddref wrote: Saw them in Melbourne and was well pleased. Listening to the tape of the show 20 years later I was quite impressed. Freddie's voice in Killer Queen and Somebody to Love much lighter and crisper than Magic Tour. Seems as though Freddie yelled through much of 1986!Did you make photographs / recordings? Would like to hear from you! mrducksoup@hotmail.com |
onevsion 11.02.2008 07:11 |
Holly2003 wrote: I was at a couple of Works shows and they were excellent -- VERY heavy. If anyone has heard Stone Cold Crazy live you will know what I mean. Shows were in Dublin, so I had to cross over to the dark side for a bit...Did you make photographs / recordings? Would like to hear from you! mrducksoup@hotmail.com |
Holly2003 11.02.2008 11:12 |
Ducksoup wrote:No recording unfortunately but I have some pics and the original negatives are probably knocking about somewhere. Done with a fairly basic camera but there's one or two interesting ones. Will scan them and put them on the net when I get a chance.Holly2003 wrote: I was at a couple of Works shows and they were excellent -- VERY heavy. If anyone has heard Stone Cold Crazy live you will know what I mean. Shows were in Dublin, so I had to cross over to the dark side for a bit...Did you make photographs / recordings? Would like to hear from you! mrducksoup@hotmail.com |
una999 26.02.2008 09:14 |
Holly2003 wrote: I was at a couple of Works shows and they were excellent -- VERY heavy. If anyone has heard Stone Cold Crazy live you will know what I mean. Shows were in Dublin, so I had to cross over to the dark side for a bit...Think you mean the bright side! Maybe a dark side then, but look how the tides have turned!! |
The Real Wizard 26.02.2008 12:46 |
Holly2003 wrote: No recording unfortunately but I have some pics and the original negatives are probably knocking about somewhere. Done with a fairly basic camera but there's one or two interesting ones. Will scan them and put them on the net when I get a chance.Excellent... looking forward to seeing them. |
Mr Prime Jive 27.02.2008 14:08 |
Nonetheless, I would love to have a pristine official 2xCD recording. They did it good for Montreal 81 & MK 82... And with this setlist, that would be a killer !! What about Vienna or Wembley Arena ?? |
The Real Wizard 27.02.2008 23:49 |
Mr Prime Jive wrote: Nonetheless, I would love to have a pristine official 2xCD recording.The unofficial Birmingham 9-2-84 recording is pretty top notch. link |
Olegos 28.02.2008 06:19 |
I disagree! Just listen for example to 1984 Brussel 24 August CONCERT. It is very energetic and great. Good voice and vocals from Freddie. Great new song It's a hard life...Freddie hit there all the high notes!!! Also Birmingham 1984...i'm going to listen to it wright now. And in 1985 Queen were very good live in BUdokan 05.09.1985!!! This is one of their MOST POWERFULL AND BEST CONCERTS!!! Freddies voice is fantastic. |
Winter Land Man 28.02.2008 18:35 |
How did Freddie look 'unhealthy' on The Works tour? Looked pretty healthy to me! |
BradJarre 28.02.2008 19:16 |
well,If you compare him to live aid he looked puffed. And the budokan 05,09(its on dvd i believe) is a very good one. |
Olegos 29.02.2008 10:14 |
No on the DVD is 11.05.1985. But 09.05.1985 is WAY BETTER. Way better vocal performance. has some very high notes. WORKS TOUR ROCKS! Best Setlist! =Crazy Tour. |
BradJarre 29.02.2008 16:22 |
Well,on 11,05,85 he hits a D5 in the Impromptu. |
louvox 29.02.2008 18:45 |
una999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.I recently saw Queen live in Japan 1985 DVD (The Works) tour. It was the worst concert by Queen I have ever witnessed. Freddie looked ridiculous in his stage outfit and was obviously having a bad night vocally. Roger Taylor kept playing this awful sounding electronic drum set on just about every song. It was quite annoying. Spike Edney’s synthesizers were all over the place and made their early songs sound stupid & very dated. I never thought I would ever say a live Queen show sucked, but that one certainly did. Had they brought that tour to the USA, they would have been booed off the stage! |
Holly2003 01.03.2008 03:52 |
louvox wrote:In the UK the Works tour got really good reviews, even from kerrang who were more into metal than what Queen were doing in the 80s. The reason for this is probably that the shows sounded great if you were there (and the reviewers were obviously "there"): it's a completely different experience to watching a badly mixed DVD 20 years later.una999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.I recently saw Queen live in Japan 1985 DVD (The Works) tour. It was the worst concert by Queen I have ever witnessed. Freddie looked ridiculous in his stage outfit and was obviously having a bad night vocally. Roger Taylor kept playing this awful sounding electronic drum set on just about every song. It was quite annoying. Spike Edney’s synthesizers were all over the place and made their early songs sound stupid & very dated. I never thought I would ever say a live Queen show sucked, but that one certainly did. Had they brought that tour to the USA, they would have been booed off the stage! |
We Are The Champions 15.04.2008 08:40 |
una999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.Totally disagree. The outfits were the only real bad thing about this tour!! In 1984, these indoor venues were the only ones available in the UK!! Freddie looked OK to me! All acts were playing NEC & Wembley Arena in those days!! I saw the 3 shows at Birmingham - awesome!! Great set - heavy rockers from pre-76, best ever lighting rig so there you have it!! Lots of zoners really dismiss this tour - unfairly IMHO. Having said that though Rock In Rio is their worst live release!! Maybe the fact that they came on stage at 2.00 in the morning might have had some effect. Queen on a bad night and a badly edited release!! |
Winter Land Man 15.04.2008 09:04 |
louvox wrote:Yeah, I have that DVD, really rediculous with those synths as the main instrument on almost every fucking song, I mean, they seemed louder than the guitarsuna999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.I recently saw Queen live in Japan 1985 DVD (The Works) tour. It was the worst concert by Queen I have ever witnessed. Freddie looked ridiculous in his stage outfit and was obviously having a bad night vocally. Roger Taylor kept playing this awful sounding electronic drum set on just about every song. It was quite annoying. Spike Edney’s synthesizers were all over the place and made their early songs sound stupid & very dated. I never thought I would ever say a live Queen show sucked, but that one certainly did. Had they brought that tour to the USA, they would have been booed off the stage! |
danwhite89 15.04.2008 21:21 |
Recently watched Tokyo 1985....It's not exactly the best tour ever. Whilst I admire the "flashback" medly they did, I don't think it sorta worked too well and the other songs I already have (I only bought it in hope that I'd have seen a few more songs live - I only hadn't seen It's A Hard Life"). |
Neinbull 16.04.2008 14:18 |
Only positive I have on my mind is the stage. Specially, during Radio GaGa when the stage goes dark and those big wheels in the background starts spinning. |
danwhite89 17.04.2008 06:44 |
I think would could have been good, albeit potentially very controversial, is if they did three mini sets in one. The idea of The Works album was machines fighting humans, so what they could have done was 10 songs from the synth era, then maybe a guitar/keyboard battle. They return in 70s-era costumes and play 10 songs from the first 7 albums, then go off. And for the encore they play the songs that didn't really have a side, or just general crowd pleasers, like Crazy and Bohemian Rhapsody. Thoughts? |
Lord Kinbote 20.04.2008 15:19 |
danwhite89 wrote: I think would could have been good, albeit potentially very controversial, is if they did three mini sets in one. The idea of The Works album was machines fighting humans, so what they could have done was 10 songs from the synth era, then maybe a guitar/keyboard battle. They return in 70s-era costumes and play 10 songs from the first 7 albums, then go off. And for the encore they play the songs that didn't really have a side, or just general crowd pleasers, like Crazy and Bohemian Rhapsody. Thoughts?Thoughts: I would really have enjoyed seeing a setlist formulated more or less like you said. I wouldn't say that the idea of machines-fighting-humans is present throughout the whole of the Works album, but such could have greatly improved the tour. What appeals to me most is the thought of doing the 80's material first, thereby getting it over with, before going through the far superior 70's repertoire in costumes from said era. It was very thoughtful of you to post this idea. |
JoxerTheDeityPirate 23.04.2008 20:18 |
i was at one of the Wembley Arena gigs and it sounded pretty damn good to my 14 year old ears and the lights and stage were amazing! as others have written,the tour was well recieved by the music press and the tabloids here in the UK,even Smash Hits gave it a good write up.my only complaint was the support act 'general public' were shit beyond the point of being shit and my only regret was having to leave the gig early coz the band were late on stage and we had to get across London to get the last train home so i didnt hear the encore |
Lee Watkins 25.04.2008 08:32 |
JoxerThePhilosipherPirate wrote: i was at one of the Wembley Arena gigs and it sounded pretty damn good to my 14 year old ears and the lights and stage were amazing! as others have written,the tour was well recieved by the music press and the tabloids here in the UK,even Smash Hits gave it a good write up.my only complaint was the support act 'general public' were shit beyond the point of being shit and my only regret was having to leave the gig early coz the band were late on stage and we had to get across London to get the last train home so i didnt hear the encoreWow Joxer, what a coincidence, I to saw Queen for the first time in 1984 at the age of 14. I was lucky enough to see the guys at the NEC, to this day it's still the best concert I've ever seen. I for one can't see why the Works Tour is seen so negatively, the night I went Freddie was awesome and had the audience in the palm of his hand, I have never witnessed a performer have so much control over there audience, it was quite frightnening really, and as for the stage I still can't believe they managed to fit it into the NEC, it seemed to hang halfway down the arena. I for one will never see a better performance by a band on the top of there game. |
JoxerTheDeityPirate 25.04.2008 19:18 |
Lee Watkins wrote:yep,totally agree with you.JoxerThePhilosipherPirate wrote: i was at one of the Wembley Arena gigs and it sounded pretty damn good to my 14 year old ears and the lights and stage were amazing! as others have written,the tour was well recieved by the music press and the tabloids here in the UK,even Smash Hits gave it a good write up.my only complaint was the support act 'general public' were shit beyond the point of being shit and my only regret was having to leave the gig early coz the band were late on stage and we had to get across London to get the last train home so i didnt hear the encoreWow Joxer, what a coincidence, I to saw Queen for the first time in 1984 at the age of 14. I was lucky enough to see the guys at the NEC, to this day it's still the best concert I've ever seen. I for one can't see why the Works Tour is seen so negatively, the night I went Freddie was awesome and had the audience in the palm of his hand, I have never witnessed a performer have so much control over there audience, it was quite frightnening really, and as for the stage I still can't believe they managed to fit it into the NEC, it seemed to hang halfway down the arena. I for one will never see a better performance by a band on the top of there game. i got my tickets via the fan club and we were in row 7 at wembley arena,well i say that,we were in row 7 to start with when the music started then everyone bundled over/past us and we ended up about row 15.still a good night though.i was deaf for about 3 days afterwards and i got into shit for skiving school to see them,but hey,it was worth it lol |
gem27 27.04.2008 16:22 |
I also have the Japan 1985 show on dvd and it is not one of the best. Roger's drum sound is annoying and pretty weak but I have a cd of Queen in Milan 1984 on the first part of that tour and it sounds pretty good to me. Also if Queen were that bad in 1985 and audiences were disapointed would the following years Magic Tour been so well recieved that tickets sold out in record time? |
danwhite89 27.04.2008 18:18 |
gem27 wrote: I also have the Japan 1985 show on dvd and it is not one of the best. Roger's drum sound is annoying and pretty weak but I have a cd of Queen in Milan 1984 on the first part of that tour and it sounds pretty good to me. Also if Queen were that bad in 1985 and audiences were disapointed would the following years Magic Tour been so well recieved that tickets sold out in record time?I have that DVD too. You have to remember that it isn't digitally enhanced. Not saying Queen were subpar when live, but as it wasn't filmed with top class equipment, it won't have used good recording equipment etc. What really bugs me is Brian's guitar in Now I'm Here. |
Mercurial~Phoenix 02.05.2008 21:19 |
Well Roger's drums in the works tour were actually crap!! |
QueenZeppelin 03.05.2008 02:59 |
Hmm link First of seven videos of the Works Tour; this is "Final Live Japan." I personally think they were in top form, but Roger's drum sound...eh I don't really like it that much. Too synthesized/poppy sounding. |
Winter Land Man 03.05.2008 04:20 |
I think some of the concerts for The Works tour, had better versions of 'Hammer To Fall' than the one performed at Live Aid. |
MercuryArts 03.05.2008 14:15 |
As far as looks go, Freddie in the spandix w/ his tighty whitey's showing was awful! Not to mention his "dun-lap diease" he had going on. Brian, being the bean pole that he was back then could pull it off better. |
on my way up 03.05.2008 15:15 |
The Works tour is certainly not my favourite tour and some shows are indeed very mediocre BUT they also performed some truly fantastic shows! These are my favourites: -Brussels 24/8/84 :freddie's voice is wonderful and they sound glad to be touring again -Birmingham 31/8/84: they are very relax during this show and the audience is totally going crazy! Very energetic performance and some wonderful comments from freddie and great interaction with the audience. Truly a boogie version of AOBTD, a rocking Now I'm here and hammer to fall, a dramatic It's a hard life,.. -Tokyo 9/5/85: my favourite Queen performance for the 84-86 era. Honourable mentions: Milan concerts(great quality so great to have) and I also like Stuttgart very much:-) |
john bodega 03.05.2008 16:06 |
Could be personal taste, it could just be the recordings that stick in my mind, but I never liked this tour. Just wasn't up to spec. The concepts were good, I loved the idea of them bringing back old material in the set list (Keep Yourself Alive, etc.) |
pittrek 03.05.2008 16:26 |
Zebonka12 wrote: Could be personal taste, it could just be the recordings that stick in my mind, but I never liked this tour. Just wasn't up to spec. The concepts were good, I loved the idea of them bringing back old material in the set list (Keep Yourself Alive, etc.)Couldn't agree more. The last interesting tour for me was the european part of the Hot Space tour |
on my way up 04.05.2008 07:36 |
Last night I took the time to listen to Glasgow and Newcastle(first night)'79. These recordings are quite bad but the Crazy tour is brilliant. Cerainly Freddie's best tour. I'm sure he was fantastic during the entire tour and I really regret that there are so few recordings. He is not only able to hit the high notes but he also delivers the songs with great passion. Spread your wings is a good example. The 4 versions from the Crazy tour are all brilliant and yet he sings these very different from night to night. You gotta love how he sings 'miles and miles and miles away' during the hammy show. But during the newcastle shows he goes for higher notes and that's also brilliant.Spread your wings has become one of my favourite Queen live songs. There are many brilliant versions and that because of several reasons. Freddie was capable of singing it with great passion even when his voice was not in top shape(jazz tour concerts). Vancouver'78 for example is wonderful. There are no words for Brian's playing(just perfect!) and I love how he sings 'yeah' around 3min48 seconds into the song. Copenhagen'78 is great, Vienna'78, Chicago'77,... They did play a lot of fantastic versions of this song. The entire band plays together well too, with freddie on piano interacting beautifully with the others. the song leaves room for crowd participation too. Fantastic song! I was going to write about the works tour but then I thought about spread your wings.....sorry! maybe I can add this: listening to a song like spread you wings is more fun than listening to I want to break free. not only because freddie's voice was most of the time not brilliant in IWTBF but also because you know what will happen with IWTBF, no surprises(no creativity). That's why I prefer 70's Queen to most of the 80's Queen. |
Yara 04.05.2008 10:28 |
Crazy little thing called taste. I really enjoy the Works and the Magic tours and I think it was about this time that Queen reached its peak as a band technically. All the guys. The way Brian rearranged many of the old songs was outright brilliant and his playing was quite clever and exciting. As the style of the band changed, he also had to change his take on the instrument and, for better or for worse, it depends on one's taste, he did have to play "I Want to Break Free", "Under Pressure" and the more pop-oriented 80's stuff. And he does it just fine, many of the songs, as far as his playing is concerned, sound much better live than in the studio. I love his playing in both tours and there's much to enjoy there, I think. It was difficult for him to adapt the songs to Freddie's changing performances. The fact that he sang the songs differently, not only from the recordings, but from a concert to another, placed a huge burden on Brian. He had to rethink the songs in all their elements: from the structure to the embelishments. Freddie is great throughout, and no one agrees with me on that, which is just fine. lol It's my "favorite Freddie"; he had by then, it's just my humble personal opinion, undergone a technical progress, so to speak. He realized that was the voice he had and he had to make an interesting use of it as a singer - it's easy to sing when we're beautiful, in our 20's, full of energy and with the body in top form. Years of touring and unhealthy lifestyle, to say the least, did take, however, their toll on Freddie's voice, which was interesting. There are many concerts in the Works and Magic tours where he sounds wonderful. His technique is so amazing. He took the harshness of his higher register to his advantage in order to add a lot of drama and passion to the songs; he did reach pretty high notes when the moment demanded and warranted - and then some, take his performance in Live Aid, for example, he hits what can be considered very high notes compared to his natural register just beautifully - but, most important of all, he started exploring his lower register. And that's when things start to get reeeeaaaally interesting. He developed so much his lower register that, for all the pop sound they did at the time, Queen finally manages to sound really operatic - it's in these tours, and the Magic tour is the crowning of this process, that the fusion is finally reached live. In the 70's Queen sounded like a sophisticated rock and roll band, no doubt, but the operatic spin was not as intense as it become later, when Freddie began to explore his beautiful, pristine, clear and rare lower register. He sounds so much like a bass or baritone opera singer in many of the songs. It's thrilling because the lower register is the most difficult to dwell in and to explore. Freddie's natural register is, well, pushing a bit, rare among males. The bass and baritone register are much less frequent among males than the tenor. That's why every fellow of orchestra, I hope there are some here that can expand on that, have such a hard time finding bass singers. Freddie did manage to emulate the bass register quite convincingly and beautifully. His lower register is full, clear, pristine, and irresistibly virile and magnificent, overwhelming - he does sound here and there like an actor playing a Shakespearian King. It's damn good and beautiful. I'm alone there, people who are much more knowledged than me think diffently, and that's great because that's the way I learn, by sharing my views, knowing what other people think about, and so on. We had this "debate" before in Queenzone and I did learn quite a lot. So, thank you all! Bye! |
Daniel Nester 04.05.2008 11:34 |
Has anyone mentioned that this is Freddie at his most visibly chunky? |
Winter Land Man 04.05.2008 23:06 |
I thought he was at his most chunky in parts of 1987, parts of '88, and parts of '89 |
steven 35638 05.05.2008 00:02 |
Well, Freddie did have love handles during The Works tour, but I think he was worse in 1987 through parts of 1989, like Jake said. Magnificent post, Yara! I'm glad you're a member of Queenzone. Never leave! |
mike hunt 05.05.2008 00:49 |
Yara wrote: Crazy little thing called taste. I really enjoy the Works and the Magic tours and I think it was about this time that Queen reached its peak as a band technically. All the guys. The way Brian rearranged many of the old songs was outright brilliant and his playing was quite clever and exciting. As the style of the band changed, he also had to change his take on the instrument and, for better or for worse, it depends on one's taste, he did have to play "I Want to Break Free", "Under Pressure" and the more pop-oriented 80's stuff. And he does it just fine, many of the songs, as far as his playing is concerned, sound much better live than in the studio. I love his playing in both tours and there's much to enjoy there, I think. It was difficult for him to adapt the songs to Freddie's changing performances. The fact that he sang the songs differently, not only from the recordings, but from a concert to another, placed a huge burden on Brian. He had to rethink the songs in all their elements: from the structure to the embelishments. Freddie is great throughout, and no one agrees with me on that, which is just fine. lol It's my "favorite Freddie"; he had by then, it's just my humble personal opinion, undergone a technical progress, so to speak. He realized that was the voice he had and he had to make an interesting use of it as a singer - it's easy to sing when we're beautiful, in our 20's, full of energy and with the body in top form. Years of touring and unhealthy lifestyle, to say the least, did take, however, their toll on Freddie's voice, which was interesting. There are many concerts in the Works and Magic tours where he sounds wonderful. His technique is so amazing. He took the harshness of his higher register to his advantage in order to add a lot of drama and passion to the songs; he did reach pretty high notes when the moment demanded and warranted - and then some, take his performance in Live Aid, for example, he hits what can be considered very high notes compared to his natural register just beautifully - but, most important of all, he started exploring his lower register. And that's when things start to get reeeeaaaally interesting. He developed so much his lower register that, for all the pop sound they did at the time, Queen finally manages to sound really operatic - it's in these tours, and the Magic tour is the crowning of this process, that the fusion is finally reached live. In the 70's Queen sounded like a sophisticated rock and roll band, no doubt, but the operatic spin was not as intense as it become later, when Freddie began to explore his beautiful, pristine, clear and rare lower register. He sounds so much like a bass or baritone opera singer in many of the songs. It's thrilling because the lower register is the most difficult to dwell in and to explore. Freddie's natural register is, well, pushing a bit, rare among males. The bass and baritone register are much less frequent among males than the tenor. That's why every fellow of orchestra, I hope there are some here that can expand on that, have such a hard time finding bass singers. Freddie did manage to emulate the bass register quite convincingly and beautifully. His lower register is full, clear, pristine, and irresistibly virile and magnificent, overwhelming - he does sound here and there like an actor playing a Shakespearian King. It's damn good and beautiful. I'm alone there, people who are much more knowledged than me think diffently, and that's great because that's the way I learn, by sharing my views, knowing what other people think about, and so on. We had this "debate" before in Queenzone and I did learn quite a lot. So, thank you all! Bye!your not alone there, I personally love freddie's voice on the magic tour, and also agree on brians playing. What freddie lacked in range at that time, he made up with power. |
Holly2003 05.05.2008 03:52 |
mike hunt wrote: your not alone there, I personally love freddie's voice on the magic tour, and also agree on brians playing. What freddie lacked in range at that time, he made up with power.Not a big fan of his voice on the magic tour. At Wembley, IWTBF sounds terrible and he doesn't hit any of the high notes on Under Pressure (I know it's a 'duet' with Roger, who hits them all as usual, but Fred doesn't do a good job at all). |
BAD EX 05.05.2008 04:01 |
I went down to the Saturday NEC gig in Birmingham. It was a great concert. Great light show and performance, same as on every Queen tour. |
Enricosta 06.05.2008 06:03 |
In my opinion, the 11-5-1985 "Dragon attack" version is the best i've heard. It has an incredibly powerful beginning, the rythm section is perfect, Freddie's voice fits perfectly the song and i love Brian's solo. |
Yara 06.05.2008 09:25 |
Right! Their rendition of "Liar" in this same concert is magnificent! Freddie's singing is beautiful throughout. It's so powerful, overwhelming and clear that it seems he's embracing us with his voice. The way he goes up and down in one single breath, it's just amazing, he sounds like a bass singer, really. Take that second "ooooohhhh", in fact, the whole second part, it's jaw-dropping. The first too, but the second is even better. Great guitar work by Brian and John is on fire in this concert. John's bass lines in Hammer to Fall can be heard very clearly in this concert and it's just great, very clever, very well done. By the time he gets to Hammer to Fall, Freddie is tired. But when he goes for the "rich or poor or famous...lock your door...", now, he does that so beautifully. He sings the first part in the traditional way, with a lot of drama, striving to hit the higher notes; now, in the second part (lock your door...), he shows the signs of his genius: he keeps drifting away from the original melody, drifting away, drifting away, until he has given it a whole different contour, it sounds as if it were a modulation done on spot, which is wonderful, brilliant, too beautiful to be described with words, really. The way he briefly changes the key and some intervals and then returns to the original melody, it's just so clever and so absolutely beautiful that...you know, hands down. "Lock your door cause rain..." lol, I'm singing it here, it's so beautiful what he does, the line sounds very beautiful especially because he finds the right cadence to it! And he does that live! On spot! Improvised! Without planning! After listening to Queen all these years, I still get impressed by Freddie's technique when I listen to some of his performances, it's really remarkable. Well, this is a good concert throughout, great version of Killer Queen - I love it - and the introduction to Somebody to Love is amazing, as usual. Pretty much like in MK, but in this concert it's more clear, he plays a kind of variation on the theme of one of Liszt's mephisto waltzes to the intro of Somebody. Whether he came up with that by himself or it was really a "musical quote" (more likely), it's not that relevant, but it's great. Ah, fans of the Works and Magic tours are starting to come out! lol |
Winter Land Man 06.05.2008 16:30 |
Yara wrote: Right! Their rendition of "Liar" in this same concert is magnificent! Freddie's singing is beautiful throughout. It's so powerful, overwhelming and clear that it seems he's embracing us with his voice. The way he goes up and down in one single breath, it's just amazing, he sounds like a bass singer, really. Take that second "ooooohhhh", in fact, the whole second part, it's jaw-dropping. The first too, but the second is even better. Great guitar work by Brian and John is on fire in this concert. John's bass lines in Hammer to Fall can be heard very clearly in this concert and it's just great, very clever, very well done. By the time he gets to Hammer to Fall, Freddie is tired. But when he goes for the "rich or poor or famous...lock your door...", now, he does that so beautifully. He sings the first part in the traditional way, with a lot of drama, striving to hit the higher notes; now, in the second part (lock your door...), he shows the signs of his genius: he keeps drifting away from the original melody, drifting away, drifting away, until he has given it a whole different contour, it sounds as if it were a modulation done on spot, which is wonderful, brilliant, too beautiful to be described with words, really. The way he briefly changes the key and some intervals and then returns to the original melody, it's just so clever and so absolutely beautiful that...you know, hands down. "Lock your door cause rain..." lol, I'm singing it here, it's so beautiful what he does, the line sounds very beautiful especially because he finds the right cadence to it! And he does that live! On spot! Improvised! Without planning! After listening to Queen all these years, I still get impressed by Freddie's technique when I listen to some of his performances, it's really remarkable. Well, this is a good concert throughout, great version of Killer Queen - I love it - and the introduction to Somebody to Love is amazing, as usual. Pretty much like in MK, but in this concert it's more clear, he plays a kind of variation on the theme of one of Liszt's mephisto waltzes to the intro of Somebody. Whether he came up with that by himself or it was really a "musical quote" (more likely), it's not that relevant, but it's great. Ah, fans of the Works and Magic tours are starting to come out! lolYou remind me of someone who was on this forum a long time ago, but I'm not saying any names. |
koldweather123 06.05.2008 18:43 |
I never used to really like the Magic tour but quite a few concerts later and my mind has changed a lot. The Wembley gig really isn't that impressive, the night before however is a good deal better with regards to Freddie's vocals. I've come to see that the 2nd wembley night was not really Freddie's normal range on that tour (I mean not the added bits but the raw concert) and he just seemed to be lacking at the upper end, whilst I've not heard all the magic tour concerts I'd say in terms of Freddie's voice at least its probably in the bottom 5 performances, though even then it has its great moments of course (Zurich is probably the worst I've heard.) Can I also say one of the most under rated Queen shows ever IMO is colonge 1986, Freddie's voice is amazing that night nearly as good as the 1st Leiden show plus they did a little improv of 39 and also played Saturday night as well which was nice and the only time they did it during the Magic tour. (BTW before anyone says anything, I've lowered the pitch on my version of Colonge because the version I had was way too high pitched!) |
Queen Sweden 1986 10.05.2008 16:14 |
"The works tour" is the worst tour Queen has done. It is hard to believe that it was only two years after the "hot space tour", which was a hundred times better. Did not Queen played on "Live aid" where they were fantastically good, it is doubtful whether it has become a "magic tour." |
Wanted Dead Or Alive 11.05.2008 05:14 |
Freddie's voice was really deep and low at Wembley '86... But in Budapest same year his voice was amazing, listen to Love Of My Life...There's no trace of harshness in his high register... His best album vocally was Innuendo btw... |
koldweather123 11.05.2008 05:20 |
To be fair the 85 leg wasn't quite as bad with regards to Freddie's vocals, the Japan shows weren't too bad and the 1st night at Rock in Rio is IMO pretty under-rated at least with regards to the vocals, he does go for some of the higher notes in that show like on under pressure and also on somebody to love as well, which is IMO ias the best performance of that song from the whole works tour both 84 and 85 legs and isn't far off some of the better hot space performances of that song. link As for the hot space tour and its hard to believe its the same person, well his voice showed signs of not having quite the same range in the world tour of the hot space tour, esp towards the end of the tour. |
nuncjusz 12.07.2008 20:56 |
louvox wrote:I agree with you, but this was the last, or one of the last shows of the tour and the band was pretty exhausted. Their first shows are great though. Brussels, Dublin, Birmingham are all top notch. But by 1985 they would get really sloppy.una999 wrote: Queen's worst tour - bad sound, freddies voice suffers terribly, he looks unhealthy, clothes were terrible (both freddie and brian). Even the venues suck. Thank fuck they rectified it for the Magic Tour.I recently saw Queen live in Japan 1985 DVD (The Works) tour. It was the worst concert by Queen I have ever witnessed. Freddie looked ridiculous in his stage outfit and was obviously having a bad night vocally. Roger Taylor kept playing this awful sounding electronic drum set on just about every song. It was quite annoying. Spike Edney?s synthesizers were all over the place and made their early songs sound stupid & very dated. I never thought I would ever say a live Queen show sucked, but that one certainly did. Had they brought that tour to the USA, they would have been booed off the stage! But still don't know what possesed Roger to play that awful synth drum kit! It was the most annoying thing I've ever heard! |
BradJarre 13.07.2008 20:34 |
I dont know why but i kinda like the works tour. The setlists are realy top notch in my opinion. Freddie's voice is far from budapest 86 or MK 82 but it doesnt sound like he is suffering a lot(yeah offcourse vocal exhausting and stuff) But if you compare lets say for instance.....Japan 1985(final live in japan),with erm.....Queen live @ wembley(the bootleg WITHOUT overdubbs) then i think that Queen in japan 1985 sounds better. One vision is re-recorded in the studio for the most bits. and a lot of other songs like hammer to fall and tie your mother down and all the rock songs have an awfull lot of overdubbs in them. and for the Queen live in japan 1985 video they havent fixed the sound or polished it up or anything. And to discuss rogers drumkit. ehm....i think that he used a Syntec or Simmons drumkit because it sounds super electronic and fake. you cant disagree on that. the thing you can disagree on is that in my opinion Some parts of songs dont even sound that bad with the electronic drums. i mean....Another one bites the dust sounds nice with them. But i have to say that roger was quite a dumb ass to use them on such a big tour. and as far as the synths go. I like the vocoder on now im here.but i dont realy like it on..for example killer Queen or We are the champions. And i hate the way that Now im here is getting raped by the synth(roland jupiter 8)....well actualy it is spike edney who cant control the pitchbend and modulation wheel because that just sounds like a very very very old cat who is just dumped into one bucket with water. and yes...Freddie looked chunky but...Dont we all have our over and underweight issues sometimes.. offcoure because he was and still is one of THE biggest stars ever to life on this planet you get exited about it and just chek if he hasnt got any fat. I dont realy mind the chunky i mean he isnt as fat as he was in the i want it all video. and his condition still was very good(thats what i like about freddie 2 or 3 months of almost every day touring and he still is as energetic at the last gig as he was on the first one) So freddie's voice sounds pretty good in my ears. The dresses are nice. He is a bit chunky in the works tour. And the drumkit of roger sucks balls(at some bits it does) peace: bradley |
steven 35638 13.07.2008 22:53 |
Nice insight, Bradley. Sometimes those electronic drums worked, other times they didn't work. Not such a bad tour. But I haven't seen enough footage of the tour to really make a good judgement. |
Rick 14.07.2008 04:03 |
I wish they had filmed a 1984 concert in the same way as the Hammer To Fall vid. Okay, maybe a bit less promo videoly (is that even a word? Anyway, you get the point). |
BradJarre 14.07.2008 06:53 |
Good point rick. The mastertape version from sydney is pretty good and that was filmed in 1984. |