Hello all Queen fans! Are there any who have memories of Queens last tour in 1986.
Personally, I remember that it rained when Queen played in Sweden, in June 1986. I have been a Queen fan since 1982 and it was a fantastic feeling when the Queen step in to the scene and drove "One Vision". Remember that I screamed "Hallo Freddie" before they played "In the lap of the Gods" and then Freddie ran to the left-hand side of the stage and waving to the audience. Other memories are when Freddie told the audience that would not believe everything they were written in the newspaper and that the band would not split. The newspapers wrote much shit on the Queen after their gigs in South Africa in 1984 and there were demostranter outside the stadium burned their tickets and thought that it would boycott the Queen. It was, of course, very embarrassing and stupid done and I was ashamed of how the Queen was received in Sweden.
Forgive any typos and grammatical errors in the text!
Sincerely from a Queen fan from Sweden!
Queen in Leiden, Holland on 11.06.1986 (written by Dubroc) This concert was the only Queenconcert I went to see. I was 16 years old at that time and we (my girlfriend, my best friend and his girl) didn't get to see a big concert like that until that day. We got hold of some tickets and went to Leiden. When the bus arrived in Leiden the doors were just opening, so I fogot all about my spare ticket. We rushed in and got right at the front of the stage. My girlfriend and myself went a little dizzy when after standing staight up and waiting for one and a half hours for the support-act. Like hundred guys were pushing us against the fences in front of the stage. We got out the crowd and found a better place just behind the jumping and pushing people (approx. 10 meters from the front).
I have a good memory of details, in contrary to my friend, so when we talk about the concert I can recall a lot. This was almost 17 years ago . After seen so much of Queen material during the later years and having no-one to confirm things, I sometimes doubted the acurracy of my memories. But the bootleg recording is the proof for me!
The support-act was INXS. Never heard of... The whole crowd was singing "We want Queen" between their songs. At a moment Michael Hutchins got a banana thrown at his feet. After their last song Michael thanked the audience and went of stage... A very loud cheer from the Queen fans followed. This was the moment we were waiting for! Queen was coming! At least we thought... After standing on the concrete for another whole hour the lights faded. The lightingset was put in a low-height position, the stage was being filled with smoke, and everybody was singing the football-anthem thing: Ole - olehe - ole!!! etc.
Suddely the loud synth beginning of One Vision! We went mad at that point. Precizely after the smoke and the lights were high above the stage, Brian hits his first chords. Out of nowhere the band was there! I think I lost my voice in those first minutes.
As we can hear on the cd's, Freddie asked us:" What was it you were singing? That football song..." So we did it all over again, but twice as loud as before. "Add a beat to it..." Roger was trying to find the beat to it, Brian and John were looking for the chords. The Groenoordhallen in Leiden is indoors with lousy accoustics and the crowd was getting to enthousiastic so it didn't work. I also recall Freddie having a beer. He asked someone in the front: "Want to have a beer, my dear?" He did give it to that person. "Pass it around, there is enough for everyone!" he joked.
Since that day everytime I hear the beginning of One Vision I go back to 1986. At that time Friends Will Be Friends was in the dutch charts. It was never one of my fav.'s but it will remind me of the concert. The videoclip had a bit of the same atmoshere.
I did see Brian Solo twice (Rotterdam and Utrecht) later, it was excellent but did not have as much impact on me as the Queen concert did...
(to be read on queenconcerts.com)
Queen + PR I saw in Antwerpen and Arnhem, brilliant shows, the same feeling as Brian's tours.
Is there any good footage of the stage during the intro of the 1986 shows? It would be nice to see what the lighting rigs were doing at the beginning of the show. This can't be seen on the official Wembley/Knebworth concert videos very well....