So why was this last show of the 'A Night At The Opera' tour so different to the rest of the shows before this extra night?
I'm talking about the totally different opening to the show and the shorter set with the omission of Sweet Lady, Flick Of The Wrist, The Prophet's Song, Stone Cold Crazy and Doing All Right.
It was actually advertised at the time that a different stage presentaion will be used for this concert.
Both Brian and Freddie were not feeling well this night, so do you think this was part of the reason or does anybody know another story about this?
The intro was just too long on the rest of the tour preceding this gig:
Kenny Everett taped intro
piano from just before "I see a little..."(fleeting spotlight on road crew member posing as Fred behind a white screen), then the rest of the song up to "to me, to me, to me--" : all in darkness, no lights
Great and really exciting build up if you're there - not great for TV... So it was obviously visually (intro) constructed for the TV audience and as the live TV show was timed for an hour they must have cut some songs from the setlist to fit the scheduled slot. Someone must've been there in the planning stages (them playing the planned set) with a stop-watch!
Planetgurl wrote:
Someone must've been there in the planning stages (them playing the planned set) with a stop-watch!
Which raises an interesting question as to whether the BBC (or the band management or record label) recorded parts of any preceeding shows, or maybe rehearsals for Hammersmith) which may still exist on fim anywhere?
Brian - "We need a show that lasts for about 60 minutes for the OGWT at Christmas."
Freddie - "Let's leave out the non-hits and album tracks because no one knows them."
Roger - "Yeah but keep in the medleys as that'll show how diverse we can be."
John - "Genuis - I was thinking that we'd need to get a stopwatch on that, but, being as we know our show so incredibly well and never play for much more than an hour and a half anyway, leaving out just under half the set should get us within the timescale easily."
Brian - "Well, in 40 years time, I'll be a Doctor and the people who subscribe to Queenzone will automatically come to that conclusion. They'll think we're geniuses too."
Freddie - "Absolutely dear. That'll stop them wondering why you wear clogs and why you still have that silly hair cut."
Roger - "Yeah Brian. By then, we'll be in a band who releases loads of Greatest Hits compilations and supporting karaoke singers in their quest to be famous. "
John - "And I'll have retired and be attendng various strip joints across the UK. I love them you know."