There is some highlights from a couple of shows and one of them they are doing Teo Torriate but it looks like maybe Freddie had forgotten they lyrics or could not remember them off the top of his head because he kept walking to the piano and looking at something on the top of it, maybe the words to the song
I believe he can be seen reading lyrics in the Tokyo video from '79 too. Totally understandable since that song was only played in Japan and not part of the normal setlist.
He had the lyrics to Tavaski Szel written on his hand during the Budapest concert, because he only learned it that day and it was in Hungarian. I can't blame him for needing a bit of help once in a while.
Not to burst anyone's bubbles, but a fair amount of artists occassionally use video or teleprompters strategically positioned on the stage. No shame in it, thought it stands as a testament to Freddie that he could remember the lyrics to songs 95% of the time while running all over the stage and engaging the audience.
It still amazes me that he could do a near 2 hour show and not forget the lyrics to the songs and also if you rmember at live aid when he was playing with the camerman that he still remembed to drop the " Build your muscles as your body decays" line straight after
I know they do a lot of rehearsing but still i know there will be little errors as we have seen with some youtube files lately from gregsnyth
I have the vinyl bootleg "Sheetkeeckers" (aka Sh!tkickers), from the Rainbow, 1974 (Queen II Tour) and Freddie flubs part of "Modern Times Rock And Roll." It's bound to happen from time to time.
I went to see Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds a year ago and Nick had a binder onstage on a stand and another at his piano with all his songs in it. He made no effort to hide that these contained the lyrics to probably every song he's written in the past 25 years. He wasn't reading from it constantly, but he did glance at it from time to time. In all fairness, he was inviting the audience to request songs through the whole 2+ hours, so no one cared that he had to look up a few lyrics if it meant we got to hear any song we asked for. That was a great show.