Hi,
I'm trying to collect the essential Queen Live shows (audio recordings), which show how queen developed throughout the years. I used to own some bootlegs in the past but was let down by very poor sound quality.
Could you try and help me out and pick one show from each year (1973-1986) which has a good balance between sound quality and band performance. I already own the official releases so let's try not include those.
Many thanks for your help!
Do you want one show of each year, or one show from each tour ?
Anywhere, these shows are my PERSONAL favourites, so they are "compromise" between audio quality and performance quality.
For dates, I'm using the YYYY-MM-DD format
1973-09-13 Golders Green Hippodrome, London, UK
1973-11-27 Town Hall, Birmingham, UK - great version of Hangman, but worse sound quality
1974-03-31 Rainbow Theatre, London, UK (my copy or SirGH version)
1974-04-28 Exposition Hall, Portland, Maine, USA (be sire to get the master)
1975-05-01 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (either my merge or the Tarantura bootleg)
1975-12-24 Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK
1976-01-30 Music Hall, Boston, Massachussets, USA
1976-09-18 Hyde Park, London, UK
1977-03-13 Arena, Seattle, USA (be sure to get the master)
1977-06-06 Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, UK
1977-12-11 Summit, Houston, Texas
1978-12-01 - Forum, Montreal, Canada
1979-04-25 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (I strictly recommend my merge of best sources)
1979-12-26 Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK
1980-12-08 Wembley Arena, London, UK
1981-02-16 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (Mr. Peach source)
1981-02-17 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (Mr. Peach source)
1982-06-01 Ingliston Showground, Edinburgh, UK
1984-09-14 Sportpalace, Milano, Italy
1984-09-15 Sportpalace, Milano, Italy
1984-09-27 Schleyerhalle, Stuttgart, Germany
1984-10-19 Super Bowl, Sun City, Botswana
1985-05-15 Castle Hall, Osaka, Japan
1986-06-21 Maimarktgelaende, Mannheim, Germany
1986-07-21 Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
1986-07-22 Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
I left out the officially released shows as you wished.
Also for further reading, I can recommend these sites link link link
Add these three to the list - these are must haves:
Boston 2-9-77
Buenos Aires 3-8-81 (audience recording)
Tokyo 5-9-85 (Wardour bootleg)
I'd like to say that Boston 76 is the first one to start with, but that will set your standard very high, as the sound quality is outstanding. 99% of the recordings you hear after that will not measure up to that standard and may be disappointing. Either way, have fun discovering Queen live .. particularly the 70s stuff, when they were hungry.
Sir GH wrote: Pfft, nice try. That's like someone asking for places to find a good salad and you suggest McDonalds !
Btw, you have mail Greg.
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I meant to put 5/1/1975--I just hit the wrong key by mistake.
About the mail is it about that one thing? Because I just checked my messages (both email and PM), but didn't get a message!
jamster1111 wrote:
I would replace 12/1/78 with 11/17/78 or 12/16/78.
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Nah, I'd stick with Montreal to recommend to someone starting off. It's a complete show, great quality, great atmosphere.
Actually on a semi-serious note, I would actually replace 4/25 with 4/19--that's got a high quality recording, and it's perhaps the best Japan 1979 show!
Sir GH wrote: jamster1111 wrote:
I would replace 12/1/78 with 11/17/78 or 12/16/78.
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Nah, I'd stick with Montreal to recommend to someone starting off. It's a complete show, great quality, great atmosphere.
Yeah but so is 11/17/1978. Plus, Freddie sounds a lot better. But both of them are great choices. Also, Chicago is a great one with great quality.
jamster1111 wrote: Sir GH wrote: jamster1111 wrote:
I would replace 12/1/78 with 11/17/78 or 12/16/78.
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Nah, I'd stick with Montreal to recommend to someone starting off. It's a complete show, great quality, great atmosphere.
Yeah but so is 12/17/1978. Plus, Freddie sounds a lot better. But both of them are great choices. Also, Chicago is a great one with great quality.
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12/17/1978 is NOT A GIG! hahaa. You fail!
I knew you meant 11/17 though!
jamster1111 wrote:
Yeah but so is 11/17/1978. Plus, Freddie sounds a lot better. But both of them are great choices.
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I love New York too, but the best source is missing 6 songs. To a beginner, complete shows will always be better, and if we're picking just a few shows for someone to start with, having a few songs in average quality is probably not a good pick. To me, these are the key recordings:
Tokyo 5-1-75
Boston 1-30-76
Boston 2-9-77
Earls Court 6-6-77
Houston 12-11-77
Montreal 12-1-78
79-86 is pretty well-covered with official releases. If these few shows don't get someone interested in Queen live, then nothing will. :-)
Thank you all for your suggestions!
The first one I found was Mannheim '86, a very good show and fine sound quality! Thanks!
Next up is '85: Should I go for 15-5 or 9-5? Which one is the most interesting? Which bootleg (wardour?) should i search for?
5-9-85 - Wardour is the best. link
As for 5-15-85, there is no single bootleg that is a definitive version. The Wardour and Masterport versions combined give the best possible recording of the show. Maybe I should put up such a definitive version..
Performance-wise, Freddie sounds better on the 9th, although they play a bit of My Fairy King on the 15th. The recording of the 15th is brilliant - possibly the best-sounding audience recording of the band, tied with Boston 76.
Cool, good luck.
From here on in, just have fun going through the random recordings. Some may suck, and others may be surprisingly good to your ears. That's kind of the joy of it. You're like a kid in a candy store, as there are hundreds to pick from. Enjoy what you've got, and plenty more will always come out.