Queen‘s legendary Budapest gig in 1986, widely regarded as one of the band’s very best, is to be released on Blu-ray and DVD in deluxe editions for the first time next month.
Entitled ‘Hungarian Rhapsody‘, the DVD and Blu-ray will be released on November 5th, with the deluxe, 2CD versions set to include a 25 minute documentary entitled A Magic Year, which uses archive footage from rehearsals and interviews with the band both in the studio and on the road to focus on Queen’s resurgence in popularity following their Live Aid performance in 1985, which led to the ambitious 1986 Magic Tour.
The tour, which proved to be their last with frontman Freddie Mercury, afforded Queen their first opportunity to perform in Hungary, and was at the time the largest concert to be held in the country.
“We’re delighted that Queen fans across the world will finally have the chance to relive this amazing moment for the band,” current active members Brian May and Roger Taylor have said.
“We knew a stadium concert in Budapest was ground–breaking, but hadn’t quite anticipated what a historic night it would turn out to be. The concert looks fantastic on the screen in all its digitally re-mastered glory and the documentary does a great job of setting the scene – it really was an extraordinary time in the band’s history.” link
As someone who has heard nearly every show Queen played in the 80s, this is certainly one of their very best shows of the decade. But compared to Queen in the 70s, it's a whole other animal.
I'm sure nearly anyone who saw them in 1976 would say the Magic tour didn't come close. Mercury surely had developed into a superb frontman, but the difference in the artistic quality of the show a decade later might as well have made them two different bands.
So what about the bluray quality? I never got the impression that the raw material would be suitable for HD resolution. They're speaking of remastering, but would it really be an improvement over a dvd resolution? I definitely can't imagine something at the level of the Rock Montreal bluray, but if it was even close that would be amazing. I know the video equipment for that gig was top of the line theatre grade though.
You've answered your own question there Johnny - like Montreal, this gig was filmed in HD on film, and the picture quality on the Blu Ray will be therefore be a massive improvement over the DVD edition (which itself will be far better than the original VHS)