Queen are known for being one of the best live acts in the history of rock. They played stadium after stadium, with their Live Aid performance being hailed as the greatest of the event. I find it interesting that they only played stadiums in the 1986 Magic Tour.
So, knowing this has led me to wonder...why doesn't Queen capitalize on this? I have seen bands release a numerous amount of live recordings (Dave Mattews Band, Pearl Jam, etc. come to mind) and have wondered why Queen hasn't done this, considering the amazing amount of unofficial recordings available and loved by so many. It would be wonderful for Queen to release a few great live recordings from each tour. I know, wishful thinking...but I find myself heavily getting into Queen's live material, since Freddie is no longer around.
I'm interested in knowing thoughts on this topic.
Simple explanation - management gets in the way. If it isn't seen as profitable, it won't be released.
Get the unreleased live recordings. There are excellent-sounding tapes from every era.
Now that Rhys Thomas is on board, there is talk about a 1977 boxed set. Let's see what materializes.
Good idea
They could even release audio only with pictures from the events to watch as the music plays of the gigs if they have no footage for some of the dvds blu rays of the concerts
Yeah, I've been obtaining the unreleased live recordings, it's become an obsession of mine! There sure are a lot of concerts out there!
I'm just surprised management hasn't taken advantage of Queen's live work. A 1977 box set? That would be incredible!!! Where did you hear that information?
dowens wrote:
I find it interesting that they only played stadiums in the 1986 Magic Tour.
I'm pretty sure they played stadiums in S America 81 and in the UK in 82 (Leeds,which I was at!) and possibly in 84 somewhere in the world
OR.. taken as different context.....
They played Slaine Castle and Knebworth which were not stadiums (stadia).
About the stadiums , selling tickets wasn't as simple as it is noe a days. U2 , bon jovi , stones need to sell out stadiums because they don't make a profit out of their album sales anymore.
In holland in the 70's and 80's there were
only a handfull of stadium shows. The biggest band and artist like Elton, Spandau, Toto, tom jones, bowie, acdc etc.etc played the Ahoy or when the took a long too much gear they had to play the groenoordhallen ( this is why Queen got the play the groenoordhall because engineers weren't shure the roof of the ahoy could deal with the weight of the rigging). And if the band did well a extra date was planned.
Stadium shows are a product of the late ninetees. A era began where computers could manage every ticket sales, no one had to drive around the country anymore to find a ticket somewhere. Just pay it on your credit card print your ticket and have fun. At te time Queen played concerts in holland many people got to know about after reading the newspaper review telling themselves " damn i missed them again, but next time I will be there"
Bruce Springsteen is been asked no to play in Holland so often the promotor offered him to come by once in 3-5 years. Because Bruce comes by every year and only wants
to play the biggest stadium in the capitol.
The promotor still has to pay bruce the full wage. In our queen era the promotor and band got tickets sales - costs : 2
In this era of Bruce , Bruce is demanding 80% based on a full sold out show. If doesn't sell out the loss is for the promotor.
This in mind ironically stadium fillers of the 90's now play theatres ...
Madonna didn't sell out 2 times Ziggodome (15000) , stones don't fill the arena (50000) , U2 needed a lot of $$££ tv and radio promotion to boost ticket sales to fill the arena, some huge R&B acts need to be rescheduld to a more suiteble venue...
The things is people get fed up by seeing each and every year the big dinosouruses coming by doing the same year each and every year like stones, mccartney, madonna
, springsteen people don't want to spent so much money for ever increasing ticket prices!
It was a different time, then, the artist won money selling albums and shows were for promotion of the album.
Now, no one can't sell enough copies of his album, because the web,youtube... the only way to make money is with big lives shows,
Can't compare fill Wembley today with fill Wembley in 1986.
Then, shows were alternate, now, is the base of the business.
The Led Zeppelin live DVD from a few years ago was alright for a mashup. Now that we've got Blu-Ray, such a thing could run for a lot longer.
Just put something like that out, Brian. Jesus. I'm not getting any younger.