jrd1951 wrote:
That is spot on,the band felt that it wouldn't 'fit in' with the newer material from 79 on,basically Freddie wanted to leap around a bit more!
Well, the band more or less had to drop songs to make room for more new ones. Remember, Queen usually always brought in songs from the latest album when touring.
The medley was almost 18 minutes long by the end of the NOTW tour. It's quite obvious that they might have wanted to short it down so they threw in a song like Bicycle Race, ditched Lover Boy and Waltz and played a longer version of Get Down, Make Love instead.
Still, the Jazz tour(s) version of the medley still clocks in above 15 minutes and remained at that length for following tours until it was dropped during the Hot Space tour. I can see Freddie's point that he wanted to play less piano on stage during the Magic Tour because that allows him to interact more with the crowd. Which is why it makes sense that the Magic Medley is less than ten minutes long. Still, I find the 70's medleys very enjoyable to listen to because it's a great display of Queen being a group of four talented live musicians.
They rehearsed it for the 2008 QPR gigs, along with My Fairy King, Silver Salmon and It's Late - but at the last moment decided to drop it in favour of I Want To Break Free, Radio Ga Ga and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.