| Regor 09.12.2004 04:42 |
While we are all talking about the next DVD to hopefully be from the '70s, and name-dropping those commonly known concerts of which we know footage exists, one of the most famous and prestigious venues in the world is never mentioned: New York's Madison Square Garden ! Led Zep's "The song remains the same" was meant to be the definite concert-movie and was filmed there. An american journalist reviewing "Sheer Heart Attack" wrote "they will be playing Madison Square Garden next year !" All the "Live at MSG" albums and bootlegs from loads of artists - it's the overall impression that you have only really made it, when you played the Garden ! I have NEVER ever heard of any existing footage from Madison Square Garden '77-'82. Hammy, Rainbow, Munich, Tokyo, Houston, Montreal, Wembley and so on - but never the Big Apple. I once read that it was too expensive to hire a filmcrew in the USA, and that this was the reason for them to film WWRY in Montreal. But considering that, why was Houston filmed, if it's way too expensive ? At a time before their commercial peak ? Assuming that there is no official Queen-Footage from New York, what about the documentary snippets from "Magic Years": the band dressing up backstage, the news-bit with "Freddie Mercury is one of life's originals" with the band walking around what seems to be a shopping mall, the mud-wrestlers which are said to be from N.Y. ? Maybe there was TV-coverage of one of the Garden-shows ? (like Munich) I hope that Houston will get a proper release someday, but "Queen - Live at the Garden" doesn't sound too bad either, doesn't it ? ;-) Can anyone shed light on this ? |
| Borhap80 09.12.2004 06:48 |
I can only remember the shots of We are the champions and We will rock you from the 77 tour... I dunno if the whole set was filmed... maybe link can help...! |
| Borhap80 09.12.2004 06:50 |
Maybe I was wrong in the last post but I seem to remember that footage from a documentary... Am I wrong or the documentary.. ?!? |
| The Fairy King 09.12.2004 06:53 |
OMG it would definately rock! It will not happen though *sigh* |
| Benn 09.12.2004 06:54 |
I'm fairly certain that MSG has a restriction of sorts as to exactly what can and can't be filmed / broadcast for release. I think sport is treated differently to music. There would also have to be some kind of contract clause when agreeing to let a band play there that the holding company of "The Garden" would receive x-percent of sales from anything that is sold that features the name / logo etc; that may well then prove too expensive and therefore prevent a band releasing their film of an MSG show. The Who must have played there 30 times over the years and nothing has been released from there (nothing officially exists as far as I'm aware, but the archives are stuffed with material). From what I can work out Zep are the only band to have put anything out and I would imagine that Peter Grant had any dodgy clause ironed out well before playing there. |
| Regor 09.12.2004 06:57 |
Thomas Tønnesen wrote: Maybe I was wrong in the last post but I seem to remember that footage from a documentary... Am I wrong or the documentary.. ?!?I think those snippets stem from Houston, I remember them from "Magic Years" as well... |
| Regor 09.12.2004 07:07 |
Benn wrote: I'm fairly certain that MSG has a restriction of sorts as to exactly what can and can't be filmed / broadcast for release. I think sport is treated differently to music. There would also have to be some kind of contract clause when agreeing to let a band play there that the holding company of "The Garden" would receive x-percent of sales from anything that is sold that features the name / logo etc; that may well then prove too expensive and therefore prevent a band releasing their film of an MSG show. The Who must have played there 30 times over the years and nothing has been released from there (nothing officially exists as far as I'm aware, but the archives are stuffed with material). From what I can work out Zep are the only band to have put anything out and I would imagine that Peter Grant had any dodgy clause ironed out well before playing there.Thats very interesting, thanks Benn. I did not know that the holding company of MSG is that restrictive. But does Queen-footage actually exist ? Yep, absolutely right, Peter Grant could handle these kinda things - I think any holdings official would've been frightened to death to tell him "no"... :-) There was a special edition of a german music-mag recently, featuring the history of Led Zep. He must have been the mightiest man in Rock in those days ! Quite impressive biography. And the snippets of him accusing a concert promoter of illegal T-shirt sales in "The song..." are hilarious: "Talk to me you silly cunt, I'm the manager of the group !" ;-) |
| NOTWMEDDLE 09.12.2004 19:43 |
Also Pink Floyd played a four night stand at Madison Square in July of 1977 and Roger Waters called the lighting people "dumb mother f***ers" and flipped when people lit off fireworks. All four of those shows are available via bootleg. Also, Floyd played there in 1987 and that show was filmed by a fan and is on the bootleg market. |
| My Melancholy Blues 09.12.2004 20:58 |
I hear their concert in MSG in Feburary 5th 77 was terifically great in many ways. And I've read some long reports about it in the books I have. They were making every effort to open up a new market in USA through "ADATR" tour in those days, which was considered to be successful. But I wonder there is any live materal from it??? I think it's a shame that there are few from American tours. |
| Liquid Scream 09.12.2004 23:23 |
Big Spender - There is an audio bootleg of the Feb. 5, 77 MSG show available. The sound quality is quite good and the band is in top form. They are definately on a high playing the Garden for the first time. |
| mike hunt 10.12.2004 00:08 |
i don't believe they have a full show of the garden, but it's strange that i'v havn't seen footage of any garden shows, it would rock, and possibly be even a hit. |
| Lord Blackadder 10.12.2004 07:45 |
I'll tell you now there is no way the next concert release will be a U.S one. It will be a U.K one. One of the Hammersmith's I hope and bet. They should do the both of them on a disc each. |
| RockitPJ 10.12.2004 09:11 |
I went to at least one concert every year that Queen performed at MSG and I have to say, the ADAR and Jazz were the 2 best. The crowd at the Races concert was more sophisticated and subdued , but the band played a pretty tight gig and Brian's guitar work was awsome. Freddies vocals weren't his best though. The crowd at the Jazz concerts were younger and more lively and noisy and Freddies vocals were on. Though the Hot Space concert was pretty good I remember seeing at lot of empty seats. That was a shame. It was like the beginning of the end of Queen here in the states. |
| Regor 10.12.2004 09:50 |
Thats great, RockitPJ ! Someone who was actually there ! Are there any more interesting facts or anecdotes from these shows that you would like to share with us ? I would love to hear more ! |
| RockitPJ 10.12.2004 13:12 |
As far as film footage is concerned, the only footage I have seen is the backstage interviews. Never seen anything from the actual concert. I once had an audio bootleg copy of the ADAR concert but that was damaged in an apartment flood and my Mom tossed it not knowing what it was. By the way the quote "If I look half as good to you people as you do to me, I must look good." Is by Brian from this concert. I thought it was a great pick up line so I memorized it. Heehee |
| Penetration_Guru 10.12.2004 13:40 |
Briliant logic - Freddie was filmed in a shopping mall, therefore there must be footage of Queen Live at MSG. I'll say no more at this stage. |
| Vad 10.12.2004 15:09 |
Being the great deal that is singing in MSG, I haven't found many 'Live at The Garden' shows, neither from Queen nor from any other artist who got there. Maybe it's because a very tight policy from the place or huge amounts of money talk. |
| RockitPJ 10.12.2004 21:18 |
The most memorable part of the Jazz concert for me and probably everyone else who was there was when they did Fat Bottom Girls. The band had 2 or maybe more ( can't remember)women come on stage with bicycles rockin their bare asses at the audience to the beat of the song. The audience went wild! If my memeory serves me right, I think Freddie did one of his "Impromtu" launches from Sombody To Love, but rather than go into the song he went right into Bo Rap. I remember being dissappointed because Somebody To Love is one of my favorites. |
| RockitPJ 10.12.2004 21:25 |
"All the "Live at MSG" albums and bootlegs from loads of artists - it's the overall impression that you have only really made it, when you played the Garden !" You are probably right about making it big if you sell out MSG, but it nothing compared to making it in Wembley Stadium. I alway thought that if you sell out Wembley and the fans love you, you are a true Super Group. |
| My Melancholy Blues 10.12.2004 21:28 |
So Great, RockitPJ! I wish I had been born earlier and had been there! I feel so happy to read what you wrote. But I'm afraid Freddie's vocal condition was not his best during Jazz tour, so if any live material will be released from all of the '70s American tours, "Houston" would be the best and "live at MSG" compiled from some of the MSG concerts (if any) would be better as bonus tracks. |
| RockitPJ 10.12.2004 21:56 |
yeah, I was saddened when I learned of Freddie's death, thinking "Man I'll never see Queen live again". I was devastated because there was absolutely no other band here in the States that could touch Queen's live performance. Aerosmith was constantly being compared to Queen, but I really didn't think they were nearly as good as Queen. Now look at what we have, the best Live performance that I recently viewed on DVD was Christina Aguilera's Stripped concert. That tells you how bad things are here in the states. I Gotta say though, Christina can sing. |
| nino trovato 10.12.2004 22:08 |
My cousin was the bands' lighting engineer from the "Races" tours through the "Jazz" tours. I remember him telling me of the soundcheck at the Garden when they brought the girls out during FBG's to show them their marks and their ques. He said that ALL of the male staff members that worked for the Garden stopped what they were doing just to watch the girls on stage. I have this on film and it runs just a few minutes. Quality is pretty good. There were about 5 girls in bikinis for the soundcheck but in g-strings for the show. This is the ony footage I know of from the Garden. |
| The Real Wizard 11.12.2004 00:40 |
nino trovato wrote: My cousin was the bands' lighting engineer from the "Races" tours through the "Jazz" tours. I remember him telling me of the soundcheck at the Garden when they brought the girls out during FBG's to show them their marks and their ques. He said that ALL of the male staff members that worked for the Garden stopped what they were doing just to watch the girls on stage. I have this on film and it runs just a few minutes. Quality is pretty good. There were about 5 girls in bikinis for the soundcheck but in g-strings for the show. This is the ony footage I know of from the Garden.Are you completely sure that the footage is really from New York, or is it from the Munich 79 broadcast? Please let me know! Email me if need be, at bobw_22@hotmail.com |
| My Melancholy Blues 11.12.2004 02:41 |
When I mentioned the concert of MSG in early '77, I forgot another one in '77. They played again in MSG in December. As far as I remember, when they appeared for the encore, Freddie was wearing a jacket and a hat with the New York Yankees logo on them. If my memory serves me well, they used "WATC" as their theme song for the fist time. Its set list is considered to be the same as the one of Houston, because both were carried out during NOTW tour. Does anybody know anything about that concert? How about it? |
| RockitPJ 11.12.2004 08:07 |
Big Spender wrote: When I mentioned the concert of MSG in early '77, I forgot another one in '77. They played again in MSG in December. As far as I remember, when they appeared for the encore, Freddie was wearing a jacket and a hat with the New York Yankees logo on them. If my memory serves me well, they used "WATC" as their theme song for the fist time. Its set list is considered to be the same as the one of Houston, because both were carried out during NOTW tour. Does anybody know anything about that concert? How about it?As far as I know, Queen did 2 concerts at MSG for NOTW 12/1/77 and 12/2/77. This was one year I wanted to forget because I had tix for both nights and attended the first night, when I went to the second show, I realizes that I took the wrong ticket with me. I handed the ticket guy a KISS ticket. I was so fucking mad at myself!!!! I tried to get security to let me in and all they were concerned with was a cash hand out and at that time I didn't have much money. So my 2 friends went in to see the show and I went home. That was the longest train ride I ever endured!!! Here are all the dates that Queen did at MSG ADAR 2/5/77 NOTW 12/1/77 12/2/77 Jazz 11/16/78 11/17/78 Game 9/28/80 9/29/80 9/30/80 Hot Space 7/27/82 7/28/82 |
| My Melancholy Blues 11.12.2004 12:51 |
Thank you for your reply again! According to the book "A Concert Documentary" of Mr.Brooks, he doesn't say any show from MSG was filmed. If so, it's so disappointing. |
| My Melancholy Blues 11.12.2004 13:28 |
the_hero wrote:Oh, I was wrong in a way I wrote.Big Spender wrote: When I mentioned the concert of MSG in early '77, I forgot another one in '77. They played again in MSG in December. As far as I remember, when they appeared for the encore, Freddie was wearing a jacket and a hat with the New York Yankees logo on them. If my memory serves me well, they used "WATC" as their theme song for the fist time.Houston '77 was the first concert where they played we will rock you/we are the champions, during we will rock you, Roger is screaming along with the choruses The last "they" I wrote above means New York Yankees. NYY won the World Series in '77 and they adopted "WATC" at that time. So Freddie wore a jacket with their logo at MSG. Sorry! |
| NOTWMEDDLE 11.12.2004 15:40 |
Queen also played The Boston Garden from 1977 to 1982. The Boston Garden is no more(the house that Larry Bird and the Celtics built) but Queen played there once on each of their tours from 1977 to 1982. In fact Queen were given the key to the city of Boston in 1982. Americans can be ficle with music tastes. Queen played MSG more times than Pink Floyd. Floyd played four nights in 1977 and then three more in 1987. Queen played at MSG multiple times from 1977 to 1982. |
| The Real Wizard 11.12.2004 23:27 |
the_hero wrote: Houston '77 was the first concert where they played we will rock you/we are the champions, during we will rock you, Roger is screaming along with the chorusesAbsolutely not... Houston was towards the end of the tour. isn't the champions of the world video based on the News of the world tour?No, it's a documentary of their entire career up to 1995. |
| GonnaUseMyPrisoners 12.12.2004 02:26 |
I've just uploaded one pic each of John & Brian (with an orb, would you believe?) that a colleague of mine took at Madison Square Garden. He doesn't recall the year, and he's not a big enough fan to remember the album they were touring for, although it sure looks like Jazz to me. He remembers that he was there because of girl models being sent out onto the stage on MOTORCYCLES (not bicycles). Maybe that will help date these photos. Enjoy! p.s. looks like they "review" them, so they're not there just yet... maybe by tomorrow? |
| GonnaUseMyPrisoners 14.12.2004 23:45 |
The pic of Brian is in the QZ gallery now... it was scanned from an old print, so please pardon the fuzziness... but it's got an orb! |