Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl

Concert of 5th June, 1982, released on disc in 2004

The National Bowl had opened in 1979, and Queen were just the kind of big name band to put the place on the map. Milton Keynes was one of 69 tour dates in the Hot Space tour. This date was originally scheduled for Arsenal's Highbury Stadium in London, but was moved to Milton Keynes owing to potential noise complaints from residents.

Queen at the bowl was a huge event back in the day. The entire concert was filmed, with a shortened version being shown on Channel 4's "The Tube" in January 1983. The show didn't appear on disc until 2004, and its release was most welcome since Queen were really "hot" and "on fire" that day. Although Hot Space the album would mark something of a reverse in Queen's fortunes, the band were in peak form on the Hot Space tour. It is quite noticeable that the songs on the Hot Space album sound better, edgier, and much more like the Queen we know and love in live performance. That observation supports the view that more guitar and drums in the Queen style and less synths and horns on the album would have realized a perfect blend of hard rock and funk/soul/disco.

When the show was repeated many years later on television, and then, later still, the Queen On Fire show was released on CD and DVD, I was intrigued to see whether the show was as great as I remembered it. It was. If anything, it was even better. The standout performances, like 'Somebody to Love,' stood out all the more, and we also got many tracks that had been omitted from the initial broadcast. Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl shows the band in peak form, offering a perfect blend of the old and the new. Queen in 1982 were well on the way towards perfecting the art of the live concert.

The concert was a big TV event back in the day. There was much excited discussion among all those who took their music seriously in the sixth form. The cooler kids all preferred Bowie and Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. Queen were entertainers and crowd pleasers. But the general consensus here was that, in the Milton Keynes concert, Queen had rocked the house. Or would have done, had they been in a house. Even a few of the cool kids were impressed. There was an upsurge of interest in Queen and my views, for once, were sought. I felt like something of an expert as I commented on the bits Brian May got wrong in his solo (like I knew).

We didn't have a video recorder, so it was reverential silence all round as we taped the show on an audio cassette. I was always nervous when it came to live performance in case my favourite singers and bands were exposed as being unable to actualy sing and play. I had seen a very many bands who were great miming in the singles chart, only to sound thin and weedy and nth rate when live. Queen were not one of those bands.

The concert took place June 5, 1982 and was shown on TV in January 1983.

The Teardrop Explodes were one of the bands who opened for Queen at this show. Their leader, Julian Cope, introduced one of their own songs as probably the best song the Queen fans in the audience had ever heard, which incited someone close to the stage to throw a toilet seat at him. I have heard of bottles of beer and other substances beings thrown at the stage, but never a toilet seat. All that meticulous planning thrown away in a loss of temper.

The opening itself was the perfect blend of the old and the new. Starting with 'Flash' on tape, the band launched themselves onto the stage with a powerhouse performance of 'The Hero', quickly followed by the fast, hard rocking version of 'We Will Rock You.' It was shock and awe, and very probably the greatest opening to any concert ever. We go from the pulsating throb of 'Flash' into Brian May's thunderous riffing before Freddie Mercury explodes onto stage as if he had been shot out of a cannon. I've never seen anyone do anything like that, not nearly as exciting and as powerful, without gimmicks. This was just Freddie relying on natural power and charisma. And, no doubt, meticulous planning and rehearsal. Freddie Mercury was the greatest front man of all time, no question; there is no-one who even comes close (see if you can name them, or name just one). If you want to argue that Queen were the best live band there ever was, then this is all the evidence you need. They build the anticipation and then come straight out of the traps and bang into your face, no messing about. This, boys and girls and all other beings and bodies in between and beyond, this is how a rock concert should open - with a sustained explosion!

With this opening, Queen gave us a 1-2-3 of such force that they could have ended the concert there and then and sent everyone home in exhausted and in ecstasy. The Queen motto on concerts is to deafen and blind the audience at the beginning, capture people immediately, and then take them with you through the rest of the concert. That's shorthand for astonish, amaze, stupefy, daze, stun, shock, and overwhelm. Queen remained a huge live draw until the very end, packing out Wembley Stadium, with extra big stadium gigs having to be added to cater for demand. The reason is simple - people knew Queen delivered in concert. And this 1-2-3 power punch of "Flash," "The Hero," and "We Will Rock You" proves the point, delivering an opening salvo that leaves nothing standing in its way. Pure Pulsating Everlasting Electrical Energy. Queen didn't hit the ground running, they hit it racing, like Mister Fahrenheit, 'travelling at the speed of light.' As Freddie says in that song, 'I wanna make a supersonic man out of you.' And here, he wants you to find the hero in yourself. Forget Flash the singular hero, Queen are singing about all of us.

The great thrill at the time was hearing the band showcase the "new sounds" they were experimenting with at the time. Freddie was clearly excited by this dance-funk turn in Queen's career, and that excitement was even more clear in the performance. But he is unusually hesitant and apologetic as he introduces the new sounds of the new album:

"Now most of you know that we've got some new sounds out in the last week. For what it's worth we're gonna do a few songs in the funk/black category, whatever you call it. That doesn't mean we've lost our rock and roll feel, okay? I mean it's only a bloody record. People get so excited about these things! We just wanna try out a few songs. This is 'Staying Power'."

There follows the definitive version of the song, Freddie and the band pulling out all the stops. John Deacon is on electric rhythm guitar and keyboardist Morgan Fisher on synth bass. And the sound is hot and funky. The album Hot Space had just been released. 'Have you got it, yet?' Freddie asked. I hadn't, but I loved what I heard here so much I immediately went out in search with expectations sky high. The album was something of a let-down in comparison. I was later to discover that 'Action this Day' and 'Back Chat' were also harder and edgier in live performance than they had been on disc. 'Staying Power' is exhibit A as to what Hot Space could and should have been, not merely 'hot' but scorching. And a lot racier and rockier.

There were also great performances of material from the previous album, The Game, with Queen cementing their new sound. 'Play the Game' was delivered here with an edge but still oozes class and sophistication. 'Dragon Attack' always had that edge and was showcased here along with the more familiar 'Another One Bites the Dust.' There was a strong performance of the ballad 'Save Me', too, with 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' easing the tension a little. With 'Under Pressure,' Queen made a powerful statement of their new eighties' persona. Bowie wasn't needed for the track, the song becoming more definitely Queen.

The old and the new worked well together, establishing the continuity between Hot Space and the band of the seventies. 'Save Me' is revealed to be in line of descent from 'White Queen.' People get so 'excited about these things' (as Freddie says), so obsessed about the changes as to miss the continuities. The way the hard rock number 'Now I'm Here' from 1974 segues into the funk/disco of 1980's 'Dragon Attack' then comes back again is a standout. Brian breaks a string just before his guitar solo in Dragon Attack. While he switches to a Red Special copy, with John Deacon, on the fly, nailing the bass solo.

'Las Palabras de Amor' had been released as a single a few days earlier. Brian plays a small section of it on his 12-string acoustic before introducing 'Love Of My Life.' This would be the only show where 'Las Palabras' would be performed to any extent. Which was a shame, because it was made for mass celebration.

Of the older tracks, though, the eight-minute powerhouse performance of 'Somebody to Love' takes the plaudits, as operatic as it is gospel. The song is an ambitious, and vocally demanding, piece, and had been a staple of Queen concerts in the seventies. For some bizarre reason this classic - which has a claim to have been the greatest Queen song of all – had been left off the Live Killers album. This performance at the Bowl has to be the very best performance of the song by the band, and one of the best performances of their entire career.

The guitar and drum solos from the seventies are still there, bringing the old 'prog' pretensions into the new world. You might have expected these to have been the first things to go with the introduction of the 'new sounds.' But Brian had perfected his solo, and it possibly didn't seem right not to allow Roger have his moment in the spotlight if Brian gets his. The solos normally bored non-Queen fans, but so great an impression did the concert make on those watching that I remember friends in the sixth form discussing May's solo in intricate detail. They seemed genuinely interested for once!

Then there were the usual 'awkward' moments. By this time, my mum had reconciled herself to living with 'Fat Bottomed Girls,' but 'Get Down Make Love' was still a game too far. It evidently was for others, too, seeing as Channel 4 cut it from their broadcast in 1983. It was heard for the first time when the full show was released in 2004. I looked upon it as a form of acclimatisation. Fred hits an alarmingly false note on 'Fat Bottomed Girls,' which was cleaned up for the CD release. 'Get Down, Make Love' brought a certain erotic charge to a concert and was a staple for many years. 

Victory won, the show ends in celebration with vigorous performances of all the old favourites – 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' 'Tie Your Mother Down' (performed so well it could be opening the show all over again), 'Sheer Heart Attack,' 'We Will Rock You,' and 'We Are The Champions.'

Throughout it all, Freddie commands and leads the audience to the promised land. Had there been more of this energy and excitement on Hot Space and the album would have been a classic. That's a controversial view, but I don't mind taking it even if it means standing alone. Many old rockers were sceptical with respect to The Game, but had to mute their criticisms in face of the success of that album. When Hot Space bombed, they took their revenge, and their view has been set in stone. The performance here gives us an exciting glimpse of what Hot Space could have been.

The band enter with a whirlwind and don't let up to the end. The concert gives evidence of Queen at the peak of their powers as a live act. The remarkable thing is that Brian May and others say the band had performed even better a week earlier at Leeds.

Due to censorship laws the Hong Kong and China release of the CD removed 'Get Down, Make Love' and 'Fat Bottomed Girls'. I was never quite sure of such prurience, since such things make the world go round.

Channel 4's The Tube had broadcast a heavily-edited film of the show in January 1983, with several important tracks cut out. In particular, the broadcast cut a number of songs from the Hot Space album, thereby eliding the contrast between those songs in the studio, where Queen obviously tried too hard to reproduce a new and very different style, and their performance in more definitely Queen-style in concert. The Hot Space songs sound better in live performance - more Queen-like - giving an indication of what the album could have sounded like. Queen needed to have stamped their own style on the material rather than be drawn too far in aping styles alien to the band. And you have to have confidence in your own musical profile. A halfway house compromise always falls flat.

The CD and DVD releases patched the show up in a few places, most noticeably when Freddie's voice cracked on 'locality' in 'Fat Bottomed Girls.' Which seems fair enough, seeing as the aim is to produce a permanent document. The problem with live concert albums from Queen, critics have noted, is that they have seldom been live. There has been so much interference in the mastering and mixing that the 'live' albums have been indistinguishable from studio albums. Some of the problems can be attributed to limitations in the available technology, but the main motivation seems to have been quality assurance. That concern is not the exclusive preserve of Queen. I heard members of Thin Lizzy being asked about the overdubbing on Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, Scott Gorham et al insisting that he could do various parts better, correct mistakes, and make the performances better. That strikes me as perfectly reasonable. The aim is to present a document which showcases a band's music in live performance, not record an exact replica: the musical record is more important than the historical record. Being studio perfectionists, though, the criticism is that Queen interfered a little too much. It is for these reasons that Live Killers was savaged by the critics (and band members), with the overall sound being dull, blunted, and blurry. The critics' claim is that Live Killers failed to capture and authentically convey the vibrant and vital sound of the band live in concert. Not so with Queen on Fire at the Milton Keynes Bowl, with a great freshness in sound (and spectacle, with the DVD). Queen on Fire at the Milton Keynes Bowl captures the essence of the band perfectly. Beyond recording techniques, however, there is the content. In 1982, Freddie Mercury was in peak condition, vocally and physically, lean, lithe, and loud. The Queen sound is characterised by a 'hot and spacey' feel, in keeping with the new musical directions taken since 1980's The Game, but most controversially with Hot Space. Musically, the songs from the latter are greatly transformed for the better in live performance. They met with a muted reception at the time, and Channel 4's edit cut a number of them from the broadcast. 'Staying Power' made the edit and is one of the highlights, played with a hot and hard edge with the guitar to the fore. The same with respect to 'Back Chat,' which was cut. Why 'Staying Power' was not recorded in this fashion, and why either or both of these singles were not used as the lead-off singles promoting the Hot Space album strikes me as a missed opportunity. 'Action this Day' was also performed - and cut from the edit - in the Milton Keynes show. Other Hot Space tracks were performed in the US and Japanese tours, such as 'Put Out the Fire' and 'Calling All Girls.' In my recollection - and as someone who followed the fortunes of Queen assiduously, I have reasons to think I am right - the choice of 'Body Language' as the lead-off single sunk the fortunes of Hot Space the album. We came from the absolute high of 'Under Pressure,' a critically acclaimed and commercially successful #1 smash hit, to something people considered decidedly dubious. It was too 'out there,' too much of a leap. It's one of those songs that either goes big or flops badly. Like 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It threw away momentum and put the new album on the backfoot from the first. We need also to bear in mind the muted, even hostile, reactions of fans whenever established bands introduce new sounds. It happened to Genesis with Duke and Abacab, it happened to The Stranglers with their new pop directions - bands always 'sell out' in becoming successful, and can do no other. The problem with Hot Space is that Queen were already hugely successful, and the new turn was at least as much a commercial disaster as artistic. People don't like change and don't like their tastes to be challenged. Hot Space was a different Queen, and people baulked at the challenge. As the years pass, however, we are seeing Hot Space in new, and true, light, with the attempt to blend hard rock, funk, disco and R&B being praiseworthy, regardless of the differing views we may have of the execution. My view is that the tracks on Hot Space were better, hotter, and harder delivered in live performance than they were in the studio. In the studio, Queen maybe tried too hard this time. In concert, they were tight and economical and hit hard. That's how Hot Space the album should have been.

To sum up. There are many highlights in this concert. The opening, which transitions from the constant throb of 'Flash' into 'The Hero' and the hard rocking version of 'We Will Rock You' may well be the greatest opening to a live concert ever. I've seen and heard none better. A lot of the Queen favourites/staples are present and correct, 'Brighton Rock,' showcasing Brian May's lengthy guitar solo, 'Love of my Life,' 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' 'Tie Your Mother Down,' 'We are the Champions.' We should also mention the gloriously un-PC 'Fat Bottomed Girls,' and lament the absence of 'Bicycle Race.' But this is Queen transitioning into the 1980s, and it is the tracks from 'The Game' and 'Hot Space' that are worthy of special note. 'Play the Game,' 'Another One Bites the Dust,' 'Save Me' and 'Under Pressure' are excellent, easily holding their own alongside the classic numbers, marking out a new musical identity for the band. The Now I'm Here / Dragon Attack / Now I'm Here (Reprise) is a centrepiece of the show, blending old and new Queen perfectly. It is also noticeable - to my ears at least - that the Hot Space tracks are tougher and sharper in performance here than they are on the album. 'Backchat' was great on the album, but here is edgier, 'Action this Day,' too. Best of all, though, is the version of 'Staying Power.' The live performance is a real revelation. The band is tight and integrated, with drums and vocals setting a cracking pace. The track is a lost Queen classic, a hot and heavy take on the synths and horns based album track. The result is the funk that the band were clearly trying hard to achieve in the studio. There is just more punch in the drums and guitars in this version, taking it into a different stratosphere to the album version. What was quite clean, even sterile and soulless on disc throbs with life and energy on stage. This is the version that should have opened 'Hot Space' to set the tempo for the rest of the album, and which should also have been the lead-off single for that album. The tempo is just so much better, putting both feet hard down on the dancefloor. It is just so powerful, tight, and intense, a whole lot better than the album version. Done this way in the studio it could have been massive, at least on a par with 'Another One Bites the Dust.' Personally, I think 'Staying Power' is better, realizing what Queen set out to do when following up on the success of the new sounds on 'The Game.'

Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl

Flash

The Hero

We Will Rock You (Fast)

Action This Day

Play the Game

Staying Power

Somebody to Love

Now I'm Here

Dragon Attack

Now I'm Here (Reprise)

Love of My Life

Save Me

Back Chat

Get Down, Make Love

Brighton Rock

Under Pressure

Fat Bottomed Girls

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Bohemian Rhapsody

Tie Your Mother Down

Another One Bites the Dust

Sheer Heart Attack

We Will Rock You

We Are the Champions

God Save the Queen