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Thread: One of the greatest gigs of all time

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    One of the greatest gigs of all time

    One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang and swayed in unison. Queen's performance at the event has since been voted by a group of music executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. The results were aired on a television program called "The World's Greatest Gigs". In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc all are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all."


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    Well, I'd have to say it's up there. That's the gig Pink from The Wall was doing in his mind

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    by 1985, Queen had really lost their popularity in the USA. this performance proved that they can still rock despite the critics. Queen was always dedicated on putting on a good show for their fans and they delivered. especially on that day with only 17 minutes. Freddie had the whole world wrapped around his finger.

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    I was there on the pitch with a Canadian girl, we stood in the same spot for about 12 hours. Queen totally blew us all away. And on the tube trains back into central London there was loads of singing, and mostly Queen songs. Worst and most boring act of the day Style Council.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    by 1985, Queen had really lost their popularity in the USA. this performance proved that they can still rock despite the critics. Queen was always dedicated on putting on a good show for their fans and they delivered. especially on that day with only 17 minutes. Freddie had the whole world wrapped around his finger.
    You know, I could never quite figure that out... as to why they lost popularity over here. The three times I got to see them they just blew the house away.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    by 1985, Queen had really lost their popularity in the USA. this performance proved that they can still rock despite the critics. Queen was always dedicated on putting on a good show for their fans and they delivered. especially on that day with only 17 minutes. Freddie had the whole world wrapped around his finger.
    Agreed, I remember seeing this on TV live and it just blew me away. Queen were practically non-entities by that time in the U.S. and they just slayed it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dgtlman View Post
    You know, I could never quite figure that out... as to why they lost popularity over here. The three times I got to see them they just blew the house away.
    Queen was my absolute favorite band in High School, and I pretty much loved everything they did, but for me things started going downhill about the time of the “Jazz” album. Even though “The Game” album was a huge hit for them in the U.S. most of the people I knew who were into them were jumping off the bandwagon left and right by that time. The album gained them a whole new audience, but it was a more casual radio audience. Once the hits went away, that audience went away as well. “Hot Space” was a complete disaster here in the U.S. with the single from the album hardly getting any radio airplay. No hits meant the casual fans ignored it, and the hardcore Queen heads were mostly off the bus by that time. “The Works” was not received much better. The single “Radio Ga Ga” was a big hit in other parts of the world, but it got shelved pretty quickly in the U.S., and again most of the Queen fans I knew hated it.

    What might have been an even bigger factor was that the band stopped touring the U.S. after “Hot Space”. No touring meant they became kind of forgotten as a live act which made the Live Aid performance that much more powerful.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    Queen was my absolute favorite band in High School, and I pretty much loved everything they did, but for me things started going downhill about the time of the “Jazz” album. Even though “The Game” album was a huge hit for them in the U.S. most of the people I knew who were into them were jumping off the bandwagon left and right by that time. The album gained them a whole new audience, but it was a more casual radio audience. Once the hits went away, that audience went away as well. “Hot Space” was a complete disaster here in the U.S. with the single from the album hardly getting any radio airplay. No hits meant the casual fans ignored it, and the hardcore Queen heads were mostly off the bus by that time. “The Works” was not received much better. The single “Radio Ga Ga” was a big hit in other parts of the world, but it got shelved pretty quickly in the U.S., and again most of the Queen fans I knew hated it.

    What might have been an even bigger factor was that the band stopped touring the U.S. after “Hot Space”. No touring meant they became kind of forgotten as a live act which made the Live Aid performance that much more powerful.
    I think "Jazz" was a pretty strong album; I like it much better than "New of the World," to tell the truth. But I also think it was their last really good album.

    I've heard that this video was what did them in in the US (and I don't know if homophobia had anything to do with it, or just the fact that it's a crappy tune):


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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    Queen was my absolute favorite band in High School, and I pretty much loved everything they did, but for me things started going downhill about the time of the “Jazz” album. Even though “The Game” album was a huge hit for them in the U.S. most of the people I knew who were into them were jumping off the bandwagon left and right by that time. The album gained them a whole new audience, but it was a more casual radio audience. Once the hits went away, that audience went away as well. “Hot Space” was a complete disaster here in the U.S. with the single from the album hardly getting any radio airplay. No hits meant the casual fans ignored it, and the hardcore Queen heads were mostly off the bus by that time. “The Works” was not received much better. The single “Radio Ga Ga” was a big hit in other parts of the world, but it got shelved pretty quickly in the U.S., and again most of the Queen fans I knew hated it.
    I saw them in '77, '79, & '80 and they were fantastic...each tour better than the one before. I concur that Jazz was the start of the downward spiral for me as I only really liked about 1/3 of the album and The Game only made it worse. I loved "Play the Game", hated "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and could take or leave the rest...mostly leave. The tour was great though, but after that I stopped buying their albums. Finally when Innuendo came out I read a really positive review that said it was just so "Queen-Like" so I bought it. It's kind of manic, the good is really great and the bad is pretty bad...but it was good to see Freddie go out on top with a great album full of the things that made Queen great. Re: Hot Space, I recall a live concert video (maybe Live in Rio '85) where before playing a couple songs of Hot Space, Freddie was basically apologizing to the audience for trying out new things...it was pretty funny but was also a cruel reminder of what happens when a huge band leaves it's comfort zone and the fan base behind
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    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    I saw them in the early 80s and they were fantastic.
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    Yea, the fact of the matter is that Queen were much bigger in the 80s than they had ever been in the 70s. Bohemian Rhapsody was the song that opened them up to the British public at large, and that was on their FOURTH album!!!

    But the album that caused the HUGE explosion in interest and really let the whole world discover them was their 6th album in 1977, "News of the World", due to those two massive hits that became huge anthems that we still hear all over the place today at all sorts of sports and other events, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions"

    And they just grew and grew from there, e.g. they got massive exposure with the films Flash Gordon and Highlander.

  12. #12
    After NATO they should have called it quits and created a legacy that would have been legendary instead of the slow decline into arena slop...

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by kayfabe58 View Post
    After NATO they should have called it quits and created a legacy that would have been legendary instead of the slow decline into arena slop...
    I'm sure their bank accounts disagree with you

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    I always love it when someone talks about how an artist should have quit to "preserve their legacy."

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