The Sun City Sound , Good Mix/Bad Mix/Performance?

Thank you again for posting this much of the show...

Greetings from Corona, CA. USA. I'm definately looking forward to hearing more. They sound really good at this gig...better than some of the other Works bootlegs I've heard. As a musician myself, I would say they are not at top form, but you can hear the enthusiasm they put forth at this show. They really tried to give this corwd something special. God love them for it, they did a great show...

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[b]Rick wrote: [/b]

I better not give my opinion, since I will then spoil all the positivism. No offence to the sharer, for his generosity is mostly appreciated. [/QUOTE]


You just did!

Great comments guys

Thank you yara ,which other  gigs would you guys recomend i listen to, which sound as full as the Sun City SB Mix.?

Yup it makes me feel like they are playing just for you.

Riccardo, have you listened to the version with the speed and pitch corrected?

Because I suspect thats why your comparing it to a late September concert where in truth its much closer to a late August concert as others have said. I think Freddie's voice is in real decent shape and he has some guts to hit higher notes then he had done, EG on Under pressure he goes for the higher note in the "why" and also goes for the higher parts in the first section of the second verse. Then we have Somebody to love where he goes for the note just like the first few shows of the works tour on the "somebody to loveeeeeeee" just before the 3rd verse. Then we have obviously the Seven seas of Rhye thats been mentioned, plus he goes for a higher note on Its a hard life in "Ohh yeah" part in the first verse...plus the notes in his improv between Dragon attack...then lets not forget he nails 2 out of 3 higher notes of Now I'm here, certainly the best from 1984.

As for the 12th Rock in Rio show, yeah his voice is also good there, probably about the same as this concert actually roughly, though I really need to hear the second half of this show to know where to rank this concert.

Saying that its easily in the top 10 best shows for Freddie in terms of vocals n the tour, possibly pushing towards the top 5. IMO it goes the 9th May 1985, then 8th May 1985, then the Brussels show, Dublin show, 1st Birmingham show, Sun city, Rock in Rio 1st show, Sydney 26th April and then Stuttgart.

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[b]City-in-the-Sun wrote: [/b]



Great comments guys

Thank you yara ,which other  gigs would you guys recomend i listen to, which sound as full as the Sun City SB Mix.?

Yup it makes me feel like they are playing just for you.


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Hi, Anthony!

How are you doing?

Well, I'm the one who should be thanking you now.  I'm really grateful for your share, it's a gem. As for the question you made, I'm sure such users as dear Sir GH are more qualified to answer it. :-) 

Before more knowledgeable users join in to answer your question, I give you my impression and hope that it may turn out to be helpful. Excuse me for the lenght of the post – if you find it boring or not helpful at all, you just need to know that I'm absolutely thrilled by your share and got really happy. I'll try to convey both my impression of a certain concert and the joy I feel when I listen to it. :- )
 
A dear Queenzoner created a project aimed at making easily available, in lossless format and with detailed info whenever possible, the very best Queen concerts, covering each and every tour and trying to strike a balance between sound quality and the quality of performance. For each tour he shared about five gigs – either through rapidshare/mediafire links or, more recently, thanks to another dear Queenzoner, torrent files.
The series is called"Best of the Best". It was created, developed, managed and organized by Queenzoner [b]Pittrek.[/b]

If you take a look at the entry for the year [b]1979[/b], you'll find [b]Pittrek's amazing, wonderful remaster of the gig at Hammersmith Odeon – it's the closest thing to your share that I can think of now.
[/b]I may be biased because this is one of my all-time favorite Queen concerts, if not the favorite, period. It was upon listening to this concert some time ago that I was finally converted to "New of the Worldism", my religion in Queen's world. ;-)))
 
It was their rendition of the slow version of We Will Rock You at Hammy'79 which finally convinced me that News of The World is the real deal. Before I listened to that version, I didn't realize the potential of this song – it seemed amusing, catchy, but I couldn't, at first, see anything special in it. But then...I found out in it a liturgical celebration of rock [i]and peace and entertainment[/i] delivered in a quasi-gregorian chant of sorts, all based on unisons and a gorgeous monophonic texture thanks to Freddie's chant.   

The beginning of the song in this concert is thrilling. As Freddie squarely delivers the refrain at a very high-pitch (he's doing it a bit higher than in the studio), managing to – alone! - descend in thirds just like the chorus in the studio recording, Brian begins to play amazing [i]performanti, [/i]that is, he starts emulating Freddie's voice as if his guitar were answering or confirming the singing. Freddie spurs the audience to sing along and you suddenly notice the brutal drop in pitch which will set the scene for his amazing muscular vocals throughout the song. He has just warmed up.

Then he begins. He starts to sing the song and it's magic. It's pure vocal prowess and virtuosism: it's singing elevated to state of art[b]. [/b]No matter the words or the measure within the bar, he elicits, as a sorcerer, the very same note over and over again, without going even slightly out of tune: the notes sound round and squarely over and over again, and after hitting perfectly the higher notes in "MAN-someday"  and so on (A3), he lands beautifully on the central tune again (either D or E3) and resumes the unison-based sequence flawlessly. If you take a look at the video, you'll see that, by the time he's going to sing "all over the place", which demands a brutal drop in tune which reveals the most gorgeous part of his vocal register, his vocal
muscles obey his wonderful musical intelligence and start to swell a bit as he descends to Eb2, even lower than in the recording!

Listening to him sing this song at Hammersmith 79 is like watching a virtuoso displaying his skills at the piano, for instance: it's perfect vocals throughout. It's a unison monophonic-textured song with keen shifting home-keys for the singer to add a grove to it and also features sudden, brutal ups and downs in the scale, almost to absurdity – he goes to such low notes – or the higher ones – seemlessly and without any loss in tone quality. His lower register sounds muscular, powerful, beautiful and smooth.
  
When I listened to [b]Pittrek's share, I had the feeling that it was as if the whole place had been wrapped up and embraced by his voice and we were living inside it for some time[/b] – he holds sway as the notes flawlessly pop up from him while he's on top of the Superman. ;-)

This concert has Freddie doing what I think must be one of his most glorious moments on stage as far as the rockers are concerned: his rendition of [b]"Let Me Entertain You"[/b]. It's absolutely jaw-dropping. It features, to my mind, the best version of [b]"Save Me"[/b] too – the way he delivers the line [i]"a soul for sail or rent"[/i] is a little vocal miracle. It encapsulates everything you expect from a singer in ONE LINE: astonishing range, absolut control of dynamic range and flutuations in timber, flair, wonderfully-colored notes, exquisite though slight variations on melody and smoothness.

It may be a problem of mine – I guess it is. I'm too obsessed with this concert, I think, and sometimes, I can't deny it, I do ask myself why it just doesn't  get officially released. Very few bands have the luxury of being able to release such a pristine concert – oh Lord forbid, I mean absolutely no criticism of either Brian or Roger or John, but how I'd love to see it officially released! :op

[b]While it doesn't happen, though, Pittrek's remaster of this gig is top-notch and is more than enough for you to enjoy Queen at its peak. [/b]And, as of now, I think it's the best we have from that night. I can be wrong though, of course.
 
I'm sure you know the concert, but I'm not sure whether you listened to the wonderful job dear user Pittrek did on this one.
 
THANK YOU, AGAIN, for your kindness and patience.

Take care and have a nice Tuesday!

Yara

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[b]City-in-the-Sun wrote: [/b]



which other  gigs would you guys recomend i listen to, which sound as full as the Sun City SB Mix.?


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If you want earlier Queen in equally good sound, start with the London 3-31-74 and London 12-24-75 shows.  The best versions have been shared, so dig around in here:

http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/forumnew/forum_topic_view.aspx?Q=1109319

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[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]

I have to admit, I have yet to give an objective listen to the uncut 1-12-85 show, as the video is such bad quality.  Is yours at least listenable?

But again, most of the audio on the 60 minute official release is from that night, and you're right, he does put in a good show.

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From Rock in Rio I have only the official release too... but in youtube I found some good videos of the first night. He does put a very remarkable performance of somebody to love, hardlife and IWTBF there (and I don't remember the other songs).

[b]koldweather123 wrote:
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Saying that its easily in the top 10 best shows for Freddie in terms of vocals n the tour, possibly pushing towards the top 5. IMO it goes the 9th May 1985, then 8th May 1985, then the Brussels show, Dublin show, 1st Birmingham show, Sun city, Rock in Rio 1st show, Sydney 26th April and then Stuttgart.

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The 2nd Birmingham show is in the top 5 of Works tour. Check it.

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[b]riccardo wrote: [/b]

From Rock in Rio I have only the official release too... but in youtube I found some good videos of the first night. He does put a very remarkable performance of somebody to love, hardlife and IWTBF there (and I don't remember the other songs).
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Fair enough, the first night in Rio was a great show.  But this Sun City show is overall on the same level vocally, I think.  Instrumentally, Sun City is leagues beyond it.  In Rio they were a machine playing for the masses, but in South Africa they had something to prove.

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[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]

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[b]riccardo wrote: [/b]



From Rock in Rio I have only the official release too... but in youtube I found some good videos of the first night. He does put a very remarkable performance of somebody to love, hardlife and IWTBF there (and I don't remember the other songs).

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Fair enough, the first night in Rio was a great show.  But this Sun City show is overall on the same level vocally, I think.  Instrumentally, Sun City is leagues beyond it.  In Rio they were a machine playing for the masses, but in South Africa they had something to prove.

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I agree with you. There's more to this Sun City show than Freddie's vocals. The others sound fresh and hungry too.

Freddie's improvisation is also much better than the first Rio night(I must say the Rock in Rio blues sounded great the second Rio night). There's great interaction in Sun City, they act as a team that wants to conquer this new audience(Rio was more on routine, i feel). That section between Dragon attack and NIH gets my blood boiling. Such moments did not occur during the first Rio night, even though the band was solid and Freddie in great voice.

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[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]

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[b]riccardo wrote: [/b]



From Rock in Rio I have only the official release too... but in youtube I found some good videos of the first night. He does put a very remarkable performance of somebody to love, hardlife and IWTBF there (and I don't remember the other songs).

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Fair enough, the first night in Rio was a great show.  But this Sun City show is overall on the same level vocally, I think.  Instrumentally, Sun City is leagues beyond it.  In Rio they were a machine playing for the masses, but in South Africa they had something to prove.

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blah

[b]riccardo wrote: [/b]



 



The 2nd Birmingham show is in the top 5 of Works tour. Check it.



 

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From what I remember of it, its a good show and to be fair its probably at least as good as Stuttgart, indeed in terms of the bands playing its a very good show, though not as alive as this sun city show nor the 5 Japan shows.



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[b]L-R-TIGER1994 wrote: [/b]













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[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]





























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[b]riccardo wrote: [/b]































From Rock in Rio I have only the official release too... but in youtube I found some good videos of the first night. He does put a very remarkable performance of somebody to love, hardlife and IWTBF there (and I don't remember the other songs).





























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Fair enough, the first night in Rio was a great show.  But this Sun City show is overall on the same level vocally, I think.  Instrumentally, Sun City is leagues beyond it.  In Rio they were a machine playing for the masses, but in South Africa they had something to prove.

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blah

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Thanks for your always-insightful addition to the discussion.  You're so very right.  They had absolutely nothing to prove to a new audience in South Africa.  In fact, bearing your groundbreaking comments in mind, apartheid never even happened.

[i]You might be right SIR but at least I put my comments here I do not insult via PM like [b]some [/b]other people you know.[/i]

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[b]L-R-TIGER1994 wrote: [/b]

[i]You might be right SIR but at least I put my comments here I do not insult via PM like [b]some [/b]other people you know.[/i][/QUOTE]


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