A couple of (hopefully) interesting facts about Knebworth 1986

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[b]louis.007 wrote: [/b]

The Quo pic is from the Silver Clef awards at Knebworth in 1990. I was there and also at Queen's gig in '86. Stuart Adamson did indeed take a picture of the crowd and Big Country were on after Quo if memory serves me well - I believe Quo had another gig elsewhere that evening? Deaky did indeed trash his bass at the end of GaGa - apparently it had been resprayed (black) and was due to feature the Magic caricatures (which it didn't) but he didn't like the new finish so launched it at the end of the number (see 'Rare Live' for evidence). The organ pipes did indeed make their first appearance on UK soil during the tour and were wheeled on from Brian's side of the stage. When Queen arrived by helicopter the entire audience ignored whoever was playing and gave a huge roar of approval for the boys. It took 4 hours to get out of the bloody car park!! Official attendance was listed as 160,000, unofficial 240,000!! I knew 3 coppers who were on duty that day and was told that an hour before Queen hit the stage there were 80,000 people outside without tickets. For safety reasons and to avoid a possible riot the fencing was removed (it wasn't there when we left the venue!!) and those people were let in for free. I was at the Purple gig the year before and can tell you that the Queen crowd was enormous in comparison. [/QUOTE]
That's great, I really wish some times that I was born 10 years earlier and in the UK :-)

Hi Pittrek, the gig was almost in my own back yard. At the time I lived in Letchworth (where Brian will be doing his book signing on 21/05/10) which on a good day was only 10 minutes drive from Knebworth. I remember getting there at about 9 in the morning on what turned out to be a glorious day weather-wise (it pissed down the whole time at Purple the year before). Having seen the band in Holland, Belgium, both Wembley shows and Manchester, this blew those gigs out of the water! They were on fire at Knebworth and you could just tell how knocked back they were performing before such a huge crowd (listen to Freddie's comments from the show and you'll know what I mean). I really can remember so much about that day, alot of it is personal because of who I was with (hell, I was 19 and in love (sic!)), but if prompted and with more time (should be working at the moment!) I'm sure I'll be able to remember a whole lot more.

The concert was titled "A Night Of Summer Magic" - I used to have a sew on patch with that lettering.

Can't help with much else though - you could look up the work someone did on the helicopter if you wanted to be really anal!

Additional - GT is correct about the catwalk.  Irrespective of any side catwalks, if that was 1986 there'd be a frontal one.

FWIW Knebworth 1990 is available on DVD, so this could be checked, but I don't see the point.  It's NOT a 1986 image.

Duly noted.

So ... is this pic of the Quo from Knebworth 1986 then?  It was labeled as such..

Oh what a day!

If I had a time machine and could only re-live one day this would probably be it !

Having missed out on Wembley tickets I thought my only chance to see the band had gone, then they announced Knebworth and I was ecstatic, bought tickets end of May and had to wait 'til August, time passed slowly.

Left Swansea 5am by coach and didn't get back 'til 6am on Sunday, took some big bottles of cheap lager and cos we couldn't take them in to the field we drank some and hid what we had left under an Edwin Shirley truck, which we managed to find on the way out and downed them, it was a hot day.

The atmosphere and excitement was like nothing I had experienced, and I did not realise just how many people were there,
with us being pretty close to front as it turned out, approx. level with the front sound/lights enclosure, which was to the right as you looked at the stage..............so the Quo photo is definitely not 1986, there was no tall tower in the middle, there was a 2nd shorter one futher back if you look at aerial shots.

Do remember the roadie on top of the Jumbotron screen miming along to Quo, but I think he had a big cut-out guitar.

And yes Big Country were tremendous for a support and easily better than Quo, who were on before them.

Remember the tape of Bryan Adams' Run To You playing just before it cut-off and the smoke/dry ice started to fill the stage, lighting rig started to rise, the cheers,screaming, shouting was incredible.

Nearly sang every word, voice gone by the end. 'In the lap of the Gods' was an amazing surprise.

Shocked to see Deacy launch his bass towards the amps at the end, thought I was seeing things.

Didn't appreciate how lucky I was to see what would be the last gig and it's a pity it was before the widespread use of home video cameras otherwise we would probably have some brilliant footage.

Apologies for rambling!

I was there,  got there early in the morning,  no toilet facilities outside of the enclosed area,    back of trees are great ;)    they were  selling official merch' outside of the enclosed area.  Soon as they started letting people in, it's the fastest you've ever seen me run to get to the front.  Harvey Goldsmith went on stage & told everyone to stop running, which of course nobody listened to him.
later on there was a plastic bottle/food/rubbish fight.  people throwing stuff forward, those at the front throwing it back (myself included)  more stuff getting lobbed forward & back & so on. all I can say is the high ground won & I must have ended up being about 12" taller, due to all the rubbish I was standing on at the front + plastic bottles don't half hurt when they clock you in the face :(

The helicopter flew over to cheers, later Brian appeared back stage watching "Big Country" through the right hand side rear back drop curtains.

The queen set was great,  I remember Brian broke a string on his black telecaster during "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" luckily it was before the Guitar solo & he had enough time to swap guitars & played the solo on his "Red Special" 

After the gig, it took me about 2 hours to get out of the park, I remember just turning my car engine off, sitting on the bonnet & me add my mates singing Queen songs along to the Tape cassette player in my car, other fans stuck in the traffic joined in singing.

Originally I was not going to attend this concert, as I had already done Wembley & Manchester before on the tour,  Little did I know, that it was going to be the last Queen gig with Freddie, so I'm really glad that I now decided to go.

all in all, it was a great day, even though it was a long tiring one,  all my mates fell asleep on the way home, leaving me the only one awake for a good 3 hour journey home, into the early hours of the next morning.........

Hello all

I was there, after my sisters boyfriend dumped her at the last minute & I got his ticket (Biggest mistake that ever existed or what?).

I remember arriving in our austin 1300 Allegro early morning & walking for miles until we started going through small white walled tunnels & this is where the bootleg T-shirts were being sold for £5.00.

We eventualy got to the park & were asked to dispose of our bottles & food etc.

First things first, the portable toilets were absolutely disgusting & literaly a trench with water & wooden make-do cubicles placed over the top, the funny thing was a giant turd had made it's way down the trench & the screams were heard from the adjoining cubicles as it passed through (Must be an english thing to remember the turd  ?).

Anyway I remember Quo & Big Country - Big Country were the best support band for me as I am still a Big fan.

The crowd was just unbeleivable & I was in total awe of the size of venue, I dont think anyone has mentioned this but a world war I plane going overhead dropping water onto the crowd as it was a very hot day & the beer tents ran out of beer, so I am sure this was not planned.

We were stood 3/4 of the way back on the right hand side & anyone who has a good photo of the crown from overhead will see a giant tree, we were underneath that next to the St Johns ambulance van.

When One Vision started, I was literaly extatic & to this day have never had that feeling from any conert I have attended, it was to be the night the penny dropped for me as far as music was concerned as I was watching a band that had the lot. by the bucket load.

Apart from the worlds most expensive Pizza slice, I realy cannot add any more apart from my sister met up with the ex boyfriend a few years back & they are still together, oh how I love winding him up about the gig.

I hope I havent bored you, just adding my bit !

Cheers : Jon

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[b]Jon home wrote: [/b]

Hello all

I was there, after my sisters boyfriend dumped her at the last minute & I got his ticket (Biggest mistake that ever existed or what?).

I realy cannot add any more apart from my sister met up with the ex boyfriend a few years back & they are still together, oh how I love winding him up about the gig.

I hope I havent bored you, just adding my bit !

Cheers : Jon




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priceless.

This is a very nice picture of Knebworth crowd the day that Queen performed !

i believe the Status Quo pic is Knebworth 86. someone said that it wasn't because there is no catwalk.

on Wembley DVD, the A Beautiful Day documentary, you can see the rodies moving the catwalk and other stuff on stage.

by catwalk you mean the stairs that are on both sides of the drum kitt, right? as i said, i think they're not used on Status Quo set, but are added later. i was checking now the Wembley DVD i i believe that the structure where Roger drum kitt is on, and the side stairs are added AFTER Status Quo show.

another thing,  you can see the catwalk at the back of the stage, that Freddie uses after singing the last words of One Vision, he goes that catwalk behind Roger , and then goes down through the stairs that are on both side's of Roger drum kitt. and you can't see that catwalk behind Roger on the Status Quo Knebworth 1990 video

Also look at all the amplifiers on Rockin' All Over The World video at 0:40. Where are they in the picture that pittrek posted?

so, we know that that picture is NOT from 1990 show. i honestly believe it's from 1986.

austin 1300 Allegro .......fantastic lol.
queen and an alegro.you were honoured lol.

A catwalk is the protruding extra piece of staging that was at the front of nearly every Queen show since late 1974. This would be put into place when the main stage was put up and not after. The steps on either side of the stage are what they are....steps, leading to catwalks in front of the speakers that have been used by Queen in the large arenas since 1977. They are also known as a jetty.
These days a catwalk is also a means of getting to a sub stage or a 'b' stage that a lot of bands use for an acoustic set or to be more closer to the audience, just like the Q+PR concerts.

Thanks guys, it's really nice to read your stories :-)
And what about recordings of the opening bands - anybody have them ?

It was a really great day and a superb gig.  I stabbed some asshole before I left; never did find out what happened to them.