1980 - Wembley Arena

30 years ago I was at Wembley Arena (I think it was called Wembley Empire Pool in those days) to see Queen for 3 nights.
My mate and I came to London on a coach with nowhere to stay. We met someone on the coach who was an au pair in Pimlico and, as the family she was working for were on holiday, she let us stay at the house. (we must have had honest faces!)
One morning we woke up to hear on London Capital Radio that John Lennon had been shot and killed in New  York.
That night there was a lot of rumour outside Wembley about what the band may do as a tribute.
Of course once the show started we forgot about Lennon so when,  after Love Of My Life, they played Imagine it was a suprise and very moving (as you can hear on the bootleg). I particularly remember Roger being very upset and biting his hand to hold back the tears. 
On another night we were on the lower left tier seats next to the VIP area. Both Brian's and Freddie's mum and dad were sitting there. Freddie's parents had a huge silver ice bucket with bottles of champagne next to them. Freddies dad (Bomi?) looked a bit confused about the whole thing.
They all very kindly signed my programme and I later had letter correspondance with Brian's mum ( I still have a 4 page letter from her). 
30 years ago.

I was there also and you are correct it was named Wembley Empire Pool.

Thanbks for sharing. Kind of bittersweet though. Seeing Queen for 3 nights but losing Lennon as well. I was 15 at the time and didn't find out til the next day when I woke up to go to school.  How cool is it that you got to meet the parents though? Did they at least offer you a glass of champagne?

fantastic story. i didnt know they had a VIP section at Queen shows

great story! 
Thanks for sharing your memories with us! I always enjoy reading stories from people who visited a Queen show with Freddie.

I had a ticket. I had the flu - really felt awful. I'm laying there contemplating how I really should be at Wembley, listening to the radio and they announce that Lennon had just been shot. Was one of those nights where you remember exactly where you were - for more reasons than one.

I was at this gig too.
It was a great one apart from the fact that Lennon's death was on everyone's mind. I found out on the London Underground and saw the newspaper headline that someone was reading.
I took a load of photos on a small instamatic camera thinking they would be really good. When I processed the film and waited about two weeks before it was developed, they were really bad. I think I kept one out of the whole lot. I wasn't happy.

And it was Wembley Arena by this time.

And there was a long giant poster across the front of the Arena entrance which looked really impressive. It was night time and was lit up by small spotlights. I never took a photo of it, but wished I had now.

i was at the NEC show on the Saturday night, 2 days before the infamous event.
'Flash' and 'Mustapha' were superb highlights that night.

See both wembley arena and empire pool in my ticket stubb collection of some of the concerts I attended.

http://a.yfrog.com/img255/3007/tickets01.jpg

kurgan100 wrote: See both wembley arena and empire pool in my ticket stubb collection of some of the concerts I attended.

http://a.yfrog.com/img255/3007/tickets01.jpg
I really wish I'd done Purley Tiffany's! I was at the Brighton Centre, the Rainbow and Kampuchea on that tour. Generally I see we went to many of the same gigs or the same venues, different nights..!

Planetgurl wrote: kurgan100 wrote: See both wembley arena and empire pool in my ticket collection of some of the concerts I attended.

http://a.yfrog.com/img255/3007/tickets01.jpg
I really wish I'd done Purley Tiffany's! I was at the Brighton Centre, the Rainbow and Kampuchea on that tour. Generally I see we went to many of the same gigs or the same venues, different nights.!

Reply: Great times eh? I also went to the Mayfair Tottenham (just down the road for me)

The audience was only in the hundreds due to the size of the venue. The bar was literally a few yards from the stage!

George Michael has been in the audience at Purley Tiffany's concert as his cousin has written on his site. Should have been standing just few steps away from you then. Also GM has visited one of the nights in Earls Court, it wasn't specified which one exactly.

Do you guys know anything about the Rainbow Theatre show on December 14, 1979?

I truly envy those guys who saw shows during the Crazy tour.

How I wish we could hear recordings of those shows. Queen at Rainbow Theatre in 1979... How brilliant must that have been!