My memory of Elland Road 1982.

I remember when Queen did 2 shows in Toronto on the Hot Space tour. I was 11 years old and I pleaded with my parents to take me but they said I was too young and besides - I didn't have the money.
When "The Works" came out, I remembered that tickets to their last show were $8.50, so I saved up $15 for my ticket (just in case) and worked on my parents enough that they agreed to take me to the show.
The show that never came to Toronto...
Cries...

Hello everyone

i was lucky enough to see Queen at Elland road in 1982,thanks to the original poster for some great memories.
There was no screens up in manchester in 1986 for the maine road concert,the footage on youtube is from a video camera in the crowd.
In a Manchester evening news cutting i have from a few weeks after there was a report saying "Friends of the fans" going on to say Queen have awarded a plaque to Manchester City football club to recognize the recent concert.
It was a thanks from Queen saying "The audience reception and participation was unsurpassed by anything we have known before"..
I don't know if Queen often presented items to venues or if man city still have it....

Thanks for the interesting tidbit, Martin. I've added it to the Manchester 86 page on my website.

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to be properly credited !

Great to see more people who've seen Queen in their prime tune in...!

For us - unlucky ones, who've never seen Queen - those stories are a great read. Coupled with the recordings I get an idea of what you guys must have felt when seeing that might live band at their best:-)

[QUOTE] [b]Martinmanchester wrote:[/b]
Queen have awarded a plaque to Manchester City football club to recognize the recent concert.
It was a thanks from Queen saying "The audience reception and participation was unsurpassed by anything we have known before"..
[/QUOTE]
Actually, a thought - why would a football team receive an award for audience reception at a concert they likely weren't present at?

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
Actually, a thought - why would a football team receive an award for audience reception at a concert they likely weren't present at?[/QUOTE]

I'm assuming that it was probably more in the spirit of recognition and tip of the hat to the club/venue itself (for hosting the event) and the Manchester audience rather than the team.

As a resident of the city of Leeds, the Queen gig in 1982 was the biggest music event ever to descend on the place!

I can recall being in the pub on the evening prior to the concert and listening to Radio Aire, a local station who were supposed to be broadcasting a live interview with the band. They explained that the interview would be late as the band were at Elland Road about to soundcheck. Being only 10 minutes from the ground we jumped in a car and headed over there straight away.

As we walked along Elland Road in the warm evening sunshine, the strains of "Las Palabras De Amor" could be heard booming out of the stadium (to this day I don't know if they were actually playing the song live or just playing back the album version to test the PA - certainly that song did not feature in the setlist).

We hung around near the main gates to the stadium with a group of 15 or so other Queen fans listening to the soundcheck.

Eventually the band appeared behind the railings having finished what they needed to do. Brian May and Roger Taylor walked over and chatted and signed autographs. Freddie kept himself to himself and John was nowhere to be seen. Brian in particular seemed very excited by the prospect of the gig to come and in answer to someone asking if he would be playing "Brighton Rock" he replied "Hopefully something like it"

He also explained that at the time the band were scheduled to hit the stage the temperature was due to be plummeting as night fell and his fear was that this would send his guitar out of tune and that an awful racket would emerge as he hit the first huge chord on opening the set.

The guys then climbed into a huge black limo (may have been two)with blacked out windows and made their way out of the car park and turned left along Elland Road. By this time we were also walking along Elland Road and the limo stopped at red traffic lights at the junction of Lowfields Road right by us.

My mate was waving frantically at the car and the window came down and Brian and one of the other guys waved back and gave us the thumbs up before driving off.

Come the day of the gig it was blazing hot with cloudless blue skies all day. We got there early morning and they let us in well before the scheduled gates opening time. We had pitch tickets and got a great spot not too far from the front and dead centre.

None of us had taken suncream and as the tarpaulin was black and absorbed heat we all got very hot and sunburned!

Two blokes and their blonde supermodel lookalike girlfriends were positioned near us and the blokes made a huge show of taking the lid off a cooler box they had brought in. Inside it was a French baguette which they had hollowed out and in which was a huge camera zoom lens and within an uncut loaf was an SLR camera body. Another loaf held their stash of weed which they then proceeded to get stoned on, smoking non stop throughout the afternoon. Amusingly one of the girls took ill (a whitey) just moments before Queen hit the stage and the four of them had to seek medical help and I guess missed the gig!

I enjoyed Heart and remember a storming version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock n Roll" being in their set. Teardrop Explodes were the wrong band for the day unfortunately and Julian Cope seized the opportunity to wind everyone up with the inevitable result that (plastic) bottles rained down on him.

Joan Jett was OK - she had just been in the charts with "I love Rock and Roll".

Queen were just amazing - the anticipation when we saw the lighting guys climb into those "pods" on stage and knew the show was moments away from starting was incredible.

I have a bootleg recording of the show but most of it passed by in a blur at the time. 30 years on and it still rates as one of the best gigs I've ever seen!

Walking back from the gig all you could hear in the dark were the words "amazing", "bloody brilliant" etc over and over from the people trudging away from the stadium.

It really did seem like just more than "another gig" and to hear Brian May many years later say exactly the same and that with hindsight the band wished they had sent the cameras to record the Elland Road gig rather than Milton Keynes Bowl confirms my own view of that whole show.

I was there too! I was also 17 at the time and from Manchester,in fact Stretford, right near MUFC. I knew one of the petitioners and sent her on her way whg=en she called for a signature!
Incidentally, it also co-incided with the Pope's visit at Heaton Park and there was a fear that police and resources (namely 'portaloos') would be stretched, so I think this had more of a bearing on the outcome of it being moved to Leeds.

My memories of the big day are hazy.
I remember getting a chatered coach from Aytoun St in Manchester and it being a VERY HOT day.
I was sat in the stadium to right of the stage.
I vaguely remember Teardrop Explodes preaching on about the Falklands War!

It was only ny 2nd Queen concert. I went on to do see another 4!