We came out of the stadium pretty late and it was black outside and many street lights were off, in fact when we were going into the stadium i did see an electrician inside a lamp near the entrance so he must of pulled the fuse out of many lamps around the stadium.
Queen's lighting rig i heard put the national grid under considerable pressure around that area.
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ST17 wrote:
We came out of the stadium pretty late and it was black outside and many street lights were off, in fact when we were going into the stadium i did see an electrician inside a lamp near the entrance so he must of pulled the fuse out of many lamps around the stadium.
Queen's lighting rig i heard put the national grid under considerable pressure around that area.
There was a lot of folklore surrounding Queens lighting rigs in the late 79's and 80's. They were spectacular but both Van Halen and AC/DC toured with bigger rigs than Queen in the early to mid 80's.
The stories or assumptions that Queen's lighting put the national grid under strain is not true. I'm not disputing that you walked out into an unlit street.
The Works rig was bigger and used more power than The Hot Space rig yet at every arena the dimmers were fed from the venues power supply with out any cut in power, bare in mind that they require a constant supply feed.
At outdoor shows the touring production has its own generators to feed the stage with the power required. So the outdoor shows on the Hot Space tour and The Magic tour were not connected to fixed grid power supplies.
Another thing to remember in this lighting folklore world is that the most power used in the 1980's at most outdoor shows was used to power the PA, not the lighting. . .
ST17 wrote:Yeah i attended Elland Road Queen gig on May 29 1982.
I remember most of the street lighting was turned off for miles to compensate for Queen's powerful lighting rig and in fact if you look behind Rogers drum kit you will some Street lighting on a distance road turned off as it was quite late when Queen performed.
Great memories.
I'm also curious about this one for an entirely different reason.
I used to visit Elland Road in the 80s as an "away" football fan. And before all the modern re-building(s) post Bradford Fire Disaster, I remember Elland Road being a stadium of FOUR ENCLOSED STANDS.
As the stage would've been set into one of the terraces, I wonder how outside street lights behind Roger's drum riser could have been visible at all, from inside the stadium.
Just managed to find one image of Leeds 1982 - the complete darkness - save for the stage lighting, would indicate the stage IS set against one of the covered terraces.
<a href="https://imgur.com/855mx9N"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/855mx9N.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
[color=blue]https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/british-rock-group-queen-in-concert-at-leeds-football-club-news-photo/1184650019?adppopup=true[/color]
this does appear to show that the stage was set in front one of the four main stands. The reason this makes sense is they started the gig later to avoid the setting sun (in the West) ruining the light show. If this was their concern then it follows that they'd have setup in the East stand.
BTW Bob, I notice you uploaded to your Queen Live site - my two "Kodac 110 instimatic" shots from Milton Keynes. It's a nice reminder of just how close we were to the stage. We had about 3 bodies' width between us and the "barrier" behind which security were stood. You can work this out just by judging how "relatively close" things appear - even on the 110.
Brenski That Milton Keynes gig was brilliant and i am envious you were at the front. It would take me 4 more years before i was in the 6th row to the front at Newcastle St James but it was worth all the fuss pushing as forward as we could to get to see Freddie one last time, glad i did because five years later he was gone!
Maybe we should have a debate which was better Queen live in the 70s or 80s?
Maybe we should have a debate which was better Queen live in the 70s or 80s?
it's a tough one for me. NEC 79, MK 82, NEC 84, Webley (Sat) 86 and Knebworth 86 - I can think of reasons why all were special (to me).
79 - NEC my first gig after starting work in October. I didn't know until afterward - think the Birmingham Evening Mail reported it set a record for largest indoor UK attendance (at that time) The setlist was an "almost" classic Queen setlist. 70s Queen setlists always sounded more like Queen - less hits, more tunes, if you get my drift. Some great tunes; STL, SYW, and after '39, the place rocked hard.
82 - Milton Keynes was truly great, but people forget what a long day of "nothing" it was. We got into the place just after midday and the first act wasn't til just before 5pm! Being so close to the stage helped. I've explained in other threads how we (me and my mate Ian Goss) ended up so close to the front.)
In essence, it was quite early on (we'd been sat out on the left bank of the bowl eating and drinking) - maybe during the first song or two of the Teardrops set, but gaps appeared nearer the front - when Queen arrived in a helicopter - think there was a mass exodus to go an "see" the arrival. My mate and I took the opportunity to leave the left-side hill of the "bowl" and without too much effort ended up where we stayed, literally 3 or 4 heads in front of us (see photos on Bob's site).
I'm ashamed to say, I was one of the morons who gave the Teardrops a bad time. We hurled pies, slices of bread and sandwiches - even a baked potato. We were responsible for taking aim at the (seated) Horn player - trying to "block up" the instrument. After a couple of minutes people realised what we were doing and stopped hurling things at Copey and joined our "game" Eventually, I succeeded and the horn player actually gestured wildly and mouthed the word c**t - he was correct, of course.
Cope, to his credit; introduced every song as a "gem" "classic" or other such adjective. The band to their credit, took this shit for almost 40 minutes. I admit, I felt ashamed and stopped hurling after my success with the Horn. Cope is a legend, I went out and bought ALL of their stuff after that gig and followed his solo career too.
I preferred Heart to Joan Jett - she did too many covers; Woolly Bully, Shout, Do You Wanna Touch...but Crimson and Clover was a decent tune. Heart, I'd not heard much about, but liked Barracuda, Crazy on You and Magic Man.
Freddie "did" apologise for Hot Space - we were close enough to see that the "only a bloody record" comment was a little "forced". The setlist (HS tracks aside) was excellent. Somebody to Love was IMO - one of the most special Queen Live moments and will stay with me forever..."are you ready, brothers and sisters?"...indeed!
MK was a great day out.
84 - back to the NEC, we'd just bought our house and moved in together (bank holiday 84) the gig was the very next week - it was a first time out of the house after a whole week of painting, decorating and assembling furniture.
86 - wembley I'd been before for footie matches, but this was my one and only gig I've ever attended at the new or old wembley. I remember the Alarm being really good, INXS were great - you could see Hutchence had something special about him. Quo were - well Quo. I'd seen them previously in 81? (Never Too late) - so I knew what to expect. they certainly got the place bouncing. Queen were good, but Freddie's voice didn't sound great. There was the incident with the balloon un-tethering and drifting off toward Heathrow.
Also an incident in the car park, we'd been waiting over an hour and no cars were moving at all. We later found out that Boy George had been arrested (someone died in his flat a few days earlier) and when the police finally caught up with George he'd was taken to a nearby (maybe Ealing?) police station. Anyhow, several cars had turned off engines and lights once they realised there was no chance of moving...someone thinking they saw a gap (in the dark) hit the accelerator and ploughed into a queue of "invisible" cars...sending them domino-ing into each other on the car park ramps. We rolled back into home at 4am! shattered having not left the stadium car park until after midnight and the jams and detours needed to get out of London (thanks George) were tiresome. Also with no M40 in those days, most of our trip home was rural. Drove home with window open to try and stay awake.
86 - Knebworth - traffic jams! the last few miles of the M1 before Stevenage queued solidly. the boredom was alleviated by "raiding parties" where groups would run up and down the motorway pouring bottles of water through other cars' open sunroofs.There must've been dozens involved in this and it did pass the time.
Queen were great, I think there was an "out with a bang" "end of tour" approach from the band. They were obviously glad to be at the end of the tour and really put on a show. More significantly, in 91, it struck me that I was one of those lucky enough to see "Freddie's Last Stand".
79 - NEC my first gig after starting work in October. I didn't know until afterward - think the Birmingham Evening Mail reported it set a record for largest indoor UK attendance (at that time) The setlist was an "almost" classic Queen setlist. 70s Queen setlists always sounded more like Queen - less hits, more tunes, if you get my drift. Some great tunes; STL, SYW, and after '39, the place rocked hard.
82 - Milton Keynes was truly great, but people forget what a long day of "nothing" it was. We got into the place just after midday and the first act wasn't til just before 5pm! Being so close to the stage helped. I've explained in other threads how we (me and my mate Ian Goss) ended up so close to the front.)
In essence, it was quite early on (we'd been sat out on the left bank of the bowl eating and drinking) - maybe during the first song or two of the Teardrops set, but gaps appeared nearer the front - when Queen arrived in a helicopter - think there was a mass exodus to go an "see" the arrival. My mate and I took the opportunity to leave the left-side hill of the "bowl" and without too much effort ended up where we stayed, literally 3 or 4 heads in front of us (see photos on Bob's site).
I'm ashamed to say, I was one of the morons who gave the Teardrops a bad time. We hurled pies, slices of bread and sandwiches - even a baked potato. We were responsible for taking aim at the (seated) Horn player - trying to "block up" the instrument. After a couple of minutes people realised what we were doing and stopped hurling things at Copey and joined our "game" Eventually, I succeeded and the horn player actually gestured wildly and mouthed the word c**t - he was correct, of course.
Cope, to his credit; introduced every song as a "gem" "classic" or other such adjective. The band to their credit, took this shit for almost 40 minutes. I admit, I felt ashamed and stopped hurling after my success with the Horn. Cope is a legend, I went out and bought ALL of their stuff after that gig and followed his solo career too.
I preferred Heart to Joan Jett - she did too many covers; Woolly Bully, Shout, Do You Wanna Touch...but Crimson and Clover was a decent tune. Heart, I'd not heard much about, but liked Barracuda, Crazy on You and Magic Man.
Freddie "did" apologise for Hot Space - we were close enough to see that the "only a bloody record" comment was a little "forced". The setlist (HS tracks aside) was excellent. Somebody to Love was IMO - one of the most special Queen Live moments and will stay with me forever..."are you ready, brothers and sisters?"...indeed!
MK was a great day out.
84 - back to the NEC, we'd just bought our house and moved in together (bank holiday 84) the gig was the very next week - it was a first time out of the house after a whole week of painting, decorating and assembling furniture.
86 - wembley I'd been before for footie matches, but this was my one and only gig I've ever attended at the new or old wembley. I remember the Alarm being really good, INXS were great - you could see Hutchence had something special about him. Quo were - well Quo. I'd seen them previously in 81? (Never Too late) - so I knew what to expect. they certainly got the place bouncing. Queen were good, but Freddie's voice didn't sound great. There was the incident with the balloon un-tethering and drifting off toward Heathrow.
Also an incident in the car park, we'd been waiting over an hour and no cars were moving at all. We later found out that Boy George had been arrested (someone died in his flat a few days earlier) and when the police finally caught up with George he'd was taken to a nearby (maybe Ealing?) police station. Anyhow, several cars had turned off engines and lights once they realised there was no chance of moving...someone thinking they saw a gap (in the dark) hit the accelerator and ploughed into a queue of "invisible" cars...sending them domino-ing into each other on the car park ramps. We rolled back into home at 4am! shattered having not left the stadium car park until after midnight and the jams and detours needed to get out of London (thanks George) were tiresome. Also with no M40 in those days, most of our trip home was rural. Drove home with window open to try and stay awake.
86 - Knebworth - traffic jams! the last few miles of the M1 before Stevenage queued solidly. the boredom was alleviated by "raiding parties" where groups would run up and down the motorway pouring bottles of water through other cars' open sunroofs.There must've been dozens involved in this and it did pass the time.
Queen were great, I think there was an "out with a bang" "end of tour" approach from the band. They were obviously glad to be at the end of the tour and really put on a show. More significantly, in 91, it struck me that I was one of those lucky enough to see "Freddie's Last Stand".
Well you certainly had a great time, and seeing Freddie at the very last concert ever must be so special for you.
All my concerts i arrived by coach, as the helicopters were busy lol
but it was very scary when it got dark trying to find the correct coach as there was heaps and heaps of coaches everywhere and you sort of think they will go and leave me stranded!
Yeah i agree Heart were a better act than Joan Jett as i always thought she was copying the great Suzi Quatro who i love!
I also saw the Quo, supporting Queen and The Teadrop Explodes at Leeds who were getting stick from the impatient Queen fans, but i like a few of there songs!
Wish i had seen Thin Lizzy & Abba live though!
Scott Gorham was a great guitarist in Lizzie and a good mate of Brian May and they should have hooked up for a single or two!
All my concerts i arrived by coach, as the helicopters were busy lol
but it was very scary when it got dark trying to find the correct coach as there was heaps and heaps of coaches everywhere and you sort of think they will go and leave me stranded!
Yeah i agree Heart were a better act than Joan Jett as i always thought she was copying the great Suzi Quatro who i love!
I also saw the Quo, supporting Queen and The Teadrop Explodes at Leeds who were getting stick from the impatient Queen fans, but i like a few of there songs!
Wish i had seen Thin Lizzy & Abba live though!
Scott Gorham was a great guitarist in Lizzie and a good mate of Brian May and they should have hooked up for a single or two!