Anybody Back From Manchester Concert Yet? Tell us about it, please.......

Hankster wrote:

Richard Orchard wrote:

so roger sang under press and played the drums at the same time? Amazing!

BTW: I think that the version of Hammer to Fall with Brian and Roger rocks!

dude .. he did the same thing in '86 ... Paul sang the lead, right?

Did Paul sing lead on this? Can anyone confirm? I thought it was just Roger as they didn't do "Show Must Go ON"

Sorry, Richard. Paul didn't sing on Under Pressure, Roger and Brian shared vocals on this number. Roger took the majority of it, with Brian doing some and the audience adding where needed.

leia wrote:

Sorry, Richard. Paul didn't sing on Under Pressure, Roger and Brian shared vocals on this number. Roger took the majority of it, with Brian doing some and the audience adding where needed.

Thanks leia. i would love to hear that. it sounds fantastic!!! Roger is such a trooper!

I cant be certain, but considering they said they werent sure who was gonna sing Under Pressure, and from my position at the front of the standing, it looked and sounded to me a lot like Jamie Moses sang his fair share of it, which was quite cool.
Having seen PR at Brixton, where he was excellent, I felt sorry for him last night - his voice is playing up without doubt - lots of ducking out of high notes, most noticably on his own All Right Now, so its understandable they dropped TSMGO in favour of a different Queen number he wouldnt have to sing....despite this he was pretty good though, and the band were F***ing awesome! Much tighter than Brixton I thought.

Although they were awesome at Brixton too I must add! hehe

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/entertainment/music/livereviews/s/157/157399_queen__paul_rodgers__men_arena.html

copy and paste this, it's the online review from Manchester Online.

A fantastic evening topped off with the appearance of Max and Paddy on stage. I have a couple of opinions which I know are going to get shot down in flames but here goes anyway. I feel that Brian’s guitar solo is just too long and drawn out. Whilst I’m not the worlds greatest guitar critic I felt like this part of the show dragged on a little. Last Horizon was great but the guitar solo before goes on and on. The other slight gripe was with RT’s drum solo. Now I am a drummer, and can appreciate a good solo, but again I felt as though it dragged on and was fragmented. I think the basis of the solo was Cozy Powell’s “Dance with The Devil”. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but he kept introducing pointless fills and chops.
The show started on a big high with TYMD, IWTBF, FBG’s etc. but I thought dipped with the drum Solo/I’m in Love With My Car/Guitar Solo but picked up again from Radio Ga Ga. Surely IiLW my Car could be replaced with something like Now I’m Here (which is awesome) or some other more anthemic number. You may have guessed but I have never taken to the “Car” song.
There were also a few glitches with Love of My Life. BM started it out on the end of the runway, (a few feet from my position) and was rudely interrupted by two loud “crackles”. He blamed this on the local taxi rank and started the song again, but something kept coming through – it sounded as though someone was warming up their guitar either on or back-stage. He played through it though and managed to keep it together.
Don’t get me wrong I thought the show was brilliant. Personally I love PR’s voice, and the combination of Queen and Paul Rodgers is fantastic. The atmosphere last night was truly wonderful. Thanks guy’s.

Yep, an amazing concert. Can't really compare it to anything as I haven't seen them on any other dates of the tour, but they were all really tight and played excellent.

Shame Paul Rodgers had to dissapear for such a long time but I thought Brian and Roger handled everything superbly.

Some funny moments during the concert, Brian's Spinal Tap moment at the start of Hammer To Fall ("Thats the local cab firm, honest!") and best of all when Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness made an appearance as Max & Paddy singing the Max & Paddy theme tune, bits of Amarillo and general banter with the crowd!

Excellent to hear Under Pressure. I have to admit its not one of my favourite songs, but it absolutly rocked last night!

The guitar solo was excellent, the glitter ball and the Buckingham Palace footage all added to the great ambience.

Did anyone notice the roadies taking away some of Brian's AC30s? They must have overblown! Maybe thats why the fire engines were there...

All in all, it seemed like a great crowd. Really enthusiastic, especially at the start with all the Mexican waves!

Top gig, great night, thanks lads!

Well, don't feel too bad considering. Put a few away, I suppose - but spread over 9 hours, so ended up drinking myself sober. Didn't you see us? That was Archie and I smoking cigars and demanding service at the bars. Yes, that's right! I trod on your toes and damned your eyes as you tried to get past me to go to the toilet. No, not that fat bastard - I was the handsome one.

Cracking show! The M.E.N. ain't the best venue in the world, but they blew the roof off, which even The Darkness couldn't quite manage. Paul Rodgers wasn't as bad as I was expecting, although I won't be rushing out to buy any of his records. And what's with leather trouser at nearly 60 - surely a criminal offence? Maybe they were rubber, that would be understandable, I suppose. Good to see him off the dole, though. Sang a song called Wishing Well, which was met with thunderous applause when it ended - the crowd were as relieved to see it over as I was.

I reckon Brian just improves with age, like the finest Burgundy. His voice was stronger than ever, and his guitar playing top notch. I just sat in awe during Last Horizon. Mind you, I couldn't do much else. It came after a 20 minute guitar solo, so my arse had moulded to the seat.

Roger sounded great too, considering how unfit he looks. Gad, who would believe he used to be the pretty one? Some of the folk at the front threw condoms at him when he came on stage to introduce a song dedicated to AIDS victims. How times change - 30 years ago they were throwing knickers. It wasn't the best song really - would have loved to hear Tenement Funster instead. Really touching to hear him refer to Bri as 'my best mate', although Spike looked a little bit despondent.

Paul Rodgers was off stage for a good while - absolute bliss. Like having the boys back together again, as it should be. I Want It All was magnificent - best of the night for me. Handy piss break and a chance to wet my whistle during another Paul Rodgers number, then A Kind Of Magic, which was a bit flat though - don't know why, as it's a great song.

Had to do a double-take when Peter Kay came on with his sidekick from Max & Paddy (like Brian, I don't know his real name either). Does Peter Kay only own one shirt? He introduced Under Pressure which, while not one of my favourites, was superbly performed after only a day's rehearsal and was much appreciated by the crowd as the surprise it was intended to be.

Usual songs to close, including that Free song everyone has heard of (there's only one ain't there?), and Peter Kay (obviously pissed) joined the boys back on stage to take their deserved bows.

All in all, a wonderful celebration of the world's greatest band and hopefully not the last time we'll see Rog & Bri (and Spike of course - gad, he's aged) rocking away together on stage. As for Paul Rodgers - a valiant attempt, but expect to see him back on the bins next year.

The whole concert was amazin' IMO im 23 an have been brought up on queen since i sat in my nappys! hittin' video boxes with pencils watchin Live in Budapest! an this is the 1st time ive ever been able to see any of the band live and i cant even put into words the emotions that ran through me it was simply unbelievable, my older brother is going to the gig in wembley just hope its as good for him.Can anyone shed some light onto the 'Last Horizon' tune that was simply breath taking! an i need to download it!!is it an original or who did it originally?!

Cheers

Last Horizon - Brians first solo album - "Back to the Light"; check it out, the whole album is pretty hot.
And yeah - my first tour aswell, although I caught them at Brixton - Great feeling isnt it.....as Brian said lastnight - Hello to the old (like him), and the young, like us I guess!

'Back on the bins'!! Well if ignorance is bliss you must be really happy.

The last time I saw PR on stage was in a (sold out) 18.000 seater arena in the US with Bad Co. The _support_ act that night was Dave Lee Roth. Bad Co were huge in the States, they could tour there forever so it's not like PR hasn't got a career.

Brian has been introducing Paul on this tour by saying ' this is the man who's made it possible for us to be doing this'. Brian and Roger obviously think they've got the right man for the job. I just wish there was more of his stuff in the set.

Fuckin' amazing it was!!!
There were some guitar problems during Crazy Little Thing called Love, Brian got his guitar, didn't play a note and exchanged it with another one (don't know which one was copy, which one was original...)
Laughed my ass off after Say It's Not True when ppl threw condoms on Roger. AWESOME!
Had great sits, on TOP- nalmost at the roof. And here I have to say one thing about MEN Arena- MAZING venue, sitting that high I had an awesome view- could really appreciate the whole light show AND the sound was unbelievably AMAZING. It's gonna be front rows in Birmingham, Cardiff and Sheffield...
It was great version of Hammer To Fall- Roger rocks. Before Under Pressure Brian said "We figured it's better to play UP badly than don't play it at all- so we are going to do just that. " Indeed, it could have been better rehearsed, but... did anyone care? Definitely not!
Great version of SINT- one of the most beautiful ones on this tour. Great fun during Can't Gety Enough and All Right Now. Crowd went wild during BoRhap,Ga-Ga, WATC, WWRY, LOML... Crowd was actually really good- sitting above everyone it was AMAZING- before the show bored crowd on the tiers started doing Mexican Wave, which met standing ovation from the standing crowd...
What else? Seems like Paul is trying to save the voice for Sheffield. If that means more surprises like Under Pressure, than... YES!!!!!!!!!
Had a great night, quite few beers, nice company- what else would one want?????

What do you want to know? Was the performance good? More so.
Did the security have a single clue what was going on? No. Security was an utter shambles. I've vented my fury on the QOL forum if anyone wants to read it (sorry Richard, hope you don't mind). If I sent a reply here, it would lose it's venom somewhat as I'm all choked out.

Still, fabulous gig though.

If you didnt like the security at Manchester - dont go to Sheffield.

Have been to MEN 4 times now and each time has been a pleasure. I live in Leeds and i was home by midnight last night having parked in the MEN multi storey.

No hassle from any of the security (in fact they helped us get in quicker via different queues etc - and they didnt mind me using my camera.

I have been to a number of shows at sheffield and it is ALWAYS a nightmare with traffic queues / badly organised entrances/door staff/ huge queues for any amenities and basically an all round shocking venue. I always like to keep my tickets as souvenirs and at sheffield this is the only venu to not return tickets if you are on the floor.
It will be a test of Queen to see if they get a reaction there, cos i have seen a major acts like Elton John / Stereophonics die on their arse there.

From a Yorkie and Leeds Fan its hard for me to say but give me Manchester MEN over Sheffield ANY time.