Top 75 Live Queen Boots (not QOL)

While acquiring various concerts over the years, I occasionally wished I could be spoonfed a filtered list of Queen's best concerts, but I realized it was not practical. Fortunately, the Queenconcerts.com and Queenbootlegs.tripod.com websites, were extremely helpful for determining which concerts to acquire. It just took a little time to wade through all the information.

I have rated the boots in the following way:

AA++ ... Very enjoyable (Usually Ex- or better, but sometimes VG+)

AA ... moderately listenable (VG+)

BB ... slightly listenable (VG)

DD ... yuck (VG- or worse)

I am not including the following concerts as they are officially released:

74-11-20 London
81-11-24and25 Montreal
82-06-05 Milton Keynes
82-11-03 Tokyo
85-01-12 Rio de Janeiro
86-07-12 London
86-07-27 Budapest

TOP 75 AA++:

1973-09-13 AA++ London
1973-11-17 AA++ Liverpool
1973-11-29 AA++ Bristol
1974-03-31 AA++ London
1974-04-28 AA++ Portland

1975-03-07 AA++ Milwaukee
1975-03-29 AA++ Santa Monica
1975-04-29 AA++ Shizuoka
1975-05-01 AA++ Tokyo

1975-11-26 AA++ Manchester
1975-12-24 AA++ London
1976-03-29 AA++ Osaka (day)
1976-03-29 AA++ Osaka (night).
1976-03-31 AA++ Tokyo
1976-04-01and04 AA++ Tokyo (2 show combo)

1977-03-13 AA++ Seattle
1977-05-12 AA++ Copenhagen
1977-05-30 AA++ Glasgow
1977-06-06 AA++ London

1977-12-01 AA++ New York
1977-12-11 AA++ Houston
1978-04-13 AA++ Copenhagen
1978-04-23 AA++ Paris

1978-12-01 AA++ Montreal
1978-12-07 AA++ Chicago
1979-02-01 AA++ Cologne (part)
1979-02-28 AA++ Paris
1979-04-19 AA++ Osaka
1979-04-20 AA++ Osaka
1979-05-06 AA++ Sapporo
1979-12-04 AA++ Newcastle
1979-12-26 AA++ London

1980-09-10 AA++ Milwaukee
1980-09-19 AA++ Chicago
1980-11-29 AA++ Essen
1980-12-08 AA++ London
1980-12-14 AA++ Frankfort
1981-02-13 AA++ Tokyo
1981-02-17 AA++ Tokyo
1981-02-28 AA++ Buenos Aires
1981-03-20 AA++ Sao Paulo

1982-04-28 AA++ Frankfort
1982-05-01 AA++ Dortmund
1982-05-12 AA++ Vienna
1982-05-29 AA++ Leeds
1982-06-01 AA++ Edinburgh
1982-07-28 AA++ New York
1982-08-09 AA++ New Jersey
1982-08-13 AA++ Chicago
1982-09-07 AA++Oakland
1982-10-19 AA++ Fukuoka
1982-10-24 AA++ Osaka
1982-10-26 AA++ Nagoya
1982-10-29 AA++ Sapporo

1984-09-02 AA++ Birmingham
1984-09-08 AA++ London
1984-09-14 AA++ Milan
1984-09-15 AA++ Milan
1984-09-18 AA++ Paris
1984-09-21 AA++ Brussels
1984-09-29 AA++ Vienna
1984-09-30 AA++ Vienna
1985-04-19 AA++ Melbourne
1985-05-09 AA++ Tokyo
1985-05-11 AA++ Tokyo
1985-05-15 AA++ Osaka

1986-06-07 AA++ Stockholm
1986-06-11 AA++ Leiden
1986-06-21 AA++ Mannheim
1986-07-09 AA++ New Castle
1986-07-21 AA++ Vienna
1986-07-22 AA++ Vienna
1986-08-03 AA++ Madrid
1986-08-09 AA++ Knebworth

Rated AA:

1973-27-11 AA Birmingham
1974-05-07 AA New York

1975-04-19 AA Tokyo

1976-09-18 AA London

1977-05-08 AA Stockholm (BB ???)
1977-05-17 AA Rotterdam
1977-05-23 AA Bristol

1978-04-12 AA Stockholm
1978-04-28 AA Berlin
1978-04-30 AA Zurich
1978-05-02 AA Vienna

1978-12-03 AA Toronto
1978-12-16 AA Oakland
1979-01-24 AA Berlin
1979-02-02 AA Frankfort
1979-02-04 AA Zurich
1979-04-14 AA Tokyo
1979-04-21 AA Kanazawa

1980-06-07 AA Phoenix
1980-07-14 AA Oakland
1980-08-12 AA Hartford
1980-08-26 AA Providence
1980-11-27 AA Leiden
1980-12-13 AA Brussels
1981-02-12 AA Tokyo
1981-03-01 AA Buenos Aires

1982-04-24 AA Leiden
1982-06-02 AA Edinburgh
1982-07-21 AA Montreal
1982-07-23 AA Boston

1984-09-24 AA Berlin
1985-04-26 AA Sydney (AA++ ???)

1986-06-14 AA Paris (AA++ ???)
1986-07-11 AA London
1986-07-19 AA Cologne
1986-08-01 AA Barcelona

Rated BB:

1974-04-21 BB New Orleans

1974-11-06 BB Bradford
1974-12-06 BB Cologne

1975-04-23 BB Kobe

1975-12-13 BB Dundee
1976-02-06 BB New York
1976-03-01 BB Milwaukee
1976-04-02 BB Sendai

1977-02-05 BB New York
1977-03-03 BB Los Angeles

1977-12-02 BB New York

1978-10-28 BB Dallas
1979-01-21 BB Dortmund

1981-10-18 BB Puebla

1982-04-16 BB Zurich
1982-05-13 BB Vienna (AA++ ??)
1982-05-18 BB Kassel

1984-09-04 BB London
1984-09-27 BB Stuttgart

1986-06-12 BB Leiden
1986-06-26 BB Berlin (AA++ ???)

Rated DD:

1973-11-20 DD Oxford
1973-11-26 DD Manchester

1977-12-05 DD Chicago

1979-04-23 DD Tokyo

1981-03-08 DD Buenos Aires

Berlin and Paris 1986 should be rated higher,as Berlin is practically ex sound, same with Paris, much better sound then Slane castle and Leiden

I agree with William on Berlin 1986... should be rated at least AA!
Don´t know about the quality of Paris though...

Thanks for researching RVW!

definitely agree with Frankfurt 82 being AA++...

Excellent thread.

Well researched, thought-out, and executed. It is times like these I am proud to be part of this community, as I have always believed this is the 'sort of thing' Queenzone does so well.

It is always useful for fans (both old and new) to have such information at their fingertips.

I think I would, by on large, agree with Mr. RVW. However, it has always been the case that the closer to 'source' generally means better quality, so it may be the case that some in here may have an 'excellent' version of a 'poorer' rated concert.

I do not think this invalids the thread, as I still think that what we have presented here is a 'general average' - which has been generally fair in it's appraisal, but, it would be nice if some previously unknown or 'poorer quality' material magically turned up - forcing a re-interpretation of the above info.

Sadly, I don't think this is going to happen anytime soon though.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]John S Stuart wrote: [/QUOTENAME]
I think I would, by on large, agree with Mr. RVW. However, it has always been the case that the closer to 'source' generally means better quality, so it may be the case that some in here may have an 'excellent' version of a 'poorer' rated concert.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. This list is pretty much useless, because it doesn't say at all for which particular version of a show the sq rating is given and which one is worth acquiring. I'd say of at least half of those shows there are multiple versions around, at least differently generated versions. Sir GH has compiled a great list of the best version of each Queen show that is available, naming bootleg titles and lineages while this list is just based on highly subjective sound quality ratings.

I had a feeling that my ratings of Berlin 86 and Paris 86 were debatable.

Next week, I will relisten to Berlin, and my opinion will likely rise. My low opinion may have developed several years ago, because Berlin was my second Magic concert and I compared it unfavorably to Knebworth (and I have not listened to Berlin since).

I did relisten to Paris a few weeks ago (as I double checked my ratings of all "AA" concerts then --- and several concerts rose to AA++), but I still rate Paris 86 as an "AA". Maybe my copy is not as good as it could be, or maybe I have bizarre taste.

Also, Guitar Hero's site lists his top 25 concerts ... for anyone who wants to take a look:

http://qzboots.no-ip.org/enter.htm

It appears to me that Bob (possibly because he is a musician?) does value sound quality, but places greater importance on musical performance quality (compared to me anyway).

I wonder why you rate 08.05.1977 as AA?
It`s not better then BB(+) for sure.
13.05.1982 Vienna, is better then BB, same is Berlin 86.
Sydney 26.04.1985 is AA++ in my mind.
There are others too, but i think it`s nice that someone did the work writing this list.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]TheGame wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I wonder why you rate 08.05.1977 as AA? It`s not better then BB(+) for sure.
(queenbootlegs rates it as almost VG+ -- so it is borderline between BB & AA IMHO)

13.05.1982 Vienna, is better then BB, same is Berlin 86.
(queenbootlegs rates it as Ex ... so I must have a bad copy)

Sydney 26.04.1985 is AA++ in my mind.
(queenbootlegs rates it as Ex ... so perhaps my copy is not as good.)

There are others too, but i think it`s nice that someone did the work writing this list.[/QUOTE]