City:	Montreal, QC, Canada
Venue:	Montreal Forum
Date:	July 21, 1982

Setlist:	Flash (tape), Rock It, We Will Rock You (fast), Action This Day, Play The Game, Staying Power, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Save Me, Calling All Girls, Back Chat, Get Down Make Love, guitar solo, Under Pressure, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Body Language, Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Brian May would later recall Hot Space as a "failed attempt at doing funk properly." After listening particularly to side A of Hot Space, many North American fans saw Queen as having shifted from being leaders and trend-setters to being followers, and that they simply no longer rocked. However, the live band Queen (they always were essentially two different bands, as much of their music had to be rearranged to suit the live environment) still did rock, as the Hot Space material translated to the live environment very well. Tonight, and on this tour as a whole, the band put at least as much energy into performing the newer material as the old. The bulk of the setlist is from The Game and Hot Space, with barely more than a half dozen songs from their first seven albums combined. In hindsight, this is what the middle periods of bands so often look like. Unlike past tours, most reviews of their concerts on the 'Rock N' America' Tour were very positive, often speaking of the technical aspects of the show. Indeed, Queen continued to be leaders in their stage presentation. The lighting rig had once again been upgraded and was state-of-the-art for the time. The light show worked to its maximum potential during Brian's guitar solo, providing dazzling effects in sync with certain bits of what he was playing. American rocker Billy Squier would support Queen at every show on what would be their final tour of North America. Brian May would end up playing guitar on Billy's next album, a song called "(Another) 1984." Some people in the crowd booed Squier tonight, but generally speaking the reviews of his set on this tour were complimentary. On keyboards, Morgan Fisher has been replaced by Fred Mandel. Fred would remain with the band for the rest of the year, and would also play piano on "Man On The Prowl" on Queen's next album, The Works. Interestingly enough, Freddie doesn't introduce Mandel at the first couple shows, while he introduced Morgan Fisher at every show in Europe. They have dropped The Hero and wisely open with Rock It, as they are well aware of how successful The Game was on this side of the Atlantic. For this opening show of the tour, Queen would show their confidence in the new material by playing six songs from Hot Space. Brian's opening night jitters kick in early as he begins the concert by playing Rock It in D instead of A. When Freddie sings the first line, he knows it's way too high, and exclaims to his guitarist, "wrong key!" Brian then seamlessly switches to the arpeggiated A chord and then they get the show rolling. They play the song a key lower than the original probably to ensure Freddie sings it well every night. For much of the tour, the coda of Rock It merges into a brief snippet of the fast version of We Will Rock You. Action This Day follows, making this tour the only time they would effectively open the show with two Roger Taylor songs. Somebody To Love appears only occasionally on this tour, and Love Of My Life wouldn't be played at all. Calling All Girls, however, has been introduced to the set, as it has recently been released as a single - the first Queen single penned by Roger Taylor. Although this song wouldn't bring them much success, Roger would write two massively successful songs in the next few years - Radio Ga Ga and A Kind Of Magic. The latter would be a number one hit in many countries in 1986, making Queen the only band whose members all wrote a number one song. Body Language is a huge hit on this side of the Atlantic, so the band feel it's right to use it as the first encore number. It definitely goes down well, unlike its brief stint in the setlist in Europe. They opt for a more concise version of the song without the first verse or the drawn-out ending. I have spoken with many people who saw Queen on this tour, many of whom didn't like much of the Hot Space album - but the common thread between them all was how great the new songs sounded on stage, particularly Body Language. Megadeth/Eidolon drummer Shawn Drover attended this show, aged 16 at the time. The show is comparatively shorter than on previous tours, as the band are on stage for about 90-95 minutes each night. For the rest of 1982, Roger Taylor's bass drum skin would be the artwork of his solo single My Country. The photos were taken by Tracy Runas.

Recording length:	87 minutes (incomplete)
Quality:	A
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	AUD > Cassette (x) > Sony CD-IT Type II 90 minute cassette > Technics RS-A27 Cassette Deck (no processing) > SoundBlaster Audigy 5/RX > WAV (GoldWave volume adjustments) > iZotope RX9 EQing > FLAC level 8
Track listing:	Flash (tape), Rock It, We Will Rock You (fast), Action This Day, Play The Game, Staying Power, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Save Me, Calling All Girls, Back Chat, Get Down Make Love, guitar solo, Under Pressure, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Body Language, Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Tie Your Mother Down is missing from this audience source. After inferior copies circulated for decades, this version that emerged in 2022 may well be the best-sounding recording of the North American leg of the tour.

Recording length:	64 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality:	A-
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	AUD > Cassette (x) > ? > CDR (x) > WAV > FLAC level 8
Track listing:	Flash (tape), Rock It, We Will Rock You (fast), Action This Day, Play The Game, Staying Power, Get Down Make Love, guitar solo, Under Pressure, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love [cut], Bohemian Rhapsody [cut], Tie Your Mother Down, Body Language [cut], Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
This second source has Tie Your Mother Down, but a few songs are missing after Staying Power.

Recording length:	90 minutes (2 CDR, complete)
Quality:	A- / B+
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Flash In Space" (Breakdown)
Track listing:	Flash (tape), Rock It, We Will Rock You (fast), Action This Day, Play The Game, Staying Power, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Save Me, Calling All Girls, Back Chat, Get Down Make Love, guitar solo, Under Pressure, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Body Language [cut], Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
This bootleg is a compilation of the two sources, using an inferior copy of source 1. They didn't patch in the beginning of Body Language, which is slightly cut on source 2. Here's a link to the always-reliable GS review: http://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com

Recording length:	2 CD
Quality:	A- / B+
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Calling All Girls" (Godfather) silvers
Track listing:	Flash (tape), Rock It, We Will Rock You (fast), Action This Day, Play The Game, Staying Power, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Save Me, Calling All Girls, Back Chat, Get Down Make Love, guitar solo, Under Pressure, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Body Language [cut], Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Godfather released an attractive-looking boxed set in September 2011 called "Love For An Hour Is Love Forever" containing three shows from this tour. The Montreal material is a merge of the two audience sources, and both have been EQ'd a bit.

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