| City: | Birmingham, UK |
| Venue: | Birmingham National Arena |
| Date: | September 2, 1984 |
| Setlist: | Machines (tape), Tear It Up, Tie Your Mother Down, Under Pressure, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, It's A Hard Life, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, Stone Cold Crazy, Great King Rat, keyboard/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You [cut], We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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As evidenced by these clippings (1, 2), the third night in Birmingham was added in light of ticket demand. After Freddie greets the audience following the second song, he adds: "I must say it's nice to be back on the road after two years of absence. Seems kinda different, but as long as you guys are here I'll be alright." It's only six shows into the tour and Freddie's voice is already starting to weaken a bit. He acknowledges this to himself while he fears the high notes at the beginning of It's A Hard Life. "If I don't get this first note, I'll kill myself!" He hits it (barely) and quickly switches to falsetto for the rest of the intro. After the medley of old songs, Freddie says, "It's nice to do some of the really early stuff, even though I've forgotten the words. I don't care, I'll make 'em up." He then does his rumour dispelling speech, saying, "If we wanted to break up, we'd let you know. But as long as you buggers buy the records we're gonna be here. Just to prove it, this is Staying Power." After Brian plays the guitar intro to Love Of My Life, the audience begin to sing without Freddie, and Brian stops playing. Freddie says to Brian, "They started it up before I even sang." He jokingly shouts at them, "How dare you sing without my command?" He then hands the microphone to a couple of people in the audience whom he thinks want to sing, but instead they shout out some gibberish for a brief moment. Freddie then takes the mic back and says, "Looks like we really attract a really intelligent bunch." He then asks, "Should we sing this fucker or not?" The audience indicate that they definitely want to, and Freddie says to Brian, "Why don't you give the introduction again?" Brian says, "No no no, we'll do this," and counts the audience into the first verse. Here's a classic Freddie introduction to what is probably their heaviest ever single release: "I think we'll try a song from an album called The Works right now. This is a Brian May tune and it's gonna be our next release. It's a light little number called..." and he suddenly shouts, "Hammer To Fall!" Tonight the song is called "Another one bites the balls, I mean dust" according to Freddie. "A song you can move your tits to." At the end of the concert, Freddie solidifies the casual atmosphere of the UK shows by saying, "Come back any time. You're welcome." The photo was taken by Dave Matkin. |
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| Recording length: | 38 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > ? > CDR (x) > WAV (GoldWave speed correction) > FLAC level 8 |
| Track listing: | drums, Red Special (Tear It Up, Liar), 12-string acoustic (Love Of My Life), classical (Is This The World We Created), keyboard, band (Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Somebody To Love, It's A Hard Life, Radio Ga Ga, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Hammer To Fall, Stone Cold Crazy, Another One Bites The Dust) |
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This is one of the most interesting recordings of Queen in circulation - a virtually complete soundcheck. Most of the songs are partial run-throughs without vocals, so it's a great listen even only for that. Right near the end, Brian plays the solo from Dead On Time off the Jazz album. The source tape ran much too fast, but it has been corrected here. |
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| Recording length: | 105 minutes (2 CD, complete) |
| Quality: | A / A- |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Master Cassette > ? > CDR (x) |
| Track listing: | Machines (tape), Tear It Up, Tie Your Mother Down, Under Pressure, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, It's A Hard Life, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, Stone Cold Crazy, Great King Rat, keyboard/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You [cut], We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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Although it's a slight bit harsh in the top end, this is a fantastic stereo recording - surely the best audience recording from the year. The sound quality drops a notch after Bohemian Rhapsody. It's almost certain that the taper either purposely transferred the last few songs in worse quality or degraded them. |
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| Recording length: | 105 minutes (2 CD, complete) |
| Quality: | A |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Master Cassette > ? > WAV > CDR (1) > WAV (Nero Toolbox EQing) > FLAC level 8 |
| Track listing: | Machines (tape), Tear It Up, Tie Your Mother Down, Under Pressure, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, It's A Hard Life, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, Stone Cold Crazy, Great King Rat, keyboard/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You [cut], We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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This is another transfer the taper did (supposedly from his master tape), but it's in mono sound and lacks the depth of the version listed above (although the last six songs sound better here). At the very end of the recording the taper made sure to include a couple seconds of the beginning of the soundcheck as part of the fade-out (and in much better quality than what has circulated) just to let the avid listener know he was the taper of the soundcheck as well, and is holding onto the master tape of that one too. |
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| Recording length: | 105 minutes (2 CD, complete) |
| Quality: | A- |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | "Real Dazzler" (Gypsy Eye) silvers |
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| Track listing: | Machines (tape), Tear It Up, Tie Your Mother Down, Under Pressure, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, It's A Hard Life, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, Stone Cold Crazy, Great King Rat, keyboard/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You [cut], We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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As usual, the Gypsy Eye crackling sound is there. They EQ'd it as well, leaving it with way too much bass. This may be nit-picky, but this bootleg's name is based on a review of the first night in Birmingham, not this night. |
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| Recording length: | 6 CDR |
| Quality: | A / A- / B+ |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | "Finest Hour" (Uxbridge) |
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| Track listing: | Machines (tape), Tear It Up, Tie Your Mother Down, Under Pressure, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, It's A Hard Life, Staying Power, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here, Is This The World We Created?, Love Of My Life, Stone Cold Crazy, Great King Rat, keyboard/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Hammer To Fall, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You [cut], We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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A 6 CDR set containing all three nights in Birmingham was released by Uxbridge in early 2011. They used a great copy of the third night through Bohemian Rhapsody, and the newer transfer for Radio Ga Ga to the end of the show (although they EQ'd that portion). The soundcheck is tagged onto the end, and it has a bit of distortion. |
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