City: Tokyo, Japan
Venue: Nippon Budokan
Date: March 31, 1976

Setlist:
Bohemian Rhapsody (tape & rock part), Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, Flick Of The Wrist, Bohemian Rhapsody (verses), Killer Queen, The March Of The Black Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise), Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, Son And Daughter, The Prophet's Song, Stone Cold Crazy, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Keep Yourself Alive, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Liar, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Now I'm Here, Big Spender, Jailhouse Rock, See What A Fool I've Been, God Save The Queen



Freddie has rested his voice after the Osaka gigs and delivers a much more solid performance. His voice would remain strong for the rest of the Japanese tour.

Freddie, after the medley: "Now, then, my little cuties. It's now time to feature Brian May on the guitar. Old curly over there. And this is a song, I think we did it, yes, we did it when we were here last, a couple of weeks ago. It's the same old song, so get on your feet and do something. Brighton Rock!"

Freddie, after a blistering Doing All Right: "Arigato. Arigato very much. Now then, let's have some hanky panky, eh? This is called Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon."

Tonight's appearance of Seven Seas Of Rhye is a nice surprise on this tour (with gorgeous vocal harmonies in the bridge), along with the rare encore of See What A Fool I've Been. Before Roger speaks to introduce Seven Seas Of Rhye, Mercury introduces him as "our brilliant Roger" from the piano.

This would be the final performance of Seven Seas Of Rhye for many years. It would be revived for the Works and Magic tours as an abbreviated version, always part of a medley.

One of the audience recordings of the show provides some insight into one of the intricacies of the show. Since it was taped from far off on stage left, the stage right speakers aren't audible. When Roger is doing his cymbal swirls at the end of Liar they disappear and then return, indicating that they are being panned from left to right by the front of house guy, Jonathan Harris - a detail surely missed by most but appreciated by the few.


Recording length: 10 minutes (1 LP, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Invite You To A Night At The Budokan" LP

 
Track listing:
Seven Seas Of Rhye, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon


Released in 1976, this bootleg LP was a compilation of this show and the following night. Three tracks came from the March 31 show.

Both shows were likely recorded by the same taper, and perhaps even from the same location, as they sound virtually identical to one another. The recording runs a bit fast.

This material would be re-released on various LP and CD bootlegs over the years, but the quality of most of them would worsen.


Recording length: 10 minutes (1 LP, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Mercury Poisoning" LP

   
Track listing:
Seven Seas Of Rhye, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon


This 1979 bootleg uses the same material as the above LP, but in worse quality. A second pressing came out in 1980.


Recording length: 4 minutes (1 LP, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: "The Battle Of 1976" LP

Track listing:
Seven Seas Of Rhye


Side A of this bootleg is a Paul McCartney recording. Side B is a direct copy of the Mercury Poisoning LP.


Recording length: 5 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Year Of The Opera" (All About Fame) silver

 
Track listing:
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Seven Seas Of Rhye


This 1993 bootleg uses tracks from one of the inferior LPs. The first three tracks are from one of the Santa Monica '75 bootlegs.


Recording length: 13 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Invite Your To A Night At The Budokan" (Kings Road) silver

 
Track listing:
Seven Seas Of Rhye, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon


This bootleg from the late 90s is a straight copy of the Mercury Poisoning LP, despite the errors on the back cover.


Recording length: 13 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality: ?
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Tokio Contamination" (Orange Records)

     
Track listing:
Seven Seas Of Rhye, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon


This 2003 bootleg is yet another copy of the same old tracks. The spelling of "Tokio" is German.

The extra tracks (Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, and the medley) are from the Tokyo 4-4-76 show, likely the same material that was on the Cardiac Arrest bootleg.


Recording length: 103 minutes (2 CDR, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Royal Opera Comes To Japan"

     
Track listing:
Bohemian Rhapsody (tape & rock part), Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, Flick Of The Wrist, Bohemian Rhapsody (verses), Killer Queen, The March Of The Black Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise), Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, Son And Daughter, The Prophet's Song, Stone Cold Crazy, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Keep Yourself Alive, Seven Seas Of Rhye [cut], Liar, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Now I'm Here, Big Spender, Jailhouse Rock, See What A Fool I've Been, God Save The Queen


This second audience source first appeared as a CDR bootleg in the late 1990s. The second "pressing" was about a year later, but this may be a home-made bootleg.

The first few seconds of Seven Seas Of Rhye and Roger's introduction of the song are cut on this source.


Recording length: 105 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Operatic Ecstasy" (Wardour) silvers

   
Track listing:
Bohemian Rhapsody (tape & rock part), Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, Flick Of The Wrist, Bohemian Rhapsody (verses), Killer Queen, The March Of The Black Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise), Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, Son And Daughter, The Prophet's Song, Stone Cold Crazy, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Keep Yourself Alive, Seven Seas Of Rhye [cut], Liar, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Now I'm Here, Big Spender, Jailhouse Rock, See What A Fool I've Been, God Save The Queen


This was Wardour's first Queen bootleg release, in December 2004. They claim their recording is a transfer of a first generation tape, but it seems like it was merely a case of doing hiss reduction and speed correction, and perhaps adding a bit of compression/limiter.

Here's a link to the always-reliable GS review: http://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com


Recording length: 107 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Geisha Boys - The Complete Tokyo Tapes" (EVSD) silvers

 
Track listing:
Bohemian Rhapsody (tape & rock part), Ogre Battle, Sweet Lady, White Queen, Flick Of The Wrist, Bohemian Rhapsody (verses), Killer Queen, The March Of The Black Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise), Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Brighton Rock, Son And Daughter, The Prophet's Song, Stone Cold Crazy, Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Keep Yourself Alive, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Liar, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Now I'm Here, Big Spender, Jailhouse Rock, See What A Fool I've Been, God Save The Queen


In 2019 Empress Valley released their first Queen bootleg, a fabulous box set comprising of nine discs of all four nights in Tokyo on this tour. The second night is the pre-LP master tape of source 1 in its entirety.

Empress Valley simultaneously released a box set called A Night In The Metropolis containing eight of these nine discs.




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