City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: Johanneshovs Isstadion
Date: April 12, 1978

Setlist:
We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock, God Save The Queen



     
           

Queen are in fine form for the opening night of their third European tour. However, it seems Freddie's nerves do got the best of him for a brief moment early on, as he slips up on his first few words of the fast We Will Rock You.

On this tour Freddie starts to expand on his intro to Somebody To Love, something which would grow to great proportions by 1982. He and the band offer a great version of the song tonight.

After the song, Freddie responds to an audience member shouting a request: "What do you know about Great King Rat?" He continues, "I'll tell you what, we're gonna do something in that kind of vein, in the style of Great King Rat. We're gonna start off with a song called Death On Two Legs. And this is a sort of medley."

Freddie's voice is in great shape tonight. Like many other shows during this period, he's strong and confident enough to sing the chorus of I'm In Love With My Car along with Roger.

He addresses the lighting tech after the medley: "Over here, Mr. Spot. Over here, a bit to your right. I'll wait 'til you get to me. Thank you!" He then continues with the show: "You really want some music tonight, don't you? We're gonna do quite a lot. Don't worry, it'll come. Listen, right now we'd sort of like to do something, a song from our very latest album, News Of The World. Have you bought it yet?" It is a pretty enthusastic response, but to Freddie it is rather moderate, as he says, "Not enough, anyway."

Freddie then introduces Spread Your Wings, their latest single, released in early 1978. On the North American leg of the tour in 1977, the band would play the ending of the song in double time as per the BBC version, but in Europe they perhaps thought they'd keep the song closer to the way people knew it from hearing it on the radio. The song had been on rotation on the previous leg, but it is now a mainstay in the set. It would be performed on most nights through the end of 1979.

As Brian plays the intro of It's Late, Freddie addresses someone close to the stage. "What's your name?" He then says to himself, "I think she said Sandra or something." It's a great version of the song overall, although Freddie forgets a few lyrics in the last chorus.

For these spring 1978 dates, Freddie doesn't sing the opening few lines of Now I'm Here.

Brian, before introducing Love Of My Life: "This is where we try something a little different. This is where we play very unusual things like acoustic guitars." He continues, modestly: "I must say, thank you for your reaction. It gives us a lot of help."

For the last couple bars of the vocal interlude after the first chorus of '39, Freddie now uses a harmonizer (set to an octave) to hit the highest note as Roger Taylor can't hit it anymore. After the song he says, "It's really nice to do some of the acoustic stuff, because I mean, all the heavy rock and roll is gonna come in the end anyway. We'd like to do another song in this sort of sequence. We're gonna give Brian a rest, and it's just the three of us. This is a song called My Melancholy Blues." They then offer a version at least as good as the well-known one from Houston.

Sheer Heart Attack is longer on the European tour. In 1977 it was just a verse and a chorus, but now the band let it rip for about a minute longer.

The pictures were taken by Bo Lindell and submitted by Jens Iwarson. I have separated them into two sets, as the latter set are scans of the negatives that have yet to be developed.


Recording length: 111 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > ? > CDR (x) > GoldWave pitch/speed correction > CDR (0)
Track listing:
We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz [cut], You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock


This is one of the better-sounding recordings from the tour, although there are some slight speed issues in a few places, probably on the master tape. The quiet moments sound excellent, but when the entire band is playing there is some slight tape overload.

There is a slight cut in The Millionaire Waltz towards the end of the guitar solo.


Recording length: 102 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Big Disgrace" (Gypsy Eye) silvers

   
Track listing:
We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock


This is a great version of the Stockholm audience tape.

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


Recording length: 2 CD, incomplete
Quality: ?
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Swedish Grace Show" (Breakdown)

 
Track listing:
We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock


Breakdown bootlegged the show in late 2011. They filled in the gap in The Millionaire Waltz with tape from another show.


Recording length: 80 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > Master Cassette > 2nd Gen Cassette > WAV (Wavelab) > CDR (x)
Track listing:
We Will Rock You (fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, It's Late [cut], Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody


This source doesn't sound nearly as good, as there is some distortion. Its only redeeming value is to fill in cuts in the other source - the brief cut in The Millionaire Waltz and a few seconds before It's Late where the primary source has a tape flip.


Recording length: 101 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: C+
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > Cassette (x) > Technics RS-A27 Cassette Deck (no processing) > SoundBlaster Audigy 5/RX > WAV > FLAC level 8
Track listing:
We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You're My Best Friend [cut], Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, '39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet's Song, guitar solo, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody [cut], Keep Yourself Alive [cut], Tie Your Mother Down [cut], We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock, God Save The Queen [cut]


Source 3 is many generations from the master, and probably not a great recording to begin with.




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