City:	Brussels, Belgium
Venue:	Forest National
Date:	April 16, 1978

At the beginning of the concert, the crown tilted off to one side, as seen in the picture above. The crown was raised on a four-switch system and two of the switches didn't work. The band left the stage, the crew started the process over, and the show went on as normal. In 2012, Brian May recalled the night: "We had, at the time, this huge lighting rig in the shape of a crown, because we were Queen, right? At the beginning of the show it was down on the deck. It's down on the stage as a sort of introduction to the show. We played with a sort of intro tape or whatever, and lots of smoke came out and it lifted off like a rocket from the stage. At this point we're underneath it because we're getting ready to play. It's powered by these chain hoist things; it's not actually rocket powered, you know. So on this particular occasion they wired up the chain hoists wrong, and I was on the side that went down and I was like, 'Oh, fuck! Let's get out of here real quick.' Looking back on it, it was amusing, but at the time it was a little scary. It's a definite Spinal Tap moment." In 2001 he likened its obtuse angle to being like the sinking Titanic, and how they (and the road crew) had to leave the stage. "We went, 'do we preserve our dignity or our lives here?' It turned out to be one of those things, as often happens, which was special and very nice, because when we eventually get back on and do it properly there was this great bond between us and the audience, because they realized that we're human and stuff can go wrong. It was one of the greater nights that I remember. It was a really good night." Thanks to Rob Schoorl for the photo of the crown, scanned in from a 1978 fan club magazine. The last photo was taken by Paul Coerten, and is likely from this night as well. A few more shots, taken by Philippe Carly, can be found at http://www.newwavephotos.com.

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