| City: | London, UK |
| Venue: | Empire Pool |
| Date: | May 13, 1978 |
| Setlist: | We Will Rock You (slow/fast), Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, White Queen, 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), Liar, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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This is the last show of the News Of The World tour. The giant crown lighting rig would soon be disassembled, and parts of it would be used for ELO's space ship lighting rig, which can be seen on their Live At Wembley '78 DVD. The band are clearly having much fun during this set. They revive White Queen for the last night's sake, which would turn out to be its last live performance. Freddie mentions before hand that they're a bit unrehearsed (despite the fact that they ran it several times yesterday before the show). Roger almost misses the queue out of the instrumental section, but they manage to keep it together. After a great version of Somebody To Love, someone shouts, "Keep Yourself Alive!" Freddie reacts, saying, "Are you kidding? You know we're gonna do that song, don't you? So stick around." He then starts to introduce Death On Two Legs, dedicating it to "the British music press who has taken a lot of beating the last couple of nights from us." He also adds that "they're fucking wankers" and that they "eat shit in the bath." Clearly Freddie felt well opening up to the hometown audience, although before then it was no secret that Queen and the press did not get along very well by this point in their career. "This is a very pretty little song which we only started doing recently, even though it had been written some time ago. It features the silken voice of Mr Mercury." Freddie quips, "I don't know about silk, but it's good. Brian continues, "OK, from Mr. Modest this is Love Of My Life." Freddie mistakenly sings the second verse at the beginning of '39, and takes a second to correct himself. After the song, he says, "While Brian's taking some time off to write a few new numbers for the next album [the audience find this amusing], John, Roger, and myself would like to do a song entitled My Melancholy Blues." White Man is superb tonight, particularly from Mercury. And he offers a rare rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody that's nearly identical to the album version. This is the last time Brian would play Three Blind Mice and Frere Jacques during his guitar solo. Freddie holds out the mic part way through Liar for the audience to sing the appropriate part. Like many nights of the tour, the debut album track is performed instead of Stone Cold Crazy - yet another setlist Greg Brooks guessed wrong on for his second Queen Live book. He also omits Jailhouse Rock, which was performed, as always on this tour (although tonight it is closer to a 12 bar blues jam instead of the song proper as they had always played it). The band swap the encores for the last night, and it is a major step for them as a band. This would be the first time they'd finish the show with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, as they had finally garnered the confidence to finish their show with their own material (with the exception of the odd time they encored with See What A Fool I've Been in earlier years). On this night the band have trouble getting into the guitar solo of the former, but such a thing would never happen again. At the end of the night Roger trashes his drum kit, a not entirely unfamiliar sight at a Queen show in the 70s (in fact, such an image would eventually end up being the cover artwork of his solo career box set). This review of the show from May 20th Record Mirror mentions how Freddie tore the press to shreds during the show, and it's not hard to see why. This nameless reviewer accuses Queen of "relying on the on the golden oldies" even though they played seven of the eleven songs from their latest album. This second review isn't overly flattering, either. Tonight would see the final performances of Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, The Millionaire Waltz, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, and The Prophet's Song. Liar would be retired from the set until late 1979. The first and fourth photo sets were taken by Philip Day and Anthony Mallan respectively. Photo 21 was taken by Danny Clifford, and the last set was submitted by Tim de Scally. |
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| Recording length: | 79 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B- |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Cassette (x) > ? > WAV > FLAC |
| Track listing: | Somebody To Love, White Queen, 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 [cut] |
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This audience recording is not great quality but has a warm atmosphere, as it's the last gig of the tour at home in London. The EQ was drastically manipulated in real time on a stereo receiver by the person who did the transfer. The high mid frequencies are exchanged with low mid frequencies every few seconds, and it oscillates back and forth for the entire recording. |
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| Recording length: | 79 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B- |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Cassette (x) > ? > WAV > FLAC |
| Track listing: | Somebody To Love, White Queen, 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 [cut] |
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This is a higher generation copy, but there are ten more seconds before Somebody To Love and ten more seconds of Brian's solo before the tape cuts out. |
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| Recording length: | 39 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B to C+ |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Cassette (x) > ? > WAV > FLAC |
| Track listing: | guitar solo [cut], The Prophet's Song (reprise), Liar [cut], Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack [cut], Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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This transfer of the end of the show is in stereo sound, but overblown. It becomes more and more overblown as the recording progresses, and the distortion eventually hinders the listening experience by the last few songs. One channel is muffled. Liar cuts out part way through (just after Freddie holds out the mic to let some audience members sing/shout the parts), with an artificial reverb/delay added to the spot where it cuts out. It is like this on the following two copies of the show as well. |
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| Recording length: | 104 minutes (2 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B- |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Cassette (x) > ? > WAV > FLAC |
| Track listing: | Somebody To Love, White Queen, 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, Liar [cut], Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack [cut], Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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This copy has most of the show, but it has all been degraded to mono sound. At the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody there is an intentional volume spike, likely done as a watermark at some point down the line. The last 9 songs have less bottom end, and are slightly distorted (but not nearly as bad as the 39 minute copy listed above). The guitar solo and The Prophet's Song (reprise) are missing. |
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| Recording length: | 108 minutes (2 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B- / B |
| Source: | Audience |
| Lineage: | AUD > Master > 2nd Gen Cassette > CDR (?) > WAV > FLAC |
| Track listing: | Somebody To Love, White Queen, 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, The Prophet's Song (reprise), Liar [cut], Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack [cut], Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
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This second generation copy has the best overall sound quality. The first 79 minutes of tape still aren't great, but the last ten tracks are a considerable improvement, and in stereo sound (although slightly distorted, like the 104 minute copy listed above). The guitar solo is missing, and it cuts out at the exact same spot in The Prophet's Song as the 104 minute copy. There are also 15 seconds of tape missing before Bohemian Rhapsody. The sound improves slightly for the encores. All five copies of this audience tape have different quality and completeness issues, leading one to conclude the inconsistencies are by design by the taper or someone close to them down the line. |
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