City:	Tokyo, Japan
Venue:	Nippon Budokan
Date:	April 14, 1979

Setlist:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock, Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Earlier in the day, the band are interviewed for Japanese TV. As Mercury's voice would continue to deteriorate as the tour wore on, he would find more and more ways to creatively make up for his shortcomings. The rest of the band, however, are in absolute top form. Freddie is still relatively strong on this second night of the tour, putting in a great performance - even if he barely makes it through Bohemian Rhapsody! But his true genius shines through in shows like this, as he could modify an entire performance on the fly, adapting the songs to the shape of his voice and, ultimately, his level of confidence. This long tour would ultimately teach him plenty about preserving his voice, as he would come out flying at the shows later in the year. Freddie greets the audience in Japanese after the first song, and adds, "Thank god that's over." After Somebody To Love, Freddie begins to introduce the next song. "We're gonna play a lot of music for you tonight. This next song is from an album called Jazz." The audience gives the record a good cheer, prompting a response from Freddie. "Oh, you recognize. Yes, a bit better than last night. This is a John Deacon composition. It's called If You Can't Beat 'Em... join 'em!" Brian May does a ripping solo in the tail end of the song. Freddie then instigates Death On Two Legs with his speech about their old management, as per usual. "We have a song from an album called A Night At The Opera. This is a song about a dirty, nasty man. We call him motherfucker. What does motherfucker mean in Japanese?" In Killer Queen, Freddie sings, "Perfume came naturally from Tokyo," and the audience definitely takes notice. "There's no peace for the wicked," says Freddie before starting the piano intro to Spread Your Wings. It's one of the hardest songs of the set for him to sing, and it is said that Freddie would often noodle on the piano to prepare for such a thing. Tonight he plays a few arpeggios, the first of which is the same notes as Father To Son from Queen II, and the audience are pleased with what they hear (whether or not Freddie realized he was playing the old song is another thing). "Just a short interlude," he adds. "This is called Spread Your Wings." Roger lets out a scream before the band begin Dreamer's Ball, to the delight of the audience. Freddie says, "Do another one; they want it." He lets out an even bigger scream, to which Freddie quips, "He's the man of the group." On this Japanese tour Freddie's phrasing of Love Of My Life is very different from the original, making for a gorgeous listen every time. It's his way of pacing himself so his voice can remain intact, often leading to great results. Freddie starts to introduce Brighton Rock: "Okay girls and boys, we're gonna do something special tonight. The backing combo's gonna do..." but he stops and laughs at what is actually a joke, as he and the rest of the band always regarded themselves as four equal parts of the whole, rather than a singer with his band. There's a pro photo from this show at gettyimages.com.

Recording length:	111 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality:	A-
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	AUD > Master > DAT (1) > CDR (x) > WAV (GoldWave speed correction, digi-clicks removed) > FLAC level 8
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock [cut], Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Only Brighton Rock is cut for a tape flip on this slightly distant audience recording, one of the better ones from the tour. Pretty well every note John Deacon plays is clear as day, apart from spots where the crowd drown out the band.

Recording length:	2 CDR, incomplete
Quality:	B+
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Let Us Entertain Japan" (Breakdown)
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock [cut], Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Breakdown processed the tape horribly.

Recording length:	111 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality:	A-
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Pride And Joy" (Wardour) silvers
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock [cut], Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
This copy is from the master>dat source tape. The EQ is a bit different (a bit more top and bottom end), making the tape hiss more noticable. This 5-disc set also includes a recording from the April 23rd show and a DVD from the TV broadcast of the April 25th show. Here's a link to the always-reliable GS review: http://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com

Recording length:	119 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality:	A
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Bootleg Race" (Tarantura) silvers
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock, Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
A second source was released by Tarantura in January 2011. Taped by Mr. Peach, it is currently the best-sounding audience recording of Queen from 1979 (although the bootleg label added high levels of compression, as is the custom with Tarantura). It was clearly taped very close to the stage, as it is one of the few Japanese recordings where the enthusiastic audience rarely drowns out the music. If You Can't Beat Them is mislabelled as Fat Bottomed Girls on the artwork. Now I'm Here sounds worse than the rest of the tracks. There was likely an issue with either the tape or the gear, as the problem clears up after the tape flip following the song.

Recording length:	64 minutes (1 CD, incomplete)
Quality:	B
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	AUD > Master Cassette > WAV
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
This is a third audience source in average quality.

Recording length:	117 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality:	B+
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Budokan 1979 Second Night" (Wardour) silvers
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock, Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
Wardour released a fourth source from this show in 2017. The sound is similar to source 1, but a bit more distant.

Recording length:	105 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality:	B
Source:	Audience
Lineage:	"Up Field Tapes" (Soldier's Things) silvers
Track listing:	We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Somebody To Love, If You Can't Beat Them, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Don't Stop Me Now, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love Of My Life [cut], '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock, Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
This 2019 bootleg debuts a fifth audience source. It was encoded to mp3 at some point. The running time is so much shorter because the tape runs too fast and all the cheering between encores is absent.

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