City: New York, NY, USA
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Date: September 28, 1980

Setlist:
Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Fat Bottomed Girls, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (ending), Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


 


                                                         
 

Roger Taylor summed up his fondest memories of Queen in a 2018 interview: "Live Aid was a highlight and playing the football stadiums in South America; breaking America and playing a run of shows at Madison Square Garden." He is referring to this tour, which saw them doing three nights at the legendary venue.

After Roger sings the line "I'm in love with my car," instead his usual "oh yeah," Mercury responds with, "Yes, his Rolls Royce."

After You're My Best Friend, Freddie has a word with the audience. "Hey, I must tell you, I grew this moustache especially for New York." Naturally, the audience cheers, but Freddie soon reveals the obvious truth. "If you believe that, you'll believe anything!"

In his intro to Fat Bottomed Girls, Freddie does his usual bit: "This is for all you dirty people, anybody here that's got a nice big pair of tits. You know what I mean. And a nice big juicy fat ass!" But he gets little response. "There must be somebody here... Jesus."

Before Love Of My Life, Brian says, "Madison Square Garden is the most famous gig in the world. It feels like it." Mercury is in superb voice tonight, and his rendition of the ballad is gorgeous. Shortly afterward he sings his balls off in the second verse of Keep Yourself Alive.

In the lead-in back into Brighton Rock after his guitar solo, Brian breaks a string, so Roger has to improvise a bit while Brian quickly gets himself a new axe.

Before Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Freddie talks about his 12-string acoustic: "I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm doing with this thing around my neck. Well, so am I, to be honest!"

This is a very complimentary review of the first night.

This story about one of the nights in New York is from crew member Chris Taylor:

"Deaky and myself were the only two reggae lovers in the outfit, and Bob Marley turned up to see our show at Madison Square Garden [about a week after his last ever show, in Pittsburgh]. Strange choice of show for Bob, but he loved Another One Bites The Dust, and he happened to be in New York on a stopover on his way to Germany for laser treatment. Show time and our intro tape was playing, and someone told John Deacon that Bob was in the audience, so he cranked his bass up and played Lively Up Yourself over the tape. This was very possibly the last time Marley ever heard this played as he died shortly after. I didn't get to meet him, but I did get to meet Tyrone Downie, Bob's keyboard player in the Wailers, and Tyrone and myself got up to all sorts of mischief that night."

Roger's drum tech at the time, Chris 'Crystal' Taylor, also remembers the show: "I met Bob Marley when he came to see a Queen show at Madison Square Garden. I had a beer with Tyrone Downie, the keyboard player for The Wailers. He told me back then that they came to see Queen because they loved Another One Bites the Dust. John and I are the only ones that listen to reggae, so when I told John right before the show, when the taped intro was playing, that Bob Marley was watching, he became ecstatic and raised his bass to full volume!!"

The concert photos were taken from the second row by Mark Scotti. In the last two photos the band are seen backstage on one of the three nights at the Garden with the opening act "Dakota", one of which sees Brian May posing with their guitarist Jerry Hludzik.


Recording length: 111 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B-
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > Master Cassette > 1st Gen Cassette > Standalone CDR (1)
Track listing:
Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Save Me, Now I'm Here [cut], Dragon Attack [cut twice], Now I'm Here (reprise), Fat Bottomed Girls, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (reprise), Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


These three recordings from New York were all taped by the same person, and sound almost identical to one another. There is bass distortion.

Now I'm Here is cut for a tape flip, and it continues part way into Dragon Attack. For some reason there is another cut a couple minutes later. It plays a bit too slow.


Recording length: 110 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B-
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > ? > CDR (x)
Track listing:
Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Save Me, Now I'm Here [cut], Now I'm Here (reprise), Fat Bottomed Girls, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (reprise), Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


This is noticeably better quality than the supposed first generation copy, although still distorted. Either the above transfer from the master was a very bad one (or the master tape deteriorated over time), or the given lineage was fabricated somewhere down the line.

Dragon Attack is missing from this copy. The edit is seamless, implying it was intentional.


Recording length: ?
Quality: B-
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Madison Square Garden 1980 (Uxbridge)

Track listing:
Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Save Me, Now I'm Here [cut], Now I'm Here (reprise), Fat Bottomed Girls, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Brighton Rock (reprise), Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


Uxbridge bootlegged the three Garden shows in 2017. They corrected the tape speed and widened the stereo image.




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