City: Tokyo, Japan
Venue: Nippon Budokan
Date: February 17, 1981

Setlist:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, Teo Torriatte, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


The fast version of We Will Rock You once again begins the show. The band have dropped Jailhouse Rock, probably because they found it wasn't an effective opener in Japan. They would play the Elvis classic a few more times in 1981, retiring it from the opening slot in October.

The band have revived Teo Torriatte for the last couple shows at the Budokan. They only play half a verse and three choruses (one in English and two in Japanese). The complete song would only be performed twice in 1982.


Recording length: 94 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: B
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Zoom Up" (Rag Doll Music) silvers

 
Track listing:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust


This 1995 bootleg is often mislabelled as February 16, but it is from the 17th.

The back cover wrongly claims it includes Sheer Heart Attack.


Recording length: 108 minutes (2 CDR, incomplete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Freddie Was Here" (Masterport)

 
Track listing:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash [cut], The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, Teo Torriatte, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


This second audience source emerged in 2003.

Masterport's version has a lot of hiss reduction done, leaving it with that hollow, tinny sound, like a lot of the Tarantura2000 Led Zeppelin bootlegs.


Recording length: 112 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: A-
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Prime Jive" (Wardour) silvers

 
Track listing:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash [cut], The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, Teo Torriatte, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


These are discs 3 and 4 of a 4-disc set released in 2005. This is a much cleaner copy of the source used by Masterport.

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


Recording length: 111 minutes (2 CD, incomplete)
Quality: A-
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Definitive Budokan 1981 4th Night" (Wardour) silvers

     
Track listing:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, Teo Torriatte, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


Wardour released a second bootleg of this show in 2019. It's more likely to be an EQ job than a lower generation copy of the tape. The tape speed is a tad slower than on their 2005 bootleg.

To fill in the first 22 seconds of missing tape in Flash it seems they've spliced in tape from another show, and the "ahh!" at :23 is copied from 1:39 in the song (although at a slightly slower tape speed), made obvious by the fact that the "Flash" at :21 is different from the 2005 bootleg where the taper resumes taping.


Recording length: 112 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality: A-
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Teo Torriatte" (Tarantura) silvers

 
Track listing:
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, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, Teo Torriatte, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


This third audience source, taped by Mr. Peach, was released by Tarantura in February 2011. The quality of the master tape is excellent, but the amount of compression added was excessive to the point that it often causes the recording to distort.

The inclusion of "Execution of Flash" and "In the Death Cell" in the artwork is the bootleg label's attempt to make it appear as if the Flash Gordon soundtrack songs were performed in Brian's guitar solo spot - they weren't.

There is a minute-long overlap between discs, so the actual length of the tape is 111 minutes.




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