City: London, UK
Venue: Wembley Stadium
Date: July 11, 1986

Setlist:
One Vision, Tie Your Mother Down, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Tear It Up, A Kind Of Magic, Under Pressure, Another One Bites The Dust, Who Wants To Live Forever, I Want To Break Free, impromptu, guitar solo, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, Is This The World We Created?, (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, Hello Mary Lou, Tutti Frutti, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer To Fall, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga Ga, We Will Rock You, Friends Will Be Friends, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


An even bigger stage was specially designed for the two Wembley Stadium shows. But the crew hit some roadblock upon discovering the architect's plans for the stadium were wrong (they were four feet out). The stage had to be redesigned, and it was finally finished just before soundcheck was due to start.

On this day, the Knebworth Park show hadn't yet been announced, as the evening news mentioned how the hundreds of thousands of disappointed fans who didn't get tickets would be able to see and hear [tomorrow night's] show on TV and radio in October as a consolation.

Queen were one of the first bands to use a JumboTron screen at a rock concert. Nine miles of cable were utilized for the shows.

This show was filmed by the crew with just a few cameras as a tester for the following night. Some of the songs were released as extras on the "Live At Wembley Stadium" DVD in 2003: A Kind Of Magic, Another One Bites The Dust, Tutti Frutti, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, the tail end of We Are The Champions, and God Save The Queen. Live At Wembley Stadium was re-released on DVD in 2011, and the entire first night was seen for the first time on disc 2.

This is a noticably stronger performance than the second night, as nervousness sometimes seemed to get the better of them then. The half hour of video footage reveals a much more relaxed band than would be documented the following night.

Before Another One Bites The Dust, with a towel in his hand, Freddie jokingly says, "I've got to get the snot out of my nose before I can sing. Fuck anybody who doesn't like it."

In response to the Queen break-up rumours, tonight he says: "I can tell you straight from my bowels that we're not gonna do it."

A couple bars before the guitar solo in Who Wants To Live Forever, Brian realizes he forgot to tune his guitar to drop D for the climatic "When love must die" line. He then tunes his low E string down to a D (this was overdubbed with the guitar feedback from this moment on the second night for the DVD release). He has a bit of trouble in the ensuing solo (unaltered on the DVD). Freddie then sings the bridge of the song very powerfully.

Brian has some trouble staying focused during his solo spot, as the light drizzle has now become a downpour. The sheets of rain are seen in the video footage. About 20 seconds near the end of his solo are cut from the DVD because he messes up a scale run.

At the beginning of the acoustic set, Brian asks, "I hope you're not getting too wet out there; are you okay? If you're okay, we're okay." After Love Of My Life, he mentions how some money from the British concerts is going to the Save The Children fund, and dedicates it "to all these people who are doing it all year long in their quiet way." Is This The World We Created follows, and it is the version that made it onto Live Magic (although the first chorus and second verse were cut - a bit of feedback at the beginning of the first chorus made the location of the cut easy for them; that said, thanks to 2011 technology the feedback was cleanly removed for the DVD release). Freddie delivers the ballad with great emotion, particularly in the second chorus.

The atmosphere is very intimate during the acoustic set (particularly because it's pouring rain by this point), and things loosen up quickly in Hello Mary Lou when Freddie proclaims, at that same point in the second verse, "I don't know the words after this. Fuck it!"

"Is everybody nice and wet? It's the only way to be in England," insists Freddie right before he starts to play Bohemian Rhapsody.

Freddie, at the end of the show: "Thank you for being so special tonight, and putting up with the rain - and putting up with us."

Here is an interview with Brian from 1986, where the Wembley shows are mentioned: http://www.queencuttings.com

Brian, years later: "The Wembley concerts in 1986 were the pinnacle for us. We were at our height band-wise, and Freddie had developed this phenomenal way of dealing with stadium audiences. Being back home in London playing two sell-out nights was such a big, big occasion for us. None of us realized that this would be almost the last time we'd play together [live]."


Recording length: 105 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality: B+
Source: Audience
Lineage: AUD > ? > CDR (x)
Track listing:
One Vision, Tie Your Mother Down, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Tear It Up, A Kind Of Magic, Under Pressure, Another One Bites The Dust, Who Wants To Live Forever, I Want To Break Free, impromptu, guitar solo, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, Is This The World We Created?, (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, Hello Mary Lou, Tutti Frutti, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer To Fall, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga Ga, We Will Rock You, Friends Will Be Friends, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


This copy of the audience tape from the first night at Wembley is reasonably good.

There is a tape flip after Under Pressure, and the recording is very muffled for the first minute or so after it. There are some slight speed issues towards the end of the show.


Recording length: 108 minutes (2 CD, complete)
Quality: A-
Source: Audience
Lineage: "Wembley Stadium 1986" (Wardour) silvers

     
Track listing:
One Vision, Tie Your Mother Down, In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Tear It Up, A Kind Of Magic, Under Pressure, Another One Bites The Dust, Who Wants To Live Forever, I Want To Break Free, impromptu, guitar solo, Now I'm Here, Love Of My Life, Is This The World We Created?, (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, Hello Mary Lou, Tutti Frutti, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer To Fall, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga Ga, We Will Rock You, Friends Will Be Friends, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen


Wardour released a 4-disc bootleg in March 2012 with audience tapes from both nights at Wembley.

The first night is the same audience source as above, but a lower generation copy. The flaws on that version are not present here.




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