Forums > Sharing The Music - Announce > The Best Of The Best - 1980

-- DO NOT CONVERT THIS TO MP3 OR ANY OTHER LOSSLESS FORMAT --

Queen
Horizon, Rosemont (Chicago)
September 19th, 1980

Lineage: Master (Technics RS-686DS) > WAV > CDR (2) > WAV > FLAC frontend level 8

I received this recording directly from the taper himself, so it simply can't get any better than this! It's a truly excellent recording. I can't see why anyone would want to distribute anything else from this date, as this version renders all the others obsolete. It is my goal that this share accomplishes exactly that.


Disc 1:

1. Intro
2. Jailhouse Rock
3. We Will Rock You (fast)
4. Let Me Entertain You
5. Play The Game
6. Mustapha
7. Death On Two Legs
8. Killer Queen
9. I'm In Love With My Car
10. Get Down Make Love
11. You're My Best Friend
12. Save Me
13. Now I'm Here
14. Dragon Attack
15. Now I'm Here (reprise)
16. Fat Bottomed Girls

Disc 2:

1. Love Of My Life
2. Keep Yourself Alive / Roger Taylor timpani solo
3. Brian May guitar solo
4. Brighton Rock (finale)
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6. Bohemian Rhapsody
7. Tie Your Mother Down
8. Another One Bites The Dust
9. Sheer Heart Attack
10. We Will Rock You
11. We Are The Champions
12. God Save The Queen


This is one of my personal favourites. A fantastic concert. Enjoy!

Review from http://www.queenlive.ca

Queen are a force to be reckoned with on this tour, and this show in particular is such an excellent one on all levels. Musically they are spot on, and Freddie's voice is nothing short of perfect, hitting every note he wants to. Their vocal harmonies are tight, with Play The Game being a notable mention.

Freddie notes that it's "Fucking freezing in this auditorium" before Mustapha. "Especially for all those people in the back. But we'll get your asses on fire in a minute, don't worry." Before Love Of My Life, Brian mentions the temperature too, however a wee bit more diplomatically than Freddie as per usual. "Well, I hope you're all warming up a little by now. It feels like it."

There are a few great adlibs from Freddie. In Killer Queen, he sings, "Perfume came naturally from Wembley," something which he had done many times in the past at various places around the world (London and Tokyo, at least). And later, there is his "Ride on cowboy, any way you like, on your bike" during Fat Bottomed Girls, his mimic of the Flash Gordon movie during Flash, "Oh Flash, I love you, I love you, I love you!" and "You can save the world" between verses of The Hero.

Freddie has a few little exchanges with audience members tonight. Before Save Me, it sounds like he says, "What did you say in belching? I'll turn you into a frog if you don't watch it." Before Fat Bottomed Girls, he contemplates the next song in the setlist, and tells himself, "We're gonna do that one, yes," and then shouts, "You shut up! You keep out of this!" After a brief pause, he continues. "We're gonna do as he says, by the way. This is a dirty little number, and we've uh..." He gets distracted again and says, "You shut up as well. What is this!? You wanna come up and sing it? C'mon!" Instead of following through with his invitation, he continues with his usual style of intro of the song, "It's all about tits and bums as you know. It's called Fat Bottomed Girls."

Freddie sings a very aggressive version of Fat Bottomed Girls. After he (unusually) sings the final "rockin' world go 'round" like the record version, Roger shouts "Woooo!" in excitement.

About 2 1/2 minutes into Brian's guitar solo, there is a beautiful moment. His choice of notes and rhythms in his ascending and descending run sound very classical, and he probably didn't even realize it on the fly. Thank goodness for tape! A bit later, you can hear Brian fiddling with his delay unit to get the right timing before entering Battle Theme.

The Flash Gordon soundtrack was released today, which means their audiences didn't know Battle Theme and The Hero when they had been performed at earlier shows on the European tour.

Tonight would be the first show where they'd use a synth. They performed Flash for the first time two nights before in Birmingham, with Brian playing the rhythm on his guitar. The band then decided it was best to have him on the keyboard instead, to be closer to the record version (probably a 3-1 decision in the band democracy!). As seen on the Buenos Aires video from the following year, Brian switches from the piano to the synth patch the old-fashioned way - by manually pushing a button, instead of a foot pedal.

Like two nights ago, Queen swapped the encores. Freddie and Roger's voices blend perfectly in the second verse of Sheer Heart Attack. At the end of the show, after thanking the audience, Freddie adds, "Hey, we can all go home now and get fucked!"

Queen dropped Need Your Loving Tonight from the setlist after this show for some reason. It would be played now and again in 1981, usually alternating nights with Rock It.

Queen
Frankfurt, Germany
Festhalle
December 14, 1980


Here's an upgrade of the Frankfurt 80 recording. I know a better version exists with a wider stereo sound, but this is definitely the lowest generation copy I've heard yet (a friend of mine traded for the tape from a German collector in 1984). This is a great, energetic show from the boys. Listen to Brian mess up on the piano at the beginning of Save Me. It takes a few seconds for he and Freddie to synch together again. This is probably the best recording of Queen's rendition of Imagine we'll ever hear. This is also one of the best recordings of Battle Theme. It didn't last long in their live set, as they dropped it after the Japanese '81 shows.

I've also added God Save The Queen is from from the "Imagine" bootleg on the Gypsy Eye label. They used the common source as well, and added Sheer Heart Attack and GSTQ from an inferior alternate source. But unfortunately, the two discs are plagued with digital clicks and noise. GSTQ luckily didn't have too many clicks, so I was able to clean most of that one up, but it was impossible to salvage SHA (if it even is genuinely from Frankfurt).


Lineage: Master > Cassette (x) > CDR > WAV > FLAC Frontend level 8

Lineage of GSTQ: "Imagine" (Gypsy Eye) silvers > CDR (x) > WAV > GoldWave click removal > FLAC Frontend level 8


Disc 1:
1. Intro
2. Jailhouse Rock
3. We Will Rock You (fast)
4. Let Me Entertain You
5. Play The Game
6. Mustapha
7. Death On Two Legs
8. Killer Queen
9. I'm In Love With My Car
10. Get Down, Make Love
11. Save Me
12. Now I'm Here
13. Dragon Attack
14. Now I'm Here (reprise)

Disc 2:
1. Fat Bottomed Girls
2. Love Of My Life
3. Imagine
4. Drum solo
5. Guitar solo
6. Battle Theme
7. Flash
8. The Hero
9. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
10. Bohemian Rhapsody
11. Tie Your Mother Down
12. Another One Bits The Dust
13. We Will Rock You
14. We Are The Champions
15. God Save The Queen


Distribute these files only if they are left completely unaltered, and always include the lineage information. As always with my shares (and preferably everybody else's!), be sure that this recording is not made available at Queenzone or elsewhere in mp3 or any other lossy format. Keep lossless files lossless, unless it's for your own use. :)


Enjoy!

Sir GH

pittrek wrote:

Date : 13. December 1980
Venue : Forest National (Vorst Nationale), Brussels, Belgium

This is a really good recording, unfortunately without any lineage or other information. :(