World Famous Comics: Queen - Live at Wembley Stadium
Queen - Live at Wembley Stadium
Starring: Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Brian May (II), Roger Taylor, Spike Edney Directed By: Gavin Taylor Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Live, Original recording remastered, NTSC Label: Hollywood Records Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 17, 2003 Running Time: 300 minutes Theatrical Release Date: August 25, 1992
An Amazing Performance! Excellent performance! Queen plays a lot of their hits, including my faves of theirs: Bohemian(sp) Rhapsody, and We are the Champions. Freddie also sings a few hits by other stars, such as an Elvis Presley song, and one of Rickie Nelson's. I must say that they may even be better than the originals. I was a little disappointed that Queen did not sing their song "You're My Best Friend." But, that is a minor point. The songs and performance are wonderful...and I play the DVD frequently. The world really lost an amazing man and an excellent performer when Freddie Mercury passed away. Definitely a five star performance: All Queen fans will surely love this DVD. I know I do!
The Return Of The Queen Oh that was a terrible Lord Of The Rings pun wasn't it? Besides they weren't "The Queen" at all! Just plain old Queen. But it does maybe describe the idea of Queen returning to something. In this case, public popularity.
I know that Live At Wembley is arguably Queens most popular show, but if I may say so (and it's my review so I can) I don't think that this is Queens greatest ever live show.
What some may not realise is that in the 1970s Queen weren't a stadium rock band at all (if you exclude Hyde Park).They played small to medium mainly indoor venues and managed to connect with the audience in a way that few, if any, bands have achieved before or since. Here though, it's stadium rock all the way. Well that kind of goes with the territory! Queen were somewhat different when it came to studio performances and live shows; in the studio they were usually perfectionists, with a crafstmanship like dedication to songs (in fact that came as something of a criticism from those who liked it rawer and more spontaneous) On stage they proverbially let their hair down, here it was all about giving the crowd 2 hours of entertainment, mainly heavy rock.
I was 16 when they first showed this on TV, and there was a lot of interest around the band at the time. The reason mainly being Live Aid. With that one event Queen went from being rock dinosaurs that were totally unfashionable among the school crowd to the freshest force in rock for a long time. (At least in the UK, can't speak for other places) The release of Highlander and a slew of some good songs further increased the publics anticipation. (Come on, everyone was really hoping for 2 hours of Queen at Live AId here!) And this is undeniably a good show, both musically and that indefinable "event atmopshere". But I don't think that this is the live peak of Queen. By this time they had turned into basically hard rock fast food. Ouch, that sounds harsh doesn't it? But this is a long way from the creativity of the pre 1977 albums, and they perform the songs with a kind of complacency that befits 40 year olds playing to an adoring audience. They're not trying to win anyone over skeptics here, it's largely a workmanlike performance. They know they're good, they know the audience know they're good, they know....okay, you get the idea. The crowd came with high expectations, they duly delivered, everyone goes home satisfied. Many of the older songs are just dashed off with a kind of "Oh well,the crowd want to hear this,so I suppose we'd better play it" The plaintiff ballad part of Bohemian Rhapsody is reduced to Mercury going "Mama. Just killed a man. Put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger now he's dead." with a smile towards the audience. We Are The Champions suffers from a similar lack of musical passion. Apart from that Freddie Mercury's voice is a bit hit and miss here; he was a heavy smoker at the time,and the rigours of touring and just old wear and tear through age have reduced his sharpness somewhat. Often he sings well here, but make no mistake he sang better than this even in the early 1980s.
Criticism over. There are actually a lot of good perfromances here. Highlights are the more rocking version Kind Of Magic, quite different from the slightly eerie stuido version, a great version of Under Pressure, a great 50s Rock And Roll medley, and a really rousing version of In The Lap Of The Gods (if only they could have shown this kind of emotion of their other early songs!) Good also to hear their early hit Seven Seas Of Rhye make an appearance. And naturally Tie Your Mother Down sounds great, but how can you mess up that one? It's the closest thing to the perfect rock and roll song you can get.
On a somewhat sadder note, Freddie Mercury knew he had AIDS at this time. He actually managed longer that he thought (he though he wouldn't make it past 1989) So when you see the man strutting around the stage, you see him with his "the show must go on" attitude. He knew this would be his last tour, so this concert has an added poignancy to it.
In summary I think that Live At Wembley is a good DVD of live music and worth buying. There is a good mixture of hardness to quieter songs (or light and shade as John Deacon remarked) Few people want to go to a show and get 2 hours of acoustic or piano ballads, but at the same time the band do slow it down on occasion for musical diversity. It starts off loudly and fiercely, they slow it down for a bit and throw in some acoustic songs, then they build to a climax. Just like every other Queenc concert since 1971 in fact. Although essentially hard rock, Queen were a band that managed to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. BUT....Queen did batter live performances than this. This pales in comparison to their classic Hammersmith Odeon 1975 show, or The Rainbow 1974, or Earls Court 1977,or....you get the idea. Even their shows at Milton Keynes 1982 or Montreal 1982 were arguably better than this. As a comparison which you may or may not relate to ,this is like Jimi Hendrix at The Isle Of Wight compared to Monterey, or The Who's Last comapred to Live At Leeds. If you think this show is good you should do yourself a favour and try to hear some of their earlier concerts.
great concert collection amazing video, one of queen's greatest concerts. video clarity is amazing, a must buy dvd
Queen, Live at Wembly on DVD Absolutely the best concert EVER!!!!!!!!! Queen just blows me away everytime I see this. A real steal for the money. I just feel sorry for my neighbors everytime I play this because I blast it on my surround sound everytime I watch it. I even bought one for my grand kids so they could see what GOOD music really is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ultimate Queen Concert Awesome sound and video. Freddie Mercury has proven why he and Queen were the best. Freddie is such a showman that you cannot take your eyes off of him or you are afraid you'll miss something! What a voice range! The greatest voice that Rock ever knew.
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