Queen / Freddy Mercury Blu-Ray Release

21 years ago there was a really badass concert held in memory of then recently deceased Freddy Mercury of Queen.   The three surviving members played with a host of other guest stars for a medley of Queen hits over the years.   I remember watching this when it was new – and in fact, I still to this day have my original VHS recordings I made off the TV way back then.   The reason I’m talking about this is that the concert is going to be released on Blu-Ray this coming September.

I first saw the story over on a cool site for releases like this, “Super Deluxe Blu-Ray” (who has a sister site about music box sets, “SuperDeluxeEdition“).   Anyway, the SDB story had the cover art, and some minimal details, because as far as I know, there hasn’t been a formal press release for this yet.

The main reason I’m talking about this here is that as you probably remember, Tony Iommi played on stage with Queen and several guest stars.  One of my personal favorites from this show was James Hetfield of Metallica playing “Stone Cold Crazy” with the three surviving members of Queen, and Tony Iommi.   That must have been a massive thrill for him personally, and for me was one of the highlights of the entire night.   If you’ve never seen it, check out this video:


Anyway, this has been put out on DVD once before, but this is the first appearance on Blu-Ray.  Also given the nature of the video source, it can’t be a proper true HD release, but the official Blu-Ray spec says that you can’t just put SD content on a Blu-Ray, so it will be upconverted, but make no mistake, this won’t be a 1080p properly filmed HD masterpiece.   It should however, look better than one’s old 21 year old VHS tapes. :)  However, the sound will be updated (DTS 5.1 PCM 48k Stereo).

This will be a 3 disc set.

  1. Disc 1 is the Opening acts
  2. Disc 2 is the main Queen set
  3. Disc 3 is the bonus material

I’ve also been given the full track list, which shows this is not a complete 100% concert.  For years, Robert Plant has blocked the release of the song “Innuendo” that he did at this concert, believing his performance to be sub-par.  I do tend to agree with him, while I love the song Innuendo, that performance wasn’t the greatest.  Still, a lot of this material will see its first release since the original VHS version of this show many a moon ago.

I do not see it available for pre-order in the US yet, but it is available for pre-order in the UK.

Here’s the track listing:

Disc 1: Opening Acts

  1. Intro
  2. Brian May / Roger Taylor / John Deacon Introduction
  3. Metallica – Enter Sandman
  4. Metallica – Sad But True
  5. Metallica – Nothing Else Matters
  6. Freddie Montage (Insert)
  7. Extreme – Queen Medley
  8. Freddie Montage (Insert)
  9. Def Leppard & Brian May – Now I’m Here
  10. Queen – I’m Going Slightly Mad video (Insert)
  11. Bob Geldof – Too Late God
  12. Guns ‘n’ Roses – Paradise City
  13. Guns ‘n’ Roses – Knocking On Heavens Door
  14. Elizabeth Taylor Speech

Disc 2: Main Queen Set

  1. Joe Elliot, Slash & Queen – Tie Your Mother Down
  2. Roger Daltrey, Tony Iommi & Queen – I Want It All
  3. Zucchero & Queen – Las Palabras De Amor
  4. Gary Cherone, Tony Iommi & Queen – Hammer To Fall
  5. James Hetfield, Tony Iommi & Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
  6. Robert Plant & Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
  7. Brian May – Too Much Love Will Kill You
  8. Paul Young & Queen – Radio Ga Ga
  9. Seal & Queen – Who Wants To Live Forever
  10. Lisa Stansfield & Queen – I Want To Break Free
  11. David Bowie, Annie Lennox & Queen – Under Pressure
  12. Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Mick Ronson & Queen – All The Young Dudes
  13. David Bowie, Mick Ronson & Queen – Heroes
  14. George Michael & Queen – Year Of ’39
  15. George Michael, Lisa Stansfield & Queen – These Are The Days Of Our Lives
  16. George Michael, London Gospel Choir & Queen – Somebody To Love
  17. Elton John, Axl Rose & Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
  18. Elton John, Tony Iommi & Queen – The Show Must Go On
  19. Axl Rose & Queen – We Will Rock You
  20. Liza Minelli & Ensemble – We Are The Champions

Disc 3: Bonus Material

  1. Rehearsal Footage
  2. Documentary
  3. Photo Galleries
  4. Facts

On April 20th 1992, Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon, the surviving members of Queen, took to the stage at Wembley Stadium for the start of one of the biggest events in rock history, which the band had organised to pay tribute to their former colleague – the incomparable Freddie Mercury. Queen were joined by some of the greatest musical talent in the world to celebrate Freddie’s life and work and to increase public awareness of AIDS, the disease that had prematurely ended his life the previous year. As well as being great entertainment, the concert raised a huge and still growing sum of money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charity formed at the time whose charter is the relief of suffering from AIDS throughout the world. Now for the first time both halves of the concert are being made available on DVD along with additional bonus material in this special edition release.

Queen & Brian May

Comments

  1. Hi,I am very please to tell you about the amount of work that went in the making.So \m/
    Keep Bleeding Black! \m/

  2. No Spinal Tap?

  3. My biggest memory of the gig was how well George Michael seemed to fit in with the band, his voice has surprising echoes of Mercury’s.

    Bringing other memories back this Queen stuff. Saw Brian May playing with Sabbath at Hammersmith around 1990 I think, he came out with Iommi and other surprise guest Geezer Butler to sign autographs aftre the show. It was a surreal moment and a happy one too, Murray was out and Geezer was back.

    Queen were fantastic, one of the best band’s I’ve even seen and it’s a shame what May and Taylor have done to their legacy.

    • David Moody says

      Queen were fantastic, one of the best band’s I’ve even seen and it’s a shame what May and Taylor have done to their legacy.

      Absolutely agree with this one PTC.

  4. fishtowner says

    I remember watching and recording this to VHS too. I no longer know where that tape is. So it is great that it is coming to DVD.

  5. Some 13 years ago this was released as a 2 DVD-set. The first DVD contained the main Queen concert and the second DVD had bonus features on it, but no opening acts, so this is definitely better. Only sorry (if I remember the DVD track list correctly) nothing has been added to the main concert. True, I don’t know what the full setlist was.
    On a side note, I’m sorry Ronnie’s former band mates didn’t do something similar to honour his (Ronnie’s) memory. I mean Dio Disciples are cool in a way, but I was hoping for something more grandiose…

  6. Geoff Thompson says

    Is this release complete though as far as the Tony Iommi appearances? I remember taping the whole thing on VHS when it happened (MuchMusic in Canda broadcast the entire day) and I recall Iommi being up on stage perhaps more then any other guest musician.
    I would love to know if it is complete for him (as the rest of the show I wouldn’t care nearly as much about..lol).

    Thanks

  7. I remember being surprised that Tony was playing with Queen – ’cause stuff like The Show Must Go On didn’t seem like his thing but I guess he wanted to help out his friends which is cool. I’m really surprised that Las Palabras De Amor has been included because it was way out of Zucchero’s range and so it didn’t go well. I don’t think I’m going to buy this ‘cos watching it was a bit sad really though the songs are quite interesting with other singers.

  8. I enjoyed watching this show. Two of my favorite bands are Black Sabbath and The Who, so it was cool seeing Iommi and Roger Daltrey performing together.

  9. Billzebub says

    I can’t find my own VHS tapes either to verify, but if I recall, Iommi never got any credit whenever he stepped out onto stage. Everybody else certainly did, and I remember shouting at the screen going, “Oh yeah, Tony Iommi is too *evil* to be warranted any credit”. Whereas Hetfield, Dalltrey, Elton John, and I think maybe even other artists he’s not credited with playing with in the set list above, naturally had their names show up on screen whenever they appeared.

    I don’t even think Iommi’s name even appeared in the end credits.

    But heck, that was 21 years ago, so I’m not 100% certain that I remember that broadcast accurately.

  10. I remember watching it as it was broadcast. Robert Plant inserted a verse from Kashmir into his rendition of Innuendo, very suttle and very clever. Making his point as to where Queen got their inspiration for that song from! One of the standout moments was Axl Rose whirling and screaming around the stage as Bohemian Rhapsody exploded and he took over from Elton John on lead vocals – absolutely stunning!! And then there was Tony Iommi; did they play a few bars of Heaven and Hell as he first took to the stage? My favourite part with Tony was Hammer to Fall, just masterful.

  11. Brian May introduced Tony Iommi as “an old friend of ours” and they played “Heaven and Hell” riff and then they started “Pinball Wizard” when Roger Daltrey came to stage. I have my old VHS tape from complete TV-broadcast

  12. David Moody says

    Just a small note Joe:

    It’s Freddie not Freddy!

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