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.
- Disc 1 is the Opening acts
- Disc 2 is the main Queen set
- 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
- Intro
- Brian May / Roger Taylor / John Deacon Introduction
- Metallica – Enter Sandman
- Metallica – Sad But True
- Metallica – Nothing Else Matters
- Freddie Montage (Insert)
- Extreme – Queen Medley
- Freddie Montage (Insert)
- Def Leppard & Brian May – Now I’m Here
- Queen – I’m Going Slightly Mad video (Insert)
- Bob Geldof – Too Late God
- Guns ‘n’ Roses – Paradise City
- Guns ‘n’ Roses – Knocking On Heavens Door
- Elizabeth Taylor Speech
Disc 2: Main Queen Set
- Joe Elliot, Slash & Queen – Tie Your Mother Down
- Roger Daltrey, Tony Iommi & Queen – I Want It All
- Zucchero & Queen – Las Palabras De Amor
- Gary Cherone, Tony Iommi & Queen – Hammer To Fall
- James Hetfield, Tony Iommi & Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
- Robert Plant & Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Brian May – Too Much Love Will Kill You
- Paul Young & Queen – Radio Ga Ga
- Seal & Queen – Who Wants To Live Forever
- Lisa Stansfield & Queen – I Want To Break Free
- David Bowie, Annie Lennox & Queen – Under Pressure
- Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Mick Ronson & Queen – All The Young Dudes
- David Bowie, Mick Ronson & Queen – Heroes
- George Michael & Queen – Year Of ’39
- George Michael, Lisa Stansfield & Queen – These Are The Days Of Our Lives
- George Michael, London Gospel Choir & Queen – Somebody To Love
- Elton John, Axl Rose & Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
- Elton John, Tony Iommi & Queen – The Show Must Go On
- Axl Rose & Queen – We Will Rock You
- Liza Minelli & Ensemble – We Are The Champions
Disc 3: Bonus Material
- Rehearsal Footage
- Documentary
- Photo Galleries
- 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.
