The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
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The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was an open air concert held on Easter Monday, April 20, 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium, televised live worldwide. The concert was a tribute to the life of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, with all proceeds going to AIDS research. The show marked bassist John Deacon's final concert with Queen (save one live appearance with Brian May, Roger Taylor and Elton John in 1997). The profit of the concert was used to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust.
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[edit] History
Following Freddie Mercury's death on November 24, 1991 from AIDS, the remaining members of Queen (Brian May, Roger Taylor & John Deacon) came together with Queen Manager Jim Beach to organize an open air concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury, as well as raise money for AIDS research, and spread awareness about this disease.
In February 1992, at the annual Brit awards ceremony, Brian May and Roger Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, all 72,000 tickets sold out in just two hours, even though no performers were announced apart from remaining members of Queen.
[edit] Concert
The concert began with short sets from bands that were influenced by the music of Queen, including Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard, and Guns N' Roses. Between bands, several video clips honouring Freddie were shown, while the roadies changed the stage for the following act's performance.
The second half of the concert featured the three remaining Queen members, Roger Taylor (on drums), John Deacon (on bass) and Brian May (on guitar), along with guest singers and guitarists, including Elton John, Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), Mick Ronson, James Hetfield (of Metallica), Elton John, George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, David Bowie, Robert Plant (formerly of Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose, Liza Minnelli, and others.
When the concert aired on MTV, dubbed "A Concert For Life", U2 dedicated a live performance via satellite from Washington of "Until the End of the World" to Freddie.
[edit] Home releases
The concert was originally released in VHS form (usually in two tape releases worldwide) and Laserdisc in the US and Japan in 1993, with a UK release in 1997, but due to time limitations, the last two songs by Extreme, the first two by Def Leppard, and the only Spinal Tap number were left off (along with 'Innuendo') the original release. The US release omitted Bob Geldof's performance of "Too Late God" and Las Palabras De Amor.
In April 2002, for the 10th anniversary of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the concert was released on DVD and entered the UK charts at number 1. The DVD release gained strong criticism, however, because the whole first half was not included. "Innuendo" was also not included on the DVD, at the request of Robert Plant, explaining that his voice was in very poor condition and he couldn't remember the words and consequently couldn't sing the song correctly at the time. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen, losing large chunks of the original picture.
[edit] Performances
[edit] Without Queen
- Metallica - Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters
- Extreme - Queen Medley, Love Of My Life, More Than Words
- Def Leppard - Animal, Let's Get Rocked, Now I'm Here (w/Brian May)
- Bob Geldof - Too Late God
- Spinal Tap - The Majesty of Rock
- Guns N' Roses - Paradise City, Only Women Bleed (intro), Knockin' On Heaven's Door
- Elizabeth Taylor - AIDS Prevention Speech
[edit] With Queen
- Queen + Joe Elliott/Slash - Tie Your Mother Down
- Queen + Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi - Heaven and Hell (intro), Pinball Wizard (intro), I Want It All
- Queen + Zucchero - Las Palabras de Amor
- Queen + Gary Cherone (with Tony Iommi) - Hammer To Fall
- Queen + James Hetfield (with Tony Iommi) - Stone Cold Crazy
- Queen + Robert Plant - Innuendo (with excerpts from Kashmir), Thank You (intro), Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Brian May with Spike Edney - Too Much Love Will Kill You
- Queen + Paul Young - Radio Ga Ga
- Queen + Seal - Who Wants To Live Forever
- Queen + Lisa Stansfield - I Want To Break Free
- Queen + David Bowie/Annie Lennox - Under Pressure
- Queen + Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen - All The Young Dudes
- Queen + David Bowie/Mick Ronson - Heroes/The Lord's Prayer
- Queen + George Michael - '39
- Queen + George Michael/Lisa Stansfield - These Are The Days Of Our Lives
- Queen + George Michael - Somebody to Love
- Queen + Elton John/Axl Rose - Bohemian Rhapsody
- Queen + Elton John (with Tony Iommi) - The Show Must Go On
- Queen + Axl Rose - We Will Rock You
- Queen + Liza Minnelli/Cast - We Are The Champions
[edit] Backing musicians
Queen were backed by the following musicians:
- Spike Edney - keyboards, piano, backing vocals
- Mike Moran - piano on "Who Wants To Live Forever" and "Somebody To Love"
- Josh Macrae - percussion in "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" and "We Are The Champions"
- Chris Thompson - backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "I Want It All", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Heroes", additional percussion
- Maggie Ryder - backing vocals
- Miriam Stockley - backing vocals
- The London Community Gospel Choir - backing vocals on "Somebody To Love" and "We Are The Champions"
[edit] Trivia
- For the first week of rehearsals, Neil Murray played bass, as John Deacon was on a vacation.
- Due to time constraints caused by Spinal Tap's set delays, a song each sung by Roger Taylor and Chris Thompson were dropped. Additionally Neil Murray was to have played bass for one song during the Queen set[citation needed] but this never happened. He did, however, play additional keyboards on "We Are The Champions". Guns N' Roses set was also cut by one song (Sweet Child Of Mine) due to time constaraints
- The song "Too Much Love Will Kill You", received its first ever live performance by Brian May. This song was intended for the 1989 Queen album The Miracle, with Freddie Mercury singing. After featuring on May's solo album 'Back to the Light' it finally appeared with Mercury's vocals on the 'Made In Heaven' album.
- George Michael's performances of "Somebody To Love" (with Queen) and "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" (with Queen and Lisa Stansfield) appeared on his 1993 EP Five Live. That album's profits were donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
