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Live Review
by Scott Sterling-Wilder
29-3-2005
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| Queen fronted by Paul Rodgers - rock!?! |
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Live: Queen
Brixton Academy, London
Monday, March 28, 2005
Queen: It is! It isn’t! Well…
The Queen and Paul Rodgers tour has kicked off in the UK and as expected the setlist is not only the greatest hits of Queen but also few tracks from Rodgers's Free and Bad Company era. Rodgers broke up the Queen setlist with Bad Company tracks such as 'Seagull' and 'Can't Get Enough' and held court for an encore featuring 'Feel Like Making Love' and 'All Right Now'.
But the spirit of Freddie Mercury wasn’t only present via songs but on screen as well, when he ‘appeared’ for ‘BoRha’; Rodgers also shared vocals with Brian May for ‘Reaching Out’ they collaborated on for Rock Therapy July 1996) and ‘Hammer To Fall’; May handled vox for acoustic version of ‘‘39’, on ‘Love of My Life’, ‘I Want It All’ but had to embark on a guitar solo.
Roger Taylor took lead vocal duty on ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, ‘Radio Ga Ga’, ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ and played great bongos to accompany Rodgers’s acoustic guitar for ‘Seagull’; for any old fan - pure haven for bruised souls!
The setlist:
Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
A Little Bit Of Love
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Seagull
'39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
Guitar Solo (based on ‘Brighton Rock’)
Last Horizon
These are The Days Of Our Lives
Radio Ga Ga
Can't Get Enough Of Your Love
I'm In Love With My Car
I Want It All
It's A Kind Of Magic
Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie video vocals/PR)
Show Must Go On
1st Encore:
Feel Like Makin' Love
All Right Now
2nd Encore:
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
So, Queen - well, sans John Deacon, only two members, May and Taylor - fronted by Paul Rodgers made its London debut last night. And it was - something else.
In may be Free Queen but not a Bad Queen; it may be butch Queen but it simply ain’t so: it’s a show of covers played by, ironically, original members. Public don’t see it past the songs they sing-along happily whilst recollecting memories.
With all the gigs sold out in a matter of hours shows that Queen’s commercial acumen is intact, the effect on their reputation remains to be seen. It may not suffer more, one suspects, if this edition of Queen keeps the word of this being one-off tour.
Scott Sterling-Wilder
29-3-2005
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