As far as rock royalty goes, Queen reigns eternal. The unique mixture of progressive rock and pop music, the guitar mastery of Brian May, and, of course, the undeniable energy and talent of frontman Freddie Mercury, made Queen into arguably the best touring rock band on the planet in the early 1980s. Playing to huge crowds around the world, there was no bigger band than Queen. Of course, things quickly took a turn for the worse, as Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS, and the band was forced to stop performing. Mercury ended up dying from the disease, and fans around the world continue to mourn the loss of one of rock music’s truest icons.
In 1986, however, Queen was still flying high and brought its huge summer tour to a close with a remarkable 120,000+ person concert at one of England’s famed Cricket stadiums, Knebworth Park. The band was at the peak of its powers then, and the energy exhibited throughout the performance proved their greatness.
Opening with “One Vision”, Queen hit the stage and never looked back, turning in high-energy performances of “Tie Your Mother Down” and “Tear It Up” before busting out some of their mega-hits including “Under Pressure” and “Another One Bites The Dust”. In between hits, the band worked in a few improv moments, with Mercury performing a vocal jam early in the show, and the full band taking three minutes to let loose later on. Classic Queen songs “I Want To Break Free” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” made the set, and of course no Queen show would be complete without “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
The band brought things to a close with an epic double encore. Up first, Queen played a lone encore of “Radio Ga Ga”, before returning to the stage one last time to deliver four more classic songs. Starting with “We Will Rock You”, the band finished the night with “Friends Will Be Friends” and a triumphant “We Are The Champions”. They then walked off to their traditional “God Save The Queen” outro, as scores of rabid fans unknowingly said goodbye for the last time.
See below for a full video from the performance (courtesy of YouTube user RhythmChild 2002), and check out the full setlist below.
Queen – Knebworth Park – Knebworth, U.K. – 8/9/86
[Originally published 8/9/16]