Queen live in Hyde Park 1976 was a famous concert by the band. The concert took place on the 18th September, during the hot summer of 1976. It was part of a brief summer tour of the UK by the band; they also played in Edinburgh and Cardiff on this tour.
The Hyde Park gig was a free concert, which drew in a crowd of over 150,000, which was one of the largest audiences for any concert in London. The free concert was organised by Richard Branson, an entrepreneur at the time.
There is more than one audio source of this concert as well as a video. According to Roger Taylor, the drummer of Queen, the complete show was supposed to be shown on TV in early 1976 but was never aired. Since then, the footage has leaked out to collectors, though in terrible quality. Over the years, some of the footage has been showed in various documentaries and there are rumors of a future official release. Naturally, footage of the concert has found its way to the internet.
The rest of the day's music was provided by Steamturd, The Kiki Dee Band, Supercharge, The Rich Kids (not to be confused with Midge Ure's band of the same name), Broken Wreck Chords and Steve Hillage. Elton John was backstage but did not appear duetting with Kiki Dee for "Don't go breaking my heart" as she felt it would scupper her moment of glory, despite his pleading to guest appear. She sang to a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Elton instead. Video footage exists of him calling her all sorts of nasty names backstage. A severe swarm of bees caused a near riot during Steve Hillage's set, causing all sorts of violence to erupt. The band was over an hour late to come on stage so they were unable to play their encore due to time restraints.
Famous quotes containing the words queen and/or park:
“Half-opening her lips to the frost’s morning sigh, how strangely the rose has smiled on a swift-fleeting day of September!
How audacious it is to advance in stately manner before the blue-tit fluttering in the shrubs that have long lost their leaves, like a queen with the spring’s greeting on her lips;
to bloom with steadfast hope that, parted from the cold flower-bed, she may be the last to cling, intoxicated, to a young hostess’s breast.”
—Afanasi Fet (1820–1892)
“Therefore awake! make haste, I say,
And let us, without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the Park a-maying!”
—Unknown. Sister, Awake! (L. 9–12)