Queen Live Performances
The English rock band Queen is well known for its prowess as a live musical act. A diverse catalogue of songs, massive sound systems, huge lighting rigs, an arsenal of pyrotechnics and many extravagant costumes helped turn shows into entertaining, theatrical events. As both lead vocalist and front man, Freddie Mercury was able to immerse himself in the audience's adulation and thrived on their excitement – an ability for which many artists, such as Bob Geldof, David Bowie, George Michael, Kurt Cobain (in his possible suicide note), and Robbie Williams have expressed great admiration.
Queen wrote a number of songs, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", for example, with the specific goal of audience participation. Songs such as "Radio Ga Ga" came to inspire actions like synchronised hand-clapping (this particular hand-clapping routine, originating from the song's video, was actually the invention of the video's director, David Mallet). This contributed to Queen's memorable appearance at Live Aid, where the 75,000 strong crowd at Wembley Stadium sang at a loud volume and clapped their hands in unison to the song. Queen's performance at Live Aid was voted by a large selection of musicians and critics to be the greatest live show of all time.
Read more about Queen Live Performances: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Queen's Line-up (live)
Famous quotes containing the words queen, live and/or performances:
“...he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Esther 1:22.
King Ahasuerus, after his Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command.
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)