The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert 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 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.
History
Following Freddie Mercury's death in November 1991, the remaining members of Queen came together 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 the disease.
In February 1992 at the annual Brit awards ceremony, Brian May and Roger Taylor announced plans for the concert. Tickets went on sale the next day and all 72,000 tickets sold out in just two hours, even though no performers were announced apart from remaining members of Queen.
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 honoring 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, John Deacon, and Brian May, along with guest singers and guitarists, including Roger Daltrey, Tony Iommi, James Hetfield, Elton John, George Michael, Seal, David Bowie, Robert Plant, 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 California of "Until the End of the World" to Freddie.
Home releases
The concert was originally released in VHS form, 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.
In April 2002 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 request of Robert Plant, explaining that his voice was in very poor condition.
Performances
- 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 - Speech
With Queen
- Queen and Joe Elliott/Slash - Tie Your Mother Down
- Queen and Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi - Heaven and Hell (intro), Pinball Wizard (intro), I Want It All
- Queen and Zucchero - Las Palabras de Amor
- Queen and Gary Cherone (with Tony Iommi) - Hammer To Fall
- Queen and James Hetfield (with Tony Iommi) - Stone Cold Crazy
- Queen and Robert Plant - Innuendo (with excerpts from Kashmir), Thank You (intro), Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Queen (Brian May with Spike Edney) - Too Much Love Will Kill You
- Queen and Paul Young - Radio Ga Ga
- Queen and Seal - Who Wants To Live Forever
- Queen and Lisa Stansfield - I Want To Break Free
- Queen and David Bowie/Annie Lennox - Under Pressure
- Queen and Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen - All The Young Dudes
- Queen and David Bowie/Mick Ronson - Heroes/The Lord's Prayer
- Queen and George Michael - '39
- Queen and George Michael/Lisa Stansfield - These Are The Days Of Our Lives
- Queen and George Michael - Somebody to Love
- Queen and Elton John/Axl Rose - Bohemian Rhapsody
- Queen and Elton John (with Tony Iommi) - The Show Must Go On
- Queen and Axl Rose - We Will Rock You
- Queen and Liza Minnelli/Cast - We Are The Champions
Backing musicians
Queen were backed by the following musicians:
- Spike Edney - keyboards, backing vocals
- Mike Moran - piano on "Who Wants To Live Forever" and "Somebody To Love"
- Josh Macrae - percussion
- 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"
Trivia
- For the first week of rehearsals Neil Murray played bass, as John Deacon was on 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".
