Magic Tour (Queen)
The Magic Tour was Queen's final tour with their lead singer Freddie Mercury and their bass guitarist John Deacon, with 26 concert dates in Europe in 1986.[1][2] The band did not tour again until 19 years later, when the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour began in 2005, after the death of Mercury on 24 November 1991, and the retirement of Deacon in 1997.[2][3] The Magic Tour supported the band's album A Kind of Magic.
European tour by Queen | |
Associated album | A Kind of Magic |
---|---|
Start date | 7 June 1986 |
End date | 9 August 1986 |
Legs | 1 |
No. of shows | 26 |
Queen concert chronology |
In 1987, Mercury was diagnosed as having AIDS and the band together made the decision to stop touring, making the concert at Knebworth on 9 August 1986 the last time that the four original members of Queen performed on stage together.[4] The Knebworth concert is regarded as the pinnacle of the tour, and is often represented in photography by a frantic swarm of helicopters branded under the 'magic' emblem.
Over a million people attended the Queen tour, making it one of the largest ever. Support acts included The Alarm, The Bangles, Big Country, Belouis Some, INXS, Level 42, Marillion, Gary Moore, Status Quo, and Zeno.[5]
From this tour, Queen have since released Live at Wembley on VHS, Laserdisc, CD and DVD, Live Magic on CD and Live in Budapest on VHS and Laserdisc (later re-released and retitled as Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest on DVD, Blu-ray and Deluxe editions).
Setlists
Average setlist
This setlist is representative of the performance on 9 August 1986 in Stevenage, England. It does not represent all the setlists for the duration of the tour.
- "One Vision"
- "Tie Your Mother Down"
- "In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited"
- "Seven Seas of Rhye"
- "Tear It Up"
- "A Kind of Magic"
- "Under Pressure"
- "Another One Bites the Dust"
- "Who Wants to Live Forever"
- "I Want to Break Free"
- "Impromptu"
- "Guitar Solo"
- "Now I'm Here"
- "Love of My Life"
- "Is This the World We Created...?"
- "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care"
- "Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)"
- "Tutti Frutti"
- "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- "Hammer to Fall"
- "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
Encore - "Radio Ga Ga"
Encore - "We Will Rock You"
- "Friends Will Be Friends"
- "We Are the Champions"
- "God Save the Queen"
Selected setlists
Stockholm, Sweden
Leiden, Netherlands (First Night) / Paris, France / Brussels, Belgium / Leiden, Netherlands (Third Night) / Munich, Germany / Newcastle, England / London, England (First Night) / Manchester, England / Vienna, Austria (First Night) / Fréjus, France / Barcelona, Spain / Madrid, Spain / Marbella, Spain / Stevenage, England
Leiden, Netherlands (Second Night)
Mannheim, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Zurich, Switzerland (Second Night)
|
Slane, Ireland
London, England (Second Night)
Cologne, Germany
Vienna, Austria (Second Night)
Budapest, Hungary
|
Tour dates
Date | City | Country | Venue | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
7 June 1986 | Stockholm | Råsunda Stadium | ||
11 June 1986 | Leiden | Groenoordhallen | ||
12 June 1986 | ||||
14 June 1986 | Paris | Hippodrome de Vincennes | ||
17 June 1986 | Brussels | Forest National | ||
19 June 1986 | Leiden | Groenoordhallen | ||
21 June 1986 | Mannheim | Maimarktgelände | This show was broadcast on FM radio. | |
26 June 1986 | Berlin | Waldbühne | ||
28 June 1986 | Munich | Olympiahalle | ||
29 June 1986 | ||||
1 July 1986 | Zürich | Hallenstadion | ||
2 July 1986 | ||||
5 July 1986 | Slane | Slane Castle | Notable events at this show include Mercury briefly pausing the show to stop a fight between two people in the crowd (threatening to stop the show in the process), someone in the crowd throwing a cup at Brian May, and several people from the crowd pushing to the front, causing around 200 people to faint due to a lack of air. | |
9 July 1986 | Newcastle | St. James' Park | This show was part of the Harp Beat '86. | |
11 July 1986 | London | Wembley Stadium | In preparation for the filming of the Saturday concert, director Gavin Taylor and his crew covered the Friday show as a technical rehearsal.
The live rough cut made that night was released in full in the 25th Anniversary Edition of Queen - Live At Wembley Stadium in 2011. Before that around 30 minutes of the show were featured as bonus footage in the 2003 DVD release. | |
12 July 1986 | Officially released in December 1990 as Queen at Wembley, with an 1 hour edit cut and as an album released on 26 May 1992. The full show was only officially released on DVD in 2003. | |||
16 July 1986 | Manchester | Maine Road | ||
19 July 1986 | Cologne | Müngersdorfer Stadion | ||
21 July 1986 | Vienna | Wiener Stadthalle | ||
22 July 1986 | ||||
27 July 1986 | Budapest | Népstadion | Filmed and released on home video in 1987, then re-released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012. | |
30 July 1986 | Fréjus | Arènes de Fréjus | ||
1 August 1986 | Barcelona | Mini Estadi | ||
3 August 1986 | Madrid | Nuevo Estadio de Vallecas | ||
5 August 1986 | Marbella | Estadio Municipal de Marbella | ||
9 August 1986 | Stevenage | Knebworth Park | Last performance with all four original members before Freddie Mercury's death on 24 November 1991 from complications of HIV/AIDS. | |
Tour band
- Freddie Mercury – Lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love")
- Brian May – Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, keyboards ("Who Wants to Live Forever")
- Roger Taylor – Drums, tambourine, backing vocals
- John Deacon – Bass guitar, backing vocals
Additional musicians:
- Spike Edney – Keyboards, piano, backing vocals, rhythm guitar ("Hammer to Fall")
- Fish (In Mannheim and Cologne) - backing vocals ("Tutti Frutti")
See also
References
- Queen live on tour: Magic tour Queen Concerts. Retrieved 4 June 2011
- We Will Rock You (Again)! Daily Mail. Retrieved 4 June 2011
- Queen most loved band The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2011
- 9 August 1986 – QUEEN LIVE Retrieved 4 June 2011
- http://www.queenconcerts.com/