What can I say about Queen that I haven’t said before? How about, listening to Queen live in 1976, then in the 1982 and finally in 1986 is like listening to 3 different bands.
One thing that Queen fans always enjoyed that fans of other major bands don’t is the wide variety of music Queen put out. My point in saying this is that if you were fortunate enough to hear Queen’s performance at the Hammersmith Odeon (Christmas Concert), and then listen to Live at Wembley Stadium and finally On Fire at the Bowl, you would hear 3 totally different sounding concerts. This was one of the many strengths of Queen that separated them from most of the top bands of our era. Not only did Queen have an extensive catalogue to choose from for their live shows, they were very good at performing their songs differently from show to show.

Queen On Fire At The Bowl was recorded live at The Milton Keynes Bowl on June 5, 1982. Appropriately titled, this recording captures Queen at their very best, performing their biggest hits, Somebody To Love, Another One Bites The Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Love of My Life, We Will Rock You, and We Are The Champions, as well as many concert favorites such as We Will Rock You (fast version), Now I’m Here, Dragon Attack, Tie Your Mother Down, Save Me, Sheer Heart Attack, Fat Bottom Girls, Get Down Make Love and of course the then newest songs from Hot Space,, Back Chat, Under Pressure, Staying Power, and Action This Day. Interestingly, Queen chose 2 songs from their soundtrack “Flash” to get the show started, Flash and The Hero which turned out to be great choices.
The show opened with the thumping beat of Flash with the audience clapping along with every beat (what a way to get the adrenalin flowing). Soon afterwards the band apparently appears on stage and rips through a hard edge version of Hero. From this point on, the band relentlessy pounds out a string of their greatest hits.

For those who never seen or heard Queen in concert, you are in for a major treat. One of the biggest strength of Queen is their ability to perform live and command an audience.
Though I haven’t seen this concert yet, by listening to it, it is evident that the energy of the band and the audience can safely be compared to the performance at the, soon to be released, Live Aid concert.

The audience participation in this concert is something really special. Listening to the audience sing along to one of the most loved songs of the Queen catalog “Love of My Life” sent shivers down my spine. Freddie also plays a little vocal sing along game with the audience that was as impressive as the sing along he did with the Wembley audience.

Overall this concert was filled with a lot of great songs, lots of energy from both the band and the audience, and of course a great performance by arguably the greatest live band of our time.

To anyone who enjoys great concerts, and never had the opportunity to hear Freddie at his best, this is a must.

Hollywood records pulled another gem from the vast treasure chest of Queen performances.
Next up, Queen On Fire At The Bowl on DVD November 16, 2004!!!!!!!

Queen was one of the all time best live bands in the history of music! They had the lights and the show. BUT they had the talent (unlike say KISS for example)

Queen is now releasing concerts on DVD and CD. One every other year or so. They had several HUGE GREAT shows over the course of their career. This is one of them (the others would include Rainbow 74, Hammersmith Odeon 75, Earls Court 77 & Montreal 79)

Now, alot of the other reviewers who are not big queen fans poo poo the Hot Space album and say this is bad because of it. The truth though is that while alot of the songs on Hot Space were Disco/funk/dance songs, the live versions ROCK! Action This Day, Staying Power & Back Chat may not be real great on the album, but here they are fantastic and energetic!

This also houses what most queen fans consider the definitive live version of Somebody To Love.

PLUS: You get alot of songs not available commercially on a live album until now: Play The Game, Dragon Attack, Somebody To Love, Fat Bottomed Girls, & Save Me.

PLUS: One of the best openings of any of their shows: The Hero and We Will Rock You (Speed). Quite energetic!

PLUS: The Guitar solo is one of the better ones, save for some guitar problems during it. Nice drum solo intro to Under Pressure as well!

PLUS: Alot of hits are played: in addition to what i have already mentioned, Bohemian Rhapsody, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions & Tie Your Mother Down

They did not do much overdubbing like they have done in the past. . I have had this show for years on a bootleg CD. Only a misstep in a vocal by freddie was fixed (in Fat Bottomed Girls) This is a far cry from all the cut and paste jobs on Live Killers and the overdubbing on Live at Wembley. Hell some songs on Live Killers are from multiple shows. SOME SONGS!!! They were better than that live, I expect even queen to miss a note or forget a lyric so god knows why they had to fool with it.

This is an AWESOME live album and is perfect for any rock fan.

In November of 2004, Queen released its fourth live album Queen On Fire Live at the Bowl.
This live recording and its off-shoot DVD was recorded and filmed at The Milton Keynes Bowl outside London, England on June 5, 1982.
Not officially released on video or CD, Queen On Fire Live At The Bowl marked the first time a recording of this concert has been LEGITIMATELY available to own as a 70 or 80 minute edit had been available on the bootleg recording circuit.
Audio producers Justin Shirley-Smith and Kris Fredriksson returned to the original 24 track analog tapes recorded by 80s Queen co-producer Mack and Mick McKenna with The Rolling Stones Mobile Truck and created brand new regular stereo (for this CD and one of the two DVD mixes)) and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes (found on the DVD).
We kick off as the band hits the stage with the entrance music of Flash before the band dives into a spirited version of The Hero. Next is a killer We Will Rock You (fast version) complete with Brian May popping a guitar string and the music was left alone. Next is Action This Daywith drummer Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury duetting on this rocker and John Deacon adding some bass which was muted on the studio recording and Brian playing his Red Special backup as his Red Special had to get a new string and Morgan Fisher did a great synthesizer solo substituting for the saxophone solo. Then Freddie does a nice piano intro which goes into an excellent Play the Game. Next is another Hot Space track Staying Power which is transformed into a rocker with Deaky and May playing guitars plus Roger bashing live drums and Freddie being on fire here. Next is arguably this live set’s best track Somebody To Love which buries its studio counterpart by a longshot. Next is Now I’m Here which is excellent with a Freddie/audience vocal duel before segueing into Dragon Attack which rocks although Brian blew yet another string on his Red Special guitar and had to use his Red Special back up for the finale solo and the reprise to Now I’m Here. Next is a nice version of Love of My Life with Brian playing an impromptu teaser of Las Palabras De Amor before starting the track. Save Me is next and is done with more power than the studio counterpart. Deaky’s Back Chat ends the first CD as the funk track is turned into a full-on rocker with Roger playing the drums like a man possessed, Brian’s guitar dominating, John playing his Music Man Stingray bass and Freddie singing his heart out.
The second CD begins with Get Down Make Love which is a great short version which then segues from its middle section into Brian’s Guitar Solo which is amazing despite the fact his guitar cord came undone (you can see this on DVD unedited) and Brian finishes with some help from Roger’s drumming. Roger does an uncredited 30 second Drum Solo at the end of the guitar solo track as a lead in to Under Pressure which is an excellent version of the track. Next is Fat Bottomed Girls which rocks and Freddie’s voice was electronically fixed on the part where he says LOCALITY which his voice cracked on the original Milton Keynes BBC airing. We then have a rocking Crazy Little Thing Called Love which is great. Then we have Freddie play a nice piano solo leading into possibly the best live version of Bohemian Rhapsody ever. We then rock out with the set closing Tie Your Mother Down which rocks. The first encore of Another One Bites the Dust is a great spirited version. Sheer Heart Attack follows and is more aggresive than either the News of the World version or the Live Killers version. We then have the second encore of the traditional We Will Rock You with audience participating and a stellar We Are the Champions. We then have the band say farewell as God Save the Queen plays over the PA.
Despite the fact this album didn’t chart upon its late 2004 release here in the States, this live album is a FANTASTIC snapshot of Queen reigning their natural habitat, the concert stage and is one of my favorite live albums EVER!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I could write an entire essay on how the majesty of Queen will live on, but reviewing this wonderful double live album, which will soon be followed on Nov. 16th on double DVD, which captures the band at the height of their touring power, will suffice. In 1982, Queen had just released ” Hot Space,” an album that was not accepted well from traditonal Queen fans due to the band’s dramtic change in sound. The album did have some rockers in ” Put out the fire,” but it leaned heavily toward a black/funk sound that I personnally enjoyed very much; ” Cool Cat” in particular showcased the incomprable Freddie Mercury’s stunning falsetto, while ” Under Pressure ” was the albums’ only bonafide hit…and a damn good one. ” Queen on Fire live at Milton Keynes bowl,” was recorded during the latter half of the band’s European tour in support of the aforementioned ” Hot Space ” album, and in my opinion, captures the essance of why Queen was one of the finest live bands in the history of music.
While I won’t review every song here, I will highlight the standouts….and there are many. ” Somebody to love ” features a great a cappella opening, showcasing Freddie’s magnificent voice in all it’s glory, and although ” the wall of sound ” harmonies are missing and strictly a studio creation, Roger Taylor and Brian May provide very good support, as the song gains a very hard and raw edge that is not evident on the studio recording. ” Play the Game,” also show’s greater power, and has Freddie hitting even higher notes than the ones recorded on the album; Brian May’s voice sounds quite sublime in the harmonies and his guitar playing is smoldering. I should make a point to mention that the ” Hot space” material, which is represented here by ” Back Chat,” ” Staying Power,” and ” Action this day,” sound much stronger and melodic than their studio counterparts, and demostrate how good and underappreciated this album is, and how unfairly criticized it was. ” Staying Power” in particular sounds amazing, showcasing John Deacon playing rythym guitar, and strong Roger Taylor vocals, while touring keyboardist Morgan Fisher playing the brass section and bass notes on synthesiser…awesome! A nice surprise and welcome addition to the recorded Queen live cannon is ” Fat Bottom Girls,” which was criminally left off ” Live Killers ” which was Queen’s first Live album in 1979. This song on album featured multi-tracked harmonies, which was of course a Queen trademark, and here in this live version it doesn’t dissapoint…very well done. Every song is a winner, and the band was playing with precision and power during this tour, and on this night, Freddie was in particularly strong form…and very animated; his in-between-song patter is side-splitting, and he is constantly ad-libbing vocals…what a performer. The sound is excellent, but of course the DVD release will feature a DTS surround sound 5.1 mix that will far surpass this two-channel linear pcm mix of this double cd set. Packaging is top-notch, as Hollywood records has always done a lovingly dedicated job on all their Queen releases, dating back to the 1991 remasters, which are in need of upgrading; It includes a fourteen page booklet, which includes many previously unseen photos of the 1982 tour, as well as production notes and track information; As with the sound, The DVD of the same show will feature a forty page book as well as loads of extras. If you are a Queen fan, or just simply a lover of great live music…this is an essential purchase….THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE…QUEEN!

I wish I was in the auidience the night or nights this live album was recorded. Since Queen first formed they have released a number of live albums all of which were good, well except for one and I wont bother mentioning its name. The point is that this one, Queen On Fire:Live At The Bowl is a excelent live album.

First lets talk about the band. Well as usuall Freddie Murcury doesnt dissapoint. When you go to see a man like Murcury you cant expect him to sound the same live as he does on record, but amazingly everytime i ever heard the man live he did, and this is no exception. Freddie’s voice sounds phenonmenol here and it comes across nice and clear with great tone, as always. The rythm section of Queen isnt one that rock and roll fans have ever marvaled over but they do a good job keeping the band in time. Thats not to say that just because people dont talk about them that they are not good, the bass player, John Decan as we all know is one of the all time best (Under Pressure, Another One Bites The Dust). I guess Roger is pretty good too. Then there is Brian May, one of the all time greatest guitarists ever, here is no exception, you get all the great stuff he wrote and recorded in the studio as well as some amazing freestyle guitar solos that are absolutly mind blowing. If anyone ever doubted the power of this band this cd needs one good listen to prove the power.

Now on to the music. Before I say anything else I must say the the live version here of ‘Somebody To Love’ is the all time best version of the song ever. The vocals are out of this world!! Freddie was a bad a**! The rest of the album is filled with Queen classics like ‘We Are The Champions’ ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ ‘Love Of My Life’ ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ and lots and lots more. Aside from the classics this was recorded on the tour for the Hot Space album, which while not that good of an album the songs that are performed live here are just killer all out rockers! I dont know why anyone wouldnt like this, it’s just damn amazing!

As far as live albums go this is one of the best I have ever owned, and I own a lot. This is by far the best live Queen album you can get, so if your a Queen fan this has your name on it!