The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert poster

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was an open-air concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium, for an audience of 72,000. The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis and broadcast live on television and radio to 76 countries around the world, with an audience of up to one billion. The concert was a tribute to the life of the late 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 profits from the concert were used to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust AIDS charity organisation.

History

Following Freddie Mercury's death on 24 November 1991 from AIDS, the remaining members of Queen (John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor) came together with Queen Manager Jim Beach to organise 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, May and Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, all 72,000 tickets sold out in just three hours, even though no performers were announced apart from remaining members of Queen.

Concert

"Good evening Wembley and the world. We are here tonight to celebrate the life, and work, and dreams, of one Freddie Mercury. We're gonna give him the biggest send off in history"

 —Queen guitarist Brian May.

The concert opened with a message from the three remaining members of Queen in tribute to Mercury. The music then commenced with short sets from bands that were influenced by the music of Queen, including Metallica, Extreme (playing a Queen medley), Def Leppard (who brought Brian May onstage for a faithful version of "Now I'm Here"), and Guns N' Roses. Between bands, several video clips honouring Freddie Mercury 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 - John Deacon (on bass), Brian May (on guitar) and Roger Taylor (on drums) - along with guest singers and guitarists, including Elton John, Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), David Bowie, Mick Ronson (of Spiders from Mars), James Hetfield (of Metallica), George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose and Slash (of Guns N' Roses), Liza Minnelli, and others. This was the second high-profile project with both Elton John and George Michael in as many years; the year before, they did a live reworking of John's song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Via satellite from Sacramento, California, U2 dedicated a live performance of "Until the End of the World" to Mercury.

Home releases

The concert was originally released in VHS form (usually in two tape releases worldwide), but due to time limitations, the last two songs by Extreme, the first two of Def Leppard, and the song of Spinal Tap "The Majesty of Rock" were deleted (along with Robert Plant's "Innuendo") in the original release. The US release also omitted Bob Geldof's performance of "Too Late God" and Zucchero's performance of "Las Palabras De Amor".

In April 2002, for the 10th anniversary of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the concert was released on DVD and entered the UK charts at number 1. "Innuendo" was not included on the DVD, at the request of Robert Plant. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen.

An EP of the George Michael performances with Queen were released as Five Live in April 1993. It entered the UK singles chart at #1. Metallica's 3-song performance was made into a UK tour edition single for Nothing Else Matters, entitled "Live at Wembley Stadium" and released in Europe just one week after the concert, on April 27, 1992. Additionally, the Guns N' Roses performance of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was released in August 1992 as a Double A-side with the original Guns N' Roses studio recording of the song. This single entered the UK singles chart at #2.

Performances

Without Queen

• Metallica - "Enter Sandman", "Sad But True", "Nothing Else Matters"
• Extreme - Queen Medley, "Love of My Life" (Gary Cherone & Nuno Bettencourt), "More Than Words" (Gary Cherone & Nuno Bettencourt)
• 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"
• U2 - "Until the End of the World" - played via satellite from Sacramento, California
• Guns N' Roses - "Paradise City", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
• Mango Groove - "Special Star" - played via satellite from Johannesburg, South Africa
• Elizabeth Taylor - AIDS Prevention Speech
• Freddie Mercury - compilation of various interactions with the audience

With Queen

1. Queen + Joe Elliott/Slash - "Tie Your Mother Down"
2. Queen + Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi - "Heaven and Hell" (intro), "Pinball Wizard" (intro), "I Want It All"
3. Queen + Zucchero - "Las Palabras de Amor"
4. Queen + Gary Cherone/Tony Iommi - "Hammer to Fall"
5. Queen + James Hetfield/Tony Iommi - "Stone Cold Crazy "
6. Queen + Robert Plant - "Innuendo", "Thank You" (intro), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
7. Brian May with Spike Edney - "Too Much Love Will Kill You"
8. Queen + Paul Young - "Radio Ga Ga"
9. Queen + Seal - "Who Wants to Live Forever"
10. Queen + Lisa Stansfield - "I Want to Break Free"
11. Queen + David Bowie/Annie Lennox - "Under Pressure"
12. Queen + Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen - "All The Young Dudes"
13. Queen + David Bowie/Mick Ronson - "Heroes"
14. David Bowie - "The Lord's Prayer"
15. Queen + George Michael - "'39"
16. Queen + George Michael/Lisa Stansfield - "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
17. Queen + George Michael - "Somebody to Love"
18. Queen + Elton John/Axl Rose - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
19. Queen + Elton John/Tony Iommi - "The Show Must Go On"
20. Queen + Axl Rose - "We Will Rock You"
21. Queen + Liza Minnelli/Cast - "We Are the Champions"
22. Queen - "God Save the Queen" (taped outro)

Backing musicians

Queen were backed by the following musicians:

• Spike Edney - keyboards, piano, backing vocals
• Mike Moran - piano on "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Somebody to Love"
• Josh Macrae - percussion in some Queen tracks
• 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"
• John Jones - organ and backing vocals on "We are the Champions"

Reviews

• The Times, 26 April 1992
• The Denver Post, 23 May 1993 (VHS review)

External links

• Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at the Internet Movie Database
• Transcript of the DVD edition