The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
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, televised live worldwide to an estimated audience of one billion viewers. 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 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 this disease.
In February 1992, at the annual BRIT Awards ceremony, Brian May and Roger Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, 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 (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 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 (Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose and Slash (of Guns N' Roses), Liza Minnelli, and others.
When the concert aired on MTV, dubbed "A Concert For Life", U2 dedicated a live performance via satellite from Washington of "Until the End of the World" to Freddie.
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. The DVD release garnered strong criticism, however, because the whole first half was not included. "Innuendo" was also not included on the DVD, at the request of Robert Plant, explaining that his voice was in very poor condition and he could not remember the words and consequently could not sing the song correctly at the time. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen, losing a large amount of the original picture.
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", "Only Women Bleed" (intro), "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
- Mango Groove - "Special Star" - played via satellite from Johannesburg, South Africa
- Elizabeth Taylor - AIDS Prevention Speech
With Queen
- Queen + Joe Elliott/Slash - "Tie Your Mother Down"
- Queen + Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi - "Heaven and Hell" (intro), "Pinball Wizard" (intro), "I Want It All"
- Queen + Zucchero - "Las Palabras de Amor"
- Queen + Gary Cherone/Tony Iommi - "Hammer to Fall"
- Queen + James Hetfield/Tony Iommi - "Stone Cold Crazy "
- Queen + Robert Plant - "Innuendo", Thank You (intro), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
- Brian May with Spike Edney - "Too Much Love Will Kill You"
- Queen + Paul Young - "Radio Ga Ga"
- Queen + Seal - "Who Wants to Live Forever"
- Queen + Lisa Stansfield - "I Want to Break Free"
- Queen + David Bowie/Annie Lennox - "Under Pressure"
- Queen + Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen - "All The Young Dudes"
- Queen + David Bowie/Mick Ronson - "Heroes"/"The Lord's Prayer"
- Queen + George Michael - "'39"
- Queen + George Michael/Lisa Stansfield - "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
- Queen + George Michael - "Somebody to Love"
- Queen + Elton John/Axl Rose - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- Queen + Elton John/Tony Iommi - "The Show Must Go On"
- Queen + Axl Rose - "We Will Rock You"
- Queen + Liza Minnelli/Cast - "We Are the Champions"
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"