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I purchased this DVD after renting the Queen Rock Montreal concert via Netflix, which rekindled my love for Queen. I was a Queen fan in Jr. High and High School (saw them perform live in 1978 in Kansas City), but lost track of them in the early 1980's. My renewed interest came after seeing a rock documentary about Queen on the Ovation channel and then another documentary about Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story. I have to say, I wasn't expecting to like this DVD. I was a fan of Queen in their early long-hair days. I had not even listened to their music seriously since about 1980. But I was just blown away by this concert. The band is so tight and in such great form. Freddie Mercury is incredible to watch - you can't take your eyes off him. He fills every second on stage with his presence and showmanship.
Watch the concert all the way through and then watch it again with Roger Taylor and Brian May's commentary. They take a while to get going and there are a few long silences, but they give an explanation as to why this film was not presented until recently. Something to do with having a falling out with the film makers and not having access to it all these years. The film is actually two concerts spliced together from the two concert dates in 1981 in Montreal ( you can tell by the costume changes) which they had restored and edited recently. The audio and visual quality are amazing for something this old. There is nothing like real film. Video does not even compare- you wonder, why even bother wth video when you have film that does such a superb job? The audio is so clean and the images so crisp! The later concerts do not even hold a candle to this in regards to quality. And I have to say Freddie Mercury was in rare form at the Montreal Show. Watching him jump back and forth to the piano with perfect timing is amazing. He never loses hold of the audience and keeps the group cooking away for full hour and a half. Yes, this is the concert in its entirety. Apparently this was one of the last times Queen performed with just the four guys and no additional musicians help. In the later concerts, Freddie got away from playing the piano as it kept him away from the stage and he wanted to walk around and sing and entertain the audience - and HOW!!! His voice is amazing!
Taylor and May's comments on the commentary are very endearing too as they tell little anecdotes about the band and compliment each other on drum fills and guitar solos and such during the concert. You can tell they have great respect for each other and a lot of love for Freddie Mercury and it comes out in how they notice and comment on the details; such as how nice it is to see Freddie Mercury in his muscular prime. They also mention how the band had freedome to improvise and do what they wanted during the concerts, whereas now, groups are all programmed in concert where you are not even hearing live music sometimes. I went to see a lot of rock concerts in the 1970's, and now that I think of it, they really had to work a lot harder in those days, as there just was not all the technology around that we take for granted today.
I also have to say that this concert made me realize how underappreciated Queen is now and was then. They were a truly amazing group and came up with some incredible innovations that they just don't get enough credit for. Perhaps Bohemian Rhapsody was just over played and people came to think of it as campy and jokey? And I also think a lot of people in the 1970's 80's were somewhat homophobic - and Freddie Mercury's flamboyant lifestyle on and off stage was just too wild for the maintstream? But I have to say, after watching this video and the other documentaries I saw, I realize now what an important and serious musician Freddie Mercury was and how it was his creative ideas that brought Queen to fame. Not to take anything away from the other guys - all incredible musicians in their own right who don't get enough credit for their contribution to the group's musical success. Freddie Mercury was an incredible performer who gave the audience so much more than their money's worth. You can see that he really loved what he was doing. He lived his life the way he wanted, and in doing so, as his mother says on one of the documentaries, "he made the whole world happy". There is too much snickering about his being gay and his flamboyant lifestyle. So what? Like Oscar Wilde, he was really a man born out of his time. Oh Queen - Oh Freddie, how I miss you guys!!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2011
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Jorsh Rodríguez
El mejor concierto de la mejor banda de rock en la más alta calidad 💙
Reviewed in Mexico on March 10, 2023
Melman
Excellent concert from Queen as always and Live Aid bonus awesome
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 17, 2024