Magic Tour (Queen)

The Magic Tour was a European concert tour by the British rock band Queen in 1986. The tour was in support of their twelfth studio album, '' A Kind of Magic'', and featured 26 shows across Western Europe. In addition, the band performed one show behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary.

The highlight of the tour was the two sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium on 11–12 July. Both concerts were professionally filmed. The second show was released as '' Queen at Wembley''. The final show of the tour, held at Knebworth on 9 August in front of at least 120,000 fans, marked a significant moment in the band's history. It was also the last time that lead singer Freddie Mercury performed live with Queen before his death five years later.

Background

Queen's tour in 1986 featured 26 shows and marked the band's first concert series since their performance at Live Aid in July 1985, which earned them high praise and boosted their popularity. The tour included support acts such as the Alarm, Belouis Some, Marillion, INXS and Status Quo.

Preparations for the tour started in May 1986, and the band rehearsed for four weeks, which was their longest preparation for a stage show. Despite promoters' uncertainty about whether they would sell enough tickets for stadium and outdoor venues, the gigs were met with high demand.

In addition to debuting new songs like " One Vision" and " Who Wants to Live Forever", the band decided to reintroduce some older tracks and an acoustic rock 'n' roll medley into their set. The final part of the show repeated the six songs Queen had played at Live Aid. The band also added a new song, " Friends Will Be Friends", as the final encore between "We Will Rock You" and " We Are the Champions". Freddie Mercury personally asked his friend Diana Moseley to design stage clothes for the band, including a large crown and gown which he wore at the end of the show. The stage was long and flanked by two runways. Roger Taylor said the new stage show would make "'' Ben Hur'' look like the Muppets".

Itinerary

The tour began on 7 June 1986 in Stockholm. During the 21 June concert at the Maimarktgelände, Mannheim, Marillion frontman Fish sang "Tutti Frutti" with Mercury. Five days later at the Waldbühne, West Berlin, the group played an impromptu version of Led Zeppelin's " Immigrant Song". A cover of Shirley Bassey's "Big Spender" was subsequently re-added to the set, having been regularly featured in the group's early days.

The concert at Slane Castle on 5 July was marred by bad weather and crowd violence. The group played St James' Park, Newcastle, on 9 July. All profits for the concert were donated to Save the Children Fund. Support band INXS were delayed because of traffic. During the show, Mercury told the audience about rumours that Queen would disband, and flatly denied them.

All 72,000 tickets for the 11 July show at Wembley Stadium sold out quickly, so a second date was added for the following night. The group played for over 150,000 people over the two nights. The first was played during bad weather, but the second was clear and filmed by Tyne Tees and recorded by Capital Radio for a future television and radio broadcast. Giant inflatable models representing the cartoon version of the group on the ''A Kind of Magic'' cover were released; three were caught by the crowd, while one landed in Chelmsford approximately 35 miles away. During the show, Mercury addressed the audience, again denying rumours that Queen were splitting up, adding "we're gonna stay together until we fucking well die". After the second show, Mercury played an impromptu set at Kensington Roof Gardens with Fish, Samantha Fox and Gary Glitter.

The concert at the Népstadion, Budapest, on 27 July was the first concert by a major rock group behind the Iron Curtain. As well as 80,000 tickets selling out, a further estimated 45,000 people listened to the group outside. Some fans had travelled from as far away as Poland to see the concert. The show was professionally filmed on 35 mm movie film by 17 of Hungary's best cameramen. The gear employed, including seventeen cameras and 25 miles of film, was all that was accessible in the country, and the Hungarian government approved the entire operation. During the show, the group performed an acoustic arrangement of the traditional Hungarian folk song "Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt". Mercury wrote the lyrics on the palm of his hand.

The Knebworth concert on 9 August 1986 was added to the end of the tour because earlier dates at Wembley had sold out. 120,000 fans attended, making it the group's biggest UK concert. The stage featured 5,000 amplifiers, of cable and a video screen. It was also the last live concert the classic line-up of Queen ever played. Henry Lytton Cobbold, 3rd Baron Cobbold, owner of Knebworth, later said he felt it was one of the best Queen gigs, but owing to an oversight, nobody remembered to tape video footage of the concert, although an audio recording survives along with handheld audience footage. A photograph of a swarm of helicopters branded under the 'magic' emblem was used for promotional purposes.

The tour played to more than 400,000 fans, and earned the group £11 million.

Aftermath

After the tour, Mercury told his bandmates that he did not want to do any more large-scale shows. In spring 1987, he was diagnosed as having AIDS. When the group reconvened to record '' The Miracle'' in 1989, the press were informed that Mercury wanted to "break the cycle of album, tour, album, tour" and consequently the album would not have any accompanying live performances. He died on 24 November 1991. Queen did not undertake another full tour until 19 years later, when the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour began in March 2005. By then, John Deacon had retired from music, and did not take part.

Releases

Several concerts from the tour have been released commercially. The album '' Live Magic'', containing greatly edited highlights, was released in December 1986 and was a top 5 hit. The second Wembley gig has been released several times. The full audio was released as a CD '' Live at Wembley '86'' in 1992. A video, '' Queen at Wembley'' was released in 1990, containing only part of the show, with edits. It was followed by the full concert on DVD in 2003. The Budapest show has been released as '' Live in Budapest'' on VHS and Laserdisc (later re-released and retitled as '' Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest'' in 2012).

Tour dates

Notes

Personnel

Queen
*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")

See also

* List of highest-attended concerts

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

Queen Concerts

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1986 concert tours
Queen (band) concert tours