Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl [DVD]

Queen

Overview

In June of 1982, Queen was at the height of its powers as one of Britain's best rock bands when the played a concert at the MK Bowl in Milton Keynes, not far from London. As one of the group's increasingly rare shows in England, the concert was filmed for British television, but never aired in its entirety. Queen: On Fire at the Bowl presents the legendary Milton Keynes show in full, with remastered visuals and the sound remixed in surround stereo from the original 24-track audio recordings. Selections include "Flash," "Now I'm Here," "Get Down, Make Love," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "Tie Your Mother Down," "We Are the Champions," and more.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/21/2013
UPC:	0801213060696
Original Release:	2004
Source:	Eagle Rock Ent
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[stereo, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	2:45:00
Sales rank:	26,103

Special Features

Rare interviews with Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May; Tour highlights from Japan and Austria; Photo gallery featuring rare and previously unseen photos

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Queen	Performer,Primary Artist
Morgan Fisher	Piano,Keyboards
Gavin Taylor	Director
Freddie Mercury	Spoken Word
Fred Mandel	Piano,Keyboards

Technical Credits

Justin Shirley-Smith	Producer
Chris Cowie	Interviewer
Queen	Composer
Kris Fredriksson	Producer,Pro-Tools
Mac McKenna	Engineer
Richard Gray	Package Design
Denis O'Regan	Photography
Malcolm Gerrie	Producer
Bob Bickelman	Engineer
Simon Lupton	Producer
Brian King	Colorist
James "Trip" Khalaf	Engineer
Jim Devenny	Engineer
Miles Showell	Mastering
Neal Preston	Photography
John Overton	Engineer
Gregg Brooks	Archivist
Jeff "Duval" Brown	Associate Producer
Chuck Eldridge	Lighting
Richard Edgeler	Assistant
Keith "Bounty Bar" Badman	Film Research
Dick Allot	Supervisor
Tony Rossi	Engineer
Greg Cox	Assistant
Tim Young	Mastering
Brian May	Composer
Traditional	Composer
Freddie Mercury	Composer,Group Member
John Deacon	Composer
John Miles	Show Director
Roger Taylor	Composer
Mick McKenna	Engineer
David Bowie	Composer

Editorial Reviews

Queen's Hot Space-era is definitely one of their more intriguing. Here was a band that by the early '80s, was at the top of the rock heap, both commercially and artistically. But two years earlier, the group decided to join the ever-growing list of rock acts that dabbled in disco (the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Rod Stewart, etc.), and scored one of the biggest hits of their career, "Another One Bites the Dust." So for their next album, Queen decided to focus more extensively on dance music. Bad move. You probably couldn't have picked a worse time to be a rock band with a sudden disco fascination than in 1982, when the lines were clearly drawn in the sand between rockers (who loved to display that 'Disco Sucks' on car bumpers and t-shirts) and dancers. But that's what Queen did, resulting in their poorest selling album in ages, which basically buried them in America -- until their Wayne's World resurrection ten years later. But it's not to say that the supporting tour for Hot Space was a dud. Instead of playing a healthy amount of selections from their latest, they kept it to just a handful of selections, as evidenced by the 2004 double-disc DVD, Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl ('the Bowl' in question being the enormous outdoor venue in England, Milton Keynes Bowl). Despite issuing not one of their best albums, British fans still flocked to see 'em, and the band was still a fantastic live act. As with most live Queen videos, it doesn't take long to realize that Freddie Mercury was one of the best on-stage frontmen and singers in all of rock -- it must've taken an awful lot of work and talent to keep such a large audience engaged for an hour-and-a-half -- not to mention the fact that Freddie's voice sounds as strong (if not better) than it did in the studio. Kicking things off with one of their more uncommon show-starting selections (a one-two punch of two tracks from the Flash Gordon soundtrack -- "Flash's Theme" and "The Hero"), what follows is a great, high-energy performance. While the expected favorites are included -- "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Somebody to Love," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" -- longtime fans will be curious to hear what the Hot Space material sounds like live "("Under Pressure"" would be the only Hot Space-era song to be performed on future tours). Surprisingly, these uncommon selections ("Action This Day," "Staying Power," and "Backchat") sound much better live than on their more restrained album versions. Another highlight is "Fat Bottomed Girls" -- although a sizeable hit, it was performed on only a few tours (perhaps due to its demanding three-part harmonies, which the group pulls off quite well). The second disc is comprised of several rarely seen interviews (including one with a very 'serious' Freddie), as well as highlights from other shows on the tour -- which include another rarely performed Hot Space track, "Put Out the Fire." Also featured is a photo gallery which, much to the dismay of fans, includes the audio, but not video, of another Hot Space selection, "Calling All Girls" (nowhere to be seen is a rendition of "Body Language," which was a U.S. hit, and indeed performed throughout their ensuing stateside tour). But this complaint is a small one -- Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl is by far the best Queen DVD to be released yet. ~ Greg Prato