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Were you at the Queen gig at Wembley in 1986? If so, I hate you.
Freddie Mercury. What a performer.
After spending a fair chunk of my evening lamenting the fact that I wasn’t born a decade or two earlier, I came across George Michael’s version of ‘Somebody To Love’, played live with Queen after Freddie’s death. I’ve always adored this version, and I think this is close to one of the best covers out there (is it a cover even if the rest of Queen were involved?) I’ve never actually seen the footage though, so I was stoked to happen upon it tonight. The jacket! The hair! The gold hoop earring! Magic.
It All Started With Carbon Monoxide 
V neat…much to my chagrin, a young female member of this household is listening to Somebody To Love by the cast of “Glee”.
Sacrilege !
I swore like a sailor when I read that. And then I threw up a little in my mouth.
It’s just wrong, isn’t it?
Hi there, no I wasn’t at the Wembley Gig in 1986, though I did see Queen at the Sydney Entertainment Centre around that time. My older (and just a little conservative, at least back then) brother, a huge Queen fan, took me. I remember clearly that just before the band took to the stage all the lights were turned off and then a seemingly tiny Freddie Mercury walked out and wacked his mic stand down and the set completely BLEW UP… and the show was off and running! I remember alot about the show, including that there were endless though entertaining solos from all members, but for Bohemian Rapsody the middle choral section was played on a backing tape, which kinda disappointed me at the time, though now I just see it as part of the whole experience. I also remember my brother looking around at the people near us and leaning over to me and saying, ‘I’m not sure why everyone’s wearing leather and look like policemen but there you go’… though I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew 😉
Wonderful story Nigel! I loved your brother’s comment as well – I’m sure it all became a lot clearer as the show (and the years!) went on!
I’m incredibly envious of your experience, but I loved reading about it, thank you!
I didn’t see them myself but some of my friends from school saw them in the mid 70s when they came…believe it or not…to ADELAIDE!! They played The Apollo Stadium which was a very tatty basketball arena, once famously referred to by Bette Midler:
“Boy, I’ve played in some toilets before…but this is more of a bidet!!!”
The girls came to school after the concert, absolutely FULL of Freddie Mercury and his tight, white suit through which you could see, I was reliably informed, ‘everything’!!! They also told us how when he sang ‘The Prophet’s Song’ and got to the bit that goes “..and now I know and now I know…etc”, Freddie told all the women to ‘stop screaming your tits off and shut up and LISTEN’ while they did the whole fade and reverb and echo around the stadium thing. Strange to think of women screaming their tits off for Freddie eh?
great post egnes. also love the comments above, how exciting would it have been to see them LIVE! will have to make do with the music 😦
I didn’t think anybody ever went to Adelaide Ariza! 😉
LOVED that Bette Midler quote, I can just picture her saying that!
And the bit about Freddie telling them all to stop screaming their tits off… well that just capped it all off – what a wonderful story.
Elspeth – I know. I felt all kinds of jealous reading those stories. We were definitely born in the wrong decade, weren’t we?