CHAMPIONS
For my friends at Aussie Queens....Lamo
It's 7:45 pm, and I'm walking through the bowels of the underground of Toronto, on my way to the Air Canada Centre
with Rene, my longtime Queen buddy. He's a fan than basically lost interest after " The Game ", and loves the same period of music
that I do, which is records 1-7...My thanks to him again and again for being such a great friend !
Anyways, we are at the turnstiles, he's ahead of me and gets searched, and I am nervously behind him, digital camera in my
pocket. Its my turn, I open my jacket and they let me in , no search.... " BONUS !!!" I'm thinking, I may get some shots for my
AQ friends !!!
We walk through the door and I ask the attendant, " is there an opening act" she says no, just Queen. Another bonus.
The area is 3/4 packed, the roadies are playing some sort of country-fied twangy version of Queen music, sounds stupid actually, weird.
Down the long flights of stairs, to the floor area, walking, looking at rows written in chalk on the floor, 50, 49, 48...etc...where are these???
Sure enough, I get to row 19 centre and I am 2 flippin' rows from the catwalk, almost dead centre....OMG !!!!! I am so excited !!!!
The curtain is black, screens on either side of the stage show the Queen "burning bird" logo, and I'm ready for my first ever
Queen show ( with PR of course). It's 8:07 and there's a muffled wail of Bri's guitar, and the true fans hear it and scream...wow.
It's almost showtime..
Lights go off, and you hear Paul " Lately I've been hard to reach" ...he finishes his bit and the curtain is still up...and guess who comes
comes out first, while playing the intro to TYMD....Bri ! He comes out from behind the curtain and the crowd goes nuts !!!
Roger plays his bit, the curtain drops and we're off to the Races ! ( ..had to add that, as Races is my fav record).
Paul's in a two piece white outfit and red muscle shirt, he walks down the calwalk, squinty eyes and all. The man is fit and certainly looks
good for his age ( you win Karen). As he's walking along,he's looking at the crowd and doing the rockstar thing...looking for a female someone
to be the target of his crooning. He finds her, a middle aged blonde, 4 rows ahead of me, left of the catwalk, husband in tow. ( more later on her)
Brian is in a two piece white outfit with a very detailed dragonlike like pattern on the bottom of the pantlegs. he has Adidas sneakers
that look comfy for those long nights of standing and playing. He is wearing a smile that shows his personality and you can see that this
man is doing what he was destined to do, which is entertain people. His guitar is more brown looking than red, and the black part of the guitar
has visible " scratches" on it, from years of rocking the world...His playing is flawless, with the familiar sounds ringing even truer in person...
just hearing him play was worth it !
Roger, is wearing a black shirt and black pants and sunglasses, definitely the
coolest looking member of the bunch... As I watch the screen to seen more of Roger, I noticed something very unique ...now, I'm not a drummer but I
can clearly see that he's playing the snare drum with his left hand holding the drumstick by the thin end, and the thick end of the stick is striking the drum...very neat.
Roger is pounding away, breaking a sweat already during " I want to break free"... Roger doesn't seem to miss a beat, the bass player watches him carefully, and Roger
is clearly moving the entire band along from song to song, in classic Roger fashion.
You can clearly hear Bri and Rog, but sometimes you could not hear Paul, as his voice was
muted by the instruments...Paul always makes sure you can hear his voice with his classic rock star endings, and he can really end a song well..kudos to him.
After " I want to break free" Paul and Brian get these clear looking guitars, Paul's had a dark "stripe" and Brian's has a red stripe. The guy behind me says
" they're gonna play Crazy Little Thing" and instead they tell us that this is their new song " Take Love". The song is good, sounds like a radio friendly rock-pop
type of song and I think to myself " this is the sound of new Queen" or what they would put out as a full record..My mind races, " would I buy that?" I don't know, so
I just keep listening.. Crazy Little Thing is next and the crowd gets into it..
Roger and Paul steps away, off for a break I guess, and the spotlight is on Brian. He walks to the end of the catwalk, 12 string guitar in hand,
sits on a stool and says " hello....this on is for Freddie" He plays " Love of My Life" and the crowd sings along, you can hear every note he is playing,
and the man can really sing..OMG,this is what touched me the most that night, my eyes swelled up and I was "getting it".
Brian is so musically talented in every way. I looked at Rene and he was speechless too..
I was blown away during that song and I've vowed to never skip it again on the ROTC CD....Brian May, you are an amazing artist !!
Hammer to Fall starts with Bri and Paul together at the end of the catwalk on stools, Brian playing, Paul singing....
but we all know who gets that song rocking, don't we Isis.......Roger !!
The lights are on Roger, now all in white, no glasses, and he is just POUNDING the drums, to the point where you think " is he gonna break that snare?"
The guys play, and this to me is one of their best songs, as its a rockin' tune, Roger pounding away, Bri wailing, and Paul belting the words out...
clearly my favourite song of the night !!! Oh, did I forget to mention that Paul has changed into a new outfit ? The man changed 3 times that night, 4 diff
outfits altogether, all of them of high quality, very rock star style stuff, with muscle tops, (just for Karen).
Paul smiles and they play " FLM Love", and he looks at the blonde a bit while singing...he's at the end of the catwalk and he is really
into this song, which makes sense, as it is HIS song...and the crowd feels it. When he end the songs, " feel like making love to you" , he points at the
blonde, her heand out and he touches it. She's in heaven, and hubbby laughs it off..
Bri takes the mic and says " this is the place in the show where we try something new"....and we're all wondering, what now?
The bass line starts and we know where we're going....It's Under Pressure, and the amazing bass line would make any true fan want to look
for Deacon.....we all know he's not there, and the songs is moving along. Musically, the song is fine, but lyricallly, it was OK at best, with Paul doing Bowie's piece
and Brian doing Freddie's part in the middle and Paul doing the Freddie piece at the end. I won't say much more, other than they should avoid that song at alll costs
as it doesn't do either Bowie of Freddie justice....
The drum solo starts and Roger doesn't say anything, he just gets going, slowing taping each drum and then moving into his tribal pounding...wow !
I'm watching him on the big screen to my left as he is too far away for me to catch the details. His bass drum is lit up in yellow, then blue, then yellow again.
The rhythm guitar player adds the riffs while Roger is playing...man , he is drumming at a frantic pace, the sweat clearly on his forehead, a man possessed !
They get into " Love with my Car" and this is Rene's song, and he loves it. The crowd is cheering, we old Queen fans are eating this song up, with Roger,
the stud muffin singing his heart out. Its amazing !!!
Guitar solo....just like in the video, Brian starts out, walks to the catwalk, plays his heart out, leading us eventually to the rear of the stage, where he goes behind a curtain,
and then emerged again,pointing to a screen behind the drums with pictures of London and cars driving through the city, to eventually lead us to the top of a building..with his guitar going , going,
its unique Queen sound warming our hearts....what a musician ! The solo leads to Last Horizon, and I know what to do here....I'm thinking about Isis, IF, and all of my new Queen friends
across the world from me. I'm trying my best to get as many decent pics as I can, (and I annoyed some people with my arm reaching above with my camera) but the intent was
worth the effort, for my friends at Aussie Queens. I know how badly you want the band to come to your part of the world and you all deserve this. I wish you alll the best in your efforts !
Well, at the risk of boring you all, I will wrap this up as quickly as I can...
The remainder of the gig went as planned, well played songs, with what you would expect if you owned ROTC on CD or
DVD. Dragon Attack saw Paul emerge from under the stage playing a black piano that rose to be level with the stage. The rhythm player and bass player kept that song going.
The best moment...." Days of our Lives" ...the crowd roared with the black and white footage of Freddie, John, and the rest of the band sitting on the ground, with some
asian folks, assuming in Japan...the song was well done and Roger stepped away from the kit, walked up to the end of the catwalk, and I tried as best I could to get you some choice pics
Isis...the blue lights were on and Roger sang so beautifully...he went back to the stage, did the " when I look and I find, Brian May" piece and walked back to the end of the catwalk again.
How can anyone not get teary eyed during this song?? I know the author did...we miss you Freddie, and we miss you too John, please come back to us.
Radio Gaga was fun...I thought of my 5 year old Jamie during that song...I'm teaching my her to sing it. She finds the lyrics fun !
The remainder of the gig went without a hitch....all was well in Toronto that night and I scratched off another thing on my lifelong to-do list.
Done !
Regards Lamo