Queen Concerts From 1974 to Be Released as Live Album
The final concert of Queen‘s first headlining tour will be released as the live album Queen: Live at the Rainbow ’74 on September 9th. The group recorded the 17-song set on March 31st, 1974 at a sold-out gig at the 3,000-capacity London venue the Rainbow, where they were playing songs from their first two albums and supporting Mott the Hoople.
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The new live album also contains a second disc with a concert supporting 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack that the group recorded and filmed at the same venue in November of that year. (Some of this footage was released in 1992 as the group’s Live at the Rainbow video.) Between the two discs, the record contains over a dozen songs that have never been previously released on a Queen concert LP.
The co-producer of Queen’s first four records, Roy Thomas Baker, recorded the March concert with the intention of releasing it as their first live album and third release altogether, but the group opted to record and release Sheer Heart Attack instead. The Rainbow live album has been shelved until now.
The album contains the only known recording of Queen II‘s “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke.” It also contains a number of songs appearing for the first time ever on a Queen live album, including “Great King Rat,” “Modern Time’s Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “See What a Fool I’ve Been” and “Flick of the Wrist.”
Both concerts have been mixed and mastered using modern standards, and the album will be released in a variety of formats, including double vinyl, standard double CD and a deluxe edition. The latter edition contains two CDs, a DVD and Blu-ray with four bonus tracks from the March show, a 60-page hardback book with rare photos of the group and memorabilia, including tickets, a concert program and a poster.
Queen will be touring with vocalist Adam Lambert in North America and around the world this summer, beginning with a show in Chicago on June 19th. The group also intends to release an album of new Queen music with vocal recordings Freddie Mercury made in the 1980s, though the group has yet to release more details about that record.
Queen: Live at the Rainbow ’74 Track List
Disc One: Live at the Rainbow, March ’74
1. “Procession”
2. “Father to Son”
3. “Ogre Battle”
4. “Son and Daughter”
5. “Guitar Solo”
6. “Son and Daughter (Reprise)”
7. “White Queen (As It Began)”
8. “Great King Rat”
9. “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke”
10. “Keep Yourself Alive”
11. “Drum Solo”
12. “Keep Yourself Alive (Reprise)”
13. “Seven Seas of Rhye”
14. “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll”
15. “Jailhouse Rock (Medley)”
“Stupid Cupid (Medley)”
“Be Bop A Lula (Medley)”
16. “Liar”
17. “See What a Fool I’ve Been”
Disc Two: Live at the Rainbow, November ’74
1. “Procession”
2. “Now I’m Here”
3. “Ogre Battle”
4. “Father to Son”
5. “White Queen (As It Began)”
6. “Flick of the Wrist”
7. “In the Lap of the Gods”
8. “Killer Queen”
9. “The March of the Black Queen”
10. “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”
11. “Son and Daughter”
12. “Guitar Solo”
13. “Son and Daughter (Reprise)”
14. “Keep Yourself Alive”
15. “Drum Solo”
16. “Keep Yourself Alive (Reprise)”
17. “Seven Seas of Rhye”
18. “Stone Cold Crazy”
19. “Liar”
20. “In the Lap of the Gods. . . Revisited”
21. “Big Spender”
22. “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll”
23. “Jailhouse Rock”
24. “God Save the Queen”
DVD Bonus Tracks:
1. “Son and Daughter”
2. “Guitar Solo”
3. “Son and Daughter (Reprise)”
4. “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll”