11 June 1986, Queen perform the first of two evenings @ Groenoordhallen in Leiden, Netherlands ‘Magic Tour’ This was a record breaking SOLD-OUT show!This is the first of ten Magic tour shows to be held indoors (with Brussels, Munich, Zürich, and Vienna being the other cities). Before the show begins, the audience sing a Dutch football song. After the second song, Freddie is dripping with energy, shouting, “How are you bunch of c***s?” The audience then begin to sing their football song again upon Freddie’s request, and the band join in, much to the delight of everyone on hand.

They would sing the football song a few more times tonight, and at the two Leiden concerts in the near future. Freddie delivers what is undoubtedly his definitive live version of ‘A Kind Of Magic’ tonight, while Brian adds some very tasty guitar lines in the extended end section. Then, after a lengthy and adventurous vocal exchange with the audience, Freddie simply says, “Beautiful.” After ‘Under Pressure,’ he tells the jubilant crowd, “Without a doubt, you must be the best singers around, really.”

He goes on, “I don’t say… oh, you want a beer, darlings?” He complies and hands it to someone in the front row. “Don’t drop the fucking thing! Pass it around, you bugger. There’s enough for everybody.” The impromptu sounds more like the 1985 versions tonight, and it would generally be played like this for the remainder of the tour. Naturally, since it is an improvisation, it will have its differences from night to night. The audience sing along to ‘Love Of My Life’ at an astounding volume, as per the Live Killers version they have all heard. An audience member even adds “Beautiful” after the first verse, just as Freddie did on the live album at that spot. After he gets to the piano to start ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ Freddie makes the first of many chilling comments on this tour about his health (the benefits of hindsight make it seem so, anyway): “This is what happens when you get too old. Your fucking energy runs out half way through the set!” Freddie, before Crazy Little Thing Called Love: “You know what this guitar means, right? It can only mean one song because it’s all I know on this damn guitar. But… let’s try and do it.” ‘Friends Will Be Friends’ is played for the first time at this show, and it is placed between ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions,’ something which surely surprises people who have seen Queen on previous tours. For these two nights in Leiden (contrary to the well-known Wembley and Budapest versions) the band perform the complete song. Freddie struggles a bit on the final “Friends Will Be Friends” of each chorus, as he has pushed his voice to its limit all evening. The band have trouble figuring out how to end the song, resulting in plenty of choruses before they finally lead into ‘We Are The Champions.’