24 April 1979, Queen performed @ Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 
during ‘Live Killers’ Tour
After briefly retiring the ‘We Will Rock You’ slow/fast introduction of the show, the band revive it for this concert and stick with it for the remainder of the tour.
Brian introduces ‘Love of My Life’ in his well-rehearsed Japanese. During the usual band introductions: he says, “On tambourine, Mr. Freddie Mercury.” The tambourinist sings a very powerful version of ‘It’s Late’ tonight. His range remains limited, but he gives his all.
Brian plays an extended guitar solo in ‘Brighton Rock,’ more like he did in 1975-77. Roger and John join in more sporadically instead of engaging in a long jam as they had done throughout the last few months. By the end of the tour, the rhythm section would only join in at the end of Brian’s solo.
Footage of the encore of ‘We Will Rock You’ has been seen in a few documentaries, with Freddie in his silver lurex suit throwing bananas into the audience while sitting on the shoulders of a crew member dressed as Superman (as seen in the photos).
The famous photo for the front cover of Live Killers was taken by Koh Hasebe in Tokyo.
An interview with the photographer (from the book “Queen in Japan,” translated from Japanese by “deathtoming”) reveals this story: “The concept for the cover was up to the band, and before a show the four of them would go back and forth with ideas backstage. I thought Freddie was the one who would decide these things, but I was wrong. Freddie actually didn’t say much. He’d use gestures to communicate what he wanted to say. I asked Roger, “Is there something wrong with Freddie’s throat?” And Roger responded, “Freddie’s always like that before a show.” I then realized that Freddie took great care of his throat and voice, as a vocalist. We decided that the band would go to the front of the stage at the end of the concert to wave, bow, and so forth, but they’d forget to do that. They would just forget and quickly go backstage. What a pain that was. I was below them at the front of the stage, so I did my best to get their attention, but they were so caught up in the moment that they wouldn’t notice me. Afterwards, I would go to them backstage and say, “Hey, you didn’t do what we had discussed,” and they’d just say, “Oh, we forgot.” By the third attempt I got something close to what I wanted. Personally, I wasn’t too thrilled with it.”
@ Queen Live
