6 February 1977, Queen Live @ Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, USA Thin Lizzy opened

‘A Day At The Races Tour’

After the excitement of last night’s performance at MSG, the band hold back a bit tonight.

Freddie’s mic died on him at some point during this show, and it apparently took him a little while to get back into the swing of things.

Here’s a fabulous fan story about this show:

I saw Queen 2/6/77, Thin Lizzy opened and they were great. I believe they opened with Jail Break, with two revolving red police lights and a siren. After Queen began their set I left my seat and worked my way to the front stage and being a little guy I went pretty much unnoticed. I found a spot in the inside corner of the stage that jutted out, right side. Brian May was right in front of me, and Freddie was on my left. It was unreal. The stage was high so I would not have been able to touch them, which I would not do anyway. At some point in the concert Freddie took off the white silk scarf he had on and threw it in the air, which I caught. It was like catching a Babe Ruth home run baseball. From behind me some enormous girl reached over the fans standing right behind me and tore the scarf from my hands, never to be seen again. It happened so quickly I barely realized what happened. If my friends were with me I’m sure we would have gotten it back, but I was alone. After that, Freddie was throwing a bouquet of white carnations of which I caught a whole flower. The following day or so, I took that carnation and tucked it in the silver program and gave it to my then girlfriend, Kathy, she loved Queen as much as I. Two years later she broke up with me, never returning the program and breaking my heart. What I have left is one pedal from the flower, a ticket stub, and a concert memory from the greatest rock band in the world. They were Majestic.

Written by Andy

48 years ago, 27 January 1974, Queen performed at The Sunbury Rock Festival – Held at a Private Farm in Sunbury, Australia. (The festival in 1974 ran from January 25th to 28th).

“Queen I Tour”

The Sunbury Pop Festival was staged during the long weekend celebrating Australia Day. It actually ran successfully for several years, 1972 to 1975, and was essentially Australia’s Woodstock. It attracted the best bands the continent could offer.

The large music festival was held on a 620-acre (2.5 km2) private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria – Sunbury is a small town about 40 kilometres from Melbourne.

Queen were booked as the headliners, the first time a non-Australian band headed the show, which understandably drew some ire from inebriated fans, impatient journalists, and promoters.

The band were looked upon as snobs with the local roadies when they showed up to the event in a hired white limousines to transport them from their hotel to the concert, and when they arrived, they made a big entrance, which the Australian crew loathed, dismissing these ‘Pommies’ as just too clever.

The road crew even received a good drubbing: the local crew who had been hired to assemble the lights were pushed aside in favor of Queen’s own crew, and, understandably irate that they lost out on money and work, the Australian crew did everything they could to sabotage the band’s set.

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Photoshoot in Sanremo, Italy February 1984

STUDIO PHOTOSHOOTS > 80s > Photoshoot 002

Queen return home after Sunbury …

After the Sunbury Pop Festival in Sunbury, Australia, Queen are pictured below back from Australia and back home in their native London at Heathrow Airport, January 1974

Queen performed at the music festival on the 27th of January 1974 and were slated to perform again on the 28th but decided to go back home instead.

Freddie and Brian were both ill (Brian became sick after his inoculation prior to traveling to Australia). Freddie was in pain and running a high temperature. They were relieved to get out of Australia and without further delay made the trip back home without further delay.

The band experienced a less than warm welcome by local bands, promoters and patrons.

A local DJ (and Scottish-born musician) named Jim Keays acting as MC introduced Queen as such: “Well, we’ve got another load of limey bastards tonight. They’re probably going to be useless, but let’s give them something to think about!” He then mooned the crowd, and proceeded to call the band “stuck up pommies” before leaving the stage. In addition to that, Queen were looked down upon as being snobs for bringing their own lighting rig and crew, and thus their lighting rig was sabotaged by the local roadies.

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26 January 1977, Queen performed @ The Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

‘A Day At The Races’ Tour

There’s many pictures of the band backstage. The first picture is the band with Ian Hunter and Roy Thomas Baker (they were special guests).

Freddie loved taking pictures and enjoyed his Polaroid before the show. He was taking tons of pics. The band were fascinated with his hobby. Brian May took the beautiful picture of Freddie snapping pictures on his Polaroid camera as seen in the third picture.

Brian enjoyed photography, Freddie himself also embraced the art – despite being known for being shy in private – he loved snapping away with his polaroid.

Brian said the following of Freddie:

“Freddie was a photographer. He loved his Polaroids. He used to take masses of Polaroids of all his friends, portraits, and then give them all away. It was just one of Freddie’s things. Very generous nature, Freddie. He loved photography. I was able to snap him in the moment

26 January 1979, Queen perform the first evening @ Vorst Nationaal (Forest Nationale), Brussels, Belgium “Live Killers” Tour

Before the concert, the promo video for their new single ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ (directed by Jorgan Kliebenst) is filmed.

Freddie, after the first song: “Hello Brussels! We meet again! It’s really nice to be back. You wanna rock? You wanna roll? Okay, let’s dooooooo it!”

Brian: “Thank you, good evening people of Brussels. It’s great to see you again. An old song for you now. This is a song from a couple years ago. This is something called ‘Somebody To Love.’”

Freddie, after a standing ovation following ‘You’re My Best Friend’: “Merci beaucoup! You lovely people. Okay, on with the show. Do you people remember a group called Mott The Hoople? I’m sure some of you do. A long, long time back when we first started out, we did a tour with those guys – the only support tour of our lives. And Brian wrote a song in dedication. This is from an album called ‘Sheer Heart Attack’.”

While listening to the audience sing a football chant after ‘Now I’m Here’, Freddie says: “Let me hear you, c’mon! Thank you, you’re a beautiful audience.”

Brian, after ‘Spread Your Wings’: “Somehow you make a good noise here, people. You’re great. I think I should tell you an interesting fact. We’re thinking of making a live album, and this is the first night we’ve ever recorded for a live album, so I hope you make a nice little noise, as you are.”

Speaking to masses of cheers: Freddie says, “The last time we did this song when we were here, you were the best choir in the world. We’d like a repeat performance. This next number is called ‘Love Of My Life’.” After the song, Brian says, “You’re the best. The best. Unbelieveable. I don’t think we need a singer.” Someone in the audience keeps shouting for ‘I’m In Love With My Car’, even though Queen have already played the song. Brian continues, “Right, we’d like you to sing some more if you’d like. This is called ’39.”

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