Description
Queen played a huge out door festival on the 21st of June in 1986 at the Maimarktgelände in Mannheim, Germany wiith Craaft, Gary Moore, Level 42 and Marillion opening up for them. This was during the Magic Tour and part of that show can be found on this album, so its not live in Usa as the title says. Mannheim was the seventh show of the tour and, before a crowd numbering 85,750, one of the biggest. Early in the show Freddie drops many side comment ad libs. In singing “is this a kind of magic?” he asks, “do you believe it?” In “Under Pressure” he adds “sat on a fence / but it didn’t fucking work”. During the long instrumental improvisations Brian plays the opening melody to The Beatles I Feel Fine and a nice version of Gimme Some Lovin. At the six-minute mark in the guitar solo May plays the haunting melody of Golden Days, a song he had written for Japanese singer Minako Honda. No one in the audience would have recognized it, however, because it wasn’t released until April 1987. Brian introduces Love Of My Life saying that Freddie wrote a magical song. It goes like this. The singer continues with the ad libs, sing “and I love you …. and don’t you forget it” After Is This The World We Created the rest of the band return for the oldies section of the show. Fish, the singer for Marillion, joins the band on stage to add his voice to the fun. Roger Taylor even gives him a big introduction. We love you. What a corny, shitty thing to say, I know, but we love you anyway Freddie says before they start Bohemian Rhapsody. Their eleven year old classic hasn’t dated at all, still sounding creative and powerful on their final tour. During the final part, while Freddie is singing “nothing really matters,” what sounds like a Mellotron can be heard in the mix, lending a progressive rock feel to the piece. The ultra-catchy Hammer To Fall follows complete with pyrotechnic display. May also plays an intriguing guitar solo in Radio Ga Ga. It almost sounds like a slide as if he’s channeling Steve Howe’s work on Relayer. One could argue that Mannheim is the best show from the tour but its a fantastic performance by an enthusiastic band.
Track list:
1. One Vision
2. In The Lap Of The Gods
3. Seven Seas Of Rhy
4. Tear It Up
5. It’s A Kind Of Magic
6. Who Wants To Live Forever
7. Radio Ga-Ga
8. Friends Will Be Friends
9. Is This The World We Created
10. You’re So Square
11. Hello Mary-Lou
12. Tutti Fritti
13. Hammer To Fall