The first time Queen conquered America

On June 30, 1980 i Queen released their eighth studio album, “The game”. This was the first album of the English band to reach the first position of the US sales chart. The ten songs present in the tracklist are signed by all four members of the group: three by the singer Freddie Mercurythree from the guitarist Brian May and two each from the bassist John Deacon and the drummer Roger Taylor. To commemorate the anniversary of the album’s publication we propose the review of “Queen Rock Montreal”a live album recorded from the two concerts that closed the 1981 tour in support of “The Game”.

“Queen Rock Montreal” has been released, a documentary of the two concerts that the British band held on November 24 and 25, 1981 at the Montreal Forum, Canada. The two live performances were immortalized on film and presented with the title “We will rock you” at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1983. The film was released on videocassette in North America the following year, in 1984, then, in 2007, a restored and remastered version was released called “Queen Rock Montreal”. In 2007, the concert was also released as a double album and on DVD, now the new release includes the formats double CD Limited Edition, double Bluray and triple LP. The Bluray format also includes the 21 minutes of Queen’s performance at Live Aid, for the first time in high definition and with new audio mixes.

The two concerts in the Canadian city of the historic group composed of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor closed the tour in support of the album “The Game”, which had been released the previous year in June 1980, when the publication of the following “Hot Space”, the tenth studio album by Queen which saw the light in May 1982, was practically upon us. The setlist of those Canadian concerts, in addition to including all the great successes of the English group of the Seventies, presents for the first time live the single “Under pressure”, released in October 1981 and recorded with the participation of David Bowie. The song will then be included in the tracklist of “Hot Space”.

Introducing the new release, drummer Roger Taylor looked back on those years: “It’s fascinating to realise now how free we were in 1981. It’s like being on stage with just the band because the cameras are so high quality for the time. I’ve never seen anything that makes you feel so involved in the show.” Adding to these words was guitarist Brian May’s thoughts on Freddie Mercury: “I can’t think of any other record of our shows where you’re so intimately in touch with Freddie, with his anger, his insecurity, his knowledge that he could move people straight to the back of the auditorium. For me, that’s very emotional.”

Words, those of the two members who keep Queen alive, which in part are certainly customary and dictated by sacrosanct marketing needs but which, after more than 40 years, conceal the bittersweet nostalgia for the good old days gone by. We are left with the great pleasure and emotion of listening to Queen in concert once again in the prime of their activity and giving in to the emotion of hearing Freddie Mercury open the concert by saying: “Hello Montreal… it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. Do you want to go crazy?”.