The Game Tour

The Game Tour was the eighth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen to support their successful 1980 album The Game. This tour featured the first performances in South America by the group.

Background This tour marked the introduction of a new lighting rig for Queen; the "Fly Swatters", also referred to as the "Bic Razors". This is also the first tour where Freddie Mercury had his moustache grown out. He would often ask the audience what they thought, to a mixed reception, where he would often pledge to keep it. Several songs from the new album were incorporated, such as "Play the Game", "Need Your Loving Tonight", and "Rock It". The latter two of which saw very few performances on this leg of the tour, with Rock It being dropped before the four Inglewood dates, and Need Your Loving Tonight being dropped in the middle of August. Both songs would return to the stage in one form or another. Notably, "Somebody to Love" was only performed rarely early in the tour, being practically absent in the first three legs, but would return as a staple to the set by early March in South America. Early in the North American tour, as suggested by bootleg recordings, Mercury's voice mostly retained his late 1970s vocal tone in July before changing it to a more "macho" and aggressive style in August to match his appearance.

1980

At one of the concerts in Inglewood, Michael Jackson recommended that the band release Another One Bites the Dust as a single, which they did. Believing it not to be single material, the song became a large success for the band, particularly in North America. The Hartford concert in August marks the first known time the song was played live. Dragon Attack was added to the set in Providence later that same month. "You're My Best Friend", a successful single for the band, was dropped from the medley after the last night of the North American leg, at the Madison Square Garden. Some encores of this leg featured Mercury on the shoulders of a Darth Vader cosplayer during the performance of "We Will Rock You".

At the start of the European leg of the tour, the Battle Theme from the Flash Gordon soundtrack was incorporated into the set. "Need Your Loving Tonight" was also reincorporated into the set after a lengthy absence, now coming after "Get Down, Make Love". The concert in Essen featured the first performance of "The Hero" from the Flash Gordon soundtrack, with the second night in Birmingham being the debut of "Flash's Theme".

Due to the murder of John Lennon on the 8th of December, the members of Queen created an arrangement of Lennon's greatest hit, "Imagine", which was played on a handful of dates (in place of "Keep Yourself Alive"), including the night after Lennon's death, and on the final night of the leg. "Need Your Loving Tonight" and "Jailhouse Rock" were also dropped on the 9th.

1981 On the Japanese leg of the tour, Vultan's Theme was added to the setlist on February 13, staying as part of the set until the end of the leg.

Queen was encouraged to play in South America, after discovering that they were extremely popular. In Buenos Aires, Queen drew a crowd of 300,000—the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history . In São Paulo, Brazil, the attendance was 131,000 and 120,000 on two consecutive nights. All three Buenos Aires shows were filmed and broadcast, however, only the second night has its footage completely available. A fragment of both the first and third night's are all that are known to exist. The first São Paulo show was also broadcast and is widely available, however, the second night only circulates via a low quality broadcast, and a poor-quality bootleg.

This was the only tour that Queen played in Venezuela, where they were due to play 5 shows in its capital city, Caracas. However, after their third performance on 27 September, the Venezuelan government declared an 8-day period of National Mourning due to the passing of one of Venezuela's former president. The remaining two concerts were cancelled and all tickets were refunded to more than 50,000 fans. The third night was filmed and was eventually leaked.

Queen were due to play two nights in Monterrey and Guadalajara each, however, due to subpar treatment of the crew by locals during the first night in Monterrey, Queen cancelled the remaining three shows. Two nights in Puebla were quickly set up as replacements, where the band faced unruly crowds that often threw shoes at the band.

Tour dates +List of tour dates with date, city, country, venueDateCityCountryVenueAttendanceGrossNorth America30 June 1980VancouverCanadaPacific Coliseum 17,500 / 17,500 queenconcerts.com1 July 1980SeattleUnited StatesSeattle Center Coliseum 14,098 / 14,098 queenconcerts.com2 July 1980PortlandPortland Memorial Coliseum 12,888 / 12,888 queenconcerts.com5 July 1980San DiegoSan Diego Sports Arena11,500 / 11,500$110,0006 July 1980PhoenixCompton Terrace8,410 / 8,410$77,3518 July 1980InglewoodThe Forum60,800 / 60,800$594,9709 July 198011 July 198012 July 198013 July 1980OaklandOakland Coliseum Arena19,861 / 29,000$179,46614 July 19805 August 1980MemphisMid-South Coliseum6,200 / 11,999$50,6116 August 1980Baton RougeRiverside Centroplex Arena 9,000 / 9,000 queenconcerts.com8 August 1980Oklahoma CityMyriad Convention Center 12,000 / 12,000 queenconcerts.com9 August 1980DallasReunion Arena10,313 / 18,500$90,92510 August 1980HoustonThe Summit10,222 / 17,048$98,64212 August 1980AtlantaOmni Coliseum 16,378 / 16,378 queenconcerts.com13 August 1980CharlotteCharlotte Coliseum 10,500 / 10,500 queenconcerts.com14 August 1980GreensboroGreensboro Coliseum5,200 / 8598$41,97616 August 1980CharlestonCharleston Civic Center5,459 / 7,092$43,26217 August 1980IndianapolisMarket Square Arena20 August 1980HartfordHartford Civic Center9,930 /13,000$91,59022 August 1980PhiladelphiaThe Spectrum14,117 / 18,454$121,76423 August 1980BaltimoreBaltimore Civic Center8,695 / 12,007$73,82724 August 1980PittsburghPittsburgh Civic Arena7,319 / 17,500$64,26026 August 1980ProvidenceProvidence Civic Center 14,000 / 14,000 queenconcerts.com27 August 1980PortlandCumberland County Civic Center 9,500 / 9,500 queenconcerts.com29 August 1980MontrealCanadaMontreal Forum16,403 / 16,403$173,44730 August 1980TorontoCNE Grandstand22,312 / 22,312$227,16610 September 1980MilwaukeeUnited StatesMECCA Arena6,705N/A12 September 1980Kansas CityKemper Arena10,825 / 12,000$100,52913 September 1980OmahaOmaha Civic Auditorium 9,136 / 9,136 queenconcerts.com14 September 1980Saint PaulSt. Paul Civic Center13,900$133,00016 September 1980AmesHilton Coliseum9,215 / 10,372$84,14317 September 1980St. LouisCheckerdome6,667 / 10,000$61,29519 September 1980RosemontRosemont Horizon 14,618 / 14,618 queenconcerts.com20 September 1980DetroitJoe Louis Arena15,559 / 15,559$152,95521 September 1980RichfieldRichfield Coliseum 20,273 / 20,273 queenconcerts.com23 September 1980Glens FallsGlens Falls Civic Center7,500 / 7,500$67,69424 September 1980SyracuseOnondaga County War Memorial 8,000 / 8,000 queenconcerts.com26 September 1980BostonBoston Garden13,000 / 13,000$131,58028 September 1980New York CityMadison Square Garden50,000 / 50,000$500,00029 September 198030 September 1980Europe23 November 1980ZürichSwitzerlandHallenstadion12,000 / 12,000queenconcerts.com 25 November 1980ParisFranceLa Rotonde du Bourget11,000 / 11,000queenconcerts.com26 November 1980CologneWest GermanySporthalle8,000 / 8,000queenconcerts.com27 November 1980LeidenNetherlandsGroenoordhallen11,000 / 11,000queenconcerts.com29 November 1980EssenWest GermanyGrugahalle10,500 / 10,500queenconcerts.com30 November 1980West BerlinDeutschlandhalle11,000 / 11,000queenconcerts.com1 December 1980BremenStadthalle Bremen11,000 / 11,000queenconcerts.com5 December 1980BirminghamEnglandBirmingham International Arena 29,000 / 29,000 queenconcerts.com6 December 19808 December 1980LondonWembley Arena 33,000 / 33,000 queenconcerts.com9 December 198010 December 198012 December 1980BrusselsBelgiumForest National 18,000 / 18,000 queenconcerts.com13 December 198014 December 1980FrankfurtWest GermanyFesthalle Frankfurt14,000 / 14,000 queenconcerts.com16 December 1980StrasbourgFranceHall Rhénus10,000 / 10,000 queenconcerts.com18 December 1980MunichWest GermanyOlympiahalle12,000 / 12,000 queenconcerts.comAsia12 February 1981TokyoJapanNippon Budokan 70,000 / 70,000 queenconcerts.com13 February 198116 February 198117 February 198118 February 1981South America Bites the Dust28 February 1981Buenos AiresArgentinaJosé Amalfitani Stadium63,000 queenconcerts.com1 March 198163,000 queenconcerts.com4 March 1981Mar del PlataEstadio José María Minella30,0006 March 1981RosarioEstadio Gigante de Arroyito41,654 queenconcerts.com8 March 1981Buenos AiresJosé Amalfitani Stadium65,500 queenconcerts.com20 March 1981São PauloBrazilEstádio do Morumbi131,000 queenconcerts.com21 March 1981120,000queenconcerts.comGluttons for Punishment25 September 1981CaracasVenezuelaPoliedro de Caracas 45,000 / 45,000 queenconcerts.com26 September 198127 September 19819 October 1981Monterrey MexicoEstadio Universitario 45,000 / 45,000 queenconcerts.com17 October 1981PueblaEstadio Ignacio Zaragoza 100,000 / 100,000 queenconcerts.com18 October 1981

Cancelled concerts 16 August 1980New York CityBattery Park Open AirCancelled.17 August 1980CincinnatiRiverfront ColiseumCancelled.2 September 1980New HavenVeterans Memorial ColiseumCancelled.5 September 1980LexingtonRupp ArenaCancelled.9 September 1980MadisonDane County ColiseumCancelled.13 March 1981Porto AlegreEstádio Olímpico MonumentalCancelled.27 March 1981Rio de JaneiroMaracanã StadiumRescheduled to October 1981, then cancelled.29 September 1981CaracasPoliedro de CaracasCancelled due to Romulo Betancourt's national mourning period.30 September 1981CaracasPoliedro de CaracasCancelled due to Romulo Betancourt's national mourning period.10 October 1981MonterreyEstadio UniversitarioCancelled.15 October 1981GuadalajaraEstadio JaliscoCancelled.16 October 1981GuadalajaraEstadio JaliscoCancelled.

Personnel Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, piano, guitar ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), tambourine. Brian May – guitar, backing vocals, piano. Roger Taylor – drums, timpani, lead vocals ("I'm in Love With My Car"), backing vocals. John Deacon – bass guitar, additional vocals

Notes

References

External links Queen Concerts Queen Live: 1980–1982