Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl is a DVD/live album by the British rock band Queen released on 25 October 2004 in Europe and on 9 November 2004 in the US. It was recorded live at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire, England, on 5 June 1982 during the Hot Space Tour. A DVD was also released with the complete concert and bonus material, such as band interviews and tour highlights.
In 2005, the album was also released as an LP. In the UK, the DVD made No. 1 and CD, No. 20 in the DVD and CD chart respectively. In the US, neither the DVD nor album charted.
Notes During the concert, lead guitarist Brian May had a few minor problems with his homemade Red Special guitar. During both the fast version of "We Will Rock You" and "Dragon Attack", two of the strings broke and he had to change to his Birch Red Special backup for most of "Action This Day" and for the entire second half of "Dragon Attack" and the entire duration of "Now I'm Here (Reprise)".
Before playing "Love of My Life", May played a snippet of the intro to "Las Palabras de Amor" calling it "a little fiddle around".
During May's guitar solo, the pickup switches of his guitar were switched off and May's guitar solo stopped for 20 seconds (the full 20 seconds is on the DVD, but the album version of the performance contains only 3 seconds). His guitar tech, Brian Zellis, helped May to get his guitar going again by simply turning back on the switches.
Drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon performed impromptu solos during "Dragon Attack" and before "Under Pressure", respectively when May switched guitars during "Dragon Attack" and was getting his guitar fixed following his solo.
During "Fat Bottomed Girls", Freddie Mercury's voice very briefly slipped into an off-key falsetto during the lyric "in this locality" (the original error could be heard on the original BBC TV, Channel 4, MTV, an audience recording, and radio broadcasts of the concert) but the error was fixed for the release of the DVD and CD.
During the first verse of "Fat Bottomed Girls", instead of singing the original line "you made a bad boy out of me", Mercury sang "you made an asshole out of me".
Mercury performed without his trademark bottomless microphone stand for "We Will Rock You (Fast)", "Now I'm Here" and "The Hero" (shown on the Live in Japan bonus footage on DVD). This allowed Mercury to more freely scale and walk along the raised wings on either side of the stage.
Throughout the concert a member of the crowd can be heard using an air horn. The "air horn man" is thanked in the album's liner notes.
Due to censorship laws the Hong Kong and China release of the CD removed "Get Down, Make Love" and "Fat Bottomed Girls".
Track listing
Disc 1
Disc 2
DVD bonus material MK Bowl backstage interview Freddie Mercury interview Brian May and Roger Taylor interviews Songs from concert at Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria on 12 May 1982 "Another One Bites the Dust" "We Will Rock You" "We Are the Champions" "God Save the Queen" Songs from concert at Seibu Lions Stadium, Tokorozawa, Japan on 3 November 1982 "Flash / The Hero" "Now I'm Here" "Impromptu" "Put Out the Fire" "Dragon Attack" "Now I'm Here (Reprise)" "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" Photo gallery (Calling All Girls)
Personnel Queen Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, piano, acoustic rhythm guitar on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" Brian May – harmony and backing vocals, guitars, piano on "Save Me" Roger Taylor – harmony and backing vocals, drums, percussion, co-lead vocals on "Action This Day" (verses) and "Sheer Heart Attack" John Deacon – bass guitar, rhythm guitar on "Staying Power", additional backing vocals on "Somebody to Love" and "Back Chat" Additional musicians Morgan Fisher – keyboards, piano Technical Justin Shirley-Smith – mix producer Kris Fredriksson – Pro Tools HD Reinhold Mack – recording engineer Mick McKenna – second recording engineer Tim Young – mastering Richard Gray – artwork Denis O'Regan – photography
Charts and certifications
Charts
Album Chart (2004)PeakpositionAustrian Top 75 Albums23Belgium (Flanders) 100 Albums60Belgium (Wallonia) 100 Albums80French Top 200 Albums75German Albums Chart10Italian Top 20 Albums15Netherlands Top 100 Albums74Portuguese Top 30 Albums9Scottish Albums22Swiss Top 100 Albums52UK Albums Chart20 Chart (2005)PeakpositionSpanish Top 100 Albums73
DVD Chart (2004)PeakpositionAustralian Top 40 DVDs10Austrian Top 10 Music DVDs1Norwegian Top 10 DVDs4Swedish Top 20 DVDs Search for Queen and click SØk.1 Chart (2005)PeakpositionBelgium (Wallonia) Top 10 Music DVDs1Hungarian Top 20 DVDs5
Certifications
Album
DVD
References
External links Official YouTube videos: "Guitar Solo" (Live at the Bowl), Queen + Paul Rodgers – "Guitar Solo" Queen official website: Discography: On Fire Live At The Bowl (includes no lyrics)