Review
by Collectors
music reviews
In the final week of the Hot Space tour of Europe Queen played
two shows in Vienna on May 12th and May 13th. Staying Power And
Glory contains the first evening in very good sound quality.
The taper was relatively close to the stage and, although there is some
echo and slight distortion, produced a very enjoyable recording.
There are small cuts between some of the songs including one at the
beginning of the “Mustapha” introduction before “Crazy Little Thing
Called Love.”
An alternate audience tape also circulates.
It’s fair to good sounding but is missing the encores and is uncut
at “Mustapha.” The encores “Another One Bites The Dust,”
“We Will Rock You,” “We Are The Champions” and “God Save
The Queen” were broadcast on television and are included as bonus
footage on Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl.
After the Flash Gordon introduction the set starts
with the fast “We Will Rock You” and after the initial greetings,
salutations and call for actions they play “Action This Day.”
After “Play The Game” Freddie tells them: “It’s
really nice to be back in Vienna after not being here for such a long
time. We’re gonna do some new songs tonight from our album Hot
Space and we’d like everybody to get into it…do whatever you’d
like.” This marks the return of “Staying Power” after being
dropped for a couple of days.
“Now I’m Here” was moved from being the closer to
earlier in the set the previous week. “Back Chat,” which had
its debut the previous week in place of “Staying Power,” is moved
back to the latter half of the show. Gypsy Eye attribute this to the
following evening but it is where it’s from this night.
The first verse of “Get Down Make Love” and the
orgasmic middle serve as a prelude to May’s long guitar solo which
includes a rare reference to “I Go Crazy,” the song that would be
recorded and released as the b-side to “Radio Ga Ga” in 1984.
Freddie sings the opening of “Mustapha” before
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by audience request. And during
the final song “Bohemian Rhapsody” May breaks a string during the
guitar solo before the operatic section rendering it out of tune.
“Tie Your Mother Down” is played in the first encore set and, as
Freddie is saying good night to the audience scats along to “God Save
The Queen,” surly a rare occurrence. Overall Staying Power And
Glory is not a bad release by Gypsy Eye. Utilizing the second
tape source to fill in the cuts to present the entire show would certainly
have improved this, but this is still one of the best sounding tapes from
the European Hot Space tour worth having
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