City: London, UK
Venue: New London Theatre
Date: October 6, 1977
After doing the video shoot for We Are The Champions with members of the fan club in the audience, the band played an unexpected set afterward. The event was MC'd by Bob Harris, who announces to the fans before the video shoot that the band will play a special set just for them after a few takes of Champions. The fans are excited beyond belief by this proclamation, as it is a complete surprise to them. Between takes, Bob says there are extra cameras present to film a Queen documentary to be seen around Christmas or in the new year, but the documentary would never make it past the final editing stage.
1977 was a year of transition for Queen, and this unique live set gives a very telling glimpse of where the band are heading.
Setlist: -
01. Bob Harris' Speech - First Listen To We Are The Champions [Cut]
02. Queen Introduction - We Are The Champions Video Shoot 1
03. We Are The Champions Video Shoot 2
04. Speech Before We Are The Champions Video Shoot 3[Cut]- We Are The Champions Video Shoot 4
05. Tie Your Mother Down
06. Keep Yourself Alive
07. Somebody To Love
08. White Man
09. The Prophet's Song
10. Liar
11. Bohemian Rhapsody (Verses)
12. Now I'm Here
13. Jailhouse Rock
14. See What A Fool I've Been
Sitting at the piano before Somebody To Love, Freddie says, "I must say, this is more interesting than doing Earls Court, I think," much to the delight of the few hundred on hand (most of whom probably attended the Earls Court shows!). Brian messes up the queue back into the song after Freddie's vocal solo and remarks afterwards that it was "A little rusty there, I think." Freddie then says, "It's right into the microphone," perhaps indicating that shouldn't have been said out loud. He quickly changes the subject and asks what the audience would like to hear next. Amongst the shouts are Liar, Great King Rat, Stone Cold Crazy, even the non-album track Hangman - and Freddie saying with a chuckle, "We've done We Are The Champions!"
The loose and experimental version of White Man / The Prophet's Song sounds much more like the middle section of (the not-yet-released) Get Down Make Love, because it's Brian's guitar that has the harmonization effects rather than Freddie's voice. This is the first time Brian would use the EBow on stage.
After a superb version of Liar, the band play the first half of Bohemian Rhapsody. After May's guitar solo, he launches right into Now I'm Here since backing tapes aren't being used at this show. This is notably the first time the high guitar parts aren't heard after "I'm just a" on playback (until now the sample from the album was triggered by the front of house sound engineer).
Overall the band are in fine form, and they are clearly happy to give the fan club members a great set. Also worth noting is that this is undoubtedly the greatest live version of See What A Fool I've Been. Freddie sings it passionately and aggressively, a complete 180 from the campy delivery of the studio version. His voice is much more accomplished, having blossomed greatly in the time since they'd regularly played the song. This would turn out to be the final performance of the Seven Seas Of Rhye B-side.
In a radio interview done in Argentina in 1981, Roger Taylor reflected that Freddie had "improved by leaps and bounds," calling the early years of Queen "an incredible transition." This show reveals that transformation taking place in real time.
The first pic is the official invitation for fan club members to attend the event. Pics 1 through 5 were taken by Paul Holmes, who also scanned the Winter '77 fan club magazine pic. Pics 6 through 12 were taken by David King, and pic 13 was taken by Gillian Parry.
For years it has been rumoured that video footage of the live set exists, but it almost certainly wasn't filmed. The black and white footage of Jailhouse Rock in the American Dream documentary in the News Of The World box set is from Houston.
