Queen/Sweden 1986 Upgrade

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Magic Tour, which ended up being Queen’s last live tour. How fast time passes… It is still fresh in our memory that last year, our store released the ultimate title “KEBWORTH 1986”, a transcendent audience recording recorded by Mr. Crazy.S on the last day of the tour. This title sealed the last live show of the last live tour, Queen’s final live show, in the best way (John Deacon threw away the bass). And since this year is the 30th anniversary of the Magic Tour, our store will be releasing it this time on the first day of the tour, the Stockholm performance on June 7th. Speaking of the Magic Tour, it is also a time when there are many official video releases such as Wembley Stadium two days in Hungary, but it is also the last live tour during Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. There is no doubt that it is a big factor. What’s more, the fact that it was a large-scale tour around Europe with only stadium-class venues was a big topic at the time, and it was also the result of discussions about recording and filming. Therefore, the reason why this Stockholm performance does not fit in as just the first day of the tour is probably because it is the base of the live activities that have become the final tour. Queen, who had been considering disbanding, ended their doubts with Live Aid and went on a large-scale tour with their new work “A KIND OF MAGIC”. As the official video mentioned earlier proves, the tour was one in which Queen, who had reached the mature stage, performed magnificently…and that was also a beautiful end result. As such an image is strong, the performance content and atmosphere of Stockholm that will be released this time is really interesting! After all, this is the first day of the tour. It is on a different level from the rock-solid performances at Wembley and Knebworth later. It would be a shame if the opening song “One Vision” and other songs were so chaotic that you could tell with just one listen. Moreover, although it is an audience recording recorded here, it is also interesting that the sound image of Roger Taylor’s backing chorus is extremely on at the beginning. Thanks to this, it’s the first day of the tour, and it’s probably due to the tension of being the opening number, and there are a lot of places where the backing chorus gets suspicious because they get distracted by the performance. As someone who has been familiar with Knebworth and the official videos, this is a refreshing sight. On the other hand, “A Kind Of Magic” already shows an outstandingly stable performance, and even though the repertoire is from the same album, you can tell the difference in the members’ enthusiasm. Besides, when it comes to the first day of the tour, Freddie’s voice is of course in great condition. As proof of this, “I Want To Break Free”, in which he sings by himself until the end without having the audience sing along at all, eloquently shows how well he is doing. Since it was a song that had become a standard song with the audience singing before this tour, the appearance of Freddie singing stoically here would be a dignified and rare scene. However, the extremely rare scene that seems to be the first day of the tour is that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was played following this song. One of the aims of the Magic Tour was to expand the Live Aid enthusiasm that the group’s long-standing doubts had suddenly cleared up in the afternoon’s short stage to their own tour. There, playing the short version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the opening had a great effect. So, in Stockholm, when the live performance was about to reach its halfway point, they boldly performed this song. However, unlike Live Aid, which was less than 30 minutes, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable that Queen’s biggest anthem is featured in the normal repertoire position during a long live performance. In the end, this attempt was only made on the first day, and from then on, it was combined with the standard performance in the second half of the live performance. That alone is a very interesting scene, but since it is the first day of the tour, you can’t miss hearing how Freddie sings this masterpiece with a sharp singing voice that is reminiscent of the peak of 1981 and 1982. In that respect, it may be a rare scene. Furthermore, in the acoustic cover corner in the middle of the song, the “Douwa” chorus of “Baby I Don’t Care” was still uneven, and in “Hello Mary Lou”, Brian was not shaken in the middle of the song as he did later. However, you can hear a rare scene unique to the first day of the tour where Freddie sings alone. What’s more, the dynamic and playful performance throughout the entire movie is just so entertaining! There is something deep in emotion when I think about how we were promoted from here to the level of Wembley and Knebworth. And the audience recording used for this release is a remastered version of “source #1” which was previously recorded when the “SWEDISH MAGIC NIGHT” 4CD set was released. An attractive recording with a unique sound image that captures the performance with a hard sound quality similar to outdoors. As a result of remastering it this time, the hum noise in the low range that was noticeable from the middle of the live performance has been wiped out, and you can now enjoy a more natural, yet direct state. This has improved to the point where it is clear when listened to with headphones, and the outline of the performance can be heard more clearly when played through speakers (in addition, the pitch, which was slightly off, has been adjusted). Originally, “SWEDISH MAGIC NIGHT” itself was highly praised by enthusiasts as a low-generation, upper version of the sound source that had been released in the past on “MAGIC IN STOCKHOLM”, with some even saying, “Can’t we just release this in press?” The CD release of is finally coming true. Queen’s final “magic” began here! Live at Rasunda Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden 7th June 1986 TRULY PERFECT SOUND Disc 1 (60:53) 1. One Vision 2. Tie Your Mother Down 3. In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited 4. Seven Seas Of Rhye 5 . Liar 6. Tear It Up 7. A Kind Of Magic 8. Day-O 9. Under Pressure 10. Another One Bites The Dust 11. Who Wants To Live Forever 12. I Want To Break Free 13. Bohemian Rhapsody 14. Impromptu 15. Guitar Solo 16. Now I’m Here Disc 2 (44:55) 1. Love Of My Life 2. Is This The World We Created? 3. You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care) 4. Hello Mary Lou 5. Tutti Frutti 6. Hammer To Fall 7. Crazy Little Thing Called Love 8. Radio Ga Ga 9. We Will Rock You 10. We Are The Champions 11. God Save The Queen