A Day At The Court(Wardour-021)
Earls Court, London, England – June 6th, 1977
Disc 1 (63:13): Procession, Tie Your Mother Down, Ogre Battle, White Queen, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, The Millionaire Waltz, You’re My Best Friend, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Death On Two Legs, Doing Alright, Brighton Rock, ’39
Disc 2 (55:19): You Take My Breath Away, White Man, The Prophet’s Song, Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, Stone Cold Crazy, In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited, Now I’m Here, Liar, Rock n Roll medley (Lucille, Jailhouse Rock, Saturday Night’s Alright, Stupid Cupid), God Save The Queen
Queen’s two shows at Earls Court the summer 1977 were their biggest and (arguably) most important in England up to that point. The band knew it and recorded and filmed them for the possibility for an official live LP and film. Unfortunately the mic problems in “Tie Your Mother Down” and “Ogre Battle” nixed that plan. So what we have is an excellent sounding mono video soundtrack recording.
A high, dull sounding generation first surfaced on a silver title in 1994 on A Night At The Court (TNT 007/8). This was missing “Doin’ Alright” and “Keep Yourself Alive”. The most recent silver release is on The Prophet’s Queen on Gypsy Eye (GE-050/051).
This release has the missing tracks and sounded good but very thin and obviously several generations from the master. In 2002 a new, better version of the video surfaced. This new release on Wardour is from the new videotape and sounds much better, louder and cleaner than the previous releases making this a definitive version.
This is a joyful, ebullient concert and both Freddie and Brian May acknowledge its significance. “Thank you for coming to the first show in London for a long time. This is a right carnival in the front,” Freddie says before an emotional version of “White Queen”. He encourages everyone to sing along to “Somebody To Love” since there are “only four of us on stage”.
And Brian thanks everyone who followed the band from their early days at the Marquee. The medley includes two songs from the latest Day At The Races, an unusual event since they are new tunes. This is also a rare opportunity to hear an entire “Death On Two Legs”. It frequently began the medleys and was cut off after the guitar solo.
The show hits a fever pitch with “You Take My Breath Away” (with Freddie not bothering with the high notes) and the “White Man/Prophet’s Song” medley. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is played, as it would be for the rest of their career, with the band leaving the stage for the opera section. This was the first tour where they did that and not divide the piece throughout the show.
The encores have a long rock and roll medley that includes a rare version of Elton John’s “Saturday’s Alright”. This piece of the tape comes from the June 7th show and not the 6th. Wardour has produced an excellent title. It far surpasses the previous releases and definitely worth having.
