Shake That Thing (Trial-246)
Drammen Sports Hall, Drammen, Norway – April 12th, 1982
Disc 1: Flash’s Theme, The Hero, Tie Your Mother Down, Action This Day, Play The Game, Somebody To Love, Staying Power, Get Down Make Love, Now I’m Here, Dragon Attack, guitar solo, Now I’m Here (reprise), Under Pressure
Disc 2: Love Of My Life, Save Me, Fat Bottomed Girls, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Death On Two Legs piano intro., Bohemian Rhapsody, Liar, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen
The cassette of Queen’s Drammen, Norway is one of the most well known hoarded tapes in collecting circles. For many years only the most well connected were able to hear it, but last year it finally surfaced for all collectors to enjoy. This is one of the better sounding recordings in existence from the Hot Space tour. It is slightly distant and flat with some mic handling noises and occassional conversations close to the taper.
“Get Down Make Love” has a cut forty-four seconds which eliminates most of the first verse, a cut two minutes forty-six seconds into the guitar solo, a cut one minute twenty six seconds into “Save Me” eliminating the second verse (“The slate…” is all that remains), and finally a cut two minutes fifteen seconds in “Another One Bites The Dust” which cuts out the third and final verse of the song. Despite that, this is a very clear and and enjoyable record of the events that night at the Sports Hall.
This has the distinction of being Queen’s only live appearance in Norway when Freddie was alive, and instead of playing in Olso or Bergen they chose Drammen, 35 kilometers west of the capital city. And this is, after shows in Stockholm and Göteborg Sweden, the third concert of the very long Hot Space tour. The concert begins with the taped introduction “Flash’s Theme” before the band come out playing “The Hero.”
“Tie Your Mother Down” is played before Freddie greets the crowd, “hey hey! Let’s do some more.” The first new song of the set is “Action This Day” and appears in every show. “That was a new song called ‘Action This Day.’ This is an old song called ‘Play The Game'” Freddie says and he plays a unique little piano melody during the quiet beginning. “Staying Power” is the second new song of the set and is played so ferociously that Freddie loses his timing in the middle. The “Now I’m Here” medley with “Dragon Attack” and the guitar solo is a holdover from the previous year and works effectively.
”Thank you, it’s great to be here in Norway after all this time, it’s good to see you, feels good” Brian says before “Love Of My Life.” The Norwegians are very enthusiastic while singing the chorus for the first time causing Freddie to quip “Too much too much…now for the next verse.” Before “Bohemian Rhapsody” Freddie plays the piano introduction of “Death On Two Legs” and he repeats the final line of the song “any way the wind blows” after the final gong. During the first two weeks the Queen track “Liar” made sporadic appearances in the set list before disappearing after the April 28th show in Frankfurt.
In Norway it has the unique distinction of serving as the set closer for the only known time. Although Trial are a professional CDR label, their productions values are pretty good with the labels laser printed on the actual discs and quality inserts. The Breakdown label released Live At Norway just before Trial issued Shake That Thing but since Breakdown’s production is generally substandard (paper glued labels and artwork printed only on one side), the Trial is the preferred version.
