Aspect Ratio : 16:9 – 1.78:1
Running time : 2 hours and 18 minutes
Queen Rock Montreal Track Listing
1. Intro
2. We Will Rock You (Fast)
3. Let me Entertain You
4. Play The Game
5. Somebody to Love
6. Killer Queen
7. I’m in Love with my Car
8. Get Down, Make Love
9. Save Me
10. Now I’m Here
11. Dragon Attack
12. Now I’m Here (Reprise)
13. Love of My Life
14. Under Pressure
15. Keep Yourself Alive
16. Drum and Tympani Solo
17. Guitar Solo
18. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
19. Jailhouse Rock
20. Bohemian Rhapsody
21. Tie Your Mother Down
22. Another One Bites The Dust
23. Sheer Heart Attack
24. We Will Rock You
25. We Are The Champions
26. God Save The Queen
Queen Rock Montreal
Queen Rock Montreal was released on 29th October 2007 on double CD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Triple Vinyl
Queen have always been a fantastic live act with concerts like the famous Night at the Odeon or the amazing Queen Live at the Rainbow gig of 1974. As Queen added more commercial tracks like Crazy Little thing Called Love and Save Me they became very popular in the USA and Canada. Then in 1981, as Under Pressure was topping the charts in the UK, Queen flew to Montreal from very successful tour dates in Japan, to film these 2 nights in November ’81.
This concert was to be the first Queen concert to be filmed on 35mm film (which gives a special character to light that digital filming can sometimes lose). Combined with the greatest frontman of all time in Freddie Mercury, Queen get it all over two nights. The film was cut taking the best of the two nights concerts – the band had to wear the same outfits as a result. (Note, they were not happy about the director and the way this was setup but they did it anyway). The crowd/audience have sometimes been criticised for being too quiet or not animated enough and perhaps they were’t really a Queen crowd as the concert was arranged especially for the filming event.
The Queen Rock Montreal video and picture has been digitally restored from the original film and the sound has been newly mixed and mastered for DTS Surround Sound and PCM Stereo from the original multitrack tapes. Combined with the amazing High Definition quality video footage, Queen concerts have never looked or sounded so good. The Queen Rock Montreal DVD also contains the first public performance of the Queen and David Bowie hit ‘Under Pressure’ from the album Hot Space.
Included in the Queen Rock Montreal DVD is full footage of Queen’s performance at Live Aid as well as never before seen interviews and rehearsal footage.
This concert was released before in the un-restored footage, and you may remember this as a video title ‘We Will Rock You‘ which was released on VHS and was shown on TV in the 1990’s.
Queen Rock Montreal remains one of my favourite Queen concerts for tracks like Save Me, Play the Game, Somebody to Love and Dragon Attack. If you like this video or concert I would recommend ‘Queen Live at the Bowl‘ another spectacular concert which was filmed the year after this one, in 1982.
Background behind Queen in Montreal ’81
On these two days on 24/25 November 1981 Queen performed at the Forum, Montreal, Canada. These two nights were filmed with the goal of properly documenting their live show. Brian May has said in the past that he wasn’t happy with the sound quality on these releases, The first such release was a VHS in 82 a 90 minute compilation of most of the songs performed on both nights – this was released as We Will Rock You. DVDs of the concert were also released in 1997 and 2001.
Queen purchased the rights to this material in early 2007, and the resulting CD/DVD release was ultimately called “Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid,” which included a second disc containing their famed 85 concert. A couple weeks before that release, the Montreal film was shown for one night only in theaters worldwide. The audio quality on that release is probably THE best recording of Queen live.
One review of that release said as follows;”They were close to the peak of their powers as world-conquering stadium rockers, touring the same set across the globe, perfecting it so it could play in any territory, as if it was rock & roll Esperanto. That may mean that this isn’t as raw or visceral as various live recordings from the ’70s, but it is deliberately theatrical and often majestic. When Queen is thought of as a ridiculous, over-sized arena monster, this is the kind of sound people have in mind, and it’s still grandly entertaining decades later.“