The 5/11/1978 String Break (Analysis)
Jun 27, 2021 13:02:57 GMT
deathtoming, logexpTommy, and 14 more like this
Post by peace on Jun 27, 2021 13:02:57 GMT
Hello everyone,
In this post I would like to document me, and a user by the name of Kikushi’s findings while we were trying to identify a string-break from Brian, that happened during the first Wembley Arena show in 1978 on May 11.
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The reason this was likely to be the first show, was because first of all, other pictures showed it couldn’t be either of the Stafford ’78 nights because of the suspenders Freddie wore, or the final (and third) Wembley night. There were no pictures that would be able to identify this as being the second night either. For where in the set it happened, it was very unlikely to be during at least Jailhouse Rock, as Brian wears a different outfit to the one seen above in both pictures.
For those who don’t know, Brian comes back on stage during the rock section in Bohemian Rhapsody wearing this outfit and wears it until the end of the main set. So that means there was no way the picture was during any of the encores (or Tie Your Mother Down). It’d have to be before Bohemian Rhapsody.
Kikushi wasn’t as convinced of this, as it really seems in the picture like he’s playing the entire chord, which he wouldn’t need to do for You’re My Best Friend.
We then started checking out more songs from the medley to identify the second picture; I asked if it could be Death On Two Legs, which we didn’t seem to find any evidence for.
I was still unsure, as I couldn’t think of a single moment where he’d need to fret that high for an actual chord. It couldn’t be The Millionaire Waltz either, as it is in Bb for the rock section, not in B. I asked if it could be Now I’m Here, which would make sense, somewhat, as the jams are in B (the chord progression for the solo is B to E), but unless he broke a string twice during the show, the songs are way too far away from each other to make sense. If it was during Now I’m Here, the other picture couldn’t be during The Millionaire Waltz.
We asked another user—Dylan—for help, who said that in the second picture (above), it looked like Brian was only using the bridge pickup, and that both bridge switches were down. He didn’t know of any songs where he would use that configuration, as it gives a sort of “thin” sound.
You can see how the hand position is very similar to the picture.
This made us pretty confident in the fact that it was during The Millionaire Waltz, which meant that we had narrowed down the songs the second picture could be from, even more.
We then thought of I’m In Love With My Car, which was out of the question, as Brian doesn’t play that high at all during the part of the song with a B chord (something else we didn’t think of at the time, was the fact that Roger sings during that part, and you can’t see Roger at the mic during the picture).
If the second picture was during Spread Your Wings, that means the first picture would also have to be Spread Your Wings. But that wouldn’t make much sense, really. Why would Brian have the spotlight on him during that song, and when? It was also way harder to check, as it wasn’t played at Houston, so we couldn’t check the footage there.
The pickup configuration was also, according to Dylan, a little too harsh for the song, but he could’ve just lowered the volume knob.
In fact, it kind of sounds like he’s playing a “fuller” chord, than just that interval of F# and D.
So, to finally sum up what we believe to have happened during the show:
He breaks a string after the guitar lick/run before the rock section in The Millionaire Waltz, while doing a trill. He plays it off rather well, but you can still hear it a tiny bit, as you can hear a note going slightly down in pitch. This is him going out of tune, because of the string break. He was able to save it rather quickly, as he was already ready to adjust his volume, because he was on a part where he would have to lower his volume. So, he quickly turned down the volume completely, so that it wouldn’t be audible. It is still way more difficult to hear, because of the quality of the tape, which makes a difference.
Conversation moving to the Queen photos channel (#queen-photos): discord.com/channels/401116817466064898/481548443706458112/843579902161977405
In this post I would like to document me, and a user by the name of Kikushi’s findings while we were trying to identify a string-break from Brian, that happened during the first Wembley Arena show in 1978 on May 11.
First, a little bit of backstory to the situation:
We were chatting on the Queen discord server, talking about the first Wembley Arena show, as he, Kikushi, was listening through it. It’s known that Brian broke a string during this show, though strangely enough, neither of us could recall hearing it on the recording, and I cannot recall ever hearing people talk about it before, nor can I find mentions of it on the Discord server. This made us interested, and we decided to dig deeper. This is a breakdown of the conversation, and what started as a simple analysis of the Wembley Arena string-break, that went completely went off the rails.
So yes, Kikushi was intrigued by this, and decided to look into it. He stumbled upon photos by photographer Gus Stewart of the show on gettyimages, labelled as being from the first night:
(To make it easier to understand, this picture I’ll be referring to the picture above as the “first picture” throughout.)
(This one will be referred to as the “second picture”)
The reason this was likely to be the first show, was because first of all, other pictures showed it couldn’t be either of the Stafford ’78 nights because of the suspenders Freddie wore, or the final (and third) Wembley night. There were no pictures that would be able to identify this as being the second night either. For where in the set it happened, it was very unlikely to be during at least Jailhouse Rock, as Brian wears a different outfit to the one seen above in both pictures.
Now, looking back at it, there was a lot more to point out, which we didn’t realize at first. We’ll get to that, later on. As we move on, we slowly found more and more evidence, but for the sake of making this more exciting to read, I’ll wait with pointing out the extra things until we actually get to them. Chronologically, if you will. See this as a sort of… journal, in a way? Anyway.
Because we’re missing quite a lot of songs from the second night, and because there is no audible string break on the first night, I assumed that it must be the second night. It would make a lot of sense after all, as from personal experience, the string breaks I had heard happen were always quite obvious (e.g., the Houston string-break from the same tour, in late 1977). This wasn’t a very “educated” guess, but it did seem logical to assume at first.
Then Kikushi pointed out that Brian could be playing a Bminor7 chord in the second image. I recognized the shape that he was playing and thought it might be the We Will Rock you solo. This would also fit, because of the pinky finger being on an exact fret which he plays at one point in the solo, right after he’s played that exact chord shape. This could be him getting ready to play that note. I thought that maybe there was an accident backstage or at the end of the main set before they went on for the first encore, and therefore he switched to the backup for it. I also thought that it would add up, as Tie Your Mother Down is missing from the second night’s recording. This seemed to be the most plausible theory, and we both pretty quickly agreed that it was probably the case.
But what about that the gap between Tie Your Mother Down and the first encore? That was way too long for it to make sense that he had to switch to the spare coming back onstage. Why not just change the strings before coming back on again?
We saw this picture (of the first show, 5/11) and noticed that this looked to be the actual Red Special in Brian's hands. Not only that, but his outfit was completely different. We thought that this might be during God Save the Queen, after Jailhouse Rock, which would mean that he switched outfit for the second encore.
I decided to ditch the theory of the string break happening during Tie Your Mother Down, and instead picked up the idea that the Red Special could’ve taken a hit backstage and therefore lost a string (or even multiple, which would mean it’d take longer to change the strings).Then Kikushi showed these pictures of Houston:
During We Will Rock You.
During Sheer Heart Attack / Jailhouse Rock.
Because of the outfits being completely different, this image of Brian couldn’t be during We Will Rock You:
Then he sent this:
Kikushi then brought up that this picture could be during The Millionaire Waltz, specifically during Brian’s solo:
This is because of the spotlight being on Brian, and nothing on Roger.
You can see this during the Houston show, where the lights go out and there’s only spotlights on Freddie and Brian:I then theorized that the second picture (see above) could be during You’re My Best Friend, again, during his solo in the song. It would be during the final moment in it, where he goes up and plays an interval shaped (kind of) like a chord, right before the final interval he plays to finish the solo. You can see it somewhat here:
Kikushi wasn’t as convinced of this, as it really seems in the picture like he’s playing the entire chord, which he wouldn’t need to do for You’re My Best Friend.
We then started checking out more songs from the medley to identify the second picture; I asked if it could be Death On Two Legs, which we didn’t seem to find any evidence for.
I was still unsure, as I couldn’t think of a single moment where he’d need to fret that high for an actual chord. It couldn’t be The Millionaire Waltz either, as it is in Bb for the rock section, not in B. I asked if it could be Now I’m Here, which would make sense, somewhat, as the jams are in B (the chord progression for the solo is B to E), but unless he broke a string twice during the show, the songs are way too far away from each other to make sense. If it was during Now I’m Here, the other picture couldn’t be during The Millionaire Waltz.
We then ruled out Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, which does have a B chord, but during that part, he doesn’t play high on the fretboard (also, it’s a Major, and in the picture, it has the notes of a B minor chord, which I didn’t think of at the time, but I thought I’d point it out now nonetheless).
Kikushi asked if it was during It’s Late, which I wasn’t too sure about, and that theory was kind of just completely left behind, as we decided to try and figure out the pickup configuration Brian was using in the pictures.
We asked another user—Dylan—for help, who said that in the second picture (above), it looked like Brian was only using the bridge pickup, and that both bridge switches were down. He didn’t know of any songs where he would use that configuration, as it gives a sort of “thin” sound.
It also obviously wasn’t his solo spot (after White Man and Freddie’s vocal improv), as you can see Roger in the picture.
Kikushi then pointed this out, which gave even more proof that the first picture was during The Millionaire Waltz:
You can see how the hand position is very similar to the picture.
This made us pretty confident in the fact that it was during The Millionaire Waltz, which meant that we had narrowed down the songs the second picture could be from, even more.
We then thought of I’m In Love With My Car, which was out of the question, as Brian doesn’t play that high at all during the part of the song with a B chord (something else we didn’t think of at the time, was the fact that Roger sings during that part, and you can’t see Roger at the mic during the picture).
Killer Queen was a bit more likely, as the pickup configuration would make sense for the song. The thing is though, that Brian spends most of the song next to the microphone, and during the solo he doesn’t play that shape, so it was also out of the question. It couldn’t be Brighton Rock and Spread Your Wings, but I decided to bring it up anyway, because they both have B chords in them, but it didn’t seem to be the case. That would mean the first picture wasn’t The Millionaire Waltz, which was our best bet so far.
It felt like all hope was lost, and Kikushi said he was logging off, when a user by the name of Darren came in a few minutes later, and confirmed to us that the pictures were indeed taken during the first night, as that was the night Gus Stewart took pictures of them.
They then posted this picture, which was during the 5/11 encore:
This looked to be during We Will Rock You, which confirmed our thoughts.
It had to be during the first night, it had to be during the main set, and it was very likely during the medley.
We then wondered if he could’ve broken the string during the Get Down, Make Love noise section, which would make sense, as it comes before The Millionaire Waltz.
I was still wondering about Spread Your Wings, so we decided to pick it apart.If the second picture was during Spread Your Wings, that means the first picture would also have to be Spread Your Wings. But that wouldn’t make much sense, really. Why would Brian have the spotlight on him during that song, and when? It was also way harder to check, as it wasn’t played at Houston, so we couldn’t check the footage there.
The pickup configuration was also, according to Dylan, a little too harsh for the song, but he could’ve just lowered the volume knob.
I was looking through pictures of the first night on gettyimages, when I found this:
At first glance, I thought this image of the show was him with the spare John Birch replica. Now, this wasn’t the case, as the knobs weren’t the same as on the spare. Kieran—another user on the server—was quick to point this out:
I then realized the fact that there was a spotlight on Brian in that picture, and that he was holding the actual Red Special. It was already unlikely, but this meant we could narrow it down completely, even more. It had to be during, or before The Millionaire Waltz. I listened to the performance of the song at the show, and I noticed one weird moment:
Right here, you can sort of hear the note he’s holding sliding down in pitch slightly before it stops completely. Because of the quality, it is way harder to hear, but I definitely noticed it when I listened in more detail. It’s possible that during the trill he was doing at the end, that the string broke.
I decided to revive the theory of the second picture being You’re My Best Friend and decided to look at covers of the song on guitar. I stumbled across this one, where I noticed an oddly familiar shape:
In this, the guitarist (credit to マサ/masa) is playing an F# on the D string, and a D on the B string. This lines up with the notes exactly that he’s fretting in the picture, although he seems to be fretting more notes than those two. But this can be explained.
The reason for it, is because he was actually muting the strings, not playing them. The E and A with his index finger and muting the high E with his pinky.
It seems like he was actually playing the notes of a D major, and not a B minor as we had previously thought. He didn’t even have to be muting the A string, as it would still fit in.In fact, it kind of sounds like he’s playing a “fuller” chord, than just that interval of F# and D.
You can see it here:
My theory is that he didn’t want to play it with as much “precision”, as it’s a bit of a tricky part, so he decided to play it like a “normal chord”, which it does somewhat sound like on the recording (although it’s hard to tell). It doesn’t sound like he’s playing two notes right after each other. So if he wanted to do that, he’d have to mute the other strings, as hitting them while striking a chord would make them ring out, which you obviously don’t want (as they would clash with the other notes).
Therefore, I think Brian was muting the high E with his pinky, as having to do it with his index finger would be unnecessarily difficult for him to do, for a part of the solo that goes by within a second or so.So, to finally sum up what we believe to have happened during the show:
He breaks a string after the guitar lick/run before the rock section in The Millionaire Waltz, while doing a trill. He plays it off rather well, but you can still hear it a tiny bit, as you can hear a note going slightly down in pitch. This is him going out of tune, because of the string break. He was able to save it rather quickly, as he was already ready to adjust his volume, because he was on a part where he would have to lower his volume. So, he quickly turned down the volume completely, so that it wouldn’t be audible. It is still way more difficult to hear, because of the quality of the tape, which makes a difference.
This photo is taken during the end of the guitar solo in The Millionaire Waltz.
And this one is taken during the end of Brian’s solo in You’re My Best Friend.
We don’t know where else he could’ve broken a string. He keeps going on the entire Get Down, Make Love instrumental section, and if he broke a string on those previous songs, there was plenty of space for him to switch back before The Millionaire Waltz and You’re My Best Friend.
So yeah, that’s it. This took us about 5 hours in total; we started at 22:00 CEST and ended at 03:00.
If you would like to read the conversation in its entirety, I have included the message links here:First mention of it in the Queen live channel (#queen-live-discussion): discord.com/channels/401116817466064898/509477952698974218/843481795505029131
Kikushi asking if I remember a string break, again in the Queen live channel: discord.com/channels/401116817466064898/509477952698974218/843483554591014944Conversation moving to the Queen photos channel (#queen-photos): discord.com/channels/401116817466064898/481548443706458112/843579902161977405
Lastly, I want to thank everyone that was involved with this and was willing to help us figure it out. It was tons of fun, and even if it might not have been some enormous discovery, it was still cool. If you have anything to say about this, please do. Any corrections, any other theories, anything.
Cheers!
