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Post by Wild Wind on Feb 16, 2022 5:22:11 GMT
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Queen was at the peak of its popularity in North America in the early 1980's (since AOBTD). And the band delivered a great performance on both nights.
So I really don't understand the passivity of the audience... Does anybody know what happened ? Is there a specific reason for that lack of enthousiasm ?
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georg
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Post by georg on Feb 16, 2022 13:32:16 GMT
You have to remember that the We Will Rock You film was meant to be toured around the country, so the film was deliberately shot to show more of the band and to mute down the audience. Listen to the live release – or the bootlegs – and you’ll hear that the audience is pretty wild. Even in the occasional audience shot you can see they’re going nuts for them.
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Post by ActionThisDay on Feb 16, 2022 20:32:20 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience:
- Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen
- during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers'
- during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored
- no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores
The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud.
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Post by Leon's Crazy Game on Feb 17, 2022 18:02:40 GMT
I think the filming crew around Saul Swimmer pretty much told the audience to stay calm for whatever dumb reason
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leroybrown
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Post by leroybrown on Feb 17, 2022 20:47:15 GMT
When Freddie tells the crowd they can shake their arses a little bit…
John briefly hits the Under Pressure baseline and Freddie replies to John - “Fuck Off”.
So John was teasing Freddie about feeling under pressure to get the crowd pumping for a live film.
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Post by MisterSandmanAU on Feb 17, 2022 23:54:50 GMT
When Freddie tells the crowd they can shake their arses a little bit… John briefly hits the Under Pressure baseline and Freddie replies to John - “Fuck Off”. So John was teasing Freddie about feeling under pressure to get the crowd pumping for a live film. It was a deliberate teaser, given that it was performed just before KYA and the solos. On the first night, Freddie says a bit more. "David Bowie's not here tonight, he's fucking somebody in London." |
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Post by Wild Wind on Feb 18, 2022 0:18:10 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
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saintjiub
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Post by saintjiub on Feb 18, 2022 0:53:31 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
They speak English in Montreal? Thanks for telling me. |
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Post by Wild Wind on Feb 18, 2022 1:16:35 GMT
I think the filming crew around Saul Swimmer pretty much told the audience to stay calm for whatever dumb reason Hum maybe, it would make sense. But can you force a bunch of people having a good time to stay quiet ? |
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cigar
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Post by cigar on Feb 18, 2022 1:31:02 GMT
The audience from Montreal first night is pretty damn loud.
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Post by Leon's Crazy Game on Feb 18, 2022 3:24:55 GMT
And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
But that was the norm for North American audiences. They never sang along to LOML like others, even after the release of LK. That's probably a reason why it was dropped for the NA Hot Space Tour |
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Post by akirafish on Feb 18, 2022 5:46:49 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
It's because Freddie messed up the line 'you don’t know what you mean to me' in LOML, which was fixed in the official release. So he later said 'You don't know it', and Brian responded 'It's alright'. |
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georg
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Post by georg on Feb 18, 2022 13:29:38 GMT
I seriously mean this: there is nothing wrong with the crowd. I just listened to the audience recording to confirm – because I started to feel crazy, like maybe they just pumped crowd noise onto the official release in 2007 – and the audience is going nuts. Seriously. Montreal was a perfectly rambunctious crowd, on a par with any audience at Queen's live peak. They wouldn't have filmed in Montreal if they didn't think they were going to get the response they wanted.
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Rick
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Post by Rick on Feb 19, 2022 10:08:17 GMT
When Freddie tells the crowd they can shake their arses a little bit… John briefly hits the Under Pressure baseline and Freddie replies to John - “Fuck Off”. So John was teasing Freddie about feeling under pressure to get the crowd pumping for a live film. To me it sounds like Brian doing the UP riff. Still a funny moment though! |
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Post by The Real Wizard on Feb 19, 2022 23:02:04 GMT
You have to remember that the We Will Rock You film was meant to be toured around the country, so the film was deliberately shot to show more of the band and to mute down the audience. Listen to the live release – or the bootlegs – and you’ll hear that the audience is pretty wild. Even in the occasional audience shot you can see they’re going nuts for them. This.
For those who aren't well-versed in the minutiae of multi-track recording:
On 24-track recordings as it was in those days, two tracks were used for separate mics on the audience (in stereo), which can be adjusted in the mix like any of the instruments or vocals. And in the case of the Montreal video, what the director Saul Swimmer was aiming for was a video to tour in movie theatres, so the level of the audience was deliberately brought down so that the theatre audience could be the audience. The idea crashed and burned, but that was the thinking at the time. This same mix was released on VHS and DVD multiple times, which was a thorn in the band's side for ages as they'd signed the rights to the material away (where was their lawyer?) and could only buy it back after Swimmer's death.
Listen to literally any raw soundboard recording of Led Zeppelin from the '70s and the audience will be at an even lower level than this, because the only thing picking them up is the drum and vocal mics - there are no extra overheads placed. But these were stereo tapes just meant to be heard as a reference for the band, not ever intended for release.
But amongst a small subsection of Queen fans who know nothing about multi-track recording (or Canadian/Quebec culture for that matter), a myth propagated that Canadian rock audiences are calm, to the point that they cherry-pick little bits of the Montreal footage to support this completely misguided view - when all they needed to do was watch Rush's Exit...Stage Left video filmed at the same venue a few months earlier.
The audience mics were brought back up to where they should be for the 2007 Queen Rock Montreal release, and the cognitive dissonance of those same Queen fans kicked in as they insisted the crowd noise must've been flown in from another show. Conspiracy people. SMH.
An example of how such things are recorded (tracks 23/24):
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Post by The Real Wizard on Feb 19, 2022 23:03:16 GMT
And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
They speak English in Montreal? Thanks for telling me. Yup, literally everyone in Montreal speaks English. Western Quebec is close enough to Ontario. But once you head in the other direction, it's mostly French.
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Post by Wild Wind on Feb 20, 2022 6:02:26 GMT
You have to remember that the We Will Rock You film was meant to be toured around the country, so the film was deliberately shot to show more of the band and to mute down the audience. Listen to the live release – or the bootlegs – and you’ll hear that the audience is pretty wild. Even in the occasional audience shot you can see they’re going nuts for them. This.
For those who aren't well-versed in the minutiae of multi-track recording:
On 24-track recordings as it was in those days, two tracks were used for separate mics on the audience (in stereo), which can be adjusted in the mix like any of the instruments or vocals. And in the case of the Montreal video, what the director Saul Swimmer was aiming for was a video to tour in movie theatres, so the level of the audience was deliberately brought down so that the theatre audience could be the audience. The idea crashed and burned, but that was the thinking at the time. This same mix was released on VHS and DVD multiple times, which was a thorn in the band's side for ages as they'd signed the rights to the material away (where was their lawyer?) and could only buy it back after Swimmer's death.
Listen to literally any raw soundboard recording of Led Zeppelin from the '70s and the audience will be at an even lower level than this, because the only thing picking them up is the drum and vocal mics - there are no extra overheads placed. But these were stereo tapes just meant to be heard as a reference for the band, not ever intended for release.
But amongst a small subsection of Queen fans who know nothing about multi-track recording (or Canadian/Quebec culture for that matter), a myth propagated that Canadian rock audiences are calm, to the point that they cherry-pick little bits of the Montreal footage to support this completely misguided view - when all they needed to do was watch Rush's Exit...Stage Left video filmed at the same venue a few months earlier.
The audience mics were brought back up to where they should be for the 2007 Queen Rock Montreal release, and the cognitive dissonance of those same Queen fans kicked in as they insisted the crowd noise must've been flown in from another show. Conspiracy people. SMH.
An example of how such things are recorded (tracks 23/24):
Thank you for this detailed answer and for sharing your knowledge. So the crowd was muted down. But, as ActionThisDay said, Freddie little remarks seem to indicate that they were not the best audience Queen ever had, right ?
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littlequeenie97
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Post by littlequeenie97 on Feb 20, 2022 15:50:15 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. I think the first 2 are stuff Freddie said usually, he called the crowd "fuckers" quite a lot, specially in the 80s, the "move your asses a little" is just Freddie telling the crowd they can move around if they want. |
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Post by The Real Wizard on Feb 20, 2022 19:16:20 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. I think the first 2 are stuff Freddie said usually, he called the crowd "fuckers" quite a lot, specially in the 80s, the "move your asses a little" is just Freddie telling the crowd they can move around if they want. Exactly. People have just been seeing something that isn't there.
Listen to the audience tape - they're rowdy as anyone.
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fcb101
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Post by fcb101 on Feb 21, 2022 18:59:34 GMT
And they expected the audience to sing during LOML but North American audiences just didn't do that.
Check out the awesome San Diego 80 tape that came out last year. The audience is on fire throughout the night; they're really loud and into it. And still Freddie had to do all the work during LOML :-)
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manymilesaway
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Post by manymilesaway on Feb 21, 2022 20:20:18 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
In all fairness, I don't think we have a single North American tape where the audience sang along to Love Of My Life. They always had trouble getting North American audiences to sing along, with Freddie and Briam even adding awkward pauses on the Jazz tour in hopes that the audience would take it- which they never do. So much so that they dropped Love Of My Life from the set of the NA Hot Space tour, since they gave up on having Americans sing along. |
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georg
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Post by georg on Feb 21, 2022 21:25:28 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. I think the first 2 are stuff Freddie said usually, he called the crowd "fuckers" quite a lot, specially in the 80s, the "move your asses a little" is just Freddie telling the crowd they can move around if they want. I also have a theory: Freddie may have been snapping at the band. We know he was in a pretty miserable mood during the filming of the shows, and he seems to be wanting the band to be moving at a faster clip than they are, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he snapped because they’re dragging a bit. That’s probably not the case, but it’s something that’s been floating around my mind the past few days. |
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emrabt
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Post by emrabt on Feb 21, 2022 22:00:05 GMT
Likewise, he could be snapping at the cameramen, "move it you fuckers".
Brian and Roger say he was annoyed in the commentary, they also spend time complaining the footage focuses on the wrong band members.
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georg
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Post by georg on Feb 22, 2022 0:15:59 GMT
Likewise, he could be snapping at the cameramen, "move it you fuckers". Brian and Roger say he was annoyed in the commentary, they also spend time complaining the footage focuses on the wrong band members. Another good point! |
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Post by MisterSandmanAU on Feb 27, 2022 0:02:59 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers' - during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. And they don't sing along to Love of my life, even though they are supposed to be english native speakers! Freddie : "You don't know it" Brian : "It's alright..."
North American audiences almost NEVER sung to Love of My Life, even after Live Killers. |
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manymilesaway
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Post by manymilesaway on Mar 13, 2022 3:38:57 GMT
Likewise, he could be snapping at the cameramen, "move it you fuckers". Brian and Roger say he was annoyed in the commentary, they also spend time complaining the footage focuses on the wrong band members. According to Brian, he was addressing the audience. |
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Post by munichqueenfan on Mar 20, 2023 23:49:30 GMT
Just watched the bluray of this concert a few days ago. Compared to other concerts Freddie seems to be in a bad mood, making almost no fun with the audience. The week before I watched Hammersmith '79 and despite the sometimes quiet audience ("my God it's quiet in here") he has lots of fun. His performance in Montreal of course is very good, but it feels to me like he is a professional doing his job but doesn't enjoy it that much compared to other gigs.
By the way, when Brian is playing his solo and walks closer to the audience you can clearly see a lot of people freaking out and cheering on him.
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Mar 21, 2023 0:09:13 GMT
Just watched the bluray of this concert a few days ago. Compared to other concerts Freddie seems to be in a bad mood, making almost no fun with the audience. The week before I watched Hammersmith '79 and despite the sometimes quiet audience ("my God it's quiet in here") he has lots of fun. His performance in Montreal of course is very good, but it feels to me like he is a professional doing his job but doesn't enjoy it that much compared to other gigs. By the way, when Brian is playing his solo and walks closer to the audience you can clearly see a lot of people freaking out and cheering on him. The story goes that the whole band were on edge, due to a falling out with Saul Swimmer over the filming. I can't vouch for the accuracy or authenticity of this article, but it may be of interest: twistedsifter.com/2019/03/the-best-ever-live-footage-of-queen-montreal-1981-remastered/ |
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Post by bicyclerace on Mar 21, 2023 1:49:32 GMT
Wild Wind has a point, they certainly didn't seem to be the most co-operative audience: - Freddie has to tell them to 'move your asses a little' before Killer Queen - during Jailhouse Rock Freddie again pleads with the audience: 'move it you f**kers'- during Keep Yourself Alive most of the audience can be seen sitting down and looking bored - no-one crowds round the front of the stage until the encores The thing is Montreal was actually selected for filming as the audience at the 1980 show was so loud. I don't know, but in a lot of the Queen shows I've listened to, I feel like Freddie always expected more of a crowd reaction to "Jailhouse Rock" that there actually was. |
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Post by munichqueenfan on Mar 24, 2023 17:33:01 GMT
Just watched the concert again. Clearly a very energetic performance of the band! The reactions of the audience show a wide range: some fans are really freaking out (especially at Brians solo or at the encores), but even after WATC I spotted a guy just standing close to the stage showing no cheering, no smile. It also took him a while to clap his hands in an unenthusiastic way. There was also a girl just standing there after another song with closed mouth just holding a flower. Were they shocked by Freddies mustache? :-D Haven't seen this stony-faced behaviour in other Queen concerts.
Anyhow, the overall noise of the crowd is OK. But they definetly could have moved closer to the stage much earlier. And I blame them for missing the "I gotta be cool, relax" part - the band was clearly expecting it from the crowd and had to do it on their own a few bars later.
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