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Crazy Tour

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Crazy Tour
Local tour by Queen
Promotional poster for the tour's London concerts
LocationEurope
Associated albumLive Killers
Start date22 November 1979
End date26 December 1979
Legs1
No. of shows20
Queen concert chronology

Crazy Tour was the seventh concert tour by the British rock band Queen during November and December 1979.

Background

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After the release of the single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", the band decided to change the concert format they do in the previous tours, as a result, they revisited smaller venues[1] and adopted a new intro tape, consisting of a droning synthesizer leading into the thunder and lightning heard at the end of Dead On Time, from the previous tour.[2] Initially scheduled to end on 22 December after the concert at the Alexandra Palace, the last concert of this tour at the Hammersmith Odeon, was also the first concert of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea.[3] A bootleg recording of this concert exists as the 2-CD set Crazy Tour of London.[4]

Due to the band choosing to visit many smaller venues during this tour,[5] their lighting rig was scaled down.[6] Additionally, many other changes were made to the band's presentation.[7] Namely, Freddie Mercury decided not to wear suspenders and instead chose to wear a red tie, and either black pants with red kneepads or red pants with blue kneepads. Roger Taylor also adopted a new bass drum head, which was an edited image of his face. It would remain this way through the European Hot Space Tour of 1982. It is also worth noting that this is the final tour before Freddie grew his trademark moustache in 1980.

This is the first tour where Mercury played guitar on the track "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", in which he play a 12-string Ovation Pacemaker.[8] Brian May would also play piano on this tour for the track "Save Me", after having made his debut on the instrument several months ago on the Japanese leg of the Jazz Tour, with the track "Teo Torriatte". "Liar" was placed on rotation during this tour after a nearly two year absence.[9]

Tour dates

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List of 1979 concerts
Date City Country Venue
22 November 1979 Dublin Ireland RDS Simmonscourt
24 November 1979 Birmingham England Birmingham International Arena
26 November 1979 Manchester Manchester Apollo
27 November 1979
30 November 1979 Glasgow Scotland The Apollo
1 December 1979
3 December 1979 Newcastle England Newcastle City Hall
4 December 1979
6 December 1979 Liverpool Liverpool Empire Theatre
7 December 1979
9 December 1979 Bristol Bristol Hippodrome
10 December 1979 Brighton Brighton Centre
11 December 1979
13 December 1979 London Lyceum Theatre
14 December 1979 Rainbow Theatre
17 December 1979 Purley Tiffany's
19 December 1979 Tottenham Mayfair
20 December 1979 Lewisham Odeon
22 December 1979 Alexandra Palace
26 December 1979 Hammersmith Odeon

Personnel

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  • Freddie Mercury: Lead vocals, piano, guitar ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), tambourine.
  • Brian May: Guitar, backing vocals, piano.
  • Roger Taylor: Drums, timpani, lead vocals ("I'm in Love With My Car"), backing vocals.
  • John Deacon: Bass guitar, additional vocals

References

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  1. ^ Chapman 2017.
  2. ^ "QUEEN LIVE". Queenlive.ca. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  3. ^ Freestone & Evans 2001, p. 18.
  4. ^ "Crazy Tour of London". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
  5. ^ Grein, Paul (8 May 1982). "Queen Global Tour Most Ambitious Yet". Billboard. Vol. 94, no. 18. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 47. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  6. ^ Furniss 2011.
  7. ^ Blake 2022.
  8. ^ Clerc 2020.
  9. ^ Purvis 2018.

Sources

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