This is Queen The Greatest,
and in our final episode we continue our look back
at the spectacular live performances from –
A Decade of Queen + Adam Lambert.
Between 2012 and 2020, Queen and Adam Lambert toured extensively,
clocking up an incredible 218 performances in over 40 countries,
and in front of an estimated three and a half million people.
Each new production seemed to get bigger and better,
thrilling the crowds with a mixture of recognisable hits
alongside imaginative interpretations of some of the deeper cuts.
[Adam Lambert] “We have a little bit of a
little treat in the set that we're going to be doing this summer on tour.
There is what kind of is considered a new song,
that many people might not have heard before in the context of Queen.
Freddie Mercury worked on a song… Freddie Mercury!
[Adam Lambert] “He created a song with Giorgio Moroder
for the film Metropolis.
It's called Love Kills,
and we're going to do it for you in our own way.”
But never far from everyone's minds, was the legacy of how it all started.
[Adam Lambert] “I knew Queen songs before I knew who Queen were.
I mean, they're just ever present
and to get up there for me personally,
and to get up to celebrate Freddie as well, is a real treat.
You know, there's no replacing Freddie. It's not possible.
So to be on stage and to talk to the audience about Freddie,
and we show Freddie on the screen a couple of points in the show,
we hear his voice,
that's very important for this, this experience, for the audience."
[Brian May] “There's one song that I sing
together with Freddie, which is always a great moment.
I can't see ever not wanting to do that really.
And of course, the audience do it all.
It's all about the audience, and sharing that moment."
[Brian May] “The memories,
and the fact that we're still here,
and the legacy lives on,
and I think Freddie would be so happy about that."
At the beginning of 2020, the band were in full flight
with their Rhapsody Tour, already playing to sold out crowds.
And although the global pandemic
was about to put plans to tour across Europe on hold,
Queen and Adam Lambert,
in response to a tragedy unfolding in Australia,
managed to contribute to a show,
with what is regarded as one of their absolute finest performances...
[Brian May] “It was incredible because,
you know, it was a terrible thing to see the fires sweep through Australia
and the amount of hardship, and people losing their homes,
the amount of wild animals killed. Very tragic.
And we happened to be in Sydney
at a point where it was convenient to put on a concert
to raise awareness, raise money for the cause, for the firefighters.
So we'd already done our show the night before,
and we kind of donated our stage to open the stadium the next night."
[Brian May] “But the feeling of adrenaline was insane.
And strangely, we had already decided
that we wanted to recreate the Live Aid set.
Because there's a lot of similarities between the causes. And so we went on
and just as, you know, the original Live Aid,
it was a one off.
We've never done that set before,
and this was a one off too.
And the audience were..."
[Adam Lambert] “They were wild. Yeah.”
[Brian May] “So energized.
That's the highlight of this whole thing that we're putting out,
I think, that we end up in Sydney at that Fire Fight concert.”
[Roger Taylor] “Yeah”.
[Brian May] “It was another one off.”
[Roger Taylor] “The feeling of electricity in the stadium in Sydney
before we went on, was incredible.
So I think it connected."
Later that year, that particular set also appeared on
the Live Around The World album –
a compilation of some of the stand out performances
from the Queen + Adam Lambert years,
that was released as a thank you to the fans.
It raced to number one in the charts,
ensuring Queen entered their sixth decade with another number one album.
So thank you for watching Queen The Greatest
and joining us on this journey through the extraordinary Queen story -
and with the Rhapsody Tour about to resume in the coming months,
it looks like that story will continue for many more years to come...