Queen's single greatest Moment of Awesome is their appearance at Wembley Stadium during Live Aid on July 13, 1985. Freddie Mercury took a hundred thousand people into the palm of his hand and led them to heaven. Several "best ever" lists voted this set as the Greatest Live Gig by Any Band EVER, and there have been very few dissenters from this opinion. (They obviously haven't seen Freddie in action.)
Part of what makes the Live Aid set so impressive in comparison to the other acts that performed is the pacing; all of the bands and artists at Live Aid had very tight time restrictions, so most only performed two or three songs (Led Zeppelin famously only played "Stairway"). Queen purposefully rehearsed and paced their set as if it still had the impact of a full Queen concert, just within a twenty minute time frame. The medley of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Radio Ga-Ga" serve as one hell of an intro, so by the time you get to "Hammer To Fall" you're off to the races! It was so awesome it had to be the first thing to film for the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. And they recreated it painstakingly.
Special mention has to go to "Radio Ga-Ga." Seeing a packed Wembley Stadium clapping in unison to the chorus is nothing short of amazing. Even better knowing Queen came back the next year for their own concert and pulled it off again!
Elton John summed it up best when they finished their set and came off stage:
"You bastards. You stole the show."
Almost a year later, Queen returned to Wembley for a show all their own, which became another great example of Freddie utterly owning that stadium. The footage still rocked more than 25 years later, when it was used at the 2012 London Summer Olympics' closing ceremony.
How many rock singers have performed in sold-out stadiums? Some. How many have performed (in this case, pre-recorded the performance) a song for the Olympic Games?One.
How many rock singers can get the audience to sing along... AFTER HE'S DEAD?!
A side note: let's be honest, basically any time Freddie gets the audience to repeat his operatic vocal runs back to him counts as a Moment Of Awesome. That's a showman.
Freddie's Dying Moment of Awesome: Brian May was worried that Freddie might be too sick to do justice to "The Show Must Go On". Freddie downed a shot of vodka, said "I'll fucking do it, darling!" and nailed the lead vocal in one take.
Also "Mother Love", which was Freddie's last vocal recording. His almost supernatural performance during the middle eight is enough to send shivers down any listener's spine. When you realise that such powerful singing came from a man with barely a foot out of the grave, right before he had to end what turned out to be his last recording session early due to exhaustion, it becomes all the more remarkable.
A more singular Moment of Awesome for Brian May, who got to play "God Save the Queen" (which the band had previously covered as an instrumental way back on A Night At The Opera in 1975) at Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebration. While standing on the roof of Buckingham Palace.
Another singular moment of awesome for Brian May; going back to college and getting that astrophysics Ph.D. And then joining the team that sent a probe to Pluto. Out of "second act" careers for a rock legend, badass science genius who photographs distant planets isn't what you'd immediately guess.
Mad props to him for what is the single greatest understatement in a thesis ever:
The writing of my thesis was virtually complete in 1974, but the submission was deferred due to various pressures.
An asteroid has now been named for Freddie Mercury. Yes, that means two of the band members are enshrined in space.
The "Radio Ga Ga" video was more than just a Shout-Out to Metropolis. It literally helped pay for the restoration of the film as well as the 1984 Giorgio Moroder re-release. The band received special permission to use footage from the film in their video.
When, during a concert, someone in the audience shouted "You fucking poof!" at Freddie ("poof" being a homophobic slur), Freddie told the stage crew to shine the spotlights on the offender, and then offered his microphone to him and said, "Say it again, darling!" The heckler backed off.
Growing up, Brian May never had the money to buy a decent guitar. So what did he do about it? He and his father built the Red Special guitar during the early sixties. The awesome part? Said guitar is still working, half a century after it was built by a teenager and his father.
* In the "Epic Songs of '75" episode of The Top Ten Revealed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was ranked as the best single of that year.
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