Queen‘s efficiency at Stay Support is usually acknowledged as one of many best reside units in rock historical past, and arguably probably the most iconic second of the band’s storied profession.
Brian Might and Roger Taylor mirror on that historic day in a brand new interview with Radio Occasions, and Might recollects that his instincts have been initially telling him to not take part within the occasion booked for July 13, 1985 at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“We weren’t touring or enjoying, and it appeared like a loopy concept, this speak of getting 50 bands on the identical invoice,” guitarist Might remembers. “We thought it was going to be a catastrophe. Freddie, particularly, mentioned, ‘I haven’t bought the proper feeling for this.’ He wasn’t the chief of the band, but when he dug his heels in there was no dragging him, so we parked it.”
Roger Taylor was the member of Queen most enthusiastic to carry out on the present, and Might remembers that with occasion co-organiser Bob Geldof repeatedly calling as much as speak the band into enjoying, he ultimately got here round to sharing the drummer’s view.
“I mentioned to Freddie, If we get up on the day after this Stay Support present and we haven’t been there, we’re going to be fairly unhappy,” the guitarist remembers. “He mentioned, ‘Oh, f*** it, we’ll do it’.”
Roger Taylor says that, for the quartet, the subsequent massive resolution was which songs Queen ought to carry out within the 17 minutes they have been allowed for his or her set. The drummer tells Radio Occasions that it was “apparent to open with the verse of Bohemian Rhapsody; it was so instantly recognisable. Then to complete with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions was a no brainer.”
The 2 musicians recall that Bob Geldof gave Freddie Mercury a really blunt piece of recommendation pre-show. “Don’t get intelligent; simply play the hits.”
“Queen had an excellent belief in one another,” says Might. “We have been maybe missing in oil, however we have been a well-exercised machine. Then, from the second we hit the stage, the response from the group was so deafening, it took your breath away. I ran on, which I don’t usually do, all attributable to adrenaline. From the start, we felt we have been at residence.
“It was one of many few moments in anybody’s life that you recognize you’re doing one thing for all the proper causes.”
