Queen’s live performances have been a true spectacle. The band’s ability to connect with the audience and deliver a high-energy show has made them one of the most incredible live acts of all time. On the band’s official YouTube channel, Brian May recently revealed the ‘secret formula’ to those electrifying live performances.
You know how the bands have to do a soundcheck before a concert? It is usually done to put the finishing touches and make sure everything is in tune. Normally. But when has Queen ever done anything that could be described as normal? Queen’s final touch might even be to rewrite the song during the soundcheck, and even if that’s the case, we wouldn’t be that surprised. However, according to Brian May, they were only making minor changes.
“We call it a soundcheck, but part of it is to check the sound,” May said. “And it’s always necessary, but the rest of it is to just try stuff out, even if it’s only a few bars, like, ‘What happened last night? Oh, that happened. Well, what if we do this?’ And you’re gradually evolving the show, finding out little bits that didn’t work as well as they could, maybe they could be improved.”
The Queen guitarist continued, “‘Oh, let’s try. We didn’t try this song for ages, so maybe we try this.’ And if it works well in sound check, you put it in the next night. But it can be all sorts of little, small, tiny little things. Like ‘If I do this, generally you do that, which conflicts, so maybe we… ‘Oh, yeah, okay, I’ll do this.’”
The band members have never been afraid of trying new things, as May noted, “And just those little things which improve, they call it ‘Kaizen’ in Japan. And you improve tiny little things all along the way, and suddenly the whole show is an improvement. So that’s why the show is so good, I think. I hope it is good. People say it’s good.”
The musician referred to the Japanese philosophy ‘Kaizen’ as an artful approach to the act of constant improvement. It embraces the idea that small, incremental changes, over time, are more effective than seeking grandiose, radical transformations to elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary.
So, it is Queen’s music in a nutshell, right? We all know that Queen’s motto has been, ‘the show must go on, but let’s make it even better!’ They’ve always aimed to make each concert, in fact, each piece of their music, an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind event, and they indeed succeeded it.
