Roger Taylor recently joined Queen’s official YouTube channel to break down what made a Queen show memorable and how the band excelled in having the audience under their spell with the right formula.
When someone mentions Queen, one of the first things that might come to mind is their incredible showmanship and Freddie Mercury’s lively interactions with the crowd. The band seemed to know precisely when to cheer the fans and when to let them have a break. However, the key to having a memorable show was mostly about how they started it.
Taylor emphasized how important it was to impress the audience with the first few performances, ‘blind them’ with some showmanship and blow them away. Then, the act would calm down later in the show, so it was essential to pick the right songs at the right time. If the audience was impressed at the start, then the rest of the show was about setting the proper atmosphere.
The drummer speaking on why the beginning of a show mattered the most:
“As with most shows, I’m not talking about plays or anything like that; I think for the audience, they want to be blown away at first. So, if you can blow them away a bit at first, we used to say, ‘Blind them, deafen them, and then calm down a bit after twenty minutes.’
You try and make an impact with the first song, visual and obviously sort of an aural attack, really. Then you try and space the songs intelligently, but you really wanna go, ‘Bang, bang, bang, bang…’ at the beginning of the show.”
The musician then noted how Queen would create an atmosphere to better connect with the audience. However, they didn’t need overall productions with loudspeakers or excessive stage shows. All the band needed was a nice buzz to catch the right mood. Roger then also recalled working with supporting acts, discussing why they didn’t need opening bands to impress the crowd.
The rocker detailed how Queen managed to create an atmosphere without needing excessive stage productions or opening acts:
“It’s nice to make sort of an atmosphere, and we use very sort of ambient things. Sounds for that through the PA, not loud, just to get a nice buzz, hopefully, an expectant buzz. I think many acts do that. [And] Support act? Yes, we had them in the past. Many, and it’s always been fine. But I think the shows these days are big, it’s a massive production, and it’s long. I think it’s just a bit superfluous, really. We don’t feel we need a support act, so we don’t have one.”
Queen didn’t need excessive and expensive stage productions to impress the fans or a supporting act to warm up things for them at the beginning of their shows. The band had the formula to perform a memorable performance through an impressive start, blowing away the fans and then carrying on with the right songs and attitudes.
