Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid (2DVD) [2008]

This concert footage is fantastic and shows a great hard rock performance. All band members are on excellent form and deliver a great show. The bonus Live Aid footage is also amazing, arguably the best live performance ever made by any band.
I wish Queen would consider releasing some earlier concerts such as Earls Court or Houston 1977.

I recommend it unreservedly, especially as this is video documentary of the last time Queen ever played as a 4 piece band. It is also unique in that it is the only Queen gigs ever performed with the main reason for it to be filmed (stage, lighting, crew etc had to be re-assembled for this). They have done the best they can with the visuals - no luxury of beng able to re-edit it as Mr Swimmer & Co. decided not to keep anything that hit the cutting room floor.

Oh and for those of you 'concerned' about the Live Aid footage/royalties etc. I qoute from Dr. May's website:

"It goes without saying that we are putting the LIVE AID stuff on the DVD because it's great, and we're proud of it, and it's good for the value and visibility of the disc, but also because it will make lots of money for Bob's LIVE AID. We actually didn't want to be SELLING the DVD by using any kind of 'moral blackmail' - like ..... "Every copy bought makes money for starving Children in Africa". No. That was a decision. We'd rather people bought it because they loved it for its own sake. We've taken this opportunity to put some bits of that event, which made that moment in time, out there for the first time, that have never been seen before, plus getting the maximum quality out of the original video take ... But rest assured that Bob Geldof's continuing LIVE AID work will be benefiting very well indeed!!!

Cheers
Bri"

First my CV (you wouldn't be looking at reviews of a Queen DVD if you didn't mind a bit of self-indulgence!)

1 - Joined Fan Club in '77
2 - Invited to the making of "We Are The Champions" in Oct. '77
3 - Saw the band 5 times between '80 and '86.
4 - Caught one of Mercury's tambourine's at Wembley '80
5 - Caught on film playing Mercury's tambourine at Milton Keynes on "Live at The Bowl"
6 - Memorial concert '91
7 - Taylor and May concerts throughout the '80s and '90s
8 - Saw the new incarnation with Paul Rodgers in Cardiff '05.

Some of the comments below are so wide of the mark that it's worth putting this show in context and then comparing it with later releases. Firstly, and perhaps most crucially, this is an important release as it documents the very last time the "real Queen" of 1970-1981 existed. After this gig, their cynicism, self-indulgence, inter-band squabbles and Mercury's declining interest in touring saw a slow descent to the abomination that was the "Magic" tour cash cow: by which point they (and Mercury in particular) were a parody of their former selves.

However, rewind five years and we get the real deal. Shot in 2 x 35mm and intended for theatrical release to "tour" venues, this film has lost none of its explosiove energy over the proceeding 26 years. All the band members are in great form but it is Mercury who captivates. His voice is quite unbelievable. It's easy to see why Queen are rarely covered and at the '91 Memorial concert, most of the participants had to change keys/miss notes to get through the gig. Along with Sinatra, Plant and Presley he was the most recognisable and influential of Post-war male singers and this DVD is his live testament. It's that good.

Visually it's technically excellent with the 35mm cleaned up nicely. Also, Justin-Shirley Smith has done a great job with the DTS 5:1. A lot of the film was discarded after the final edit for the orginal '84 release so whilst it looks great, a lot of the time you wish there were more wide-angles, long shots etc. but the director instructed his team to keep tight on Mercury and, considering he was the greatest front man ever, this is bearable. After all, we're not watching Phil Collins here............

Which brings me to the reason for the docked star. The extras include the whole Live Aid performance (great), a few tracks from the Live Aid rehearsal (appalling sound) and a voiceover from Taylor and May throughout the whole Montreal concert. This could, and really should, have been something special. Instead we get a couple of old gits mumbling "didn't we look thin" and "what's this song?" when we should have had a mixture of tales of technicolour roistering, technical insight, super-stellar rock gossip and, well, some humour! Brian May gently chuckling in your ear for two hours may be good enough for A**ta D*b*on but it's way short of my expectations! The only good joke is Roger Taylor saying that Mercury looks "a bit like Phil Collins" at one point and we hear May collapsing in giggles.

So. An important realease? Sure. A testament to Freddie Mercury? Absolutely. Another chance for May and Taylor to be as lazy as possible knowing we'll buy it anyway. 100%

It probably pips "Live at the Bowl" for sheer bravado and energy and makes the "Magic" DVDs (London and Budapest) look like the Stars In Their Eyes junk they are. (If you look closely at these 1986 gigs, you can see Taylor at the back of the stage making a gallows to hang himself in shame.) Strangely, it would be 24 years before Queen played with this much energy and passion again, and that was with a stroppy Geordie with a bad weave filling in for old Fred. Funny huh?