Queen: A Night At the Odeon

December 24, 1975. London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Onstage at this legendary venue, the four members of Queen are bringing to a close a ground-breaking show, transmitted live on BBC TV, and also bringing to a climax the most eventful and exciting year in their careers so far – one that has taken them from the UK to America to Japan, sealing their transition from ambitious upstarts into one of the biggest and most important bands of the era - and beyond. Forty years later, this groundbreaking show officially takes to the World Stage. Featuring 15 tracks from their first four visionary albums, plus covers of four classic rock’n’roll staples delivered with characteristic panache, A Night At The Odeon - Hammersmith 1975 captures a band in full flight and radiating megawatts of self-confidence. Their latest single Bohemian Rhapsody – universally hailed as one of the most ground-breaking ‘pop’ songs ever released – was in the middle of its record-breaking nine week run at Number One in the UK charts. Their fourth album, A Night At The Opera (the most expensive record ever made to that point) found Queen’s grandiose vision coalescing into a breathtaking set of songs and ushered the band into a seat at rock’s top table (just three days after the concert, A Night At The Opera reached the top of the UK album charts). The Christmas Eve show was the climax of the 26-date ‘Queen Invite You To A Night At The Opera Tour’, which had begun mid-November and had already seen the band play four nights at the same venue a month earlier. Melody Maker magazine had trumpeted the tour with the words “Britain’s most regal band await your presence”, and the reviews of the previous shows had been ecstatic. By the time the band returned to Hammersmith on Christmas Eve, they were truly firing on all cylinders. No expense had been spared, from the stellar light show which lent a spectacular visual element to the night’s proceedings to the suitably lavish white Bechstein grand piano which had been hired especially for this show. Nor had the band themselves overlooked the finer sartorial details. Freddie Mercury sported two different satin cat suits – one black one white – during the show, designed by Wendy deSmet with the singer’s input. Similarly, Freddie had painted the nails of his left hand black for the occasion, while Brian May had his (at the time) trademark white nails. But for all the stage dressing, every Queen concert was purely and simply about the performance – and this was no exception. Cherry-picked from Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and the triumphant A Night At The Opera, the set list showed every facet of the band, from the ornate hard rock of Keep Yourself Alive and Seven Seas Of Rhye to the baroque grandeur of The March Of The Black Queen, from the heavy metal strut of Ogre Battle and Son And Daughter to the playful genre-bending of Bring Back That Leroy Brown and Queen’s breakthrough hit Killer Queen. It was also the tour when they first unleashed the soon-to-be-legendary Bohemian Rhapsody on an unsuspecting public – to a rapturous reception.