LIVE MAGIC

Appallingly bad live album. really give it a wide berth and seek out the far superior Live At Wembley. It is from the same tour and is a complete Concert on double CD. Why they released this I'll never know, considering this is the next live album after the excellent "Live Killers". You have been warned!

The purpose of this one is not very obvious...all the tracks are shortened, the concert atmosphere is not very present, all the tracks are included on the "Live At Wembley '86"... in one word....weak.

The purpose was much more obvious back in 1986 when this thing came out...QUEEN were ultra-popular, there were no official live document from the 80s and therefore no opportunity to hear new mega-hits performed live.

Even in that case this is a poor work. I guess fans were quite disappointed when this one came out, especially compared to excellent "Live Killers" from 1979.

This is not truncated version of "Live At Wembley '86", actually only "Hammer To Fall" and "Is This The World We Created...?" are recorded live from Wembley Stadium, the rest is from Knebworth Park and Budapest. However, there is no significant difference in the performance here and on "Live At Wembley" CD (save the fact that while listening to "Live At Wembley" you can feel like you were there, and the songs are prolonged rather than shortened).

I guess you have to be a really die-hard QUEEN fan (like I am) to get this CD - simply because of completing your collection, and because of alternative live versions. This one failed miserably on the test of time. One and a half star, but considering the fact that this document is not of any interest for prog rock fan, I won't round it to two stars.

Under pressure. . .to fit it all in

"Live magic" captures Queen at pretty much the height of their career. The resurgence in their popularity which resulted from their appearance at "Live aid" is captured here in a succession of songs which were live anthems and pop classics.

OK, that's the good news. The bad news is that this album fails to satisfy. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most significant is that the compilers have tried to squeeze a quart into a pint pot. There are a total of 15 tracks, squeezed onto two sides of an LP. This results in many of the songs being abbreviated.

The album is made up of songs taken from three separate gigs, two in the United Kingdom, and one in Hungary. Such is Queen's professionalism that in reality it matters not where the recordings took place, the sound and the crowd's reaction is the same. There is no doubt that these recordings capture some of the excitement of a Queen gig; from the opening "One vision" through "Tie your mother down" and "Seven seas of Rhye", the band rapidly wind up the crowd to a frenzy.

One purpose the album does serve is to demonstrate the strength of the song-writing talent throughout the band. All four band members have songs included which can be classified as Queen classics. The emphasis is largely on Queen's then more recent numbers, with songs such as "Killer Queen", "Brighton rock". Everything from the first album is ruthlessly (if understandably, some were on 1979's "Live Killers") omitted. The six songs on side one of the LP are largely unabridged, with only "Seven seas of Rhye" being cut down to segue into "A kind of magic".

The shortened tracks on the second side are presented as a sort of medley, leading to disappointing renditions of songs such as "Friends will be friends". The anthems "We are the champions", "Radio ga-ga" and "We will rock you" inevitably wind the crowd up further, Freddie by now has them in the palm of his hands. There is though a feeling of coldness and aloofness to it all.

For me, an integral part of the appeal of Queen's music is the quality of the studio production, and the perfect nature of the final product. In a live environment, such qualities are given lesser importance. It is therefore necessary to witness the performance to gain full satisfaction from it, not to simply hear it. As live Queen albums go, this is adequate, but in terms of the Queen discography it is far from essential.

This is a Queen live album recorded at the peak of their popularity.

Of course, several tracks are emasculated, but it was already the case during their first live album "Live Killers" released some seven years prior to this one.

The set list is of course seriously oriented towards their latest work (but who can blame a band to promote their most recent albums even if they were not great ones). Numerous hit singles are featured (and this was probably what the audience wanted to listen to).

Since this live record is shortly formatted, there won't be too much of a karaoke in here (which is a good thing). From the glory days (IMO), only three songs remain in this set : "Seven Seas Of Rhye", "Rhapsody" of course and the very good rocking "Tie Your Mother Down".

One gets the classic closing sports anthems which are almost an obligation for the band to play. The version of Hammer To Fall is also showing that the band still rocks all right and is more than a Kind Of Magic oriented.

It is of course not a great live record, but still a decent one. You shouldn't expect any prog in here. Maybe for their next album? Two stars.

Truncated live magic

Queen was a fantastic live band and the shows where this live album was recorded were no exceptions. However, the final result is embarrasingly bad! Most of the songs have been truncated and there is simply not much 'magic' left in them at all. Also, this was recorded in several different places which gives a shattered impression.

There is the much, much better 2CD (and now also DVD) Live At Wembley, with a full show from this same tour. In the light of that excellent release, which contains every song from this album but in full, Live Magic is a very unneccessary release!

This is really only for completionists this one. By no means up to par with Live At Wembley CD and DVD (the DVD offers more value for money in my opinion as you get visuals with it as well as a 5.1 mix and lots of extras).

This is a very weird live album!