LIVE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM (DVD)

Live at Wembley' 83 is a dynamic concert performance with Freddie Mercury tearing it up as the dominant force the rest of the band seem to revolve around. He wears various guises such as a T shirt, all white gear, strips pants, and in the end the royal robes. He has the audience in the palm of his hand on every track, surely one of the most flamboyant charismatic performers to ever grace the stage. Freddie is a force to be reckoned with as he belts out one Queen treasure after another, the highlights are here with the rip roaring One Vision, and Tie Your Mother Down. It gets into progressive territory with In The Lap Of The Gods...revisited and Seven Seas Of Rhye. A Kind Of Magic is another classic and on the next, Under Pressure, Freddie features on improvised scat style and he gets the crowd to join in. The concert promotes the new singles soon to be released on the 1984 "The Works" album.

Another One Bites The Dust is a killer track where Freddie struts from one end of the stage to the other and loses his jacket to an uproarious cheer. Who Wants To Live Forever is potent given that Freddie is gone now, and Is This The World We Created? has emotional depth. The next few rock songs are interesting but not my favourite part of the concert. The next part is.

Bohemian Rhapsody begins and the crowd roars and sings the words. In the opera section the band disappear and we see a psychedelic kaleidoscope of colours and images of the band from the film clip. Then they explode out in the metal section. Bombs go off and Freddie crashes through the haze. The crowd are jumping. The sound is fantastic with the speakers at 10. May's guitar playing is incredible. The crowd sings 'nothing really matters', and Freddie lays his head back and takes in the atmosphere, and at the end everyone has their hands in the air.

Hammer To Fall is a hard rocking track I am not that familiar with but its great in concert with a cool riff and dynamic drumming.

In Radio Ga Ga, the new single at the time, Freddie loses the shirt completely and the girls cheer. The best thing here is the way the audience claps in unison in the trademark chorus coordination. Freddie raises his arms in adulation. There is a great deal of electronica on this track, notably. The lead break is terrific from May.

We Will Rock You is as fantastic as ever with the booming drum rhythm from Roger Taylor and Mays eclectic guitar soloing. Freddie looks resplendent in enormous, flowing white cape and red striped jacket. The crowd sing loud on this. The lead break is awesome, one of my favourite lead solos. This track moves immediately into Friends Will Be Friends and then the quintessential anthemic We Are The Champions. The crowd love this too and sing every note, swaying and waving banners or flags.

The finale is God Save The Queen with Freddie bowing before an ecstatic audience, he has the red robes of royalty and raises his crown farewelling the Wembley crowd. "Thank you, God bless you", he says and the crowd sing 'God save the Queen'. A great Queen concert with the band at the peak of their powers. 8 years later Freddie, real name Farrokh Bulsara, died of AIDs. This DVD record stands as a testimony of his stature of one of the most influential front men of rock history.

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