The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was a benefit concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London, England, for an audience of 72,000.[1] The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis, directed by David Mallet and broadcast live on television and radio to 76 countries around the world, with an audience of up to one billion.[2][3] The concert was a tribute to Queen's lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS on 24 November 1991.
Location
Wembley Stadium, London, England
20 April 1992
The show marked bassist John Deacon's final full-length concert with Queen (save a short live appearance with Brian May, Roger Taylor and Elton John in 1997). The profits from the concert were used to launch the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity organization.
History[edit]
Following Freddie Mercury's death on 24 November 1991 from AIDS, the remaining members of Queen (John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor) came together with their manager, Jim Beach, to organise a concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury (and to raise money for AIDS research and spread awareness about the disease).[4] In the 1992 BRIT Awards ceremony, May and Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, all 72,000 tickets sold out in just three hours, even though no performers were announced apart from the remaining members of Queen.[4]
The concert was originally released in VHS form (usually in two-tape releases worldwide), but due to time limitations, "Love of My Life" and "More Than Words" by Extreme, "Animal" and "Let's Get Rocked" by Def Leppard, Spinal Tap's "The Majesty of Rock", U2's "Until The End of the World", Mango Groove's "Special Star" and Robert Plant's version of "Innuendo" were removed from the original release. The US release also omitted Bob Geldof's performance of "Too Late God", and Zucchero's performance of "Las Palabras de Amor".
In April 2002, for the 10th anniversary of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the second half of the concert (featuring the performances by the surviving members of Queen) was released on DVD and entered the UK charts at No. 1.[7] "Innuendo" was not included on the DVD, at Plant's request. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen. The DVD was certified Gold in Poland.[8]
On 24 June 2013, Queen announced on their Facebook page that a new remastered version of the concert would be released in late 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray.[9] The DVD and Blu-ray was released on 2 September 2013. Like the earlier VHS release, this version excludes Extreme's "Love of My Life" and "More Than Words", Def Leppard's "Animal" and "Let's Get Rocked", performance by Spinal Tap, U2 and Mango Groove from the opening acts segment, and Plant's "Innuendo" from the Queen+ segment. It was certified Platinum in the UK.[10]
Clips of rehearsals and of Metallica's set (as well as James Hetfield's performance of "Stone Cold Crazy" with Queen and Tony Iommi) were featured in the 1992 documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica.
In May 2020, Queen announced that they would be premiering the concert on YouTube to raise money for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. It was available for 48 hours. In April 2022, Queen streamed the concert again to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the concert as well as the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
Several songs from the concert have also been released in audio-only format: