Crazy Tour
Crazy Tour was a short tour by the British rock band Queen during November and December 1979. After the release of the single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", the band decided to change the concert format they used to do the last years. In this tour Queen would revisit smaller venues, many that held fewer than two thousand seats. Nonetheless, it was the highly awaited UK leg of the successful Jazz Tour. The last concert of this tour at the Hammersmith Odeon was also the first concert of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea.[1] A bootleg recording of this concert exists as the 2-CD set Crazy Tour of London.[2]
Local tour by Queen | |
![]() The London concerts. | |
Location | British Isles |
---|---|
Start date | 22 November 1979 |
End date | 26 December 1979 |
Legs | 1 |
No. of shows | 20 |
Queen concert chronology |
Due to the band choosing to visit many smaller venues during this tour, their lighting rig was scaled down. Additionally, many other changes were made to the band's presentation. Namely, Freddie Mercury decided not to wear suspenders and instead chose to wear a red tie, and either black pants with red kneepads or red pants with blue kneepads. Roger Taylor also adopted a new bass drum head, which was an edited image of his face. It would remain this way through the European Hot Space Tour of 1982. The band also adopted a new intro tape, consisting of a droning synthesiser leading into the thunder and lightning heard at the end of Dead On Time, from the previous tour.[3]
This is the first tour where Mercury played guitar on the track Crazy Little Thing Called Love, where he would play a 12-string Ovation Pacemaker. Brian May would also play piano on this tour for the track Save Me, after having made his debut on the instrument several months ago on the Japanese leg of the Jazz Tour, with the track Teo Torriatte.
Five concerts from the Crazy Tour have available audio from circulating audience bootleg tapes: 1 December (Glasgow), 3 December (Newcastle), 4 December (Newcastle), 6 December (Liverpool), and 26 December (London, Hammersmith Odeon).
Setlists
Glasgow, Scotland
Newcastle, England (First Night)
Newcastle, England (Second Night)
|
Liverpool, England
London, England
|
Tour dates
Date | City | Country | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
22 November 1979 | Dublin | Ireland | RDS Simmonscourt |
24 November 1979 | Birmingham | England | Birmingham International Arena |
26 November 1979 | Manchester | Manchester Apollo | |
27 November 1979 | |||
30 November 1979 | Glasgow | Scotland | The Apollo |
1 December 1979 | |||
3 December 1979 | Newcastle | England | Newcastle City Hall |
4 December 1979 | |||
6 December 1979 | Liverpool | Liverpool Empire Theatre | |
7 December 1979 | |||
9 December 1979 | Bristol | Bristol Hippodrome | |
10 December 1979 | Brighton | Brighton Centre | |
11 December 1979 | |||
13 December 1979 | London | Lyceum Theatre | |
14 December 1979 | Rainbow Theatre | ||
17 December 1979 | Purley Tiffany's | ||
19 December 1979 | Tottenham Mayfair | ||
20 December 1979 | Lewisham Odeon | ||
22 December 1979 | Alexandra Palace | ||
26 December 1979 | Hammersmith Odeon |
Tour band
- Freddie Mercury: Lead vocals, piano, guitar ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), tambourine.
- Brian May: Guitar, backing vocals, piano.
- Roger Taylor: Drums, timpani, lead vocals ("I'm in Love With My Car"), backing vocals.
- John Deacon: Bass guitar, additional vocals
References
- Freestone, Peter; David Evans (2001). Freddie Mercury: An intimate memoir by the man who knew him best. Omnibus Press. p. 18. ISBN 0-7119-8674-6.
- "Crazy Tour of London". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- "QUEEN LIVE". Queenlive.ca. Retrieved 2 June 2021.