![\"Freddie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Freddie-Mercury-Queen-Singer-Frontman-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ LastFM)<\/p>\n
Wed 22 October 2025 7:00, UK <\/p>\n
The immediate image that likely comes to mind when thinking of classic rock icons Queen<\/a> in their pomp is probably their scene-stealing show at Live Aid.<\/p>\n Frontman Freddie Mercury strutting across the stage with effortless command, donned in white jeans and vest, and orchestrating the improvised \u201cAy-Oh\u201d exchange with the crowd, stands as a glowing chapter in Queen\u2019s hagiography, serving as the conclusive climax to their 2018 Bohemian Rhapsody biography. <\/p>\n The six-song set, Mercury and guitarist Brian May would take the stage three hours later for a joint rendition of \u2018Is This the World We Created\u2026?\u2019, either captures everything grippingly theatrical about the rock survivors or all that\u2019s tediously West End, such is the division they trigger.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a booking event that organiser Bob Geldof was so sure of. Pushed by promoter Harvey Goldsmith, the Boomtown Rats singer hesitantly contacted the Queen team, unsure of their stature in the music world and mindful they\u2019d just finished a punishing world tour. \u201cI think their star had risen and fallen is the truth,\u201d Geldof confessed on CBC\u2019s Q with Tom Power. \u201cI was asked to call them and get them to do it. Frankly, I didn\u2019t care because if you want one word to explain why punk happened: Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n Queen was still big. Dropping The Works the previous year, singles like \u2018Radio Ga Ga\u2019 and \u2018I Want to Break Free\u2019 all landed canonical hits for the band, but recent shows in South Africa\u2019s Sun City during the album\u2019s tour had caused severe backlash among much of the entertainment industry, pursuing a cultural boycott<\/a> of the country\u2019s racist Apartheid system. Punk too threatened their cultural primacy. While a few years back, by 1985, the original new wave cohort still saw Queen as something of an anachronistic dinosaur, despite sharing Wembley Stadium billing with the likes of Status Quo.<\/p>\n There were plenty of hits to choose from. 11 albums in by the time of Live Aid, Queen took to the stage around 6:40pm, opening with an excerpt of \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 before segueing to a sped-up \u2018Radio Ga Ga\u2019. After Mercury\u2019s famed crowd back and forth, the quartet briskly fired through \u2018Hammer to Fall\u2019, \u2018Crazy Little Thing Called Love\u2019, a tightened \u2018We Will Rock You\u2019, then rounding off with the chanting \u2018We Are The Champions\u2019.<\/p>\n Yet, fans in the audience or watching the BBC\u2019s live coverage may have been surprised by the omission of \u2018Another One Bites the Dust\u2019. A massive number from 1980\u2019s The Game, the disco funk groover would have seemed a likely choice for their setlist, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 when dropped. Among a myriad of reasons, from consideration for the select time slot to the lack of interactivity with the crowd, a major factor for \u2018Another One Bites the Dust\u2019s shift may well have been the demand on Mercury\u2019s vocals.<\/p>\n Queen\u2019s brief set was arranged to flex the different shades of the Queen sound. This was no less true for Mercury\u2019s frontman duties than May\u2019s guitar attack. Opting for concise performances afforded Mercury the powerful and potent bursts of theatrical bluster and bellowing operetta pop wrung for maximum arrest that the bass-heavy \u2018Another One Bites the Dust\u2019 couldn\u2019t promise, a sagging of the band\u2019s tempo, and accelerating vocal fatigue with its rap-like delivery.<\/p>\n