London, England - Media Reviews

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Media Review - By Neil Jefferies

Apart from the sight of Vivian Campbell in a red tablecloth jacket, Def Leppard stepped straight onto the Wembley stage as if nothing has changed in the last five years. Plenty had of course, but you'd never have guessed it from their wardrobe. Joe Elliott still has one of the worst cases of Mad Trouser Disease yet known to man.

'Animal' was a sublime opener but sounded a little rusty, Phil Collen's harmonies were at least as loud as Joe's and I had real trouble reconciling Campbell's appearance with the wash of bleached blonde that surrounded him. Happily, as they shifted a little awkwardly into 'Let's Get Rocked' - wherein Joe's trouser problem seems, tragically, to have spread to his lyrics - I note that Rick Allen (or his hairdresser) has seen Joey Kramer on the video of Aerosmith's orchestral 'Dream On' and taken a quantum leap into 1992.

Then Brian May ambled on and Def Leppard made their own quantum leap. Together they delivered a cataclysmic 'Now I'm Here' that saved the collective Lep's face. Truly one of Queen's finest moments, it suddenly became one of Def Leppard's as everything clicked into place. This new Def Leppard will get better, but for three and a half minutes, awesome was good enough.

By Kerrang! 1992.

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Media Review - By Kim Neely

"WE'RE HERE TO CELEBRATE the life and work and dreams of one Freddie Mercury," said a clearly emotional Brian May, addressing the crowd of 72,000 that flocked to London's Wembley Stadium on April 20th to witness the largest gathering of upper-echelon talent since Live Aid. Flanked by his band mates, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon, the Queen guitarist vowed: "We're gonna give him the biggest send-off in history!"

Metallica kicked off the afternoon portion of the show, which was devoted to the metal bands on the bill performing their own material, although Extreme did a Queen medley, and Def Leppard, joined by May, capped its set with "Now I'm Here."

Other artists made one-song appearances: Bob Geldof performed "Too Late God"; Spinal Tap mugged through "Majesty of Rock."

Guns n' Roses' set, the show's potential hot spot, passed without incident. At one point, Axl Rose, looking like he was itching to get something off his chest, sat down on the drum riser long enough to send an anticipatory buzz through the crowd, but after a moment's pause, he resumed the set with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

At dusk the surviving members of Queen launched their own segment. Playing live for the first time since 1986, without Mercury up front to galvanise them, had to be a bittersweet undertaking, and there were a few moments when May in particular seemed close to losing his composure. The audience's warm reception for "Too Much Love Will Kill You," a composition May debuted at the show on piano, left the guitarist looking lump-throated; later in the evening, as Robert Plant shimmied his way through "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and the song's lyric "Ready Freddie" became a chant, May sang his "Ready Freddies" while looking heavenward, and his voice broke on the last one.

But for the most part, the members of Queen were all smiles, apparently enjoying the catharsis. Musically, they were in fighting trim and they had plenty of top-notch help. Some highlights: Slash and Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott showing off on "Tie Your Mother Down"; Metallica's James Hetfield barking his way through a brilliant "Stone Cold Crazy"; Seal's subdued "Who Wants to Live Forever"; and Paul Young on "Radio Ga-Ga," during which the Wembley fans created the awe-inspiring spectacle of 72,000 pairs of hands clapping in perfect unison, their arms jabbed aloft with eerie military precision, after the Hitleresque crowd salute born in Queen's "Ga-Ga" video.

David Bowie and Annie Lennox (who showed up in a hoop-skirted ball gown, her eyes blacked out raccoon-style), joined by guitarist Mick Ronson, outdid themselves on "Under Pressure"; George Michael vocally outstripped everyone else on the bill with his soulful showing on "Somebody to Love." Echoed by the London Community Gospel Choir, Michael glided effortlessly through the song's roller-coaster melody right down to that daunting, glass-shattering note toward the end.

Elton John's arrival onstage for "Bohemian Rhapsody" set in motion a blur of warm 'n' fuzzy emotion. Elton began the song an octave lower than Mercury had sung it, and the Wembley audience backed him in Mercury's higher register, like a massive children's choir. As the song's operatic interlude ended, Axl Rose materialised to sing the hard-rock break; he and Elton finished the song in duet. As they drew to the "Nothing really matters" close, the two tentatively embraced and supplied the event with its warmest moment. After Elton's over-the-top rendering of "The Show Must Go On," Rose reappeared for a turn on "We Will Rock You," eliciting from the crowd another Hitler-esque display and priming them for the companion song.

"There's one person Freddie would've been proud to have stand in his footsteps," said May, introducing Liza Minnelli, who, despite her status as one of Mercury's biggest influences, was said to be sweating bullets backstage at the thought of facing his fans. As it turned out, Minnelli's Rat Pack stylings on "We Are the Champions" proved the camp piece de resistance of the event.

Throughout the day and into the night, whenever the video screens came to life with images of Mercury in his many wacky incarnations, the Wembley crowd did his bidding answering his call and response, falling to a hush when he spoke as if he were there in the flesh.

By Rolling Stone 1992.

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