| Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl | |
| Type: | Live album |
| Artist: | Queen |
| Cover: | Queen On Fire Live At The Bowl.png |
| Released: | 25 October 2004 (Europe) 9 November 2004 (US) |
| Recorded: | 5 June 1982 |
| Venue: | Milton Keynes Bowl, Milton Keynes |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 101:58 |
| Label: | EMI/Parlophone (Europe) Hollywood (US) |
| Producer: | Brian May Roger Taylor Justin Shirley-Smith |
| Prev Title: | The Platinum Collection |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Stone Cold Classics |
| Next Year: | 2006 |
| Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl | |
| Director: | Gavin Taylor |
| Producer: | Jeff Brown Malcolm Gerrie Simon Lupton Brian May Roger Taylor Rhys Thomas Andrea Wonfor |
| Starring: | Freddie Mercury Brian May Roger Taylor John Deacon Morgan Fisher Fred Mandel |
| Runtime: | 170 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl is a DVD/live album by the British rock band Queen released on 25 October 2004 in Europe and on 9 November 2004 in the US. It was recorded live at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire, England, on 5 June 1982 during the Hot Space Tour. A DVD was also released with the complete concert and bonus material, such as band interviews and tour highlights.
In 2005, the album was also released as an LP. In the UK, the DVD made No. 1 and CD, No. 20 in the DVD and CD chart respectively. In the US, neither the DVD nor album charted.
During the concert, lead guitarist Brian May had a few minor problems with his homemade Red Special guitar. During both the fast version of "We Will Rock You" and "Dragon Attack", two of the strings broke and he had to change to his Birch Red Special backup for most of "Action This Day" and for the entire second half of "Dragon Attack" and the entire duration of "Now I'm Here (Reprise)".
Before playing "Love of My Life", May played a snippet of the intro to "Las Palabras de Amor" calling it "a little fiddle around".
During May's guitar solo, the pickup switches of his guitar were switched off and May's guitar solo stopped for 20 seconds (the full 20 seconds is on the DVD, but the album version of the performance contains only 3 seconds). His guitar tech, Brian Zellis, helped May to get his guitar going again by simply turning back on the switches.
Drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon performed impromptu solos during "Dragon Attack" and before "Under Pressure," respectively when May switched guitars during "Dragon Attack" and was getting his guitar fixed following his solo.
During "Fat Bottomed Girls", Freddie Mercury's voice very briefly slipped into an off-key falsetto during the lyric "in this locality" (the original error could be heard on the original BBC TV, Channel 4, MTV, an audience recording, and radio broadcasts of the concert) but the error was fixed for the release of the DVD and CD.
During the first verse of "Fat Bottomed Girls," instead of singing the original line "you made a bad boy out of me," Mercury sang "you made an asshole out of me."
Mercury performed without his trademark bottomless microphone stand for "We Will Rock You (Fast)", "Now I'm Here", and "The Hero" (shown on the Live in Japan bonus footage on DVD). This allowed Mercury to more freely scale and walk along the raised wings on either side of the stage.
Throughout the concert a member of the crowd can be heard using an air horn. The "air horn man" is thanked in the album's liner notes.
Due to censorship laws the Hong Kong and China release of the CD removed "Get Down, Make Love" and "Fat Bottomed Girls".
with:
| Chart (2004) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Austrian Top 75 Albums[1] | 23 | |
| Belgium (Flanders) 100 Albums[2] | 60 | |
| Belgium (Wallonia) 100 Albums[3] | 80 | |
| French Top 200 Albums[4] | 75 | |
| German Albums Chart[5] | 10 | |
| Italian Top 20 Albums[6] | 15 | |
| Netherlands Top 100 Albums[7] | 74 | |
| Portuguese Top 30 Albums[8] | 9 | |
| Scottish Albums[9] | 22 | |
| Swiss Top 100 Albums[10] | 52 | |
| UK Albums Chart[11] | 20 |
| Chart (2004) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Top 40 DVDs[13] | 10 | |
| Austrian Top 10 Music DVDs[14] | 1 | |
| Norwegian Top 10 DVDs[15] | 4 | |
| Swedish Top 20 DVDs[16] | 1 |
| Chart (2005) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium (Wallonia) Top 10 Music DVDs[17] | 1 | |
| Hungarian Top 20 DVDs[18] | 5 |