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Review
by Collectors
music
reviews
The Gypsy Eye label used to be quite prolific releasing many titles
covering different artists. Their output in the past couple of years
has been sporadic which is a shame since they are one of only three label
issuing silver Queen titles. Plays Brussels Rock You is
their latest and the first since their excellent version of the Milwaukee
1975 tape. There is a bit of a problem however. The date
listed on the cover says this is the first Brussels show on December
12th but there are some issues around the Brussels 1980 tapes.
The
extant source for the 12th is a poor to fair audience source missing
"Dragon Attack", "Now I'm Here (reprise)", "Fat
Bottomed Girls", and "Tie Your Mother Down". The
tape for the second show on the 13th sometimes circulates as the 12th and
that is the case here. The first night's tape can be identified by
the huge cut and Freddie shouting "See you tomorrow!"
during "God Save The Queen". Play Brussels Rock You
is from the second show in Brussels on December 13th and is not the
first show from the 12th. The tape is a good to very good complete
mono audience recording. The very beginning sounds muffled like the
taper had the mic under his coat, but clear up two minutes into "We
Will Rock You (fast)" and becomes enjoyable. There are
minor imperfections like a tape crinkle in the guitar solo of
"Dragon Attack" and at the end of "Fat Bottomed Girls"
but nothing too distracting.
This show
occurs several days both after the release of Flash Gordon
and the assassination of John Lennon. They played Lennon's
"Imagine" on some of the dates during this tour although they
didn't play it here. The "We Will Rock You/We Are The
Champions" diptych is played as the first encore rather
than being the final one which was normal for this tour. Some people
claim that "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is from another tape
source but it doesn't sound it. It is remarkable how vocal
audiences became after the release of Live Killers. May
introduces "Love Of My Life" as where they must sing and
they oblige very loudly. "Keep Yourself Alive"
includes the tympani solo and May's long guitar solo which includes
riffs that would be used for "Put Out The Fire", and
segues into "The Battle". Overall this is a great concert
and this release is definitely worth having. (GS)
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