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Review
by Collectors
music
reviews
Queen's final show in France on the Hot Space tour has two
unique tape sources for this concert. Breakdown use the better of
the two which comes from a second-generation copy and contains a small cut
in the guitar solo but is otherwise complete. The sound quality is
inconsistent with the beginning sounding very poor and distant. It
clears up somewhat by the end of "Tie Your Mother Down" and
becomes very good and listenable albeit thin with a low, rumbling hum
beneath the sound and an abundance of crowd noise. The sound becomes somewhat
brittle by "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and
deteriorates during the guitar solo in "Bohemian Rhapsody" where
it switches back and forth between stereo and mono. Play In
Paris is the first commercial release of this tape in any form.
They played three dates in France on the Hot Space tour and
after the April 19th Paris and April 20th Lyon concerts, is the last.
The British Christian band After The Fire, known for their only U.S. hit
"Der Kommissar", opened for Queen on many of the European dates.
"Hello,
bon soir Paris...Let's see some action" and plays his vocal game
with the audience after the song's conclusion. "Staying
Power" generates enough energy followed by "Somebody To
Love". "Love Of My Life" is the only acoustic song of
the evening and the audience duly sings the verses along with Freddie (in
very thick French accents, which is to be expected). Only the first half
of "Get Down Make Love" is played with the eerie middle segueing
into the "Brighton Rock" guitar solo which in turn segues into
"Under Pressure". It is an effective transition and
Breakdown really should have placed that song at the end of disc one
instead of opening disc two. "Now I'm Here" is played late
in the show as it was on most of the European dates. "Sheer
Heart Attack", which was usually played in the encore section after
"Another One Bites The Dust" was dropped for reasons unknown.
Play In Paris is printed on one-sided paper inserts to go
along with the paper label printed on the cdr itself. This label
does not put much thought into presentation and the come off looking very
cheap. Given the treacherous nature of the tape this release is
recommended only for Queen and Hot Space completist. (GS)
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