Queen / Final Budokan Nights / 3CDR

Queen / Final Budokan Nights / 3CDR /Uxbridge

Translated text:

Live At Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 8th May 1985 & Live At Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 9th May 1985.

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A 3-disc set title that recorded from the master cassette that neither trader nor circulation has come out is appearance of the Budokan performance of May 8th and 9th of 1985 which became Queen’s last Tokyo performance. Live CD release itself is the first May 8 performance, 53 minutes of the first half of the show that is present in the master (Intro to Love Of My Life halfway). Tape started from the BGM where Billy Joel was flowing before Machines started. It is terrible clapping from Tear It Up, but it is quite a name recording that you can clearly hear musical tones. Tie Your Mother Down After the end “MC Hello Tokyo! Konbannwa! Ikagadesuka? Is everybody Happy? Yeahhhhh Under Pressure!”, The same place on the second day is “Hello Tokyo! Konbannwa! Ikagadesuka? Is everybody OK? … let’s do … A Little Bit Under Pressure! Somebody To Love’s intro’s piano is of course quite different from the second day. (I will play with flowing, more natural feeling including songs.) Killer Queen has a good voice, and I can hear the good performance of this day. At 1:10 Keep Yourself Alive following the inspirational Seven Seas Of Rhye, there is no sound at the guitar solo “I guess?” I will demodulate it soon. A scream of ten thousand big crowds becoming turbulent in Liar and a big chorus in a chorus portion are moving. Following Freddie’s vocal impro has been recorded with a great sound, you can see that this take is recorded with an excellent microphone that is quite sensitive. In the next MC, Freddie says “I’m glad that I came back to Japan for the first time in two years.” (The next day is “I have not seen you for the first time in 3 years.” Since MC since 82, MC on the second day is correct.) “Day-O” is also a masterpiece, creating a wonderful atmosphere in the hall. However, Freddie makes the audience greatly impressed the audience by listening to wonderful vocals without stagnation. The sound quality around here is the best. Before Love Of My Life, Brian says “From A Night At The Opera … … A Night At The Opera Do you remember?” Unfortunately Love Of My Life is only recorded for 1 minute 14 seconds (here the tape runs out). On Disk 2 & 3, we recorded the 2nd day performance of Budokan on May 9th for 1 hour 48 minutes. It is a valuable take that is made by the same recording person as Disc 1, no takeovers are present either in this take or between traders. Also, this is about 50 seconds intro, but it is recorded from the venue BGM in front of Machines. As there is one of the best ultra-high-quality versions of “At last Budokan” on this day, it seems to be a bit bad, but this version is also recorded with surprisingly high sound quality, definitely enthusiastic audiences It is a high quality take. As you can see from the 3rd track Under Pressure, it is beautifully recorded as well as a little broadcast sound source. It also has a natural texture, and it is a good sound source that can be ranked in at the top of the Works tour. Indeed, as another “At Last Budokan”, it is a must-have mania essential A rank item. When you play with roar, you can just time slip to the Budokan on that day. The best memorial 3-disc set titles emerging from fans are appearing.

★ It is a review summary of beatleg magazine vol. 104 (March 2009 issue). For your information.

Queen performed 17 performances at the Budokan, but the last two performances are recorded here. [DISC-1] is a 16th total in total at the Budokan on May 8, 1985, recorded from “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me” by Billy Joel who flowed in the venue before the performance, 4 You can taste the atmosphere in the tense venue that welcomes the Queen at the Budokan for the first time in 3 months. It is strange because the Budokan, the first time in a while, was exciting to the Queen side as well, as it can be heard as a highly motivated performance from the next day. In the Japanese performance, “Love Of My Life” always gets an atmosphere like a choral competition, but I thought it was such a thing and it was faded out for over a minute and it seems there is no tape left after that It has not been recorded yet. The sound image is somewhat flat and there are places where female fans around the recording machine are noisy, but the sound quality itself is a very clear and expansive quality one. Only the first half of the concert was recorded, but this day is very precious just because it was not booted so far. [DISC-2] and [DISC-3] are Budokan performances on May 9th, 1985, which was the last time in the 17th total, and that is the recording by the same person as the first day. Whether the recording environment on this day was blessed, the sound image is close, there are no noisy female fans around the recording machine, and it is captured with very good sound quality. However, from this performance there is left “At Last Budokan” boasting outstanding sound quality released from Masterport and Wardour, so it’s ironic that it will be for maniac despite this only sound quality is there. However, since concerts are completely recorded, it is noteworthy that “Now I’m Here”, which is slightly missing in “At Last Budokan”, is also included. Also, as with “At Last Budokan”, there are many places where the sound of the Spike · Edny keyboard stand out, so it is interesting that you can see from that sound source that this balance was such a day.

★ In 2009 it was released for 50 sets only, and the name sound source title that gained popularity from fans and media has been re-released for the first time in nine years.

クィーン最後の東京公演となった1985年5月8日と9日の武道館公演を、どちらもトレーダー間でも一切出回っていないマスター･カセットより収録した3枚組タイトルが登場です。ライブCD化自体が初の5月8日公演は、マスターに現存するショウ前半のみの53分の収録（イントロからLove Of My Life途中まで）。テープはMachinesスタート前に流れていたビリー･ジョエルの会場ＢＧＭからスタート。Tear It Upから凄い手拍子ですが、楽音ははっきりと聴き取れるなかなかの名録音です。Tie Your Mother Down終了後のＭＣは「Hello Tokyo! Konbannwa! Ikagadesuka? Is everybody Happy? Yeahhhhh Under Pressure!」に対し、2日目の同箇所は「Hello Tokyo! Konbannwa! Ikagadesuka? Is everybody OK? All right…let’s do…A Little Bit Under Pressure!」です。Somebody To Loveのイントロのピアノも勿論2日目と全く違います。（歌も含め、流れるような、より自然な感じで演奏します。）Killer Queenでも良く声が出ており、この日の好調さが伺えます。場内感動のSeven Seas Of Rhyeに続くKeep Yourself Aliveの1:10でギターソロで音が出ず「あれ？」と思いますが、すぐ復調します。Liarに騒然となる一万の大観衆の叫び声とサビ部分での大合唱は感動的。続くフレディのボーカルインプロは素晴らしいサウンドで録音されており、本テイクがかなり感度の良い優れたマイクで録音されていることが分かります。次のＭＣではフレディが「２年ぶりに日本に帰って来れて嬉しい」と言います。（翌日は「３年ぶり」と言ってますが、82年以来なので２日目のＭＣが正しいです。）「Day-O」も圧巻で、場内に素晴らしい雰囲気を作り出します。Is This The World We Created?でも、フレディはよどみの無い素晴らしいボーカルを聴かせ聴衆を大いに感動させます。このあたりの音質は最高。Love Of My Lifeの前にブライアンが「A Night At The Operaから・・・。A Night At The Opera覚えてますか？」と珍しいＭＣをします。残念ながらLove Of My Lifeは1分14秒のみの収録です（ここでテープ切れ）。ディスク２＆３には5月9日の武道館２日目公演を1時間48分に渡って完全収録。ディスク１と同一の録音者によるもので、本テイクもトレーダー間にも一切出回っていない大変貴重なテイクです。また、こちらもイントロ50秒ほどですが、Machines手前の会場BGMから収録しています。この日は「At last Budokan」という屈指の超高音質版が存在しますので、やや分が悪いと思われますが、本ヴァージョンも驚くほどの高音質で収録されており、間違いなくマニア必聴の高品質テイクです。3曲目のUnder Pressureで分かるとおり、ちょっとした放送音源並みにキレイに録音されています。また自然な質感も魅力で、Worksツアーでは最上位にランクインできる優良音源です。まさに、もうひとつの「At Last Budokan」として、間違いなくマニア必携のＡランクアイテムです。轟音で再生すると、まさにあの日の武道館にタイムスリップできます。ファン必携の最高のメモリアル3枚組タイトルが登場です。

★beatleg誌　vol.104（2009年3月号）のレビュー要約です。ご参考まで。

クイーンは武道館で通算17回の公演を行ったが、ここにはその最後の2公演が収録されている。[DISC-1]は通算16回目となる1985年5月8日の武道館公演で、開演前に会場内で流れたビリー・ジョエルの「It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me」から収録されており、4年3ヶ月ぶりに武道館でクイーンを迎える緊張した会場内の雰囲気も味わえる。久しぶりの武道館はクイーン側にも刺激的だったのか、翌日よりモチベーションの高い演奏に聴こえるから不思議なものだ。日本公演ではいつも合唱コンクールのような雰囲気になってしまう「Love Of My Life」だが、そうなったかと思いきや1分強でフェイド・アウトされてしまい、それ以降はテープが残されていないようで未収録となっている。音像はやや平坦で録音機周辺の女性ファンが騒がしい箇所もあるが、音質自体は大変明瞭で広がりのある良質なものだ。コンサートの前半部しか収録されていないが、この日はこれまでブート化されていなかっただけに大変貴重である。[DISC-2]と[DISC-3]は通算17回目にして最後となった1985年5月9日の武道館公演で、初日と同一人物による録音とのことだ。この日の方が録音環境には恵まれていたのか、音像は近く、録音機周辺に騒がしい女性ファンも居らず、大変良好な音質で捕えられている。しかしながら、この公演からはMasterportとWardourからリリースされた抜群の音質を誇る『At Last Budokan』が残されているので、これだけの音質にもかかわらずマニア向けになってしまうのだから何とも皮肉なものである。但し、コンサートは完全収録されているので、『At Last Budokan』で若干欠落の生じている「Now I’m Here」も完全収録されていることに注目だろう。又、『At Last Budokan』と同様に、スパイク・エドニーのキーボードの音が目立つ箇所が多いので、この日はそういうバランスだったことが両音源から確認出来ることも興味深い。

★2009年に50セット限定でリリースされ、ファン・メディアから好評を博した名音源タイトルが9年ぶりに再リリース決定です。

Live at Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 8th May 1985

Disc 1
1. It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me(Billy Joel) 2. Machines 3. Tear It Up 4. Tie Your Mother Down
5. Under Pressure 6. Somebody To Love 7. Killer Queen 8. Seven Seas Of Rhye 9. Keep Yourself Alive
10. Liar 11. Vocal Improvisation 12. It’s A Hard Life 13. Yeah Yeah Yeah 14. Dragon Attack
15. Now I’m Here 16. Is This The World We Created? 17. Love Of My Life

Live at Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 9th May 1985

Disc 2
1. Machines 2. Tear It Up 3. Tie Your Mother Down 4. Under Pressure 5. Somebody To Love
6. Killer Queen 7. Seven Seas Of Rhye 8. Keep Yourself Alive 9. Liar 10. Vocal Improvisation
11. It’s A Hard Life 12. Yeah Yeah Yeah 13. Dragon Attack 14. Now I’m Here

Disc 3
1. Is This The World We Created? 2. Love Of My Life 3. Guitar Solo/Brighton Rock
4. Another One Bites The Dust 5. Hammer To Fall 6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
7. Bohemian Rhapsody 8. Radio Ga Ga 9. I Want To Break Free 10. Jailhouse Rock
11. We Will Rock You 12. We Are The Champions 13. God Save The Queen

*Taken from the master cassettes. Both sources are NEVER circulated before.

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