Over the past 50 years, there have been many benefit concerts that have taken place, but few that have left the indelible mark as the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness. This took place at London’s Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992. The former Queen front man succumbed to aids and other complications a few months prior. Now this legendary show is being made available through Eagle Rock Entertainment on a three (3) disc set that includes the entire show and bonus features including some of the artists’ rehearsals, photo galleries and interviews.
It was worth the wait as I, for one, watched it live back in the day and have not seen it since. To see it again brought back so many memories. This would be the last time you would really see Metallica perform as a true opener. It was also the last time you would see all the remaining members of Queen, Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon, perform together. (John Deacon officially retired as the other two members continue to perform.)
The camaraderie of the day’s events really made for a wonderful documentary of the entire day’s festivities. This newly remastered version is split up into three (3) separate discs. Disc one is all the opening acts, including the aforementioned, Extreme and Guns n’ Roses. Disc two is the main show which features the members of Queen performing with an array of artists (David Bowie, Robert Plant, George Michael and Elton John to name a few). The show ends with the entire cast singing “We are the Champions’ with Freddie’s favorite singer, Liza Minelli. Disc three is the bonus material.
Now we can talk about the good and the bad. Let’s start with the bad. This version, like the previous VHS releases, excludes Extreme’s “Love of My Life” and “More Than Words”, Def Leppard’s “Animal” and “Let’s Get Rocked”, Spinal Tap, U2 and Mango Groove from the opening acts segment of the show. Robert Plant’s “Innuendo” from the Queen live segment is also missing.
The good is that this version includes audio restoration along with the option of purchasing it in Blue Ray or in a regular DVD format. It sounds amazing and the video quality is very good. Anytime you get a start studded cast together (as it seems few and far between these days) and are able to relive those moments at anytime, that in itself is the highlight of purchasing this set.
It should be noted that this concert along with the family of Mercury spurred the Mercury Phoenix Trust into one of the biggest AIDS fighting charities worldwide.
