Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 22, 2014

According to the not always reliable Wikipedia, a rainbow flag first flew as a symbol of gay pride in 1978 at that year’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco on June 25. That was some four years after Queen played the perhaps serendipitously named Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park in North London in 1974, but there’s little doubt that Freddie Mercury and his cohorts were out to establish themselves as bulwarks of freedom, expression and a perhaps somewhat intentionally ambivalent sexuality in what was then still a fairly cloistered and close minded society that was only just beginning to come to terms with issues like gay (or any so-called “alternative lifestyle”) rights. Queen wasn’t quite the global phenomenon it would soon become at this point in their career, but it’s obvious the band had already mastered the art of the stage show, for this is a high octane concert that offered an early glimpse of the showmanship that would come to define Mercury and his bandmates, as well as perhaps an entire era of arena rock.

One of the most enjoyable things about Queen Live at the Rainbow ‘74 is how effortlessly it proves that the band did not need studio wizardry to create their dense instrumental and (especially) vocal mix. There is a beautiful richness to the vocals, apparently done without any augmentation due to playback, that presents nicely layered harmonies in a very evocative yet forceful way. It would be another year before Freddie Mercury started really exploiting the possibilities of multitrack recording in tunes like Bohemian Rhapsody, but Queen Live at the Rainbow ‘74 proves quite easily how Mercury’s “vertical” musical thinking was expanding at an alarming rate.

The concert is high energy from the get go, with Freddie dancing manically around the stage and a battery of lights initiating almost seizure inducing flickers of “on again, off again” arrays. It’s really interesting to hear Freddie introduce the tunes, many of which were not yet that well known by the audience. The audience is surprisingly restrained throughout this performance. They’re obviously enjoying themselves, but they’re not quite at the rapturous levels Queen would soon be enjoying in their later tour lives.

The concert’s set list is:

• 1. Procession
• 2. Now I’m Here
• 3. Ogre Battle
• 4. Father To Son
• 5. White Queen (As It Began)
• 6. Flick Of The Wrist
• 7. In The Lap Of The Gods
• 8. Killer Queen
• 9. The March Of The Black Queen
• 10. Bring Back That Leroy Brown
• 11. Son And Daughter
• 12. Guitar Solo
• 13. Son And Daughter (Reprise)
• 14. Keep Yourself Alive
• 15. Drum Solo
• 16. Keep Yourself Alive (Reprise)
• 17. Seven Seas Of Rhye
• 18. Stone Cold Crazy
• 19. Liar
• 20. In The Lap Of The Gods… Revisited
• 21. Big Spender
• 22. Modern Times Rock ’n’ Roll
• 23. Jailhouse Rock
• 24. God Save The Queen

Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Queen Live at the Rainbow '74 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.30:1. This is another in the expanding line of Eagle Rock's self defined "SD Blu-ray" releases offering upscaled vido, outings that typically offer less than stellar video but lossless audio as perhaps a consolation prize. This presentation is pretty much in line with previous SD Blu-ray releases from the label, and I'd even go so far as to say it looks at least incrementally better than these screenshots might suggest. That said, this is far from a great looking video, and many will probably want to enjoy this Blu-ray as "mostly" an audio experience. Ironically, some of the best looking material comes up front, with the arrival of the band at the Rainbow, before they get onstage. Here, in adequate lighting and without the bells and whistles of both the stage performance and the video director (who tends to exploit lots of slow dissolves and superimposed imagery during the concert section), the boys' faces can be seen more less clearly, with decent if somewhat anemic color and acceptable if hardly stellar levels of detail. Unfortunately, things go downhill pretty dramatically once the concert footage starts, with an already fuzzy image exacerbated by inadequate lighting and camera coverage that is somewhat haphazard. Midrange and wide shots offer little more than blobs of moving color, though close-ups at least reveal a bit of clarity and detail. Black levels are rather good, though that means that many moments on a darkened stage are nothing but black, at least for a second or two.

Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Luckily there are no such qualms with regard to Queen Live at the Rainbow '74's two audio options, LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (both 96/24). There's considerably more amplitude and low end in the surround mix, and for once the surround iteration does not bury the vocals beneath the surging (and often massed) instrumental array. Some may feel that low end is just a tad too heavy in the 5.1 iteration, but I personally found it very forceful and enjoyable, and (best of all) at times startlingly clear. There is no damage in evidence and fidelity is top notch throughout the concert, with no problems of any kind to discuss.

Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bonus Songs (1080i; 10:30) come from the March 1974 Queen II Tour and include:

  Son and Daughter

  Guitar Solo

  Son and Daughter (Reprise)

  Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

All of the supplemental material is available in both audio formats present on the main concert.

Interestingly, this supplement ends with the following text:

The 10 minutes of footage you have just seen are from a 16mm combined optical print.

They are extracts from a longer concert film, approximately 38 minutes in duration, filmed in March 1974, which is currently missing.

If you have any information about this missing concert footage, please go to: www.queenonline.com/rainbowfootage.

Queen: Live at the Rainbow '74 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Queen Live at the Rainbow '74 captures the band right on the cusp of their international superstardom. All the pieces are obviously already well in place, with Mercury managing the audience brilliantly and the band both playing and singing their hearts out. The video presentation here is expectedly pretty shoddy, and so fans would be well advised to set their expectation meters accordingly. But the audio— which is, after all, probably more important—is solid and at times spectacular. Taken as a whole, Queen Live at the Rainbow '74 comes Recommended.