When the concert was finally shown, it was the first case of simultaneous radio and television broadcasting by the Independent British Radio Network and the 4th television channel. Since then, such an experiment has not been repeated anymore - possibly because each independent UK radio station needs to be equipped with a satellite “dish” to catch sound via satellite.
Queen went down in history again on July 27 (it seems to have become a habit for the band!) When they performed in Budapest at the Nepstadion stadium. For the first time, a rock band of this scale performed in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, and all tickets were sold out long before the start. The concert was filmed by the Hungarian State Film Agency Mafilm with the assistance of Queen Films. To carry out such a shooting, I had to use all the 35 mm video cameras available in the country!
On August 9, the group flew on a specially painted Magic Helicopter to Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire for the last performance of the Magic Tour. It was the biggest concert of all time of the tour - more than 120 thousand people attended it. He caused the biggest traffic jam in history, as everyone tried to arrive there on time. More than a million people attended Queen concerts during these tours - in the UK alone, their number exceeded 400 thousand.
In 1986, EMI released the full collection of Queen albums on CD - the first time such a collection of one artist was published at a time. In December, Queen's 15th album was released - it was their second live album. Live Magic took 3rd place in the UK charts. The premiere of the film Live In Budapest took place on December 13 in Budapest at 9 a.m. As a result, the hall was full in all 9 sessions on that day. And then during the week, 7 sessions went each day.
In 1986, 1,774,991 albums were sold in the UK alone. On February 3, 1987, Freddy released a cover version of Platters' old song, The Great Pretender. In the video for this song, Freddy recreated many scenes from his videos and the group's clips. Together with Peter Striker and Roger Taylor, they put on wigs and women's dresses and portrayed the singers as they sang along. The clip is very expensive.
Freddie always idolized the Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballe, and oinMarch 1986 he met her in her homeland in Barcelona. When Montserrat agreed to record an album with him, an amazing collaboration came out. Freddie dedicated a song about Barcelona to Montserrat, and recording began. They first performed together in May 1987 in Ibiza, when the festival dedicated to the Olympics-92 was held in the famous Ku Club. They performed "Barcelona".
In August 1987, Roger began looking for musicians and assembled the band The Cross. He wanted him to have a band with which to record songs, and most importantly to tour when Queen had periods of calm, which became longer.
In September 1987, the single Barcelona was released in Spain, and within 3 hours 10 thousand copies were sold. The Spanish Olympic Committee wanted to make the song a hymn to the upcoming 1992 Olympic Games but then changed its mind, which caused great discontent among fans.
During the whole "Magic Tour" in Europe, Queen was accompanied by an Austrian directorial and production duo - Rudy Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, filming them on stage, behind the scenes, on vacation, during a game - in general, on tour. Then the Austrians delved into the archives for a long time, picking up excerpts from concerts, interviews, and music videos. They interviewed the group, their friends and fans, as well as other stars. Finally, in November 1987, a documentary trilogy called The Magic Years ("Magic Years") was released. The trilogy has received numerous awards, including the famous "Silver Screen" in the United States (at the world's largest festival of film and television programs) and the IMMC award at the Montreux Golden Rose television festival. Also in 1987, Queen received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
In January 1988, Queen again went to the studio to record the next album. On January 25, The Cross's debut album, titled Shove It, was released. The Cross went on his first European tour, where he performed at clubs and universities in the UK and clubs in Germany.
On October 8, Freddy and Montserrat performed in Barcelona at the grand La Nit festival to mark the arrival of the Olympic flag from Seoul. Freddy and Montserrat closed the festival. They performed 3 songs from their upcoming album - Barcelona, The Golden Boy and How Can I Go On.
To be continued in the next part https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d6273f204af1f00aeac207e/a-brief-history-of-queen-part-7-5d91f266aad43600adeceb27