As Queen was preparing to embark on their 2008 tour to support the album The Cosmos Rocks Brian May received a call. He was asked if the band might be willing to come to the Ukraine to play a consert for the Elena Franchuk AntiAids Foundation. Of course this is a subject near and dear to the heart of the band and they also have never played there. So without any question they agreed to perform an outdoor concert in the city of Kharkov. Originally projected to have a crowd of 150,000 it soon became apparent that this estimation was extremely low. By the time they took the stage the audience has swelled to 350,000! A further 10 million tuned in on TV to watch the spectacular.
I won't go into the logistics of what it took to get this concert off the ground; you can read about that in the booklet that comes with this terrific package. Let's just say that it was a nightmare getting it accomplished.
This is the second live CD/DVD package for the band since the reunion of sorts with Paul Rodgers. It might seem a little odd to put out two that close together but this is a very special occasion and they had put out an album in between. They do play many of the songs that appeared on the first live disc but this one does have a larger selection from the Rodgers side of this musical equation and of course material from the new studio album too.
There is really not much need to go into detail on the songs that are on here as most of them are ingrained within the soul of most rock and rollers. Let me hit some of the highlights.
After romping through eight Queen classics to open the show, Paul Rodgers comes out to do a solo of his fantastic song "Seagull". This is the start to the acoustic portion of the show where you also get a chance to hear 350,000 people overwhelm Brian May singing "Love Of My Life" when they start to sing in unison. After that let me just say that the song "39" and the drum solo that follows are one of the highlights of the evening. Yes the drum solo, I have never seen one done quite like this and I will not spoil the surprise.
They also seem to get quite a lift as they tear through some of Rodgers greatest hits. "Shooting Star", "Bad Company", "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "Alright Now" all are done extremely well and May seems to really like some different material as he nails these to perfection! Then there is a crowd of 350,000 swaying to "We Are The Champions". This is the kind of stuff that rock and roll is all about and these guys still bring it with the best of them. By the time you hear "God Save The Queen" you have been through 2 hours that could almost define a generation. This is music for the ages and this may be the last we get to see of them. Paul Rodgers was Freddie Mercury's choice as his replacement and it is easy to see why. He is one of the two singers that I could think of that might even come close to pulling this off. If you still have that rock and roll in your soul, this is a must have for the collection. Not to mention that the 2 CD + DVD set is only about $15! What a steal for this great music.
Track listing
1. One Vision
2. Tie Your Mother Down
3. The Show Must Go On
4. Fat Bottomed Girls
5. Another One Bites The Dust
6. Hammer To Fall
7. I Want It All
8. I Want To Break Free
9. Seagull
10. Love Of My Life
11. '39
12. Drum Solo
13. I'm In Love With M Car
14. Say It's Not True
15. Shooting Star
16. Bad Company
17. Guitar Solo
18. Bijou
19. Last Horizon
20. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
21. C-lebrity
22. Fell Like Makin' Love
23. Cosmos Rockin'
24. All Right Now
25. We Will Rock You
26. We Are The Champions
27. God Save The Queen
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