The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert - Concert

Concert

"Good evening Wembley and the world. We are here tonight to celebrate the life, and work, and dreams, of one Freddie Mercury. We're gonna give him the biggest send off in history"

—Queen guitarist Brian May.

The concert opened with a message from the three remaining members of Queen in tribute to Mercury. The music then commenced with short sets from bands that were influenced by the music of Queen, including Metallica, Extreme (playing a Queen medley), Def Leppard (who brought Brian May onstage for a faithful version of "Now I'm Here"), and Guns N' Roses. Between bands, several video clips honouring Freddie Mercury were shown, while the roadies changed the stage for the following act's performance.

The second half of the concert featured the three remaining Queen members - John Deacon (on bass), Brian May (on guitar) and Roger Taylor (on drums) - along with guest singers and guitarists, including Elton John, Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), David Bowie, Mick Ronson (of Spiders from Mars), James Hetfield (of Metallica), George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose and Slash (of Guns N' Roses), Liza Minnelli, and others. This was the second high-profile project with both Elton John and George Michael in as many years; the year before, they did a live reworking of John's song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Via satellite from Sacramento, California, U2 dedicated a live performance of "Until the End of the World" to Mercury. The drum set used by Roger Taylor during the show was given to Taylor Hawkins, drummer of the Foo Fighters and Queen fanatic, and is currently stored in Studio 606.

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