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Last update August 2008
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The Knebworth Park Festivals. The Magic Tour 86 . August 9th 1986. Queen Status Quo Big Country Beloius Some.
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This is what 120,00 Queen fans in a field look like -Knebworth 1986
Before we begin, we might as well come clean, Queen are one of The Archives LEAST favourite megabands , but we will do our best to be impartial and cover this, their last ever performance , with as much enthusiasm and objectivity as possible. In 1986, Queen were at the pinnacle of their career, they had emerged from relative obscurity in the early 70s to international stardom in the later part of the decade ( they attracted a huge crowd at their free concert in Hyde park in 1976 ) on the back of such radio friendly hits as ' We Will Rock You " and "Bohemian Rhapsody". They were the sort of band who appealed to a very wide audience , as their music had a touch of heaviness as well as being melodic and above all, catchy. They also had , as all huge bands seem to do, a frontman that attracted both males and females, in the form of Freddie Mercury. Freddie was simply outrageous, he could camp it up and rock it out when needed and developed an enormous following who idolised him . As is common knowledge nowadays, Freddie was gay, or at the very least, bisexual, but at the time Mercury had not " come out " and although there were hints as to his sexual leanings in his lyrics (and the very name of the band itself) there was still enough ambiguity for Freddie to appeal to both sexes, like Bowie in the 70s , the knowledge that he probably swung both ways was enough to maintain his universal appeal. |
On the way to the show.... |
Unfortunately, Mercury was to fall victim to the dread epidemic that decimated the gay community in the 80s. He contracted AIDS and as there was no way to slow the progression of the illness at the time, he succumbed to the disease in 1991, only announcing that he was HIV positive the day before his death .
Perfect weather , the 1986 crowd and stage © Henry Cobbold Knebworth House |
In 1986, no one was apparently aware that Freddie was ill, although the band had already decided to have a lengthy spell away from touring after this long tour was over. Whatever , Mercury looked full of energy and was in good spirits onstage at Knebworth . We are no fans, but the footage we have seen certainly shows the band in top form and delivering an excellent set. Unfortunately the video feed of the concert seems not to have been archived and the only visual record that exists,(apart from a few minutes of BBC footage, which does not really focus on the band onstage ) is that taken from the screen above the stage by someone in the audience with a camera . This is less than great quality , given the camcorder technology available in those days. Fortunately , the audio was preserved and a big chunk of it was released on the album " Live Magic' - although in a heavily edited form, so much of the feel of the show has been lost in the transition . We have scoured the net for evidence of recordings made by the support bands, but so far- nothing ...... |
Queen wowing the followers during " Radio Ga Ga" |
It was day of perfect weather , so there were not mud baths or masses of cars to dig out, but there was a huge crowd and the approaches to the park were heavily clogged with traffic for up to five miles around the site. The crowd was let in to the arena around 9 am and they had a long wait , as the first band, the unfortunate "Beloius Some " was badly treated by the crowd. Mr Some, aka Neville Keighley, was well known in the emerging dance scene but was NOT the sort of act to go down well at a Queen concert . He was bottled ,although most of the plastic containers thrown at him did not connect . Those hit by the containers threw them back at others and a jolly good time was had by all.. we don't think....
There were hour long gaps between the bands ( quite reasonable by Knebworth standards , which had been known to stretch out to three hours or more ) and Status Quo were well received when they took to the stage. The band were sporting two new members in the form of a new rhythm section . Quo were nearly always a good band at a festival and this time round proved to be no exception. It seems the highlight of their act was when a roadie stole the show by climbing onto the top of the stage and successfully managing to upstage the band by pretending to play a large cutout guitar whilst head banging frantically. The band were rumoured to have sacked him for this transgression . Quo were on early ( normally they would have been expected to come on just before Queen , but they were playing another gig later on in the day, so they had to nick off .
Big Country ? © Henry Cobbold Knebworth House |
This left the Scottish tinged act Big Country, to pave the way for the headliners,. Big Country were quite popular in the 80s,although they never had massive hits, their album ' The Seer" did chart at number 2 in 1986, but for all that , they were rather strange band to be on this bill, as they would not seem to appeal particularly to Queen fans . Their music had a celtic feel to it and really did not connect to the populistic and anthemic Queen tunes , but who knows, perhaps they were on the bill because members of Queen liked them..... or perhaps because they were not likely to outperform Queen and thus steal their glory ...
Just how well Big Country went down is arguable as reported sources vary, with quote regarding them doing four encores to none at all ! They were the recipients of a full 2 litre bottle of something or other thrown from the crowds, but they got better reception than Beloius Some .
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Queen themselves played near a two hour show which showcased most of their greatest hits . The crowd response was rapturous, reports are that the sound was excellent and everyone had a good view thanks to the big screen above the stage. This show was a triumph of organisation and facilities compared to the previous dire weather and lack of a screen for Deep Purple in 1985. However there were things to complain about .The toilets fell way below the expected standards.The most dangerous being that some idiot turned off ALL the lights in the field after the show was finished. Given there were at least 120,000 there, possibly many more , it seems crazy that there were no " house lights" to allow the audience to leave safely. There are reports of people taking several hours just to leave the arena, as they more or less had to creep slowly in the dark nose to tail in the direction of the exits . Once out of the arena , many were then forced to wait for more hours as the police quizzed the passengers on each coach about whether they had witnessed the stabbing that took place at the concert ( three men were later tried and jailed over the murder )
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Recordings and setlists.
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Boot CD version of the show
Still from poor quality video feed ( this is one of the BETTER bits ) |
Queen
Setlist
Unofficial recordings Final Magic at Knebworth
Park (Aud Video ) Electric Magic (Audience
audio Recording) Both recordings appear to complete renditions of the show. large portions of the show featured on the official release "Live Magic " |
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More info about this concert can also be found at the Knebworth House site and at Rip Gooch's site, which contains substantial portions of text from the now out of print book Knebworth Rock Festivals, by Chryssie Lytton Cobbold .
Can we get a witness ?
We have been endeavouring to collect as many recordings of the artists that featured at these concerts as possible, so we can effectively review the performances, provide set lists and band line-ups. Any info displayed on these pages or which is sent to us for review remains the copyright of the contributor and the Archive makes NO PROFIT from its use. The intention is to also display as many personal histories of the festival as possible for the benefit of readers of the site and we welcome all written contributions, no matter how long or short.
If you can contribute in any way, with tapes, reviews , photos or personal histories, please Contact email
Knebworth Concerts 1974-86
Knebworth links
