Queen – We Will Rock You (Live Aid 1985)

Queen performing at Live Aid in front of 72,000 people in Wembley Stadium, London on the 13th July, 1985. The event was organized by Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine disaster.

“We Will Rock You” – Single by Queen from the album News of the World
A-side “We Are the Champions”
Released 7 October 1977
Label EMI (UK), Elektra (US)
Songwriter Brian May
Producers Queen, Mike Stone
Charted No.1 in France, No.8 in Belgium.

Queen often performed a faster version of the song at their concerts, since they wanted an up-tempo song to start the show and get the crowd going. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, they would often open their shows with this version. This can be heard on their 1979 Live Killers album, as well as the 1981 Rock Montreal DVD and the 1982 On Fire Live at the Bowl DVD. It was replaced in the setlist as the opener by “One Vision” in 1986.

The band noted that for the News of the World album in 1977, they wanted to go for a more simple, stripped-down sound. Roger Taylor notes in several interviews that perhaps this was a response to the Punk explosion, which actively encouraged stripped-down instrumentation. “We knew we couldn’t reinvent ourselves into a punk band, but perhaps maybe we could make it a bit more simple… to keep more in tune with what was going on at the time” notes the drummer. The band (except for Brian May, of course) even got shorter haircuts around this time.

“We Will Rock You” was released as a double A-side single with “We Are The Champions.” Since the single’s release, the band has almost always used “Rock You” and “Champions” as a back-to-back encore, with “Champions” closing the show and segueing into a tape playing Queen’s version of “God Save The Queen.”

The original music video for “We Will Rock You” was filmed in 1978 at the back garden of Roger Taylor’s mansion. It sees the band lip synching the song, hand clapping with gloves and foot stomping on a frozen ground. In an interview with Billboard, Taylor spoke on filming the video:

We shot it on the grounds of a country house I’d just bought in Surrey and we hadn’t completed the sale, so we weren’t allowed in the house. We figured, ‘we might as well shoot it here.’ It was absolutely freezing cold and we did three takes.

Recording Musicians:
Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals, hand claps, foot stamping
Brian May – guitars, backing vocals, hand claps, foot stamping
Roger Taylor – backing vocals, hand claps, foot stamping
John Deacon – hand claps, foot stamping
Elizabeth Edwards – backing vocals, hand claps, foot stamping[24]
Andrew Turner – backing vocals, hand claps, foot stamping[