Chris Thompson - FM tribute concert -92 & Cardiff Castle -76

Re Chris Thompson I'm sure he's a terrific singer/chap, and by all accounts was indispensable during the Tribute rehearsals.. but I think giving him a whole song to do (let alone two) would have been madness.

Two would've been too much, but one would've been good. Chris, unlike many of the guest singers, actually knew Fred / worked with him briefly. Cherone had had 20-odd minutes as part of one of the supporting acts, he did a great job but there was no need to have him for yet another song ... another option was Zucchero, who was basically irrelevant for the big picture and who never even met Frederick - plus 'Magic' (either sung by Rog or Chris), as much as I dislike it (sort of), is a far more important Queen song than 'Hammer to Fall' or 'Las Palabras de Amor.'

I think I remember this particular mulberry bush from way back, and I still disagree I'm afraid. It wasn't a "friends of Freddie" concert after all, it was a global high profile event supposedly on a par with Live Aid (as Bob Geldof put it, "Do you sell a million records? You're on!"). I cannot see how Chris Thompson, in terms of profile, would have fitted in at all. Quite why they promised him a song I don't know.

Gary Cherone made sense too, the other 'support' group lead singers also returned for a song each.

Quite why they promised him a song I don't know. .

Maybe for the exact reason we're talking about. If everything went to time then he sings, if things are running over, that's a song that can be cut without too much fuss being made.

Quite why they promised him a song I don't know. .

Maybe for the exact reason we're talking about. If everything went to time then he sings, if things are running over, that's a song that can be cut without too much fuss being made.

I think you've got it..

[Kes]

And that's the way it was.

Spinal Tap took half an hour to do a four minute song, and so the second half had to be cut, somehow.

Like it or lump it, Wembley isn't way out in the sticks, they have noise abatement laws, just like Heathrow, so laws 'is' laws.

I think I remember this particular mulberry bush from way back, and I still disagree I'm afraid. It wasn't a "friends of Freddie" concert after all, it was a global high profile event...

Axl Rose was high profile at the time. So was Hetfield. So was Seal. Zucchero? Er... not really - not on the same scale anyway.

Gary Cherone made sense too, the other 'support' group lead singers also returned for a song each.

Really? Bob Geldof returned? Michael McKean?

Spinal Tap had unexpected equipment issues which weren't their fault but added to the delay....I really felt for them as the atmosphere was getting quite taut in the stadium; of all the bands for it to happen to it had to be them, and people didn't initially know if it was part of the act :-/

They could quite easily have ditched U2 by video link - what a waste of time that was and really brought the mood down with no one paying much attention.

Sigh. And here we go again, around that old mulberry bush.

I think I remember this particular mulberry bush from way back, and I still disagree I'm afraid. It wasn't a "friends of Freddie" concert after all, it was a global high profile event...

Axl Rose was high profile at the time. So was Hetfield. So was Seal. Zucchero? Er... not really - not on the same scale anyway.

Yes I'm afraid my focus was on the actual subject of the thread, ie Chris Thompson. So let's talk about Zucchero? OK. He was the wild card on the day, certainly the least high profile in comparison with other acts. What he DID have was a very big, very recent hit single with Paul Young.

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On the charts for twelve weeks in 1991 and reaching number 4 in the UK, fact fans.

Let's look at Chris Thompson's record.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band had got to number 6 in the UK charts in 1976 and 1978 with "Blinded By The Light" and "Davy's On The Road Again".

OK, I can also find a single called "If You Remember Me" by Chris Thompson and Night. It was on the charts for five weeks in 1979 and reached number 42.

A little bit out outdated there. Let's see what he'd done in the years immediately pre tribute concert that the audience might have recognised.

From good old Wiki
In 1989, Thompson recorded the single "The Challenge (Face It)" as the official theme song for the 1989 Wimbledon Tennis Championships. He co-wrote the song with Harold Faltermeyer. A year later, in 1990, Thompson worked again with Faltermeyer in writing the 1990 song for Wimbledon, Hold the Dream by Franzisca.
Also in 1990, Thompson recorded the single "This Is The Moment" as the official theme song for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

So in the Zucherro vs Chris Thompson race for the bottom, who is the least significant, the least well known, the most likely to make the audience say "just who the fuck is that?" and go to the bar/turn the TV off, because frankly that's what we're into now folks, I think Chris just about trumps Zucherro.

(Seb - 'Except Chris met Freddie and Zucherro didn't. So Chris gets the gig!')

Gary Cherone made sense too, the other 'support' group lead singers also returned for a song each.

Really? Bob Geldof returned? Michael McKean?

You know exactly what I meant*, as did literally everyone else.

But here it is in full anyway.

"Gary Cherone from Extreme made sense too. After all, the lead singers of the other three globally successful rock bands, each of whom had played a set in the opening half of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS awareness on April 20th 1992 (ie. Joe Elliot from Def Leppard, Axl Rose from Guns n Roses and James Hetfield from Metallica) all returned to the stage to sing at least one song each with the surviving members of Queen (Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor) plus assorted backing musicians (including Tony Iommi, Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley, Spike Edney and also Chris Thompson from Manfred Mann's Earth Band.)"

(Seb - 'The latter of whom should have replaced Gary Cherone, as Chris met Freddie once.')

Though quite what they were thinking of, NOT having a fictional character in a wig from Spinal Tap sing "Delilah", or Bob Geldof singing "You Take My Breath Away" is beyond me.


Edit -f**k it.

Spinal Tap had unexpected equipment issues which weren't their fault but added to the delay....I really felt for them as the atmosphere was getting quite taut in the stadium; of all the bands for it to happen to it had to be them, and people didn't initially know if it was part of the act :-/

They could quite easily have ditched U2 by video link - what a waste of time that was and really brought the mood down with no one paying much attention.

Yeah I agree. Mango Groove was a bit damn odd too!

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/cardiff- ... ivals.html

The stage in 1976, Cardiff Castle open air concert. Richie Blackmore was supposed to support Queen, but Manfred Mann came instead, and Chris Thompson and Brian met here for the first time. (Notice the Queen crest on the speaker cabinets).

Richie Blackmore & Rainbow refused to play Cardiff Castle because they couldn't get onstage their 35-foot high artificial rainbow which they regarded as an "essential part of their act". Probably they weren't allowed to put it up due to upstaging Queen!


01. Bohemian Rhapsody (intro)
02. Ogre Battle
03. Sweet Lady
04. White Queen
05. Flick Of The Wrist
06. You're My Best Friend
07. Bohemian Rhapsody
08. Killer Queen
09. March Of The Black Queen
10. Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise)
11. Bring Back That Leroy Brown
12. Brighton Rock
13. Son And Daughter (reprise)
14. '39
15. You Take My Breath Away
16. The Prophet's Song
17. Stone Cold Crazy
18. Doin' All Right (*)
19. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon (*)
20. Tie Your Mother Down (*)
21. Keep Yourself Alive
22. Liar
23. In The Lap Of The Gods... revisited
24. Now I'm Here (*)
25. Big Spender (*)
26. Jailhouse Rock (*)
27. God Save The Queen (*)

The rainbow that Rainbow were using was only 54ft wide. It would have obscured the down stage view of Queens light show and hidden Freddie when he was sat at the piano from anyone stood to the left of the stage. It would have also been pointless as lighting it in daylight would have achieved nothing. It would have also taken too long to de rig such a large piece of set, which would have been the alternative to obscuring part of Queen's show. Of course Rainbow could have played with out it ( they weren't headlining) but chose not too.

Seeing the setlist makes you realise how much was missing from Hyde Park which may be a reason for the them not wishing to release it.

Sigh. And here we go again, around that old mulberry bush.

So, to sum up:

- We'll probably never agree on the ideal line-up and set-list, which is fine because we don't have to.
- You say all the other lead singers came back to perform, but not all of them did.
- We agree to disagree on the Zucchero vs Chris. It's not about who met Frederick (I do admit I was more hung up on that point some years earlier, now not that much), but an overall comparison which, IMO, included the actual song they did (or are you now gonna tell me 'Las Palabras de Amor' was more significant than 'A Kind of Magic'?) and their actual skill. You've proved Zucchero was arguably more successful at the time and more likely to be recognised, fair enough. But my point about LPDA being a really odd choice for such a high-profile concert (your words, not mine), still stands... and, in fact, it also applies to Cherone (bar the excellent Queen Medley his band did, plus of course the crowd-favourite LOML and the only Extreme song non-fans ever knew of, which is also great for a support act for an event like that one).

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Chris Thompson also co-wrote" You're The Voice" that became a top 10 hit in the UK for John Farnham.

Cold war song, still relevant today.



And Chris became a member of the SAS.band.

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Chris totally rules this show, esp. when singing Davy's On The Road Again. Good to see him so happy

It must also be said that in 1992, Zucchero was (is?) a massive star in Italy and I believe elsewhere on the continent. Obviously the concert was being broadcast internationally.