Ukraine - first ever official release of an opening night

I was thinking about this recently..I have an extensive collection of live dvds/blu-rays.
but apart from QPR in Ukraine, I can't seem to find any that was recorded on the opening night of a tour.

could anyone enlighten me?

If I recall correctly the ukraine show was not originally planned as part of the original tour. Moscow was supposed to be the opener.

The ukraine show was added later as an after thought due to a request from local aids awareness campaginers. It was filmed for Ukraine TV as part of the ukraine aids awareness campaign. I guess they just decided to make use of that footage (although as I understand it there were some extra cameras added, not used for the tv broadcast) and release it .

I suspect that if this particular concert had not happened we probably would not have a proper official filmed record of a concert from the tour at all. If i recall correctly there was no plan to film a specific concert like they did in 2005 at Sheffield.

It is possible they would have decided to release one of the south american shows as they were filmed for tv too, if the ukraine dvd /concert was not planned. But again I think these were filmed by local tv companies rather that queen productions. (In my opinion one of the south american concerts would have been a better choice for a DVD release given that it was later in the tour and had a better setlist. But I think ukraine was already planned,maybe even already released before the south american leg of the tour kicked off.)

Also, I think some of the money from the live in the ukraine dvd release went to an aids charity (maybe the Mercury Pheonix Trust for distribution to the ukrainian charity), but i might be wrong about that. If that was the case it gives an extra reason why that particular concert would be chosen.

But I agree, it is very rare for a band to release the 1st show of a tour on DVD, they normally take a few shows to iron out problems, tweak the setlists, before etc before filming one.

the show was added late, yes. but nevertheless - it became the first show of the tour

and it was filmed/directed by David Mallet who brought his own team - so it wasn't just a tv production

south america was filmed by "locals" - how I wish they will release it some day, as it's a much better representation of the tour

but back to my main point; releasing the first show..has it been done by someone else?

No idea, but I'm not sure it would be so much of an achievement anyway, the Ukraine show was sketchy, I wish they'd recorded Birmingham, everyone I've asked who went to a load of shows, said it was the best. It was certainly awesome. Or, actually as Danny wasn't there for Birmingham, Liverpool. That section of the tour was just fantastic.

Indeed it's very rare, but I wouldn't specifically advertise it... I might use it as an excuse when I'm faced with how poor the video looks.

First shows aren't usually filmed because the production is still evolving, the director hasn't seen the show and prepared for it, and the venue itself might present some surprises.

Of course it's easier when Brian and Roger are doing the same poses as last tour (and some bits like the guitar solo stretching back to 1970) which the director has seen before, and you can have enough cameras to film anything anyway these days. So technically it might work, but it just isn't a good representation of the tour.

Sheffield does indeed look better than Ukraine. It helps when the director's has seen the show before

somehow - I don't think Mallet captures the size of the gig. 350 000 people is an incredible amount, but yet - I've seen concert films where 25% of such an amount looks just as big

[Kes]

As others have said, First night's are not usually the best to film and use as your showcase.

The band are still getting everything into a routine, and adding the polish. The whole crew are tweaking the unexpected bits as they happen, they get sound issues as people move around the stage, and can't hear their bits well enough in the monitors, and the director hasn't seen a show, because there hasn't really been one to use as an example.

Even the set list hadn't evolved; that's one thing that bugs me is that there wasn't really anything "new" apart from 'Bijou', 'C-lebrity', and 'Cosmos Rockin''. As the tour progressed, so did the set list (somewhat), and it would've been neat to have had some of the more surprising stuff they performed: 'Las Palabras', 'We Believe', 'Surf's Up', 'Voodoo', 'Warboys'... whatever your opinions of those songs may be, they certainly spiced up the set list and would've been a more enticing purchase for anyone who had already purchased "Return Of The Champions".

edit: I just noticed that I bumped a thread nearly a month old. Whatever, get off my back!

Hahaha. That's true though, even things that didn't work so well in the more evolved setlist made it more interesting. Halfway through Brian was still singing the first verse of We Believe and it was awful, but still, an interesting test of something new.

Hahaha. That's true though, even things that didn't work so well in the more evolved setlist made it more interesting. Halfway through Brian was still singing the first verse of We Believe and it was awful, but still, an interesting test of something new.

Y'know, I seem to remember that being the case, but I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or just remembered things wrong, but I cannot for the life of me find a video where he did that. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough, but I seem to remember it being interesting, if not... odd. Then again, I've recently gotten a new appreciation for 'We Believe' (I know, I know) after being indifferent to it for so long, so I'm kind of at that stage of wanting to hear all versions of the song.

He definitely did it at Nottingham, possibly at the 02 the first time around too, but I don't remember that one as well. I love the song, but apart from that them playing new stuff was good, it wasn't great live, even when Paul was singing the whole thing, it was a bit weak. Surf's Up was probably the best surprise live, it just really worked well, better than the album version I think.

I agree – I remember thinking that 'Cosmos Rockin' would have been a perfect opener, but when I heard 'Surf's Up' as the opener it just made sense. I really think QPR should have been more adventurous with their set list – have 'Still Burnin'' lead into 'WWRY', introduce 'Some Things That Glitter' and 'Small' into the acoustic set, replace 'IILWMC' with 'Tenement Funster', and rotate a bunch of familiar songs. The set was too similar to the 2005/2006 tour, and from all accounts I've read, Brian was the one who was the most resistant to changing things around – I recall reading somewhere that he kicked up a lot of dust over 'Surf's Up' being the opener and wanted 'Hammer To Fall' as the opener, which in my opinion just did not work at all.

Then again, I'm preaching to the choir

Yeah I agree. I do remember thinking that one of the openings was a bit Brian-heavy, Hammer To Fall, Fat Bottomed Girls, Tie Your Mother Down and I Want It All...in a row, not exactly varied! Yeah they were quite unadventurous with the setlist, I wonder why Brian did want it changed much though? Had it been Paul you'd understand, it would mean he had to learn a whole new setlist.

Hahaha. That's true though, even things that didn't work so well in the more evolved setlist made it more interesting. Halfway through Brian was still singing the first verse of We Believe and it was awful, but still, an interesting test of something new.

Y'know, I seem to remember that being the case, but I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or just remembered things wrong, but I cannot for the life of me find a video where he did that. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough, but I seem to remember it being interesting, if not... odd. Then again, I've recently gotten a new appreciation for 'We Believe' (I know, I know) after being indifferent to it for so long, so I'm kind of at that stage of wanting to hear all versions of the song.

I'm sure I've seen a video of that on YouTube. Quite exciting to hear Brian sing the first verse.

If I don't forget I'll look for it later tonight.

V.

Should've filmed Wembley, I was there... brilliant gig!

Surf's Up, Voodoo, We Believe and Cosmos Rockin' (ESPECIALLY) were all among the highlights of the night to be honest. They sounded phenomenal.