February 15, 2024, Centre in the Square, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
I apparently didn’t dawdle too long on getting tickets for this one, because we had great seats, sixth row centre. Although there are downsides to Classic Album Live “cut for cut, note for note” ethos of reproducing classic rock albums on-stage, overall I tend to enjoy them. I believe this is my seventh one.
As is true of many—but not quite all—Queen albums, I know News of the World very well. Every track. Every lyric. And partly thanks to also having the sheet music for the whole album (some of which I attempt to play on the piano), a heck of a lot of notes as well.
The Classic Albums Live troop did a really magnificent job with it. They brought a big contingent: three guitarists; a bassist, keyboardist, and drummer; a lead vocalist; and three backup vocalists. They were all so good—on the complicated drum parts, the multi-layered guitar bits, the keyboard runs… And the singer, Nick Walsh! He could not only cover Freddie’s full vocal range, but also Roger’s (on “Fight from the Inside”)!
I was fully prepared for what the CAL approach would mean: No band chit-chat while playing the full album. Starting out big with “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” but moving on to lesser-known album tracks (though as noted, none are really “less known” to me), in order. It was fun hearing some songs that, far as I know, Queen themselves have never (or best rarely) played live. The highlight—apart from the two Roger songs, as I love me some Roger songs—not only to me, but to the crowd as a whole, was the epic “It’s Late”, the closest thing this album has to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, in its three-part structure. Just magnificent!
But Jean, of course, was moderately bored during the first half, as he does not know the album inside out, and he prefers it when there is band chit-chat.
Fortunately, he got both chit-chat and more familiar songs in the second half. The band, mostly from Toronto but one person from Ottawa, talked of the challenge of trying to make it to the show on time given what were very snowy, blowy conditions that day. This factor had apparently also scared off some of the audience, as the show was more sparsely attended than Queen-adjacent shows usually are. Quite the pity!
This portion included songs like “Tie Your Mother Down”, “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Under Pressure”, “You’re My Best Friend”, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “I’m in Love with My Car”, and “Play the Game”. They mostly stayed pretty faithful to the studio recordings for these as well, which is not a complaint. Before playing the last song, which they told us would be the last song, that there was no “coming back for an encore” thing happening, was…
“Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Pretty hard to top.
Here was the full line-up:
Nick Walsh – vocals
Rob Phillips – guitar, vocals
Russell Gray – guitar
Des Leahy – guitar
Brendan McMillan – bass
Sarah Westbrook – piano, keys
Troy Feener – drums
Alex McMaster – vocals
Kevin Bath – vocals
Mia Sheard – vocals
Cultureguru Archive 