Queen + Paul Rodgers in London 2008

You have probably noticed by now that a large percentage of my concert posts are about Bruce Springsteen. Yes, Bruce Springsteen is my favourite solo artist. However, my favourite band, and this was long before I discovered Bruce Springsteen, was Queen. Unfortunately, by the time I moved to the UK in 1988 they were no longer touring. And three years after that, we lost Freddie. Not only that, but on that day, the Greeks suddenly discovered Queen. Yes, the same people who were teasing me and bullying me for listening to "that faggot" were now talking about "a sad day for music" and "a great loss". Go figure. So, I never got the chance to see them live although I got lots of video tapes and DVD's. And as a hardcore fan, Queen were not just about Freddie Mercury to me and I kept following the solo careers of Brian May and Roger Taylor over the years. So when I learned that they had teamed up with Paul Rodgers (of Bad Company and Free) as a lead singer for a new album and a tour and was also offered a pre-sale link for their November 2008 London concert I jumped at the chance. OK, so I could not see Freddie live, but why not see Brian and Roger live? The truth is, I had seen both of them in person in 2001 at the traffic lights at the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street opposite the Dominion Theatre where the "We Will Rock You" musical was playing. But this was a chance to see them perform. And not just perform, but perform Queen songs. And what's more Paul Rodgers was a respectable stand-in for Freddie, since he was not just a singer, but a rock singer, from a similar era.
And so, 10 years ago, in November 2008, I flew to London for this great gig. It was also the first time I was visiting the O2 Arena, which I had known as The Millennium Dome 8 years before that.
And yes, I saw what I wanted to see: Queen songs, but also Free and Bad Company songs since Paul was the lead singer. And I even saw a bit of Freddie. He appeared on the video screens not only on "Bohemian Rhapsody" (you can't have "Bohemian Rhapsody" without Freddie) but also on "Bijou". Because the band performed songs that Queen had never performed live, songs from "The Miracle" and "Innuendo" albums, like "I Want It All" and "The Show Must Go On". And there were also songs from the "The Cosmos Rocks" album which they had released with Paul Rodgers at the time. Apart from Paul singing his Free and Bad Company songs, Roger got his moment taking centre stage for a drum solo and "I'm In Love With My Car" (on which he sang the lead vocals on the "A Night At The Opera" album anyway) and Brian also had his own place in the spotlight with a guitar solo and his solo hit "Last Horizon". Somewhere at that point, Brian told the audience that in whichever city they were playing, they would play a local song. So what could they play at the O2 Arena then? A cover of "Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner" to which the audience sang along.

And like the original Queen gigs it all ended with "We Will Rock You", "We Are The Champions" and "God Save The Queen".
All in all it was great entertainment for a Friday night, but before going home early on Sunday morning I also had the chance to see the Monty Python musical "Spamalot" on Saturday night. An amazing London weekend!

SETLIST:
01. Hammer To Fall
02. Tie Your Mother Down
03. Fat Bottomed Girls
04. Another One Bites The Dust
05. I Want It All
06. I Want To Break Free
07. C-lebrity
08. Surf's Up... School's Out!
09. Seagull
10. Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner
11. Love Of My Life
12. '39
13. Drum Solo
14. I'm In Love With My Car
15. A Kind Of Magic
16. Say It's Not True
17. Voodoo
18. Bad Company
19. We Believe
20. Guitar Solo
21. Bijou
22. Last Horizon
23. Radio Ga Ga
24. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
25. The Show Must Go On
26. Bohemian Rhapsody
Encore:
27. Cosmos Rockin'
28. All Right Now
29. We Will Rock You
30. We Are The Champions
God Save The Queen

Leon of Athens in the open air

When Leon of Athens plays near your home you can't miss the opportunity... Especially if it's a free gig!
This is exactly what happened last month in Kifissia. It was my 3rd Leon Of Athens gig, but my first in the open. The place? Villa Kazouli in Kifissia. When I first moved near the area, more than 30 years ago, the place was a derelict and abandoned building. Thankfully, at some point it was restored and put to good use by the local council. And it was indeed the first time that I visited it.

While wandering outside the place, trying to find the entrance, I disovered that the doors were still closed, I managed however to catch a glimpse of Leon's final rehearsal playing a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence".

This was indeed the song with which he opened his set, after an introduction by the organizer.

All the usual favourites were in the set, including "I'm On Fire", "Under Pressure", "Over The Rainbow" and "Baby Asteroid". 

Plus a very nice song about his island, "Corfu", which I had seen on YouTube before, but with a different arrangement. 

But it was a completely different experience listening to all of these on a summer night under the stars and a full moon!

Not everybody was amused though. You see this gig was part of a summer-long festival organized by the local council.

And some of the locals, mostly old age pensioners attend every gig mostly of Greek stars of the 60's and the 70's. It wasn't surprising though that some of them started shouting, in the middle of a song "don't you speak any Greek?" "I don't like this!". The organizer, who was sitting directly in front of me was trying to explain that it is clearly stated in the programme that Leon sings mainly in English, but to no avail. And he did sing a song in Greek but by then they were not paying any attention so nobody noticed it.

Aside from that, it was a great gig with an encore, the highlight of which was when Leon sang a song about a childhood friend of his and spotted her mother in the audience.
But most importantly, after the gig I had the chance to meet Leon in person, show him my Bruce Springsteen t-shirt and thank him for always including "I'm On Fire" in his set!

Leon Of Athens @ Gazarte Reloaded

And so we're finally at the end of 2015 and our last gig was - almost - a repeat of an earlier one of this same year. I say "almost" because although it was the same artist and the same venue the situation was a bit different.

Leon Of Athens was back at Gazarte where we last saw him in back in April, but this time it was in a different hall of the venue. This time it was at the roof hall surrounded by glass giving us a very good view of Christmas Athens, including the Acropolis. 

And this time we were all close to the stage making it a more intimate experience. The setlist was based on the last gig, but there were also a couple of new songs. As far as I am concerned I was happy that he kept the Bruce Springsteen and Queen covers, (my favourite artist and band respectively), so once again we enjoyed covers of "I'm On Fire" and "Under Pressure" plus his own well-loved songs like "Global", "Lifeline", my personal favourite "Dreamers" and his latest single "Baby Asteroid"

 

It wasn't exactly Christmas eve, but Leon gave us our Christmas gig of 2015 and we are already making our plans for more music to come in 2016

Leon Of Athens @ Gazarte

After Still Corners and Future Islands, Leon Of Athens was another one of my girlfriend's gig suggestions.  Thankfully, this time, she DID come along! :LOL:

Leon Of Athens is a Greek musician (hence the "Of Athens" bit) who is now based in the UK. (Before that he was called just "Leon"). Last April's gig at Gazarte was organized in order to celebrate one year since the release of his latest album "Global" copies of which were available to buy on CD and vinyl at the exit after the end of the gig (Almost exactly one year before that, he had appeared at the same venue).

The gig was opened by Arete Kosmidou, winner of one of the talent shows on Greek TV.

Then it was time for Leon Of Athens. The setlist consisted of several songs from "Global" (a fact that caused me to make a mental note to buy the album afterwards).

The surprises though were in the cover versions. How did Leon Of Athens know that my favourite artist is Bruce Springsteen and my favourite band is Queen? He must have known somehow because he played "I'M On Fire" from the former and "Under Pressure" from the latter!

Another surprise (well, technically not a surprise since it had been announced beforehand) was the guest appearance of Pavlos Pavlides.

Finally, one of the highlights of the night was the cover of "Friday I'm In Love". Leon apparently forgot some of the lyrics, but that was not a problem because we remembered the rest (well, some of them) and turned it into a great singalong.
And with that, we said goodbye to Leon Of Athens, we wish him success in his future projects and hope that we won't have to wait a whole year to see him again!

Queen + Freddie Mercury

Πριν από 20 χρόνια, ξημέρωσε στην Ελλάδα το πρωινό της 25ης Νοεμβρίου 1991. Και ξαφνικά όλη η χώρα γέμισε με fans των Queen. Όλοι μιλούσαν για την "μεγάλη απώλεια" του Freddie Mercury. Και εγώ αναρωτιόμουν που ήταν όλοι αυτοί την προηγούμενη δεκαετία όταν όλοι όσοι μιλούσαν Ελληνικά με κορόιδευαν που άκουγα "αυτές τις αγριαδερφάρες" και "αυτόν τον αρχιπ**στάρα" τον Mercury. Ο οποίος Mercury ήταν όντως bisexual, και πα΄νω που όλοι είχανε πιστέψει ότι ήταν αποκλειστικά ομοφυλόφιλος, αφού είχε πλέον μόνιμη σχέση με άντρα στο Λονδίνο, αποδείχτηκε ότι είχε και παράλληλη σχέση με γυναίκα στο Βερολίνο (Freddie! Όλα τα σφάζει, όλα τα μαχαιρώνει!).

Δυστυχώς, δεν πρόλαβα να δω τους Queen live. Όταν ήμουν πλέον Αγγλία το 1989 που έβγαλαν το Miracle είχαν πλέον σταματήσει τις περιοδείες. Γι αυτό και έστω ως παρηγοριά το 2008 πήγα στην O2 Arena στο Λονδίνο να δω το σχήμα Queen + Paul Rodgers που περιελάμβανε τους Brian May και Roger Taylor παρέα με τον Paul Rodgers στα φωνητικά (πρώην τραγουδιστής των Free και των Bad Company)