Queen share Freddie Mercury’s iconic One Vision opening on final tour | Music | Entertainment


This week’s episode of Queen the Greatest Live continues a look back through the band’s most epic opening numbers. Back in 1986, the four embarked on their final tour together before Freddie Mercury needed to step back as a result of his AIDS diagnosis. Today’s video revisits Queen opening at Wembley on their Magic tour with One Vision, a year on from stunning the world there at Live Aid.

Before the concert, Freddie had promised of their big return to Wembley: “We are going to play on the biggest stage ever built at Wembley, with the greatest light show ever seen.” And Queen didn’t disappoint. This week’s footage “captures the thrill of the front row at Wembley Stadium, as the band hit the stage that summer armed with a new song that represented one of the most rocking moments in their catalogue.”

One Vision had originally been released in November 1985m reaching No 7 in the UK singles chart before featuring the following year on the A Kind of Magic album. A close-knit collaboration between Freddie, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor, the latter led the lyric writing. The drummer even admitted that the “I had a dream” bridge section of One Vision was “half-nicked off Martin Luther King’s famous speech”.

READ MORE: Freddie Mercury – The Queen song performed live more than any other

Meanwhile, the final cut included Brian May’s three-part guitar harmonies and the Freddie Mercury vocal ad-libs that were woven into the track by producer Reinhold Mack. With One Vision opening Queen’s Wembley Stadium shows on July 11th and 12th 1986, the band took the song to the next level from the studio original. Brian added guitar pyrotechnics and Freddie revved up the 144,000-strong crowd while wearing his iconic yellow military jacket.  

The track ended up being the show opener every night throughout their 26-date 1986 UK and European tour. This included at what would be Queen’s very last show ever as a four at Knebworth Park, UK, on August 9. Next week’s episode of Queen The Greatest Live is titled Under The Lights.



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