What did Queen play at their Christmas Eve gig in 1975?

20 December 2024, 16:00 | Updated: 20 December 2024, 16:02

Queen performing live on the Night At The Opera tour in 1975. Picture: Howard Barlow/Andrew Putler/Redferns/Getty Images

Queen's festive show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London remains one of the band's most memorable performances. Here's what the fans heard that night.

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By Radio X

@RadioX

Picture this: Queen, one of Britian's burgeoning rock acts have just released their greatest ever single, Bohemian Rhapsody. This ground-breaking track has already been at Number 1 for four weeks and on 23rd December, it's announced that it is Christmas Number 1 for 1975. The single will remain there until well into January '76, spending a total of nine weeks at the top.

Part of the success of Bohemian Rhapsody was down to its landmark music video, directed by Bruce Gowers and shot at Elstree Studios on 10th November, just before the band headed out on their UK tour. It wasn't the first pop promo as has been stated elsewhere, but it was the first clip to be inextricably linked with the song it was plugging. By the end of Bo Rhap's nine weeks at Number 1, the entire nation was familiar with the clip.

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Official Video Remastered)

The band's fourth album A Night At The Opera, from which Bo Rhap has been taken, has been out for less than a month and will also top the album chart in Christmas week. The album would be certified Platinum in early January of 1976.

So then, in the midst of all this success, imagine having the opportunity to see Queen live in concert as part of an extensive UK tour in support of A Night At The Opera?

Queen - A Night At The Opera album cover. Picture: Alamy

The Night At The Opera tour kicked off at the Liverpool Empire on 14th November 1975 and took in Coventry, Bristol, Cardiff, Taunton, Bournemouth, Southampton and Manchester, before stopping off at London's Hammersmith Odeon for three nights - which was soon expanded to five, such was the band's popularity.

As November turned into December, the group went on to Wolverhampton, Preston, Birmingham, Newcastle, Dundee and Aberdeen, winding up with two nights at Glasgow's Apollo Theatre on 15th and 16th December.

Ticket prices for Queen's tour ranged from £1.00 to a very reasonable £2.50 for the stalls at Hammersmith.

Queen onstage at Hammersmith Odeon on the Night At The Opera tour, 29th November 1975. Picture: Andrew Putler/Redferns/Getty Images

The Christmas Eve gig in London was a last minute addition to the itinerary, making an impressive sixth night at the Hammersmith Odeon a week after the main body of the tour had ended. Announced in the UK music press in the last week of November, Queen's show followed a three-night stand at the venue by The Who between 21st and 23rd of that month; the British rock band were then touring their Who By Numbers album.

Queen's new manager John Reid - who had been taking care of their affairs since the summer - had also arranged something rather special for the final Hammersmith show. On Christmas Eve the previous year, Reid's other charge, Elton John, had played Hammersmith Odeon and part of the concert was broadcast live on BBC-2 as part of that channel's long-running Old Grey Whistle Test strand and the manager had set up a similar arrangement for Queen's gig.

Queen - Now I'm Here - Hammersmith Odeon, London - 1975/12/24

Unusually, for a band with a new record in the shops at that very moment, the setlist concentrated on the previous album, Sheer Heart Attack, plus tracks from the first two Queen albums. On Christmas Eve 1975, the sole representative from A Night At The Opera was the evergreen Bohemian Rhapsody - although earlier on the tour, Queen had played the new tracks Sweet Lady and the ambitious Prophet's Song

Queen - Keep Yourself Alive (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon: 24/12/1975)

Freddie Mercury announced their current Number 1 single by saying "We're going to a nice tasty medley for you... We're gonna start off with a segment from a number called Bohemian Rhapsody."

The announcement gets a big cheer - the song had been Number 1 for several weeks at that stage - but nothing like the response it would get in later years. Rather than attempt the impossible by performing the central operatic section live, Queen segued into their 1974 hit Killer Queen, moving to March Of The Black Queen from Queen II, before heading back into the epic closing moments of Bo Rhap to close the medley.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Ballad Section) (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon: 24/12/1975)

The OGWT show was broadcast between 10 and 11pm on 24th December 1975, after a look at the 1975 International Festival of Animated Films and before a Humphrey Bogart movie from 1953, Beat The Devil. Viewers in the Thames region of ITV could watch an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man instead if they weren't up for a bit of Freddie Mercury.

However, the BBC crew didn't capture the final encore from the night, meaning the songs Seven Seas Of Rhye and See What A Fool I've Been are not included on the original broadcast (presumably, they had to get home).

In 2009, the original multi-track tapes of the Hammersmith show were re-discovered, leading to the entire show being released on CD (including the audio of the final two tracks and the closing recording of Brian May performing God Save The Queen), DVD, Blu-Ray and vinyl in November 2015.