This week’s episode of Queen The Greatest Live looks back at four vintage Freddie Mercury performances of Under Pressure.
A No 1 hit in October 1981 led by John Deacon’s iconic bass line, the band famously wrote the track with David Bowie while drunk at Montreux’s Mountain Studios.
Sir Brian May previously told Mojo: “You already had four precocious boys, and David, who was precocious enough for all of us. Passions ran very high.
“I found it very hard because I got so little of my own way. But David had a real vision and he took over the song lyrically.”
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As noted: “On the stage, however, Queen claimed Under Pressure as their own, right down to the head-turning stagewear that gave the song an added dimension. The first performance in the compilation sees Freddie take command of the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 5, 1982 of the band’s Hot Space tour (a show later released as Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl).
“Fast-forward to May 1985 and we find the lineup rocking Japan as part of a six-date visit by an increasingly global band. Almost as far-flung is Queen’s historic Hungary show at Budapest’s Nepstadion on July 27, 1986, offering a rare release to the 80,000-strong crowd in a nation still held in the grip of Communist strongman György Lázár.”
It added: “The final section sees Queen return to their home turf of Wembley Stadium, where on July 11 and 12, 1986, Freddie rose to the occasion in his iconic Diana Moseley-designed military-style yellow cropped jacket – for what would prove to be his last-ever performances in the capital.”
Under Pressure was a global hit, yet touring commitments prevented Queen from making a music video, so the essence of the track was captured with archive footage. And, of course, in April 1992, Bowie and Queen performed their song at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert with Annie Lennox also on vocals.
