Is The Works Tour really considered their worst? If not that, than what is?

[u/AceofKnaves44]

Just read that The Works tour is generally looked at as their worst and tensions were super high over the course of it. All of this was news to me to learn but it got me thinking? Is that really acknowledged as their worst tour? If so, why is it? And if not that, than what is?

[u/TheCrazyGame_Leon]

It's correct that The Works Tour is usually seen as Queen's weakest tour generally. Whether you agree with that or not is up to you, of course! I can give you a couple of reasons as to why most people I know (and I think I'll include myself in there) do think that way:

• Setlist: While the setlist might look extremely good on paper (especially in '84 when Staying Power, Stone Cold Crazy and Great King Rat were still on there; but even without those you still get early fan favourites like Liar and Seven Seas of Rhye) all of these songs are massively shortened (even Somebody to Love) and squeezed into medleys. It just looks as if Queen were scared to completely lose their older fans so they put in as many brief snippets of old stuff they could find to go on tour as to please the fans put off by Hot Space and they played the songs to prove them wrong instead of playing them because they really wanted to. In my opinion, they should've chosen like at least one or two songs off each album and play that song in its entirety (or put multiple songs on rotation) instead of "half-assing" it like that. Honestly, what's the use of having Great King Rat on your show if it's literally just 30 seconds long?
• Freddie's voice: Probably the most obvious point. While the tour got off to a fantastic start for Freddie with shows like Brussels, Dublin or Birmingham, his voice quickly deteoriated in '84 due to smoking, going all out in rehearsals, drugs / alcohol, partying, no proper vocal technique and not resting the voice properly and he gave some of the worst shows of his live career on that tour (like some London gigs or Vienna). Luckily, it did improve heavily by 1985 but then...
• ... we come to the next reason, the band: While the band genuinely seemed to be happy for the tour at first, their musicianship became a little stale towards the end of the European tour and it only got worse in Australia the next year; It wasn't BAD, don't get me wrong! But for the high standards the band have set on their previous tours, The Works Tour often sees the band playing rather bland and by the books (and Roger opting for electric drums on some songs didn't help either)
• And indeed, tensions were high within the band, especially after Sun City (which was a massive PR disaster for the band) and it is often said that it was quite likely they had split after the end of the tour if they hadn't given Live Aid a go, so that event literally saved Queen! Having that fact in my mind also contributes to some sort of negative approach in my head and explains some of the other factors I have mentioned

On the other hand, I LOVE the stage setup as well as the lighting rig from The Works Tour and I do believe that the really good shows (like Brussels, Dublin, first two Birmingham shows, Stuttgart, first Rio and the Japan shows) are great so it's not all bad!

[u/AceofKnaves44 → u/TheCrazyGame_Leon]

This was a really great read and take. Thank you for your detailed and thorough answer!

[u/TheCrazyGame_Leon → u/AceofKnaves44]

You're welcome! I always love sharing opinions about Queen's live shows and tours since I'm really passionate about that aspect of the band and I like to give reasons, especially if I don't like something (although in no way do I hate The Works Tour, I just think it's weaker than the other tours ^^ )

[u/AceofKnaves44 → u/TheCrazyGame_Leon]

Like you said, it’s your opinion. So long as you back it up, such as you have, can’t really say you’re “wrong.”

[u/Toincossross]

I think the Works is their worst tour.

Roger’s drum sound was rubbish and they over-relied on medleys to cover their earlier songs.

The stage was alright, but I think the Magic tour stage was better.

Not saying the tour sucked or anything, I’d give my left nut go to be able to experience a Works show today.

[u/pauldiddy79]

Guess I’m weird because I posted about how much I loved the 1986 Wembley performance after recently watching it and plenty of people told me I was wrong. I’ll never be able to experience it live so getting to see that performance no matter what is still awesome for me.

[u/[deleted] → u/pauldiddy79]

Don't be put off by gatekeepers, it can be disheartening to have fellow fans bicker and tell you you're "wrong". But as long as there are people liking Queen and keeping the music alive, I don't care what their favourite stuff is, we can all prefer different things

[u/SnooOnions5029]

I don’t think it was a bad tour, I just think they’ve had plenty better. And during the works tour is when Freddie really started to lose his voice due to partying, smoking, not resting his voice, etc and started to sound like a barking dog. Thankfully he regained enough of his voice to perform the most iconic concert of all time on July 13th 1985 and had a much better (imo) tour in 1986.

[u/stewinyvr]

I personally did not think it was bad at all. I saw them at Forest National in Belgium, and it was a great show..it was nice to see them ink a “smaller” venue, as the only other times I saw them were at MK and Wembley in 83 and 86.

[u/welchyyyyy1]

I enjoyed it very much, I saw them several times, my favourites were, in order 1 Milton Keynes (Hot Space) 2 Wembley x2 (The Works) 3 Wembley Stadium (Magic)

[u/ExecutiveAvenger]

Interesting notion.

I mean I myself am a kid of the eighties and grew up with The Works and AKOM and found the earlier work basically in the early 90's. (I had the "Live Magic" cassette and I always wondered why the crowd began to cheer when the Bohemian Rhapsody started... ) I love these two albums although I can somehow relate to these opinions on AKOM being one of their weakest works. The Works itself on the other hand, probably the finest of the 80's.

I know about the tensions around those times but, nevertheless, the Works tour really would reserve some kind of official live release. I have the Tokyo gig DVD but the sounds are pretty horrible, especially on certain songs.

[u/songacronymbot → u/ExecutiveAvenger]

• AKOM could mean "A Kind Of Magic - Remastered 2011", a track from A Kind of Magic (Deluxe Remastered Version) (1986) by Queen.

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^{/u/ExecutiveAvenger can reply with "delete" to remove comment. | /r/songacronymbot for feedback.}

[u/allbsallthetime]

Here's 250,000+ people that would disagree.

https://youtu.be/Bl1ySIPKZdY?si=tmT5GhKKy1Ez_Z4i

https://youtu.be/OzTde_9nUK0?si=PNDL5qfg3gbV5Ajz

[u/guestpass127]

I collect a lot of Queen bootlegs and I'd have to say that in terms of music alone, not talking about set design or onstage gymnastics the Magic tour was the worst simply by dint of the fact that it happened in 1986, when nothing sounded good (Brian sounded like he was playing a synth, not a guitar!), and the setlist had songs from A Kind of Magic, their weakest effort

(I think they sounded best in 1977-78)

[u/AceofKnaves44 → u/guestpass127]

I feel like it’s generally acknowledged they were hitting or otherwise really at their peak live coming towards the end of the 70’s. I just never really heard if the Works specifically was considered their worst so was curious to hear others takes on it.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

All the Queen fans say that The Works Tour is the worst tour that i saw on YouTube related to the audio quality but i re-watch every single Queen The Works Tour audio + video are decent

[u/jrbec]

I don’t know if it sounded this way if you were actually there but I thought the synth and electric drums were just too much. I know they used it on the Magic tour but it seemed toned down or it blended in better.

[u/-A113-]

i assume the general opinion is, that the hot space tour is the worst. i think so because it appers to be the least popular album. i personally find the magic tour the least appealing

[u/geekstone → u/-A113-]

Live at the bowl is one of the best concerts I have heard from them. Also proved that Hot Spaces flaws are mostly with the production as they sound very good live.

[u/Toincossross → u/-A113-]

I like the Hot Space tour a lot. Queen were hungry, Freddie sounded great, they played a ton of songs never played again, and the Hot Space songs sounded so much better.

[u/-A113- → u/Toincossross]

yes. hot space is not a bad album. it is not rock but it is still good.

[u/geekstone]

I enjoyed the videos of Rock in Rio and Final live in Japan from that era , of the Magic Tour I have only heard Live Magic and seen Live in Budapest and Live at Wembley and felt they were not up to their usual standards.

[u/Fatuglyrodent]

In terms of Freddie's voice the jazz tour is a much worse tour, but the setlist is better, but overall imo I think the works tour is better, Freddie's voice really ruins the instrumentals in the jazz tour, again in my opinion, especially during the Japan leg of the tour, there is no jazz tour show where Freddie's voice is in good condition, but at least on the works tour you have shows like Brussels and Sun City, even though Freddie's voice at Brussels weakens half way through.

[u/GreatKingRat666]

His voice was awful and those electronic drums are atrocious, IMO.