Queen TV performances (partially lost appearances by British band on various shows; 1974-1986)

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Queen on TopPop.jpg

Image of a lost Queen performance of Killer Queen on the Dutch show, Avro's TopPop

Status: Partially Lost

Queen is a band from London formed in 1970 with the lineup of John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and Roger Taylor. They are known for hits including Bohemian Rhapsody, Another one Bites the Dust, Killer Queen, We Will Rock You, We are the Champions, and many other unforgettable songs. They were recently brought to more fame thanks to the motion picture Bohemian Rhapsody, which is built on the band's history. Lead singer of the band, Freddie Mercury, passed away after a long fight against AIDS on November 24th, 1991, one day after announcing his illness publicly.

Queen's TV Performance History

Queen's history of TV performances began when they were invited to perform their song, Seven Seas of Rhye, on BBC's Top Of The Pops after David Bowie cancelled his own performance. They performed in the BBC Weather studio on February 21st, 1974.[1] It would become rare for Queen to make any TV appearances later on due to their touring, with many shows choosing to have a dance group perform or just playing a promo video.

Song Air/Filming Date Status Notes
Seven Seas of Rhye, Top Of The Pops Feb 21st, 1974 Found Footage is mostly in colour though some bits remain in black in white.
Seven Seas of Rhye, Top Of The Pops Mar 14th, 1974 Found Video is mostly in black and white.
Seven Seas of Rhye, Top Of The Pops Mar 28th, 1974 Found Footage is in black and white.
Killer Queen, Top Of The Pops Oct 11th, 1974 Found Full footage is in colour.
Killer Queen, Top Of The Pops (Take 2) Oct 11th, 1974 Found Footage is in full colour but was unfortunately cropped to 16:9, second take of the previous performance recorded on the same day. Unknown if broadcasted.
Killer Queen, Top Of The Pops Nov 7th, 1974 Partially Lost Opening is badly degraded (possibly done on purpose, as the degraded section was previously covered up by a clip from another performance when released on the Days Of Our Lives DVD in 2011).
Killer Queen, Top Of The Pops Nov 21st, 1974 Lost Very little is known about this performance. No footage circulates, photos supposedly exist.
Killer Queen, Avro's TopPop Nov 22nd, 1974 Found Officially released in documentaries and on TopPop compilation DVDs.
Killer Queen, Avro's TopPop Nov 22nd, 1974 Lost Same outfits worn, performed on chroma key stage. Images
Killer Queen, Kid Jensen's Christmas Rock with 45 Dec 25th, 1974 Lost Filmed on Rock with 45's Christmas Special in 1975, people have often passed off the NBC report with soundcheck footage of Now I'm Here as this performance. Images
Now I'm Here, Top Of The Pops Jan 16th, 1975 Partially Lost Footage is a merge from a documentary, a cellphone recording at exhibition, and recent VHS rip snippet, uses unreleased mix of song.
Now I'm Here, Top Of The Pops (Take 2?) January 16th, 1975 Lost Supposedly taken on the same date, photos show different outfits and no audience.
Now I'm Here, Top Of The Pops Jan 30th, 1975 Lost No information is known about this performance. Only one Photo, the first copy shown, comes from an article about the 40th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bohemian Rhapsody, Top Of The Pops Promo Nov 10th, 1975 Found While not really being a Top Of The Pops performance, there was an alternative version made for the show featuring a fire overlay in the intro and different angles.
Somebody To Love, Avro's TopPop (Penny De Jager's dance group) November 1976 (unknown) Found Promo never got an official release.
Somebody To Love, Top Of The Pops (Legs & Co.) Dec 2nd, 1976 Partially Found VHS home recording of the original airing.
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Top Of The Pops June 16th, 1977 Found Remastered BBC Broadcast.
We Are The Champions, Top Of The Pops Promo Nov 3rd, 1977 Found Not really a Top Of The Pops performance, they did make a different version of the promo video for the show.
We Are The Champions, Top Of The Pops Promo (Colour Intro) Nov 3rd, 1977 Found An alternate version of the previous promo with the intro in colour, taken from a 1080p MUCH Music rebroadcast. This version was never broadcasted on Top Of The Pops.
Another One Bites The Dust, Top Of The Pops (Legs & Co.) Oct 2nd, 1980 Found Remastered BBC broadcast.
Under Pressure, Top Of The Pops (Zoo) Nov 19th, 1981 Found Remastered BBC Broadcast.
Las Palabras De Amor, Top Of The Pops June 17th, 1982 Found Queen's final in-person appearance on Top Of The Pops. Taken from a BBC Four Rebroadcast.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love & Under Pressure, Saturday Night Live Sept 25th, 1982 Found This was Queen's final performance in America. Under Pressure would be included on an SNL anniversary collection DVD.
Radio Ga Ga, San Remo Festival Feb 3rd, 1984 Found Queen's first "Live Performance" since 1982. Video remastered by Chief Mouse.
Radio Ga Ga, San Remo Festival Feb 4th, 1984 Found Second night at the festival. Introduction from 2019 rebroadcast, performance video remastered by Chief Mouse.
Radio Ga Ga, Tear It Up, It's A Hard Life, & I Want to Break Free, Golden Rose Pop Festival May 12th, 1984 Found Queen's first time at the Golden Rose Festival. All videos (excluding part of Radio Ga Ga) were officially released on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD
One Vision, A Kind Of Magic, Friends Will Be Friends, & Hammer To Fall, Golden Rose Pop Festival May 11th, 1986 Found Freddie was allowed a vocal improv with the audience at the '86 Golden Rose festival. All videos were officially released on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD

[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Availability

The TOTP tapes from '74-'75 supposedly were wiped from BBC's archives, despite clips of some performances being shown in some documentaries such as Days of our Lives and From Rags to Rhapsody. The majority of the Seven Seas of Rhye footage is from an extra feature on the Blu-ray release of the documentary, Days of our lives, which makes it pretty likely that the footage of those three performances exists somewhere. One user from the Missing Episodes forum claims to have a copy of the Now I'm Here performance but hasn't released it. The owner of a site dedicated to archiving TOTP content randomly disappeared around July 2014,[8] Deleting his website which hosted high-quality snippets of each Seven Seas of Rhye performance, which likely means he has the full tapes (he also has the Now I'm here performance[9]). Some recent discoveries show a blog spot that has a copy of the episode featuring the third Killer Queen performance, a website with an episode of TOTP with the fourth Killer Queen performance, and a YouTube channel named gary jbrum has a copy of the Now I'm Here performance and released 15 seconds of it, some of most of the clip was not in previous copies. He is not willing to release anymore, it seems, however.[10]

References