The final concert of Queen’s first headlining tour will be released as the live album Queen: Live at the Rainbow ’74 on September 9th. The group recorded the 17-song set on March 31st, 1974 at a sold-out gig at the 3,000-capacity London venue the Rainbow, where they were playing songs from their first two albums and supporting Mott the Hoople.
The new live album also contains a second disc with a concert supporting 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack that the group recorded and filmed at the same venue in November of that year. (Some of this footage was released in 1992 as the group’s Live at the Rainbow video.) Between the two discs, the record contains over a dozen songs that have never been previously released on a Queen concert LP.
The co-producer of Queen’s first four records, Roy Thomas Baker, recorded the March concert with the intention of releasing it as their first live album and third release altogether, but the group opted to record and release Sheer Heart Attack instead. The Rainbow live album has been shelved until now, Rolling Stones informs.
The album contains the only known recording of Queen II’s “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke.” It also contains a number of songs appearing for the first time ever on a Queen live album, including “Great King Rat,” “Modern Time’s Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “See What a Fool I’ve Been” and “Flick of the Wrist.”
