Freddie Mercury's rare Live Aid rehearsal footage shared by Queen (2024)

FAQs

Was any real Live Aid footage used in Bohemian Rhapsody? ›

In the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, how much of the scene at Live Aid was recreated live and how much was CGI? All of it, and all of it.

The band closed their six-song set with a rousing “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” They then made way for the next performer in line, David Bowie. “You bastards,” Elton John said jokingly to the band following their set. “You stole the show.”

This week's episode of Queen The Greatest Live, which you can watch below, looks back at the rehearsal Freddie Mercury and the band had, preparing for their iconic Live Aid set in 1985. Amazingly they were one of the only bands to put serious time in beforehand.

Who followed Queen at Live Aid? It would have been daunting for anyone to walk onto the Wembley stage after Freddie Mercury and co had just delivered the performance of a lifetime, but there was one artist who was more than up for the challenge: David Bowie.

All the actors sang live to pre-recorded tracks assembled by music supervisor Becky Bentham. “That way, we got all the correct facial movements, which you can't really fake,” says Sigel. “We recorded live, and then in post, some of that got mixed with the original band recordings to create the final tracks.”

Where other bands might have been complacent, Queen swept through a distilled serving of their greatest and most bombastic hits to date, well-rehearsed over several days beforehand, with a swagger that never milked anything at the expense of the audience.

“Everybody realized that Queen was stealing the show,” said Gambaccini. These were the very words Elton John uttered when he rushed into Mercury's trailer after the set. “You bastards, you stole the show,” joked the charismatic star.

Stevie Wonder was invited to play Live Aid, but refused – he apparently thought there weren't enough African-American artists on the bill. Co-organiser Harvey Goldsmith later said: "Stevie Wonder eventually agreed to appear, but then he phoned me up and said, 'I am not going to be the token black on the show'."

1. Queen (Wembley) In nearly every poll of journalists and music fans, Queen's Live Aid performance goes down as one of history's greatest ever acts. A wily sound artist turned up the limiters to make the band louder than any other performer and it showed.

While Live Aid had the biggest name sin the world performing, apparently there were no rehearsals, sound checks, or lighting allowed. According to Brian May, “We didn't have a sound check, but we sent our brilliant engineer to check the system, so he set all the limiters for us.

What was Freddie Mercury's last performance before he died? ›

Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 200,000.

Queen rehearsed during the week before their Live Aid performance while many of the artists did not. Many of the other performers got on stage and just kind of ad-libbed their 20 minutes. Queen had their performance orchestrated perfectly.

Rod Stewart, 1994–3.5 million

Music legend Rod Stewart holds the current world record for the biggest gig of all time — in 1994, he also performed on Copacabana Beach to to a staggering 3.5 million people celebrating New Year's Eve.

An incredible 100,000 people packed into Philadelphia's JFK Stadium for Live Aid and 72,000 attended the Wembley concert. Tickets for this once in a lifetime event cost $35.00. Live Aid was conceived by Bob Geldof on May 1, 1985, and it was planned and executed in just 10 weeks.

The film takes some liberties with the timeline of events, including the portrayal of Mercury's estrangement from his bandmates and the timing of his HIV diagnosis, which may frustrate die-hard Queen fans.

Rami Malek watched Freddie Mercury's Live Aid concert '1500 times'

Most of the music scenes involved Malek, Lee, Mazzello and their co-star Ben Hardy — who portrays drummer Roger Taylor — performing along with a backing track, but make no mistake about it, they were really up there playing.