The Show Must Go On
Posted on Saturday 2nd June 2007
Rock met the Classics last Thursday night. As an opportunity to get in a little culture Mick, Larry and I went to see the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra play the great music written by Queen at the Adelaide Festival Centre.
As a sound experience it was like nothing I’d heard before. A traditional rock band (lead guitar, bass, keyboards and drums), 6 singers all taking it in turns to do the solos and be backing vocalists and, as if that wasn’t enough, a 90-piece concert orchestra.
They played hits including “Under Pressure“, “Bicycle Race“, “One Vision“, “Who Wants To Live Forever” and, of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody“. To show what great musicians and songwriters Freddie and others were, the songs barely needed to be changed for this performance. Many of them were fully orchestrated from scratch. Freddie wrote some songs as classical pieces and then “rocked them”.
Overall the performance was excellent and the orchestra justified their reputation as one of the best in the world. The guitarist, in particular was equally as good as Brian May with some dazzling displays during the guitar hero solos.
To round the evening off we had a chance to meet all the musicians in the bar afterwards. It helps that Regan’s father has worked in the local media industry for many years, as he has employed many of the band for commercials and soundtracks. It was great to have all the intricacies of the music explained to us and complement them on a job well done. I wish I had seen Queen live as they were probably the best stadium rock act of the 80s, but Thursday night was close enough.
Hi Ric I would if liked to of been part of that i bet it was an experience to hear the whole orchestra band playing especially.It doesnt get any better than hearing it live