The Works Tour



The Works Tour was a concert tour by the British rock band Queen. During the tour, Queen participated in the Rock in Rio festival in 1985; the concert was released on VHS. The band released a DVD from a concert in Tokyo titled We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan, but the name of the concert was incorrect as the band performed 2 further concerts after Tokyo in Nagoya and Osaka.

Stage design
The stage design was based on a scene from Fritz Lang's Metropolis with huge rotating cog-wheels at the rear of the stage and a brightly lit cityscape. Due to a prior ligament damage in his knee, it was somewhat of a challenge for Mercury to navigate the complex set of multiple levels and stairs. Eventually, in Hanover, Mercury fell down the stairs during the performance of "Hammer to Fall". He was only able to play "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Will Rock You", and "We Are the Champions" afterwards, shortening the concert somewhat. Due to Mercury's injury, May played the first bars of "We Will Rock You" out of anxiety in order to get Mercury to the hospital.

Tour dates

 * Festivals and other miscellaneous performances
 * This concert was part of "Rock in Rio"


 * Rescheduled shows

Tour band
Additional musicians:
 * Freddie Mercury - Lead vocals, Piano, Rhythm Guitar (Crazy Little Thing Called Love)
 * Brian May - Electric guitar, Acoustic guitar, Backing Vocals
 * Roger Taylor - Drums, Backing Vocals
 * John Deacon - Bass guitar, Backing Vocals
 * Spike Edney – Keyboards, Piano, Backing Vocals, Rhythm guitar (Hammer to Fall)

Trivia

 * On 7 October in Sun City, the concert came to an end early after Mercury lost his voice and left in tears after the third song in the set "Under Pressure".
 * Queen performed for a total of 600,000 people in the two Rio de Janeiro's Rock in Rio Music Festival concerts (300,000 per show)
 * In Hannover, after the end of Hammer to Fall, Mercury fell and injured his leg. This can be seen on the bootleg cover "Hannover is Dangerous". Mercury was helped to the piano to continue the concert by his assistant, however the set was shortened because he suffered from the pain to his leg.