'Love in a peaceful world'¹ – a ‘concert of defiance’², Hyde Park, 15 July 2005 (postponed from 8 July due to the London bomb attacks on 7 July 2005). 

The original ticket, valid for the postponed event.

Look.. if you had.. one shot, or one opportunity




To seize everything you ever wanted.. in one moment

Would you capture it.. or just let it slip?³

Just as Paul Rodgers is never going to replace the irreplaceable as Queen’s lead singer, nobody can expect me to describe the indescribable. From the initial appearance of the three ‘men in black’ - Spike, Jamie and Danny (who, again, is not to be considered as a ‘replacement’ bassist) - to the final bows to acknowledge the euphoria of the massive audience after singing ‘We Are The Champions’ to the Emergency Services, there is no way to convey the sheer quality of all the performances. With the frenzied crowd as a catalyst, there was a chemical reaction between Brian, Roger and Paul that was at first sizzling, then bubbling and finally effervescing off the stage, until at last it blew the stopper out completely.

Roger singing ‘Say It’s Not True’ – he had marched down the catwalk flanked by Jamie and Danny on either side – I thought we were going to have another ‘Amarillo’!

‘Imagine’… (I wonder if you can….)⁴

 ....so many musical highlights that it would become sheer banality to list them.

I had been wary of coming to a large gig like this because I felt it would be too impersonal as it would be teeming with so many people. But watching Live 8 there in the open air convinced me that this would surely be the best place to hear that Queen sound. I was right. This did not just apply to the instruments, of course – with their immaculate precision throughout – but also to the singing of Roger, Brian and Paul, whose voices absolutely excelled, bringing off the best vocal performances I had heard from them. It wasn’t just the times that Paul’s voice made you go ‘ouch – how did he do THAT?’ but the overall awareness that, I felt, for the first time, he had genuinely come to make every single song his own.

After all, there was never any question of Paul ‘squeezing into Freddie’s drainpipe denims’,⁵ it’s rather been a bespoke tailoring of the songs – and the role – so that both are now fully fitted to him.

 I was delighted with the position I had managed to take up, both because I was near enough to the stage for my liking and because I had some leeway around me to be able to ROCK! What a joy to be able to do that after my experience at Wembley! And I found that my original fears had been unfounded as I felt a relationship with the musicians like never before. In addition, I was at last able to view the light show in all its glory and be aware at first hand that Spike does actually spend the entire concert on stage!

Brian comes closer – during Crazy Little Thing Called Love!

Oh, there goes gravity…⁶

Well, that’s just about all I wish to say. I made copious notes - more 

stubbornly as the night progressed and it became ever clearer that 

capturing the event 'on paper' would be hopeless. It was when Brian, 

standing near the join of the catwalk and the stage, clearly sensing a 

cosmic surge from the masses below and deciding that this atmosphere

was to have and to hold, started conducting the audience during 

'All Right Now' that I finally threw in the towel (and the notebook!)  

I could raid a dictionary for the rest of my life for appropriate superlatives 

and none of them would be adequate.

I met a couple from Northern Ireland – Joanne and Trevor – the latter asked

me if I’d ever been to such a great concert as this. I had to say in all honesty 

that I hadn’t. I had all the elation of Brixton but this wasn’t work in progress 

any more – this was the finished product in all its glory!

Taken off the screen at the end!

A city that has recently suffered from some of the most senseless depravity the world has to offer hosted Queen + Paul Rodgers in front of 70,000* in its splendid Hyde Park – and that, without any doubt at all, made perfect sense.

1 ‘Wishing Well’ by Free - sung at the later concerts

2 Roger Taylor in pre-Hyde Park concert interviews

3 + 6 Eminem ‘Lose Yourself’ (played at the start of each concert on the tour)

4 John Lennon ‘Imagine’ – inserted into the concert after the bombings in London – Brian, then Roger and then Paul on vocals

5 Andy Gill ‘The Independent’, 31 December 2004  

*Official figure published since writing the article is 60,000.

Starwalker, I met Wolf Rider too

And beyond the Last Horizon's ends

 A celestial stroll would bring us through 

To rise on to clouds with you, my friends

© 2005 Now-im-here.com

NB The words of the above poem are partly inspired by

Native American singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie's song 'Starwalker', the lyrics of which can be found here.