In an exclusive new interview, Brian May and Roger Taylor explain why lighting is so important to the Queen live experience – and look back at the band’s most ambitious productions over the decades.
“For that two-and-a-half hour that we're onstage, we are in complete control of the environment – that means the sound, the lights, the temperature, everything,” says Brian. “We've always thought the lights are not just objects to illuminate, they’re objects in themselves and they're part of the environment. And that's a kind of rock ‘n’ roll thing, I think. I think we imbibed that from seeing stuff that we enjoyed when we were kids.”
Coming up on the London circuit of the late-’60s, the Queen lineup watched the evolution of rock show lighting firsthand, and having taken inspiration from pioneers like Pink Floyd, they resolved to push the envelope further still.
“There were so many acts going around that had hundreds of lights, all different colours, and it just made white,” remembers Roger. “So we had this idea of just having red, green and white. And it was very effective.”
As their concert venues grew rapidly in the early-’70s, Queen’s productions became ever more ambitious, and over the past five decades, the lineup have worked with the lighting sector’s greatest visionaries and most cutting-edge technology.
Stream the latest episode of The Greatest below and pick up your copy of Queen’s “Greatest Hits” here.
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Search Queen at hennemusic
