rich_jacko

Last Friday, I saw Queen + Adam Lambert at Sheffield Arena (Sorry, "the FlyDSA Arena"). I'd been to see them before, in 2015 and absolutely loved the show. So I wasn't going to pass this one up, even if it did mean faffing around on ticket resale sites.

Joining me were Ju, Neil, Jacquie and Andy (the latter two having got their tickets separately), and my mum - who always regretted never seeing Queen live in the '80s, so I thought I'd treat her and help tick off an item on her bucket list.

I left work at 3pm to pick Mum up from the station, whereupon we had a lot of "fun" with trams - a breakdown meant we walked home from Shalesmoor, ate quickly, then had the faff of waiting 20 minutes for a tram which was due every 10, and got unexpectedly kicked off in town and had to squeeze on another with three trams' worth of other passengers. Fortunately we had allowed plenty of time. We managed to meet up with everyone else at the Arena stop and went in together. It was cold in the queue!

The set had changed since the previous tour, and this time was centred around the 40th anniversary of the News of the World album. The beat of We Will Rock You kicked off a concert that focussed mainly on Queen's '70s hits, with nothing beyond the Magic album this time around. That was fine - It was good to have them play something a bit different to last time. The stage was a giant guitar, and we had a great view - much closer than last time.

After Hammer To Fall and the epilepsy-inducing light show of Sheer Heart Attack, Adam Lambert did his contrite, "I know I'm no Freddie Mercury, but let's make tonight a tribute to him". He may not have as strong a voice, but he can hit all the notes and he certainly has Freddie's flamboyance. Perched atop a giant robot head for Killer Queen, he may have been better behaved than his cavorting on a chaise longue last time, but he still raised a few eyebrows. His self-described "gayest suit known to man" and matching tricycle during Bicycle Race were also eye-catching.

Brian May was once again the star for me. He brought the audience to tears by filling the arena with individual lights during his acoustic rendition of Love of My Life, dueting with an on-screen Freddie for the last verse. He brought us into a huge shared moment of geekery with his 3D selfie stick video - possibly the only human being on the planet to have made selfies cool. Then later on, he played a spectacular set piece in which he was lifted up by a giant robot against a space backdrop while playing an epic guitar solo ("We may be here some time!" I remarked, and we were...).

Roger Taylor also had his share of the limelight, drum battling Tyler Warren (and flipping him the bird!), as well as doing strong lead vocals (and tambourine!) for A Kind of Magic. He is turning more and more into Anthony Hopkins though!

By the time the show rounded off with Radio Ga-Ga and Bohemian Rhapsody, most of the audience were on our feet, and everyone was clapping along (with mixed ability at keeping time!). On-screen Freddie returned to whip up the crowd with his "Eh-Oh!"s before the band came back for the encore - We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and God Save The Queen.

The show was every bit as great as last time; I've heard Queen albums, watched videos of concerts and been to tribute acts, but nothing compares to being there when they play live. The lights, sound and showmanship are spectacular, and the atmosphere is second to none. My Mum has been to an awful lot of concerts, and was still blown away, declaring it to be absolutely brilliant.

We hit the merchandise stall on the way out, and got a bit split up from the others, but we made it home a lot less eventfully than the journey there. After parkrun the next morning, I escorted Mum back to the station for her train home, before a busy rest of the day, packed with shopping, D&D and Edy's mince pies evening. Then (a bit of) snow, swimming, cinema and more roleplaying the next day. A grand weekend! :o)