Live At The Brixton Academy
Live At The Brixton Academy, 1994
Released	February 1994
Recorded	1993
Length	mm:ss
Label	Parlophone
Producer(s)	Brian May
Brian May chronology
Back To The Light 1992 Live At The Brixton Academy 1994 Another World 1998

Recorded during the Brian May Band's inaugural UK tour, this album was, indeed, recorded entirely at the Brixton Academy on June 15, 1993, documenting an almost complete repertoire. Small edits were made, as well as the omission of some banter, and a lengthy keyboard solo prior to Last Horizon, played by Spike because of problems with Brian's guitar, was cut. Perhaps the most lamentable loss was an interpretation of John Lennon's 1970 song, God (The Dream Is Over), which had been played throughout the tour and sported a new set of lyrics. According to Brian, as diplomatic as ever, Yoko Ono never responded to his letter to feature the altered song, so it had to be cut. (It has since leaked onto bootlegs and the Internet.)

Wrapped in an laughably atrocious sleeve (the inner photograph was much more impressive, and was used to greater effect as the Last Horizon CD single front sleeve), the album peaked at a respectable #20 in the UK, though the United States didn't receive any release. An accompanying video of the concert is definitely worth checking out, though it's long been deleted and there are little, if any, hopes of it being released on DVD. (If Queen Productions are reading this, a joint package of this show, the 1998 Royal Albert Hall show, and all of Brian's promotional videos would definitely be more than welcome!)

Tracklists

Credits

• Musicians:

Brian May - vocals, guitars

Cozy Powell - drums

Neil Murray - bass guitar

Spike Edney - keyboards, vocals

Jamie Moses - guitars, vocals

Cathy Porter - backing vocals

Shelley Preston - backing vocals

Charts

Information supplied by Fedepeti, 24 August 2004

Liner notes

We made an eleventh hour decision to record our first London show, Brixton Academy, and this is it. There's no knowing what the gig would have been like if we HADN'T been filming, but in the circumstances we think it came out not too bad. This is how it was on the night, edited down a little for various reasons, those reasons being:

• There's only so much running time you can put on a CD or a commercial video;
• We lost one song for copyright reasons;
• You didn't REALLY want to hear all that crappy stuff where we couldn't get the guitars to work did you?.....

The Brian May band worked its ass off touring in 1993, and came of age. We kicked ourselves into shape the only way you ultimately can, by doing it. We took chances. Sometimes it was dazzling, sometimes it was dodgy. It was challenging, sometimes it was tough. But it was FUN. This recording shows us at a mid-way stage, making our first appearance in our home city. Enjoy, and come with us to the future

P.S. By the way if you were there, THANKS! You're on this record, and without you, folks, there's no show.

Brian talks

blah blah blah

Reviews

Reviews

Sleeves

UK Cassette, 1994

UK Cassette (back), 1994