Like football dream teams, supergroups crop up as a surprising reality from time to time. Sometimes, these arrangements serve a disappointingly flimsy product – or, in the case of Freebass, the convergence of bassists Peter Hook, Andy Rourke and Mani, no product at all. But for the most part, they’re a harmless bit of fun and occasionally lead to some rather interesting crossbred music. Today, we present a snapshot of a supergroup that could have been: Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor of Queen, Roger Daltrey of The Who, and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.
Although this is undoubtedly a scintillating lineup, the musicians converged under tragic circumstances and kept the collaboration to just one live display. In 1987, Freddie Mercury, Queen’s frontman and quite possibly the greatest showman of all time, was diagnosed with AIDS.
Following this tragic news, the iconic singer would never return to the stage with Queen; however, the band persevered in the studio, recording three further studio albums, The Miracle, Innuendo, and the posthumous 1995 album aptly titled Made In Heaven.
Mercury succumbed to his illness, which, at the time, was exceedingly difficult to treat effectively, in November 1991. Mercury was just 45 years old and left his bandmates to continue without their operatic leader.
After digesting this tragedy, the remaining members of Queen planned The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, a benefit concert held in April 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London. The concert welcomed a host of artists to the stage, including Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard and Guns N’ Roses.
During the second half of the concert, May, Taylor and Deacon took the stage, welcoming a rolling cast of musicians to the stage, including Ian Hunter, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, George Michael and Annie Lennox.
“Good evening, Wembley and the world,” May announced during the performance. “We are here tonight to celebrate the life, and work, and dreams, of one Freddie Mercury. We’re gonna give him the biggest send-off in history!”
During the action-packed set, May invited his friend and fellow shredder, Tony Iommi, to the stage. “I’d like to introduce you to an old friend of mine… an old friend of ours. Mr. Tony Iommi.”
After entering the stage garbed head to toe in black with a crucifix around his neck, Iommi belts out a scorching riff to introduce himself. Immediately after, May hammers out Pete Townshend’s energetic chord sequence from the beginning of The Who’s classic track ‘Pinball Wizard’, playing Roger Daltrey onto the stage, swinging his mic and riling the audience for a fantastic rendition of Queen’s ‘I Want It All’.
Since ‘I Want It All’ arrived as the lead single on 1989’s The Miracle, Mercury never had a chance to perform it live. The below performance marks the first live outing for the classic UK top ten hit.
