A Day at the Races Tour
World tour by Queen
Associated albumA Day at the Races
Start date13 January 1977
End date7 June 1977
Legs2
No. of shows
  • 40 in North America
  • 19 in Europe
  • 59 in total
Queen concert chronology

The A Day at the Races Tour (also known as the World Tour '77, Summer Tour 1977 and the Jubilee Tour) was the fourth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen, supporting their late 1976 album A Day at the Races.

Background

This tour was the first in which the band played "Somebody to Love" and many others. "Brighton Rock" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" were performed full-length for the first time. Also, singer Freddie Mercury performed a vocal canon between "White Man" and "The Prophet's Song".

"When people started singing along, we found it kind of annoying…" recalled Brian May. "Then there was an enormous realisation, at Bingley Hall in the Midlands. They sang every note of every song. Freddie and I looked at each other and went, 'Something's happening here. We've been fighting it, and we should be embracing it.' That's where 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are the Champions' came from. It was an epoch-making moment."[1]

The opening act for most of the North American concerts was Thin Lizzy. In New York City, the concert at Madison Square Garden sold out within moments of tickets going on sale.[2]

The final two shows at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre were recorded, with the band using an expensive lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time.[3] Both shows were also professionally recorded on video and the first can be found on many bootlegs.[citation needed] Of one such release – Top Fax, Pix And Info – photographer Ross Halfin said: "It was a Silver Jubilee show. This had excellent soundboard quality. I actually shot this show as a much younger man."[4]

Tour band

Opening acts

Set list

This set list is representative of the 23 January 1977 performance in Richfield, Ohio. It does not represent all the set lists for the duration of the tour.

  1. "A Day At The Races Overture"
  2. "Tie Your Mother Down"
  3. "Ogre Battle"
  4. "White Queen"
  5. "Somebody To Love"
  6. "Killer Queen"
  7. "The Millionaire Waltz"
  8. "You're My Best Friend"
  9. "Bring Back That Leroy Brown"
  10. "Sweet Lady"
  11. "Brighton Rock"
  12. "'39"
  13. "You Take My Breath Away"
  14. "White Man"
  15. "The Prophet's Song"
  16. "Bohemian Rhapsody"
  17. "Stone Cold Crazy"
  18. "Keep Yourself Alive"
  19. "Liar"
  20. "In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited"
  21. "Now I'm Here"
Encore
  2. "Big Spender"
  3. "Jailhouse Rock"
  4. "God Save The Queen"
Notes

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
North America
13 January 1977 Milwaukee United States Milwaukee Auditorium
14 January 1977 Madison Dane County Memorial Coliseum
15 January 1977 Columbus St. John Arena
16 January 1977 Indianapolis Indiana Convention Exposition Center
18 January 1977 Detroit Cobo Arena
20 January 1977 Saginaw Saginaw Civic Center
21 January 1977 Louisville Louisville Gardens
22 January 1977 Kalamazoo Wings Stadium
23 January 1977 Richfield The Coliseum at Richfield
25 January 1977 Ottawa Canada Ottawa Civic Centre
26 January 1977 Montreal Montreal Forum
28 January 1977 Chicago United States Chicago Stadium
30 January 1977 Toledo Toledo Sports Arena
1 February 1977 Toronto Canada Maple Leaf Gardens
3 February 1977 Springfield United States Springfield Civic Center
4 February 1977 College Park Cole Field House
5 February 1977 New York City Madison Square Garden
6 February 1977 Uniondale Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
8 February 1977 Syracuse Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium
9 February 1977 Boston Boston Garden
10 February 1977 Providence Providence Civic Center
11 February 1977 Philadelphia Philadelphia Civic Center
19 February 1977 Pembroke Pines Hollywood Sportatorium
20 February 1977 Lakeland Lakeland Civic Center
21 February 1977 Atlanta Omni Coliseum
22 February 1977 Birmingham Boutwell Memorial Auditorium
23 February 1977 St. Louis Kiel Auditorium
25 February 1977 Dallas Moody Coliseum
26 February 1977 Houston Sam Houston Coliseum
1 March 1977 Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
2 March 1977 Inglewood The Forum
3 March 1977
5 March 1977 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena
6 March 1977[a] San Francisco Winterland Ballroom
11 March 1977 Vancouver Canada Pacific Coliseum
12 March 1977 Portland United States Paramount Theatre
13 March 1977 Seattle Seattle Center Arena
16 March 1977 Calgary Canada Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
17 March 1977
18 March 1977 Edmonton Northlands Coliseum
Europe
8 May 1977 Stockholm Sweden Johanneshovs Isstadion
10 May 1977 Gothenburg Scandinavium
12 May 1977 Brøndby Denmark Brøndbyhallen
13 May 1977 Hamburg West Germany CCH Saal 1
14 May 1977[b] Frankfurt Festhalle
16 May 1977 Düsseldorf Philipshalle
17 May 1977 Rotterdam Netherlands Rotterdam Ahoy Sportpaleis
19 May 1977 Münchenstein Switzerland St. Jakobshalle
23 May 1977 Bristol England Bristol Hippodrome
24 May 1977
26 May 1977 Southampton Gaumont Theatre
27 May 1977
29 May 1977 Stafford Bingley Hall
30 May 1977 Glasgow Scotland The Apollo
31 May 1977
2 June 1977 Liverpool England Liverpool Empire Theatre
3 June 1977
6 June 1977[c] London Earls Court Exhibition Centre
7 June 1977

Box office score data

List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, references
Date
(1977) 		City Venue Attendance Gross Ref(s)
18 January Detroit, United States Cobo Arena 11,041 / 11,041 $79,281 [5]
20 January Saginaw, United States Saginaw Civic Center 7,200 / 7,200 $42,637 [5]
28 January Chicago, United States Chicago Stadium 13,000 / 13,000 $101,465 [6]
5 February New York City, United States Madison Square Garden 19,600 / 19,600 $145,000 [7]
23 February St. Louis, United States Kiel Auditorium 8,152 $52,754 [8]
5 March San Diego, United States San Diego Sports Arena 9,518 $66,206 [9]

Cancelled shows

Date City Venue Reason
29 January 1977 Trotwood, Ohio Hara Arena —
8 March 1977 Sacramento, California Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
9 March 1977 Fresno, California Selland Arena

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Originally scheduled on 5 March 1977.
  2. ^ Originally scheduled at Jahrhunderthalle.
  3. ^ Originally scheduled on 5 June 1977.

References

  1. ^ "Queen: Living Legends 2015", Classic Rock #217, December 2015, p15
  2. ^ Tiven, Jon (1977). "Queen's Live Act Stuns City". Circus. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
  3. ^ Hilburn, Robert (20 December 1978). "Pop Music Review: Putting Queen in Audio Seat Queen for a Night". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  4. ^ Halfin, Ross (May 2015). "Who's Who". Classic Rock #209. p. 69.
  5. ^ a b "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 5. 5 February 1977. p. 38. ISSN 0006-2510.
  6. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 6. 12 February 1977. p. 41. ISSN 0006-2510.
  7. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 7. 19 February 1977. p. 35. ISSN 0006-2510.
  8. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 10. 12 March 1977. p. 88. ISSN 0006-2510.
  9. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 11. 19 March 1977. p. 40. ISSN 0006-2510.
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