Manchester Theatre News & Reviews

Review - Queen Fans Go Insane for Roger Taylor's Manchester Return

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On Friday 25th September, the legendary Queen drummer performed a rare solo show at the Manchester Opera House. Read what our reviewer Neil Jones had to say about the gig...

Despite there being no Premier League football in Manchester during the international break, there were still plenty of foreign fans in town nonetheless. From Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and Switzerland they came—and that was just the countries represented by the small sample I chatted to while waiting in vain outside the stage door beforehand, in the hope of catching a glimpse of our Cornish hero.

It was not hard to understand why fans had travelled from far and wide for this show. It was one of only six the legendary drummer was performing to promote his brand new album, Violence Insane in a Beautiful World, on what is only his fourth solo tour in a career stretching back to 1968, when he started a band called Smile with singer Tim Staffell and guitarist Brian May.

Tim would leave to join Humpy Bong, making way for Roger's best friend, flatmate, and fellow Jimi Hendrix fanatic—with whom he also ran a clothes stall in Kensington Market—a young Zanzibar-born Indian Gujarati Parsi refugee called Farrokh Bulsara.

The trio added John Deacon on bass, Farouk changed his name to Freddie Mercury, Smile became Queen in 1971, and the rest, as they say, is history, with over 300 million records shifted and the band selling their publishing rights for a record £1 billion in 2024.

From their eponymous debut album in 1973, Roger would pen some of the band's biggest hits—like "Radio Ga Ga," "A Kind of Magic," "Heaven for Everyone," "Breakthru'," "The Invisible Man," and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" B-side "I'm in Love with My Car" —as well as three of their four UK number-one singles: "Under Pressure," "Innuendo," and "These Are the Days of Our Lives."

An incredible countertenor vocalist in his own right, Roger would sing lead vocals on one Queen track on each of their first eight albums, while also being the first member of the group to branch out with a solo career, recording seven solo albums and three with his ridiculously underrated side project, The Cross.

Long before the gig started, the atmosphere around the Opera House was electric, anticipatory, and even celebratory. While the vast majority of the audience—in the stalls at least—were closer in age to Roger (77), there were still plenty in their twenties, and even a few young children.

With a catalogue now stretching from their 1973 debut, over three Greatest Hits collections, a show-stealing Live Aid performance in 1985, a tribute concert viewed live by over a billion people in 1992, a global smash hit West End musical which has ran since 2002, and a four-Oscar-winning movie in 2018, the introductory points to Queen are generational and extremely wide-ranging.

For this Manchester concert at least, most of the crowd would have already been on board when Roger released his debut solo album, Fun in Space, in 1981.

I recognised many of the faces in the crowd from Freddie Mercury's 80th Birthday Party in Montreux, Switzerland, three weeks earlier—an annual pilgrimage for thousands of die-hard fans, which has grown to become a week-long series of Queen-related free concerts and events put on by the beautiful Swiss town on Lake Geneva, where Queen owned the legendary Mountain Studios (now a small museum dedicated to the band).

Located inside the famous casino—the subject of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"—it is a stone’s throw from the statue of Freddie, which has become the town's most famous landmark, situated on the lakeside between the estemeed Montreux Jazz Festival auditorium and Château de Chillon castle - made famous by Lord Byron’s celebrated poem, which in turn influenced Roger Taylor to name The Cross’s brilliant second album, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know.

Manchester Opera House was completely full when the support act, Freddie Lennox, took to the stage.

No relation to Roger’s good friend Annie, the young London folk and acoustic blues artist—who has opened for Jools Holland on his last three tours—got a rapturous reception (and presumably 2,000 new Spotify followers) for his set of Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and Muddy Waters-inspired self-penned tracks, much to the emotional delight of his girlfriend in the seat next to me.

Then it was time for the main event, the man we had come to see.

Entering the stage to Sigur Rós's "Hoppípolla" (which he had walked his daughter down the aisle to at her wedding), the band suddenly burst into "Strange Frontier," the title track from his second solo album. He might as well have started with his 1981 track "Let’s Get Crazy," for that’s effectively what happened.

The entire stalls took to their feet, many people jumping and cheering in celebration as if a winning goal had been scored in the FA Cup Final. I couldn’t see the people in the two tiers above, but I could most certainly hear them.

It was incredible to think that a song which only reached number 98 in the UK singles chart in 1984 (and whose lyrics are just as pertinent in these days of Trump, Putin and Farage) could have such an effect on an audience.

It was clear we were among avid fans, and this was going to be a setlist you wouldn’t get from the Queen tribute acts that bizarrely often sell out the same venue in far quicker time than it took the real deal.

Talking of which, Roger Taylor had handpicked the superb musicians for the official Queen Extravaganza, the must-see tribute act he had originally developed in 2012 and which still tours to this day.

It was from that line-up that Tyler Warren had been given the unenviable job of drumming for one of the most influential musicians ever to have walked the planet, while the main man remained out front on vocals.

Roger had selected the same five backing musicians he had also used for his Outsider Tour in 2021, when he played the more intimate Manchester Academy (the university venue he had chosen for his only other solo tours in 1999 and 1994, with The Cross in 1988, and with Queen in 1974).

This line-up included Queen’s "fifth member," their touring keyboardist Spike Edney, who received one of the loudest cheers of the night—which must have confused those in the crowd who were not aware of his importance in the band’s history.

Commenting on how beautiful the Opera House is, stating that it was a first for him to play there, Roger had obviously forgotten about Queen’s first-ever performance in Manchester on their 1973 tour, which visited exactly the same venue. Incidentally, the first-ever live performance Freddie Mercury made in Britain (with his previous band, the Liverpool-based Ibex) was also in the region, in 1969 at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton, of all places!

Famed for his fun lyrics about whatever is on his mind, Taylor has never been one to shy away from politics—The Cross’s brilliant 1990 anti-war song "Old Men (Lay Down)" has never been more relevant than today.

If ever they broadcast another series of Grumpy Old Men, they should try to cast him as one of the talking heads as he could certainly go toe-to-toe with Rick Wakeman; having previously sung about potholes, CCTV cameras, C-list celebrities, dishonest politicians, the stupidity of religion, Brexit, xenophobes, racists, sexists, domestic abusers, Holocaust deniers, and loneliness.

With the current state of the world, it is no surprise his new album contains more tongue-in-cheek complaints, and the setlist included many of these songs, all delivered with his trademark cheeky smile.

"A Nation of Haircuts" (from his 1998 Electric Fire album), "Don’t Photograph Food," and "Violence Insane" sat alongside his anti-Donald Trump tracks "Gangsters Are Running This World" and the more direct "Chump," with his defiant call of "Fuck Trump!" receiving a huge cheer from all three tiers of the auditorium.

Talking of "a man of no morality… a man with no humanity," there was also an airing for his anti-Rupert Murdoch song "Dear Mr. Murdoch."

Originally penned after the Australian media mogul’s tabloids had hounded Freddie during his final days, it was later described by the BBC as Roger’s "Mancunian Rhapsody" when he re-issued it as a single in 1998 to raise funds for the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association in their successful fight against BSkyB’s attempted takeover of the club. Roger had also donated a further £10,000 to the cause (his son, Rufus—a brilliant drummer in his own right with his father’s good looks—is an avid United fan, as are his fellow bandmates in The Darkness; the lead singer of which, Justin Hawkins, has a tattoo of Roger’s face alongside those of Freddie, Brian, and John on his knuckles).

While six songs of the setlist (seven if you include the cover of John Lennon’s "Jealous Guy") came from the new album—my pre-ordered copy had been delivered by the postman, quite literally, as I was leaving my house to go to the gig—it never felt like we were on unfamiliar territory as the talented musicians tore through the hard rock, funk, and multi-layered ballads as if they were enjoying a quality jam session.

Some of the audience may have been on equally unfamiliar territory with older solo tracks like "Surrender," "Absolutely Anything," and "Man on Fire," however they were still well catered for with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s "Rock and Roll." And then, of course, there were the Queen numbers, all written by Roger.

As well as a rare outing of "Rock It (Prime Jive)," performed with gusto by the band and sung by drummer Tyler Warren in the absence of Roger and Spike (who took a brief 'old man’s break' offstage), there was a rendition of "Under Pressure" (with multi-talented Tina 'Keys' Hizon joining on co-vocals when not playing second keyboard, acoustic guitar, percussion, or violin - presuambly unaware of Roger's 1981 solo track, "No Violins").

With guitar virtuoso Christian Mendoza and talented bassist Neil Fairclough more than worthy stand-ins for Brian and John respectively, the crowd went wild for "I’m in Love with My Car," "These Are the Days of Our Lives," "A Kind of Magic," and the show’s finale, "Radio Ga Ga" with 2,000 (or is that 4,000?) hands clapping in response.

The biggest cheer of the night, though, was heard during the penultimate song, the new track "Come On Summer (It’s Party Time)," which was introduced with the full acknowledgement that, on this rainy late September Manchester night, summer had already ended.

A rolling juggernaut of pop with its instrumentals from all six musicians building throughout, when Roger headed behind the drum kit and picked up his sticks for the first (and only) time of the night, he was met with such a loud, appreciative roar that, unlike that Queen visit in 1973, it's virtually guaranteed he will not forget having ever performed at the Manchester Opera House.

He might be in the golden autumn of his own career, however Roger Taylor is without doubt a musician still capable of delivering at the very top level and, despite his age, continues to possess the physical strength and energy to play the instrument with which he is so famous.

We had been blessed by the presence of a true rock legend, and the buzz coming out of the venue remained just as electric as it was going in.

Hundreds remained outside the Opera House for well over an hour after the show, many draped in the flags of the nations they had flown into Manchester from; each trying to guess which door the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer would leave from (I never found out, as I eventually gave up, while wondering if that's where he had got the inspiration for Queen's hit "The Invisible Man").

Having travelled so far, the foreign fans were certainly more patient and, on this performance, it would be insane not to extend the short tour to other cities around “The Beautiful World.”