

Queen (or at least, some of the members of the band) thought it'd be a great idea to hire a few strippers to ride bicycles on stage topless during Fat Bottomed Girls, as depicted on the sleeve of the 7" single and the Jazz LP mail-order poster. Roger Taylor and a few others were given the (enviable?) task to scout a local strip club to hire some talent for the event. During soundcheck when the band ran the song with the six newly employed ladies, many of the security guards were sure to catch a peek from the balconies.



These three New York area shows find Freddie in great voice. But tonight after a couple songs, he is unable to introduce Somebody To Love immediately because the audience is so rowdy. "Listen my darlings, listen to me. I'm talking to you, motherfuckers!" This would probably be the last time he'd address an audience as "darlings." This line reveals him in a stage of metamorphosis between his campy image of Queen's early days to the macho image he was easing into.



Brian May introduces the medley thus: "Especially for New York City, we'd like to do a little collage of songs. This is mainly from A Night At The Opera. Do you remember that?" The audience roars in approval. Little do they know (or would they care) that it's the same medley the band have done in every other city, not just theirs. He continues, "It's going to be a pretty rude night, I have to tell you." Freddie snickers at the piano, likely because the audience have no idea what they're in for about an hour from now. Brian snickers as well while he introduces Death On Two Legs.



Roger misses a line in I'm In Love With My Car, but the band recover within a couple bars; much better than they do in Glasgow the following year!



Freddie gets a bit poignant before a great version of Now I'm Here: "Ok folks, we're gonna do something from the Sheer Heart Attack album. We used to do this song when we were little kids. We've grown up now." And afterward he gets a bit raunchy, "A lot of people call this next song Spread Your Legs. Well, I do too. It's also called Spread Your Wings."



As Brian starts playing the acoustic intro to Dreamers Ball, he says it's "a sad little song, this."



Freddie dedicates Love Of My Life to "All you Fat Bottomed Girls... and the guys... and the turkeys." Perhaps the turkey comment is referring to the fact that US Thanksgiving is coming up next week.



After Love Of My Life, Brian says, "You're a good listening audience. We appreciate that; thank you. That's real nice. Ok, we'd like you to stamp your booties to this number if you feel like it, because you're getting a little fidgety by now. This is an ensemble number. This is called '39." This would be the last show where Roger would play the last two choruses of the song on his scaled-down drum kit on the small stage. From the next concert in Uniondale through the Japanese shows, he'd stick with the tambourine and bass drum for most of the song, switching to the kit only for the last chorus. Having two consecutive choruses with a change from one to the other is definitely the better way to go, so thumbs up to that executive decision.



The band then offer a great version of It's Late, with everyone firing on all cylinders.



Pics 5 through 8 were taken during Fat Bottomed Girls. Before the song, Freddie says, "I must say, you're a much better audience than what we had last night. Compared to you, they were dead!" The audience erupts. Near the end of the song, after Freddie shouts "Get on your bikes and ride" (clearly with more excitement than usual), the girls make their grand entrance. Amongst his vocal adlibs is, "You like 'em pretty?" and "You like what you see?" As Roger starts the intro to Keep Yourself Alive, Freddie remarks, "A lovely load of beauties!" The band would create a similar spectacle again next year in Munich.



Clearly buzzing off the last song, Brian plays some very nifty lines after the first chorus of Keep Yourself Alive.



Between We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, Freddie proudly dedicates the sport-friendly anthems to the New York Yankees, as they had just won the World Series of baseball for the second straight season.



At the end of the show, Freddie hides little by saying, "Sweet dreams, New York. Thank you for your time and your money!"



After this show, Queen are presented with a gold ticket, marking 100,000 tickets sold at five shows at the Garden over the past two years.



Roger later recalled the Fat Bottomed fun: "We wanted people to think we were having fun and being silly. But there was also a lot of hard work. Trouble is, we got better and better at having a good time."



Here is a review of the show, obviously written by someone who isn't much of a Queen fan (he even refers to It's Late as a "lackluster" tune).



Pics 9 through 13 are from Nino Trovato, taken by Angela Verdon. Note that the B stage (i.e. with Roger's smaller drum kit) that drops down for the acoustic set can be seen in the pic 12. Pic 13 was snapped while the smaller stage was in its descent prior to Dreamers Ball (the top of John Deacon's head can be seen in the background). The fifth set of pics was submitted by John Guarino (and cleaned up by Rudolf Griva), and the last set is © Rik Perry.



