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and the ‘God Save The Queen’ tape. Towelling robes were thrown around them by assistants as they were ushered back to the dressing room, where they would either celebrate, argue or sit in stony silence. Then, after a short period, repeat or rotate those three options.
    How had they played tonight? How did they go down? On the nights when Queen played really well, they were truly something special and magical. When they did not, we knew and they knew, but the audience never complained. For them it was always going to be good! However, certain cities and venues certainly brought out the best in Queen and their audiences: The LA Forum, Madison Square Garden, the Montreal Forum, the Fest Halle in Frankfurt, the Budokan in Tokyo and shows in Holland or London immediately come to mind, and were where the band always found something extra. The final Magic tour in 1986 had many huge outdoor venues where the band excelled, and the 1981 South American outdoor shows were magnificent – the third Buenos Aires show at the Velez Sarsfield stadium was, in my opinion, the best outdoor show Queen ever played.
    Nobody except the closest personnel would be allowed into the dressing room after a show until the mood was deemed right. At times, the room would be cleared completely while just the four members of Queen discussed the evening. If things had gone wrong during the show then the respective heads of department would be summoned to analyse the poor performance. Gerry Stickells, Queen’s tour manager, would get most of the initial wrath for missed cues, equipment problems, poor sound or the pattern of the dressing-room carpet.
    Once the band had left the stage, the show was over. Except that we still had another show to do, and the activity immediately began in earnest, the moment the band left the stage – even before the tape finished and house lights came back up. The stage had to be cleared ASAP, as until that happened none of the sound or lighting in the ‘air’ could be lowered down for dismantling. Firstly though, a quick check of the stage was done to see what goodies or interesting items had been thrown up. These varied depending on which country we were in and included cards and letters addressed to the band (binned), coins, grass joints, key rings (kept), soft toys (kept, then blown up with pyrotechnic powder), cassettes (usually kept – to record over), sketches of the band and poems (binned), cigarettes, T-shirts (sometimes kept) and female underwear (kept – and filed…).
    On the 1980 US tour, a few disposable razors were thrown on stage during shows by fans, in protest at Fred having grown a moustache – he predictably told them to ‘Fuck Off!’. Then, as he chatted to the audience between songs, a moustached and check-shirted ‘clone’ placed a small shiny metal circle at Fred’s feet at the front of the catwalk. Fred picked it up.
    â€˜What have we here?’ he screeched, holding it up. ‘It’s a cock ring! Thank you, my dear.’
    He came over to stage right and handed it to me. I thought it looked like a designer napkin ring. I was putting it away into BLU 8, my road tool-case, which held many surprises, when Paul Prenter, the band’s voraciously gay assistant, bounded over and barked in my ear: ‘Give it to me – I want it!’ No problem – it would have ended up in the toolbox hardware drawer with the other screws, bolts, nuts, etc. Paul obviously had other plans for it, which no doubt included screws, nuts and bolting…
    Having stashed any decent booty, the ‘tear down’ began in fraught but well-organised order. Anything taped down was un-taped and the heavy-duty gaffer tape rolled and moulded into hard balls, which were thrown at whoever was in line at the time. The local stagehands immediately cleared the stage of all liquids: drinks in cups, open cans, etc., into large plastic bins that were placed at