www.torontosun.com/2014/06/11/queen--adam-lambert-ready-what-could-be-their-final-tour#.U5xPmtMtxqc.twitterQueen & Adam Lambert ready what could be their final tour 1'It'll probably be a long show and very loud,' guitarist Brian May promises jane-stevenson BY JANE STEVENSON ,TORONTO SUN
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2014 08:00 AM EDT
We are the Champions again. And, quite possibly, for “one last time.”
British rock act Queen are playing North American arenas this summer with American Idol season eight runner up Adam Lambert as frontman for their first tour together on this side of the pond.
And the two remaining Queen members say it could be the last time they hit the road.
“We haven’t done it for a long time and I don’t know how long we’re going to be capable of doing this kind of thing,” said Queen guitarist Brian May, 66, down the line from New York City with Queen drummer Roger Taylor, 64, and Lambert, 32, also on the line.
“At the moment it is that feeling, yeah, ‘One last swing around, one last gallop,’ and we’ll see how it goes.”
The trio first appeared together in 2009 on Idol, and again at the 2011 at the MTV European Music Awards before a short 2012 European tour and a seminal performance at the iHeart Radio Festival in Las Vegas in 2013.
The upcoming 24-date trek, which kicks off in Chicago June 19, hits seven Canadian cities.
“It really felt like Adam has a great chemistry with us and delivers our songs in his imitable way with his extraordinary and voice,” said Taylor recalling the Sin City performance
May added fans get to hear the impressive Queen back catalogue with new life breathed into it.
“Of course, we’re taking (late singer) Freddie (Mercury’s) material, and it’s alive, it’s kicking, it’s not a fossil, and all the stuff we worked on together, it is still organically growing, and so I think to take Freddie’s material out on tour as well as our own is a great opportunity.”
Certainly, the presence of so many Canadian dates would seem to indicate demand for Queen, who formed in 1970 in London, remains high.
“I think Canada’s always been fantastic for Queen, we have many great memories there, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, etc., but the actual routing of the tour really is in the hands of the agents and the management,” said Taylor.
Joked May: “We just have a map of North America and a set of darts.”
Added Taylor: “And a blindfold.”
Fans can expect a 90-minute to two hour extravaganza of hits and Taylor says the tour production will be “spectacular but we don’t have the set list mapped out yet but I’m hoping it’ll be a moveable feast.”
“It’ll probably be a long show and very loud,” added May.
For his part Lambert – who is also working on his third solo album in Sweden – grew up idolizing original Queen singer Freddie Mercury, who had a flamboyant stage presence and four octave range before tragically dying from complications from AIDS in 1991 at the age of 45.
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