Review: Queen – Motorpoint Arena Nottingham

Nottingham has been very busy already this month, with Prince Harry paying a visit to celebrate his recent engagement to Meghan Markle followed by a visit from Queen… But this Queen packs quite a different punch, featuring pink fluffy bikes and guitar solos. This Queen comes with the addition of Adam Lambert.

Brian May and Roger Taylor visited Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham along with fresh faced American Adam Lambert, and the show wasn’t anything short of mind blowing! The venue fast filled up with both young and old fans wanting to experience the Queen + Adam Lambert experience.

The show from start to finish showed mention to Freddie Mercury, always paying tribute to the legendary front man. However since Lambert’s addition in 2011, he has never tried to be Freddie, he has always been the very flamboyant Adam Lambert which makes the shows what they are today and easy not to try and make comparison to Mercury who died in 1991.

The clock struck 8.00pm (well actually just after) and the lights went down and the initial teaser introduction of ‘We Will Rock You’ was played before breaking into ‘Hammer To Fall’ and the band walking through the smoke filled stage and into the presence of thousands of screaming fans, with ‘We Will Rock You’ not featured again till the encore.

With a huge backdrop of lighting as well as ceiling lighting and a guitar like shaped stage plus hovering curved screen in place, you just knew this was going to be one hell of a show filled with all sorts of magic. What a lot of fans may not have seen was 6 very powerful confetti cannons poised and ready to unload a sea of gold foil during ‘We Are The Champions’.

The band played through all their best hits, from ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ to ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Dont Stop Me Now’ to ‘Radio Ga Ga’ as expected, however their were a few more twists to the show which made it so special.

On numerous occasions Freddie appeared on the screens, interacting with the crowd before disappearing into the darkness again, and Brian May appearing to be floating into the air on the palm of the giant intelligent robot featured on the cover of ‘News of the World’ (1977) before the figure leaving Brian to float through time and space as he covered ‘Last Horizon’.

The Figure also featured when Lambert was seen to rise from the stage which turned out to be the head of said figure, now to be named ‘Frank’, after its creator, American sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas. Lambert also had his time to shine on several occasions, being the front man of one of the most entertaining bands on this planet, you have to do something to grab the audiences attention, if the glittery outfits didn’t do it, then riding a pink bike was going to do it.

Roger Taylor also shone through showing his quality, performing the most entertaining drum battle I have ever seen, followed by a very impressive and completely in sync duo drum performance with the bands other drummer. 

By this point the crowd had thought they had seen it all, but to blow them out the water a disco ball lit up the room for ‘I Want To Break Free’ then a solid laser show, matching the colourful performance from the band and Lambert’s personality for Radio Ga Ga.

The bands final song of the evening before the encore was Bohemian Rhapsody, an absolute classic and great way to start drawing the show to a close. As the band came back on for the encore, Freddie was once again featured, with his live crowd involving recording of ‘Day-Oh’ followed by ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ Where the venue was painted in gold lighting, adding the final bit of sparkle to the event.

The concert was an incredible experience which will go down as one of the greats, which is nothing less than what we expect from a Queen band. The crowd all left entertained and moved by the inclusion of Freddie Mercury, yet welcoming of the Adam Lambert era of Queen.